Dreams are an amazing resource if you can learn how to decode them. They can give you information about the purpose of your life, the state of your health, the people you have lost or the progress of your work. They can even hint at what you should do or not do. But, how to make sense of them? So many wild visuals: water, zebras, butterflies, overflowing toilets, crammed bookshelves, trains, mountain trails, people you feel you know but can’t identify when you wake up. What does it all mean?
Like poetry, dreams are full of symbolism and metaphor. If you give them time and attention you can start to learn the language of your own dreams. The first step is to write them down. Best to do it when you first wake up, because dreams have a habit of slipping away quickly. Some dream enthusiasts will wake up in the middle of the night to record their dreams. Not me, I’m much too attached to my sleep. Also, I read in one of Jeremy Taylor’s books (big dream author) about writing down dreams only to discover in the morning that the writing had been a dream too. So why even try. The way I figure it, if it’s important, I’ll remember.
Like poetry, dreams are full of symbolism and metaphor. If you give them time and attention you can start to learn the language of your own dreams. The first step is to write them down. Best to do it when you first wake up, because dreams have a habit of slipping away quickly. Some dream enthusiasts will wake up in the middle of the night to record their dreams. Not me, I’m much too attached to my sleep. Also, I read in one of Jeremy Taylor’s books (big dream author) about writing down dreams only to discover in the morning that the writing had been a dream too. So why even try. The way I figure it, if it’s important, I’ll remember.
Expert dreamers have some helpful hints about keeping a dream journal and interpreting dreams. When you are writing down your dream always write it in the present tense as though it were happening in this very moment. This helps to bring the dream into the present and makes it more accessible to the intuitive side of your brain.
How you feel about the dream and also how you felt just after the dream can be important clues to the dreams meaning. If you felt positive about the dream, what is going right in your life right now? Can you relate it to your dream. If you felt frightened, or angry or sad, again consider what is happening in your life and see if there's a connection.
Next, examine everything in your dream: every object, person and action and consider what special meaning each has for you. In my own dreams, buses, trains, cars and bikes regularly appear. They are all forms of locomotion -- ways for me to move forward. I usually associate them with the work I've doing for the last twelve years, making and distributing my film series, Secrets of Life and Death. Train? Moves fast, but not in my power. Bicycle? Slow and easy and under my own steam.
It helps to share your dream with others who are also enthusiastic about dreams. Their interpretations of your dreams and vice versa can provide many new insights, besides making it a lot more fun. The rule about interpreting someone else’s dream, however, is to always preface your interpretation with: “if it were my dream, it would mean. . .” The meaning of your dreams is always up to the dreamer. There is no one right interpretation, only the interpretation that feels right for you.
Books of symbols can be a good resource for additional ideas. Since I often dream about animals, my favorite book is, Animal Speak by Ted Andrews.
My dreams have given me a lot of insight throughout my film making process. Scanning through a dream journal written in 2006, I happened on a dream titled, “Caught on the last step.” This was a month before I contracted with the editor who helped me finish my films. In the dream my foot is stuck on the last step of a staircase. I have to step backward to move forward again. And that is exactly what I ended up doing in real life. I went back to the editor I had given up on a year ago because she was too busy. The timing was the right and we were able to finish editing the first two films in four months.
It helps to share your dream with others who are also enthusiastic about dreams. Their interpretations of your dreams and vice versa can provide many new insights, besides making it a lot more fun. The rule about interpreting someone else’s dream, however, is to always preface your interpretation with: “if it were my dream, it would mean. . .” The meaning of your dreams is always up to the dreamer. There is no one right interpretation, only the interpretation that feels right for you.
Books of symbols can be a good resource for additional ideas. Since I often dream about animals, my favorite book is, Animal Speak by Ted Andrews.
My dreams have given me a lot of insight throughout my film making process. Scanning through a dream journal written in 2006, I happened on a dream titled, “Caught on the last step.” This was a month before I contracted with the editor who helped me finish my films. In the dream my foot is stuck on the last step of a staircase. I have to step backward to move forward again. And that is exactly what I ended up doing in real life. I went back to the editor I had given up on a year ago because she was too busy. The timing was the right and we were able to finish editing the first two films in four months.
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