Dreams are not random.
The images in dreams and the things that take place in them are like a play or a movie telling an important story. These stories often are confusing or don’t make sense right away. However, that is because understanding a dream requires learning to speak its language.
The language of dreams is the language of symbols.
For a dream, a symbol is an image that represents an idea and isn’t simply the thing as it appears. For example, if someone dies in a dream, it doesn’t mean that they are going to die in real life. Death as a symbol might represent the end of something metaphorically, or it might represent the end of a chapter of one’s life and the beginning of a new chapter.
When we learn to understand the symbolic language of dreams, we can start to understand their overall meaning and why they might be appearing at this particular time in our lives.
It has been said that dreams don’t waste our time.
What I understand that saying to mean is that if we remember a dream when we wake up, it is because there is some important insight within that dream that needs our conscious attention. Sometimes dreams show us a different perspective of a situation that we have been dealing with in waking life. For example, maybe we have been struggling at work with a difficult boss or coworker. A dream might show a symbolic version of that conflict in such a way that we realize something important and new about the situation that helps us navigate it more successfully. In this way, the dream may show us something important that would otherwise have been left out of the story.
Dreams sometimes invite us to process difficult emotions or even traumas from our past.
It is common for those who have experienced stress or challenge to revisit those events in their dreams. This might be something as common as the stresses related to school and taking tests, which are common themes in dreams. It might also relate to a very specific trauma that we are being invited to further heal or psychologically process. When frightening or intense, these dreams are often called nightmares. Also, dreams sometimes make us feel joy. Sometimes dreams leave us feeling sad or upset. At times, it can even be unclear when a dream is or is not a nightmare. Yet, what is important to remember is that dreams are always trying to help.
Dreams are always our psyche’s attempt to move us towards greater healing.
When we experience the pain or fear of a nightmare, it might be because the dream is trying to get our attention and show us something important that we need to attend to. One could think of this like our body’s ability to feel pain. Pain is of course not enjoyable, but it is important to know when and where we are injured. Dreams and nightmares can operate similarly but with psychological wounds and injuries.
Sometimes people know that they dream but can’t remember them when they wake up.
Some people also report that they don’t dream at all. There can be a variety of reasons that we don’t remember our dreams. For some, it can happen because we are not used to giving dreams our attention. Just like if we ghosted a friend and stopped responding to their text messages, eventually they would stop sending them.
When we ignore our dreams for long enough, sometimes our psyche stops remembering them in the same way.
However, the dreaming part of our psyche is often very forgiving. When we start to write down and reflect on the meaning in the smallest part of a dream, even if it is just a feeling or a single color, the dreaming part of our psyche realizes that we are now listening and can be more likely to leave you with more and more to remember when you wake in the morning.
One of the best ways to start working on dreams is to keep a journal by your bed and immediately write down whatever you can remember of your dreams when you wake up. It can take less than 30 seconds after waking to lose the important details of a dream. That doesn’t mean you can’t write down and work on what you remember later, anything is better than nothing, but when you get the specific details written down, it is often easier to work with the dream and learn the insights it is trying to share.
When trying to understand the symbols of the dream and its meaning, one tool that people often turn to is a dream dictionary or looking up the image in an internet search. These resources can sometimes lead to helpful insights if one of the proposed meanings “clicks” with the dreamer. However, every dream image can mean different things depending on the context of the dream. In one dream, a dog might represent one’s instinctual wisdom and loyalty. In another dream, the dog might represent a childhood trauma or injury and the related fears. Dream dictionaries record other people’s past associations to any one image, but every dream image is unique based on the dreamer and the context of the dream. Learning the tools of symbolic thinking and exploration help make use of many tools and techniques for understanding the meanings of your dream in particular and its unique meaning for this moment in your life.
If it is coming up in our dreams, then it is already a part of our psychological experience; it is a part of ourselves.
However, sometimes the intensity of the dream images or the emotions related to the dream are so difficult that it is important to find a therapist or qualified professional to help facilitate the unpacking of the dream and its meaning. Even if our dreams are not overwhelming or intense, having someone experienced in dream work can be helpful to get the most understanding and benefit out of a dream.
Dreams are a window into our own psyche and a compassionate teacher to help us learn more about ourselves.
Learning to understand the language of dreams can be a profoundly empowering way to improve our quality of life, strengthen our relationships, and deepen our self-understanding. One could even flip around the common saying, “dreamwork makes the teamwork.”
Next Steps
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