Why are our dreams so crazy and hard to understand? I get asked this question on a daily basis. Dreams seem so off-the-wall because we are looking at them and are trying to understand them with our literal, conscious waking mind when, in fact, dreams are created in our subconscious mind, which speaks in a language of symbols, pictures and emotions instead of words. The key is not to look AT your dream but rather INTO your dream.
As random or bizarre as dreams often seem, they do play by certain rules. Below are 3 of the more important rules to remember when decoding your dreams. When you apply these rules to your dreams, you’ll be surprised how easily the message in your dream reveals itself to you.
1. Dreams Speak in Metaphors Make it a habit of asking yourself how the characters, the objects, the actions and the settings in your dreams are comparable to yourself and the events in your waking life. How is your dream last night a metaphor for your life right now? Sometimes the metaphor, the figure of speech or the pun in your dream will be as plain as day.
Like a metaphor, your dreams illustrate what’s going on in your life and how you truly feel about it. When you can find the metaphor, you have found the message.
2. Your Dreams Are Always Connected to the Previous Day Whatever happens in your life today, whatever thoughts run through your mind, whatever accomplishment you make, whatever conversations you have, whatever frustrates you today is likely to show up in your dreams tonight in some form or fashion.
Be sure to ask yourself how your dream last night reminds you of yesterday. Keeping a day journal in tandem with a dream journal will help you to connect the dots between the imagery in your dream to the events and thoughts and conversations of the previous day. Write down all TV shows, books, etc. that you read, saw or talked about that day. You never know when the imagery will speak to you in a dream.