We are such stuff as dreams are made on,and our little lifeis rounded with a sleep.WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Your dreams are yours alone. We all interpret dreams differently, based on our own personal internal dictionary of words, colours, signs and symbols. Using a dream decoder written by someone else will be next to useless except as an amusement, so instead I suggest the following technique, which is loosely based on the work of Carl Jung.
I had a dream once in which I was running around in this pair of sparkly red shoes, talking to all of these bizarre and interesting people. It was only near the end of the dream that I realized somewhere along the way I’d lost all of my clothes except my shoes. Not that anyone else was noticing…
So let’s work with this dream!
1. Give your dream a name, like a movie title. Make it dramatic and meaningful to you! Lets call my dream “Oh My God – Me Naked in Red Shoes”
2. Write down all the main characters. If they have no names, give them a description. For example: Me, Man with basket, Girl with dog.
3. Write a synopsis of your dream. This is like a summary, giving your dream a beginning, middle and end, where you put down all the main points, action and locations. At this stage in my dream about running around in red shoes, like a nude Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, I was pretty sure it was about me feeling exposed and vulnerable – out on display. Makes sense, hey? But bear with me, I’m not finished yet…
4. Write down any single image, phrase or action that stands out. For me, it was the image of the Red Shoes. These really stood out for me, as I’d NEVER in my life worn red shoes. (Mum impressed upon my sister and I that red shoes were very ‘cheap and flashy”. Mind you I have two pairs now… Sorry, Mum!) Trust me – when you think back on your dream there will be one thing, and it might be a very small or seemingly insignificant detail, that just sticks in your head. You’d think the thing that stood out from this dream would have been the nudity, but no. That’s how the red shoes were for me.
5. Now take a clean sheet of paper, draw a circle in the middle and write your image/action/phrase inside the circle. Do it just like the example below.
6. Draw several lines coming out from your circle – like little rays of sunshine a child would draw!
7. Now without giving this ANY thought (Don’t you DARE think!), use ‘stream of consciousness’ and immediately write connected words that you associate with red shoes, or whatever your particular thing is, coming off each of the lines. NO THINKING – JUST WRITE! My words in relation to red shoes were Television, Powerful, Confident, The Boss, Happy, Dancing, Joy, Self-Expression. Heaps different to my first ‘intellectual’ interpretation, don’t you agree?
8. Trust that what you bring through from your subconscious is actually what your dream is all about. All the rest of the dream is just filtering, and your BRAIN composting and analysing things.
Tips on Getting Ready To Dream
The Dream State is a powerful place for healing, transformation and Guidance. There are many ways that we can work with enhancing the dream state. These include reducing stimulants such as coffee and cola at least six hours before sleep, not going to bed on a hugely stuffed stomach, and avoiding arguments and violence or disturbing images in games, books or on television at least an hour before going to bed.
Dreaming Techniques for Conscious Connection
Get yourself a journal in which you can record your dreams, both waking (visions or daydreams) and in the sleep state. Before going to sleep, take half an hour to prepare yourself for conscious connection. Have a bath or shower, and imagine the water washing away any negativity.
When you are ready and warmly dressed, sit in meditation or lie quietly in bed ready for meditation. You may want to sip a cup of relaxing herbal tea first. It will soothe you and help you to move more easily into the meditative state.
Use a breathwork technique to calm yourself and slow your breathing. Give thanks for all of the positive events and energy you have encountered during your day. After drawing healing light into your body fill your body and aura with whatever colour comes to you. Literally fill yourself up with this colour.
Then sitting or lying quietly within your meditation, relax more deeply and offer up a prayer for Guidance. Ask that you be Guided in your dreams, and that you be opened up to higher and higher levels of Healing, Learning, Love and Light. Stay within the meditative pose for another ten or so minutes, being quiet, still and aware of any thoughts, sounds, images, colours or sensations that arise.
Record any information in your Dream Journal.
Before you go to sleep consciously ask to remember your dreams.
When you awake in the morning, keep your eyes closed, lie quietly on your back and do some breathwork, breathing in whatever colour light feels right for you. Visualise your whole aura flooded with this light.
Sit quietly and write any dreams or other impressions in your journal. (Make sure that you are comfortable and dressed warmly!) If you have time, once again sit in meditation for up to half an hour, and record any additional information or impressions that you receive.
♥ Wishing you sweet dreams! ♥
I love to interpret Dreams, an important element missed was the feelings throughout the dream, it is very important to recognise them and list them and then associate them to something in your consciousness, as was suggested by Nicole circle a feeling then have the rays of sunshine. The most important feeling in your Dream is the one you wake with, feelings when interpreted allow one to know, unconsciously many of us avoid what we feel in order to remain ignorant. The circles with associations will then allow bridges to be formed to your waking life, allowing for important messages to be realised.
KInd Regards
Kerry 🙂
I’ve had 3 extremely clear, vivid, memorable early morning dreams recently….and been trying to figure what was being “said”…this process helps…thank you, kathy
I’m glad you’ve found my process helpful, Kathy! 😀 Much love to you xx
Your posts are always so clear and clever—- flowing brooks of knowledge.
Flowing brooks of knowledge – what beautiful imagery. 🙂
Very interesting stuff! I always found dreams to be a fascinating subject, and I like your “one does NOT fit all!” approach.
It would be a very sad and boring world if there was a ‘one meaning fits all’ dream policy!
True, but easier to interpret, which is why we find those “lists of dream meanings” so appealing….!
What a great post! In addition to being a good approach to interpreting your dreams, I also think it’s a really fantastic writing exercise.
Thank you! Glad you found it useful. 🙂 xx
Dreams surely are a mystery.There are some days when i can’t remember them, some days the theme repeats in every dream, like recently, i have only been seeing snakes.And on days when i really feel like enjoying my dreams, someone wakes me up.
When i was little, i used to see one dream alot, that someone is running after me and i am scared until i reach the edge and falling down the cliff, and as my back touched the ground,i trembled and woke up.It made me quite upset.
I hope my dream analysis technique helps you shed some light on these! Isn’t it a bummer when you get woken in the middle of the best dream… Still you can always make a new dream tomorrow.
Much love to you xx
Wonderful post!! I have always been a very vivid dreamer, and am grateful for your excellent suggestions on how to interpret. I’ve heard that other people in your dreams are really projections of yourself. Can you comment on that?
That makes some sense to me – but I am sure that sometimes we are truly using others in our dreams to work things out in relation to them or other people we know. I also believe Guides can visit you in your dreams…
Thank you for your response. That seems to me to be right. I often feel in my dreams as though my subconscious mind is processing little by little difficult situations with others that my waking or meditating mind has resolved and let go of with love. And, I believe I have been visited by Guides, too. Thanks for your thoughtful response.
Visited by Guides? Wonderful!!! Bless xx
This is wonderful – can’t wait to try it!
😀 xx
i have two dreams that occur very often. in one, i’m running fast. i fall forward and run on all fours, then my legs go up and i’m running on my hands. then i’m launched high into the air. as i reach my pinnacle, i have a choice: fall or get launched higher. i always go higher. now i’m about 50 ft. up. again, go higher or fall, and i always choose to go higher and fear falling. i usually wake up after i’ve reached the height of maybe a 50 story building.
in my other dream, i’m in a house alone but people are trying to get in. i’m running around trying to lock windows and doors, and the lock can’t quite hold securely. however, the people trying to get in are always stupid, slow zombies. i walk away, the window lock opens, but they’re all too dumb to get in. i’m constantly going around to all windows and doors, locking them until the pop open in a few minutes.
I’ve always wanted to have flying dreams! And I love the second dream, although anything with zombies would scare me witless.
I hope you found the interpretation process useful, Rich. Writers, hey? Heads full of crazy good stuff!!! xx
Your posts are fantastic. I always have a good read. thanks for that! I love dream analysis.
Thank you! ♥ xx
Brilliant idea and very well illustrated. I hope I will start dreaming soon.
I hope you do too! ♥♥♥
This is an incredibly powerful technique…i have got a lot of clarity and insight using this.
Thank you Nicole for sharing your process. love donna
Great to hear! {{{HUGS}}} to you xoxo
These are some really good tips for dream interpretation. I’d like to add one thing to your list and that is what you feel in your dream. I find this really helps me to get in touch with what my subconscious is working through. For a long time, I had many different dreams but the connection between them all was my feeling. I was always frustrated in each dream because I needed to go somewhere or get something but couldn’t because something, somehow didn’t work, or I couldn’t find my car, etc.
Lovely advice, Brenda! Thanks for sharing. xoxo
Great post Nicole.
This perhaps will sound strange… 🙂
Last week you featured in one of my dreams. I was sitting with you talking for quite some time, we were laughing and joking. Then on another day and at another time you gave me some money for my Mother, even though we hadn’t spoken about her. I, in return, gave you the same amount of money to go towards a reading for Mum.
Next scene in my dream you were naked! (sorry about that) 🙂 the only thing you had on were elf boots! You were also carrying a basket.
Not sure what all that meant and now as it has been a week or so ago I have forgotten the finer details!
Oh My God, Annette! I laughed so much I almost pee’d my pants. Elf boots?????
I wonder what was in the basket?
I am still laughing so much that my face hurts. Thanks for making my day!
He he he, Yup elf boots!!! Red sparkly shoes one dream, elf boots the next! 🙂
You had beautiful flowers in your basket that you had picked in the woods!
Glad this tickled your fancy! 😀
I very rarely remember my dreams and never thought I can ask to remember them 🙂
Sometimes I have the same dream that repeats itself. Thank you very much Nicole for this lesson 🙂
One thing that will help you to dream, and to remember your dream is to make sure you have enough B group vitamins in your diet, especially B6 and B12. These are the vitamins we need to cope with stress, so maybe you could take a supplement to help you along. Much love to you xx
Thank you very much Nicole for this advice!! I will certainly take some supplements. I never checked the vitamin B, but I know I am taking Magnesium and I have no vitamin D in my body, so I obviously have a lack in vitamins in general. Anything that can help reduce stress as it is flying HIGH!!!!Writing is helping me. Thank you Nicole