How do dreams figure into a program on personal growth? Your dreams are an important resource for communicating with your subconscious mind. They can assist in understanding your true desires and allow you to jump-start your creativity. Dreams come in a straight shot from the subconscious. So, it’s to your advantage to figure out what they mean.

Dreams may seem like unintelligible imagery, but they are not insignificant. Dreams are always about us. Always commenting and instructing us about our concerns. They’re often filling in the blanks or waving red flags or giving us a road map. So, learning to interpret their messages becomes a valuable resource.

It’s no accident that we dream more often and more vividly when we are under stress. Have you ever noticed that you dream more when you’re starting a new job or engaged in an unfamiliar area of expertise? Big changes translate to big dreams. We have more to think about and evaluate during these times. Our subconscious is weighing the options even as we sleep. The messages it has for us are clouded in the obscure images and the disconnected concepts we often experience in dreams.

Why must we dream in metaphors? Try to hold on to something we couldn’t understand.

– Seal

Before we developed verbal skills, we still needed to communicate with our minds. Without words to rely on, it was necessary to transfer meaning through images. Dreams are like a long-lost language. They’re offering us valuable information. The trick is figuring out what they’re attempting to say.

You may be one of those people who say they can never remember their dreams. You probably have the most to discover. It does take a little time and effort to translate our dreams. But, it’s fun and enlightening to discover what they’re telling us.

EXERCISE

JOURNAL CODE: DRM

Analyze your dreams three to five days per week. Make notations in your journal about the dream itself as best you can recall and include your analysis of the dream. Also, examine how you were reacting within the dream. Were you feeling overwhelmed or in control?

Here are a few tips for interpreting dreams:

• Start by going to bed at night with the expectation that you will dream about something important and that you will remember the dream.

• Be prepared. Have your journal or a notepad and pen within easy reach. By going to bed ready to interpret your dreams, you are telling your subconscious you mean business. You may be rewarded with more meaningful dreams and an easier recall.

• When you first wake up, a remnant of your dream will probably still be hovering, all wispy and tailing away as if a light silk scarf has been trailed across your face. If you let it get away, the dream will disappear. Mentally reach up and gently pull it back. The more you pull back, the more you will begin to remember the characters, actions and symbolism. Reconstruct the dream as carefully as possible in your mind. Set it into your conscious mind.Begin writing your newly forged memory of the dream. As you write, be open to new details and plot twists as they present themselves.

• After you’ve written down the dream, go back and give it a title. Don’t fret over what to call it, go with the first thing that pops into your head. The title is often an enormous clue to the meaning of your dream.

• When trying to make sense of a dream, it is best not to be too literal. Actions, locations, characters and feelings are often metaphors for a message.

• Unless you specifically recognize someone you know in your dream, most of the characters are you.

• Paying attention to the way you were feeling toward a person or event can be a clue to its meaning. For instance, a death in a dream often represents change. So, if you were happy observing the death, it means you are welcoming the change.

• Dreams that repeat themselves are communications trying to break through. They will usually stop only when you get the message.

Don’t be discouraged if it takes some practice before you can consistently recall your dreams.

Many people report that they never remember them. But, by simply starting with a regular interpretation you will be impressed with how quickly you begin to grasp the messages presented to you by your subconscious.