Do you remember a dream you had this week? When you remember dreams do you interpret them? Or appreciate them? Do you enjoy that creative part of you?
Dreams offer creative and sometimes alternative points of view that can move us out of our everyday way of seeing things, and re-infuse our life stories with a sense of wonder. Interpreting my dreams with this approach I’m going to show you has been helpful to me to discover meanings that show me new ways of seeing myself and situations, in ways that I would never have come with from my conscious thoughts. I’ve come to appreciate and just enjoy connecting to this creative and imaginative part of myself.
I support people with interpreting their dreams using methods everyone can use. I’m going to share some of those here.
How to remember your dreams
- Try to remember the dream in detail. sometimes remembering a single image can lead to remembering the whole dream.
- Enjoy your dreams and their creative qualities. Having a curious, open attitude toward your dreams will likely help you remember more.
Questions (these are some sample questions). The interpretation of a dream rests with your felt sense–that is, as you ponder the question, mindfully pay attention if the interpretation feels right and brings some release or new feelings.
- What comes to you? feelings? associations with recent events?
- Work with the characters: characters (even seemingly negative ones) usually symbolize something about you, the dreamer. What are the characters qualities? Imagine that these qualities were something that you need, some good way of being for you, for your growth — How would it feel to have these qualities? How would you be with these qualities?
- Expanding on the question. How to get beyond imposing your usual conscious attitudes and instead get something new from the dream for your growth: take images or characters that appear negative or that you would fear or reject and ask how would it be and feel if these qualities were something good, how might it represent something that is needed?
Images and characters in the dream stand for parts of yourself and are about issues in your life– and in this method, you would ask yourself what things stand for me, the dreamer.
A brief example of interpreting a dream using these questions.
You may have had a version of this dream…in which someone or something is chasing you.
- First I asked her to tell what she remembered from the dream in detail. In the dream, an intruder who was a big, bulky man, let himself into her apartment. He was self assured, not flustered, as if it was his right to be there.
- I asked her about “associations” with the dream. She was living in a city abroad at the time, she usually felt very secure there, nothing else.
- What did she feel in the dream? She felt scared in the dream about the intruder, this stranger.
- What qualities does the intruder have or represent to you? He had power, he was confident, not intimidated.
- She asked herself what would it feel like if I had more of these qualities, or put another way, what if this was something good that I need, not coming at me, but from inside me? Here she took her attention inside and sensed what these made her feel. After some time she said “something stirred. I could feel good, if this were me I would have more confidence to step into some new situation, where I may not know what to expect but have self confidence. That feels like having more courage” she said.
Want to start appreciating your dreams? Take some part or image from a dream and see what this creative part of yourself has to show you.
Marsha Smith
As a psychotherapist for 25 years, I support people to find solutions, make changes to deal well with life challenges and have more satisfaction in life. I offer empathic and practical approaches to help with a variety of psychological and social challenges, including relationship issues, anxiety, depression, parenting, work, grief, and coping well with health issues. My collaborative approach helps you increase your ability to deal with stress and frustration with more calm and take the next steps to creatively solve problems. I work with adults and couples and offer training and consultation. Please contact me if you would like to know more and I would be happy to answer your questions.
From comments from a client: “Marsha has an intuitive sense of how to gently guide me to help myself and find clarity in my thinking. She leads me to insights and ‘solutions’ that I find within myself. I would recommend her to anyone in need of an advocate of his or her own spirit and inner knowing” -JB
Credentials: MSW, LCSW