woman dreaming

HOW TO INTERPRET DREAMS: 7 keys to gain guidance from your inner self

Last updated: March 27th, 2019

Someone is chasing me!

I cannot recognize who it is, but I am scared…I am so scared…

Thankfully, I wake up…

A nightmare such as this is a common occurrence. What if a nightmare, or any dream for that matter, was more than just a random creation of our imagination? What if the one third of the time that we spend sleeping actually had a profound relation to the rest of our waking existence?

I remember interpreting a similar nightmare-like dream to a lady whom I met at a library lecture that I was giving on dreams. She was so relieved to learn that the nightmare was not foretelling a scary event; but rather, the dream was advising her that there’s something she was not learning about herself and that instead of running away from the learning she could face it. Nightly dreams are a well of information about our waking lives; they can serve as our internal guidance system allowing us to become more awake during our daily lives.

The dream interpretation theory that I have personal experience with employs the Universal Language of Mind®. This theory was developed by the School of Metaphysics and it proposes that our mind communicates in images also referred to as symbols. Each symbol has a universal meaning. For example, eyes symbolize perception, a house the state of our mind. Universal Language of Mind® suggests that every nighttime dream we have is a message from our Inner Self. Carl Jung thought so as well.

How to interpret dreams

Have a dream – Whether we remember our dreams or not we all do dream. If you have challenges remembering your dreams before you go to bed set an intention by writing on a piece of paper “I will remember my dreams” and date it with the next day’s date. By doing so we are commanding our subconscious mind to relate the dreams to us. It’s in the Subconscious Mind where we reside during the dream state.

Write down the dream – As soon as you can, right after you wake up, write it down. Have a dream journal or any notebook and a pen handy by your bedside.

Know that every dream is about the dreamer, you – With exception of visitation dreams, experiencing presence of those who passed on, all dreams reflect to us our state of consciousness and our state of being 24 to 48 hours before having the dream.

Identify the main symbols and translate them – Each symbol is a picture that has a universal meaning. Animals with a couple of exceptions represent habits, water conscious life experience, baby a new idea, clothes outer expression and so forth. All people represent inner and outer aspects of you.

Recognize the key message of the dream – Some dreams might be quite lengthy and very descriptive. Identify the main theme—the core message that the dream is conveying and specify how does that message relate to your life. With wonder ask: “What is my inner Self trying to tell me?”

Determine the plan of action – The purpose of dream interpretation is to bring the learning full circle by taking an action as a response to the dream. For example, if we were chased by a wild scary animal in our dream we can look through our life to identify a habit that produces fear and uncertainty. Once identified we can decide to understand that habit and transcend it. Similarly, if we were flying in our dream we can review thoughts and actions of a previous day to understand what within us brings about the sense of freedom.

Have another dream – Once we become awake to our dreams and start taking action on the guidance they convey we then receive feedback in our subsequent dreams. We receive more invaluable direction on how to proceed with our choices and how to respond to the reality that surrounds us in our waking life.

Learning how to decipher messages conveyed through our dreams is a process, it is the proverbial journey not a destination. As our understanding of ourselves evolves so does our understanding of our dreams and, vice versa, once we turn our attention to our nightly dreams we’re provided with truthful and personal guidance from our inner Self.


image: dreamtime via Shutterstock

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