Dreams are so revealing, don't you think? I do a good deal of "work" through my dreams; they tell me the mental and emotional issues that I need to address. Sometimes the connections are very clear and I can see how images are drawn from my daily life. Other times, I am amazed at how highly metaphorical they are. If only I thought like that consciously, I say to myself, I'd be writing some really great novels.
Sometimes it seems that they are about the people who populate them; I may be imagining something about my husband or daughter or mother, so they occupy my dreams. Other times, I believe what Carl Jung thought: we are everyone in our dreams. So a dream about losing my friends in a crowd might be about fearing abandonment by others, but it might also reveal a fear of losing myself somehow amidst the crowded activities of a day and life.
Dreams that affect me greatly, that wake me up or stay with me when I wake up are recorded in my journal. Often the act of writing them down makes them clearer to me. Often, too, I share them with L., and his questions will help me interpret them. (As much as other people might want to interpret with or for us, the final answer about what a dream means lies with the one who dreamt it.) Sometimes, though, I'm not sure what a dream is trying to tell me; when this happens, I still write it down, ponder it, but I know that more dreams will come to clarify the meaning. Our subconscious minds keep tapping at the door of consciousness until it is opened for them; then, when we see what we need to see, the subconscious can rest for a bit. I know that I've worked through all the necessary stuff for the time being when my sleep is still, when I awake without having dreamed much at all. Sound sleep, indeed.
But I value my dream life, and I value lucid dreams (more on that another time) when I can more fully control the healing taking place within the dream world. Dreams are quite a resource for understanding the self and working through that which we have yet to face in waking life.
What are your dreams telling you?
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