How to interpret your dreams

Claiming that there is meaning to your dreams is not just reserved for the mystics. Seeing your dreams as your unfiltered subconscious can help you have a clearer understanding of how you really feel about things.

“Dreams and nightmares are honest mirrors showing us how we really feel about life, relationships and ourselves.”- Clare R. Johnson

Your dreams are like your personal mind factory inspector holding back a mirror to you and saying, “This is how you truly feel. Should we keep going this way or do you want to make some changes?”. If we are having a hard time in our nighttime world it’s most likely because we’re having a hard time in our day time too, and vice versa.

But then you could say, how does the crazy dream I just had translate in the real world? Surely its not true that I feel like I’m being chased by a toad or stuck in the middle ocean alone in a boat, as an example.

Yes its not quite so literal but in many ways, it also is. The biggest tip I got from reading “The art of Transforming Nightmares” by Dr Clare R. Johnson is to pretend your telling your dream to an alien whose never lived on earth and so you’d have to describe to them even the littlest things that we take for granted.

So, lets say you’re having a dream about being stuck on a deserted boat. The alien will ask “What’s a boat?” and you will say, its a something we use to travel on water. It takes us from one place to another. Now if this was your dream, your aha moment would realizing that maybe you’re having anxieties about transitioning, it could be a physical transition like moving from point A to B or a big change is about to happen and you’re kinda still wrestling with it.

The boat is deserted. You have to tell the alien why this point matters. “Well,..” you say, “…it shouldn’t be that way. There should be a crew in the boat.”. Bring it back to your life, where are you feeling isolated? What can you do about it to make you feel safe?

“Distressing dreams are an invitation to heal from the past, create positive action in the present and confidence for the future.”

I think you get the gist. The point is to look at every detail with fresh eyes, dreams don’t speak to us literally but speak to us they do. If you can remember your dreams don’t let this opportunity go to waste. It can be the best stool you’ve ever had for understanding yourself .