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When I say the correct way, I mean in a way that you can decipher what your subconscious and unconscious parts are trying to tell you via your dreams.
How often do you dream? Are your dreams black and white or in color?
Do you remember your dreams?
How are dreams making you feel – positive or negative?
Are there recurring dreams that you keep on dreaming but have no clue what it means?
Are there any people you dream more often than others?
My interest in dreams is recent and even though I’ve been a spiritual person for decades, I’m going to go on and admit that I hadn’t been paying much attention to my dreams until a few years ago.
I was blown away by the whole concept of dreaming and how the unconscious uses our dreams to materialize whatever’s going on deep within us.
Everything we suppress or don’t talk about or ignore is coming back to haunt us in our dreams. Haunt is probably too strong of a word to use here but bear with me for a while, I’ll explain why I’ve used it.
To me, the moment I realized that dreams aren’t only random images we see in our Rapid Eye Movement stage part of the dream was life-changing.
I immediately got obssessed and started exploring more about Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and any other therapist that tried to figure out what the hell do our dreams mean.
What prompted me to dive even deeper in the field of dreams was a recurring dream of mine. You know how sometimes, there’s this dream that we keep on dreaming over and over again?
Well, that’s exactly what happened to me.
For some people, that’s running away from something – for example, my college roommate kept dreaming she and her family are trying to escape a war for YEARS!
Others keep seeing the same place in their dream – and even more common, they keep dreaming that they’re stuck.
My recurring dream was FALLING.
For years, I kept dreaming that I’m falling in all sorts of different situations.
I’d dream that I’m standing on the top of a tall building and people are watching me, expecting me to jump…. And instead of jumping and flying, I end up falling.
I’d dream that I’m stuck on a cliff, overlooking a MASSIVE canyon when my leg slips… woah, just the thought of that canyon is enough to give me chills and make me feel a knot in my stomach.
FALLING is one of the MOST COMMON dreams people have, so I didn’t pay much attention to it.
I googled the meaning a few times but it was always you’re upset about something, something’s stressing you out in real life, blah blah blah. And since I’m mortified of heights anyway, it made perfect sense.
My thinking went something along these lines: I’m scared of heights so my brain probably remembers the last time I took the elevator to the 50th floor or something, nothing’s wrong, I’m good to go.
Why dreams can’t be interpreted the same
There’s data that people have been dreaming for as long as the human race exists. Even animals dream and relive their days all over again.
Since our dreams can be very realistic, people have always tried to give them meaning.
Some cultures considered – actually, still consider – dreams to hold predictions for the future. Others believe that’s how spirits communicate with us from the other world and send us messages or give us warnings.
Different cultures interpret dreams differently. For example, dreaming of an owl might mean death in some cultures, wisdom in another one, and hearing big news in a third one.
So which one’s right?
The truth is, there’s no right answer here.
An owl can mean anything… and it really depends on the person who dreams of an owl.
If you’ve ever tried to interpret dreams on your own and you looked it up on Google, then you were probably left with more questions than answers.
That happens because we expect there to be a one-size-fit-all formula for dream interpretations – and that’s just not how it works.
To figure out what YOUR dreams mean, you have to approach them from an individual point of view.
Let’s say I dreamt of a purple cow last night and you dreamt of a purple cow last night too.
Our purple cows don’t have the same meaning.
The only way to give meaning to my purple cow is to look at what’s going on in my life right now.
Am I waking up my creativity? YES! Am I allowing my energy to flow more freely and be more unusual? YES!
Am I doing weird and unconventional things that make me stand out in a crowd? ALSO YES!
But your purple cow can’t be and shouldn’t be interpreted the same as mine and I’m going to explain to you why.
You know how I mentioned Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung earlier?
Well, they both agreed that dreams are messages from the unconscious.
So your purple cow has a completely different message from your unconscious than mine purple cow.
However, I also feel like I should add that messages from the unconscious and the subconscious aren’t – and shouldn’t – be seen as a negative thing.
Even if our dreams are unpleasant, and even if we sometimes decipher them as warning signs or we think of them as a peek into our deepest, darkest fears… reality is, not every message from our unconscious is negative or bad.
Believe it or not, most of the messages we receive from the unconscious are completely neutral and simply point us to our internal conflicts and ways to solve them!
Again, both Freud and Jung agreed that even our darkest dreams, you know, the ones that have you wake up drenched in sweat, usually don’t only point out to the problem… but also point out to the solution as well!
So how do you know if you need to pay extra attention to a dream?
Easy – follow how you feel after waking up!
Vivid, realistic dreams, and dreams that leave you experiencing a deep emotion are usually the dreams you should do something about.
And there’s one simple thing you can do that will help you find more answers: that thing’s called active imagination.
What is active imagination
Active imagination is sort of a mindfulness exercise that allows you to talk to your unconscious.
You can also think of it as creative thinking, as thinking outside the box – or put most simply, as meeting your unconscious halfway!
Before we go on, here’s a fun fact concerning active imagination: believe it or not, active imagination isn’t only used in psychotherapy. Active imagination is a skill that comes in handy in every possible field, especially in science.
It’s basically a form of an exercise where you allow your thoughts to freely move in every possible direction in order to find a solution.
Archimedes and the moment of his eureka! were possible because he used active imagination: he imagined his body being a gourd of water. Einstein also solved more than a few problems with active imagination – he imagined himself as a photon on a horizon of velocities.
So now you’re wondering what that has to do with your dreams.
We’re going to go over how to use the concept of active imagination to find out the meaning behind your dreams, solve internal conflicts, and release hidden emotional baggage holding you back.
You can use active imagination in any form you’d like.
Some people draw images and let the hand move freely. Others engage in a written or spoken conversation with their unconscious. Some create music or paint with oil – I’ve heard stories of people dancing as a way to express their unconscious.
It’s a personal choice really, and you use whatever type of “medium” you’re comfortable with.
The way I do it, I have spoken conversations with my unconscious.
I use my phone to record the conversation as to not get distracted by writing or remembering what’s being said… so basically, yes, I’m talking to myself out loud BUT without restricting myself.
I know it sounds silly but trust me, once you remove yourself from all the mental “boxes” – once you start talking without filtering yourself – and get rid of all the expectations of what you’re supposed to do or say or think… you reveal a side of you that you’ve never known.
I’ve used active imagination not only to find the meaning behind my dreams but also to solve my procrastination and find the reason why certain people trigger way too strong of an emotional reaction in me.
The best part is that this whole concept works AMAZINGLY well on the first try, which is ideal for beginners.
You know how the story usually goes… most people struggle to keep the mind silent as they meditate and can’t seem to reach the state of mindfulness, which I’m going to admit, can be frustrating and make you to give up.
But not with this concept. Active imagination works right off the bat and hits the nail on the head every single time.
Here’s how you can do active imagination – give it a try and let me know if it works for you!
How to use active imagination to talk to your unconscious and interpret your dreams
1. Find someplace quiet – you don’t want any distractions. You can sit or lie down – whatever’s comfortable for you. If you’re writing, have a piece of paper and a pen right next to you.
2. Take a few deep breaths to fully focus. Now, invite your unconscious. I say something like, hey unconscious, this is Bernadette, can we please talk? For me, the answer comes straight away – and 99% of the time, it’s a yes. If you get a no, maybe try to calm down a bit before trying again.
3. Once you’ve opened up the communication channel with your unconscious, recall the dream you want to find the meaning for. You can recall people or places or objects… whatever has been appearing often in your dreams.
4. Talk to your unconscious about it. Ask questions. Let’s take again the purple cow example – you can ask something like, why am I seeing a purple cow? What is she doing there? Why is my grandma petting the purple cow? Why is the cow purple? What does purple mean to me?
5. Then let your unconscious do the talking. You’d be surprised by the answers that pop up! For example, your purple cow can be your creativity trying to come out of you or a strong emotion you’re feeling but struggle to express – I’m just thinking out loud, you have to find out on your own!
6. Repeat for as many questions as necessary and keep going. As soon as you sense that you’re overthinking and filtering your answers, stop and give it another try some other time.
