Dreams have meaning. The meanings of dreams can be straight-forward and simple or they can be highly complicated. Your dreams have a simple surface meaning, but they also have tiers of meanings related to the feelings, the images, and the symbolism presented in the dream. Deciphering all of the meanings of any complex dream can take a great deal of time and analysis in most cases. We rarely afford ourselves the effort of figuring out everything our dreams mean.
You might think of it it terms of thinking. For example, let's say that you are looking out your window and you see a dog. Your mind most likely fills up with thoughts related to that dog and dogs in general. You might react to the dog's appearance and behavior, you wonder whose dog it is, you are reminded of other dogs that you've seen that look like this one, you think of your own dog or a dog you used to have, and so on. The mind races about thinking about things you see in life and free associating thoughts with that seen image. Every thought you have could be attached to some kind of meaning if you really thought deeply enough about it.
Our dreams are mind images, therefore what is evoked in our dreams is related to something in our lives that has a meaning. The meaning might be obvious or it might be highly abstract. If you are seriously attempting to figure out what a dream means then you should write down a list of all the images you can remember from the dream. Then take each image and write down what it makes you think of and how it makes you feel. There are layers of meaning to a highly complex dream. You would have to consider those other meanings as well.
Figuring out what dreams mean can be fun and enlightening. You might get the meaning right or you might be way off base. That should never stop you from figuring out why you dreamed what you did. Much of the time it will be matter of something you did that day or a movie you watched on TV that evening prior to sleeping. Always consider the external factors that might have influenced your dream.
Do make any effort to interpret your own dreams? Do you ever describe your dreams to another person to get their opinion of what a dream might mean? Is there ever a time when you think a dream means absolutely nothing?
I always try to interpret my dreams. Last night I dreamt that I was going to Michigan and I know exactly why I dreamt that, because my stepdaughter is out there and I'm so jelly b/c it's on my bucket list. I would love to have gone with her....I would've just rented a car when I got there and done my own thing while she visits her friends. She isn't coming home till Sunday.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't mind going to Michigan. No reason really, I just like going places.
DeleteLee
I haven't been interpreting my dreams, or making any effort to do so, because I'm too busy being entertained by them. Most of them lately seem to be travel-oriented, situated on airplanes and trains, in hotels and shopping malls, at airports and on roads, and for reasons I can't fathom, restrooms. Whatever, they're quite entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty much the same way. I'm fascinated and entertained by my dreams but don't try to interpret them unless they've really impacted me in some way. I often dream about travel as well and being in places like you describe. The restroom dreams are ones that I also have and the interpretation is usually pretty obvious--I have to go to the bathroom. I always wake up from these dreams and make my way to the bathroom.
DeleteLee
Thanks for this post Arlee. Yes, making associations to our dreams is the way to go as you describe about the seeing the dog outside the window. It's a bit like peeling an onion, as the layers are revealed, one finds even more layers.
ReplyDelete