One of the most frequent and creative ways for Spirit to communicate with us is through our dreams. On average, each person will have 4-5 dreams a nights. You may even have a dream or two during a nap. You may think you don’t dream, but everybody does. You can train yourself to remember your dreams. Here’s the process that I recommend for recalling and working with dreams.
Intent—Have the desire and expectation that you will remember and be able to be guided by the wisdom from your dreams’ messages. It helps to keep a separate dream journal. Before going to sleep, consider what question you’d want to pose or on what topic or situation you’d like to guidance. You can write this in your journal the night before if you’re afraid you’ll forget the question.
Recall—As soon as you wake up, lie still, without opening your eyes, and try to recall the last dream you had. Pick up any thread of the dream that presents itself and follow that thread as far as it will take you. Sometimes this feels like you are watching a movie or rewinding and watching the scenes. Sometimes recall of scenes isn’t sequential and you’ll need to piece the dream back together. Be relaxed about this. If you are frustrated or attempt to force the process you’ll probably shut down rather than open up the unconscious memory. Give it a few minutes. If you’ve got the time, allow yourself to fall back to sleep if needed to go back into the dream.
Write—Keep your dream journal right next to you so you can easily roll over and record your dreams. Too much movement can make dreams fade. Write as much as you remember about your dream, giving as much detail as you can. Because the language of dreams is symbolic, what may seem like a trivial tidbit hardly worthy of recording could be quite significant. Note the setting, the weather, the characters and their names, any numbers, and the general feeling of the dream.
Interpret—
What do you think the messages are for you in this dream?
How does this answer or relate to the question or intention you had before going to sleep?
How does this relate to what’s going on in your life—in your past, present, or future?
What symbolism occurs to you?
Consult a dream book or dream dictionary to learn about the possible meanings of your dream and its symbols. Here are some of the more common symbols and their meanings:
People—every person in our dreams represents aspects of ourselves
Water—spiritual refreshment
Weather-emotions—sunny or stormy outlook
Nakedness—may be sexual or about feeling exposed
Vehicles—the mode in which we travel—our lifestyle
Label and record your interpretations so that you can review then later. Periodically read over your dream entries. Look for connections and patterns. Notice if you have recurring dreams, themes, or symbols. These could be important messages trying to come through. If you have a recurring dream this can mean that you haven’t grasped the meaning or done anything about it.
For instance, I’ve had a series of dreams about water slides. There’s no entry for this in my dream interpretation books. Water, according to my books is about spiritual truth, spiritual refreshment, flow of life force, connection. Flowing water is equated with spiritual flow. I think this is a message for me to go with the flow of Spirit and use it to help me move forward in an easy, fast, manner that feels more like play than work.
Implement
What do you want to do as a result of this dream? What do you think the dream is telling you to do? What feels like the best course of action?
Keep dreaming!