Dream States
DO you remember your dreams? Most do not but for those of us who remember their dreams it is not always a wonderful experience.
There are four main types of dreams:
1) Body-processing Dreams: the most simple form of dream
2) Symbolic Dreams: the most common type of dream
3) Guidance Dreams: these contain special messages, and
4) Astral Body Dreams: which involve experiencing a different dimension.
These dream states are encountered during different types of dreaming such as:
Night Dreams (unlike daydreams – which we will discuss further down)
When remembered night dreams can be like a movie. Full of story lines, characters and struggles. Some of these are reflections of yourself, friends and others in your life while others seem alien and remote but all play key roles within the dreamstate. Parts of your character will emerge – the hero, the coward, the child or adult, family members even a cast of characters who all have a part to play in working through your struggles and help your quest for identity and self acceptance. The characters all represent or play different parts of your personality that seeks to express and resolve the problems you face.
Every character in a dream is important whoever they may be. It is important to understand the meaning of your dream as these are merely messages from your subconscious to you that you need to address.
Interpreting Dreams correctly is necessary for personal growth and understanding as well as to reduce the stress and anxiety from dreams that can appear scary or frightening.
For example:
To dream that you are dreaming or daydreaming signifies your emotional state. You are excessively worried and fearful about a situation or circumstance that you are going through. Dreaming that you are dreaming also serves as a layer of protection from what you are feeling. The dream within a dream allows you to experience certain difficult feelings that may otherwise be too painful to confront if you were directly dreaming the scenario.
Also;
To see a dream catcher in your dream indicates that you are putting up a wall or barrier against the negativity in your life. Perhaps there is something in your subconscious that you are trying to prevent from emerging.
Sometimes dreams are about our family or friends rather than ourselves.
To see your own family in your dream represents security, warmth and love. It could also symbolize bitterness, jealousy, or rivalry, depending on your relationship with your family. Alternatively, it could mean that you are overly dependent on your family, especially if the family members are in your recurring dreams. Consider also the significance of a particular family member or the relationship you have with them. If you dream that your family does not act or appear as they normally are, then it means that you want to distance yourself from them. Or you simply don't understand where they are coming from.
To see someone else's family in your dream symbolizes togetherness. The dream serves to remind you that other people can come and go out of your life, but you will always have family. Alternatively, dreaming about someone else's family suggests that you are idealizing or romanticizing what a real family should be like. You want what other families have.
To see friends in your dream signify aspects of your personality that you have rejected, but are ready to incorporate and acknowledge. The relationships you have with those around you are important in learning about yourself. Alternatively, dreaming of a friend indicates positive news.
To dream that you are having sex with a friend refers to the closeness you share with your friend. Because you two share so much between each other and know so much about each other, the dreaming mind may depict this closeness and bond as sex. Alternatively, such a dream indicates a level of attraction between you and your friend, but you are too afraid to act on it. Thus your desires are manifested in a dream.
To see your childhood friend in your dream signifies regression into your past where you had no responsibilities. Things were much simpler and carefree. You may be wanting to escape the pressures and stresses of adulthood. Consider the relationship you had with this friend and the lessons that were learned. Alternatively, the childhood friend suggests that you have been acting in a childish manner. You need to start acting like an adult.
To see friends from your past in your dream points to your desire to reconnect with a part of yourself that you have lost touch with. Perhaps it is time to pick up that old hobby or put a long hidden talent to use. A more direct interpretation of this dream may simply mean that you should look this friend up and reconnect with them.
To dream that your best friend is dying suggests that some aspect or quality that your best friend possess is dying within your own self.
Do you often have dreams where there is an invisible person beside you? You feel them but can't see them? Is it your psychic side directing the dream and guiding you so you can see it clearly?
Daydreams
Daydreams are often viewed as light-hearted in nature. They are just silly fantasies and wishful thinking. Actually, even worrying over things can be classified as a form of daydreaming. When you worry, you are visualizing an unwanted or negative outcome to a situation. By repeating these negative images in your mind, you are more likely to make them happen. Next time you start worrying, try to think of a positive outcome.
Just as your worrisome daydreams can unwittingly come true via repetition in your mind, you can use it as a tool to your advantage and make positive events happen. You can utilize daydreams as a technique to visualize what you want and hope to happen. It is said that many athletes, musicians and business leaders utilize daydreams to envision success. They anticipate or imagine landing the perfect jump, closing a deal, or making that hit single. Tiger Woods, for one, has said to use daydreams to improve his golf game. You, too, can utilize daydreams for something as simple as studying for and acing the next test or for landing that job.
Positive daydreaming is healthy. It serves as a temporary escape from the demands of reality. It is also a good way to release pent up frustrations without physically acting them out. All to often you worry about your job, your family, finances, a relationship, etc. It is a way to leave the world behind and ponder about what could have been or should have been. It relieves stress, improves attitude, fosters creativity and refresh the mind, body, and spirit.
There is a lack of emphasis on the content of your daydreams. However, the meanings to your nightly dream symbols are also applicable to your daydreams. he content in your daydreams are also helpful to the understanding of your true feelings and in fulfilling your goals. Daydreaming occurs when you are semi-awake. It is the spontaneous imagining or recalling of various images or experiences in the past or future. You allow your imagination to run away from you. When you daydream, you are accessing your right brain, which is the creative and feminine side of your personality.
Waking Dreams
Waking dream differs markedly from lucid dreaming as it does from mindfulness meditation and self–hypnosis. I’ve underlined certain words in the above definition, which appears in Wikipedia. Waking dream is done by an awake person, not a sleeper, in a hypnopompic state – that which exists between sleeping and waking. It is actively participated in by the journeyer who is embarking on an exploration of consciousness to make discoveries, not to manipulate, but to freely find under the aegis of a guide at the beginning of such experiences. These experiences are not imaginary – in the conventional usage of the term as unreal – but what is discovered are levels of reality and beings who may dwell in them. These events do not seem real, they are real. There is much more to say about these two diverse experiences,
Lucid Dreams
Lucid dreams give you the ability to control your own dreams and steer them toward the direction you want. In the lucid state, you are more willing to confront threats and as a result, become more self confident. When you achieve lucidity, you can use it as a tool to improve your sports game, to rehearse for a speech, to fulfill your fantasies, or to solve a problem in your waking life. In fact, some athletes utilize their lucid dreams to practice their tennis serve, golf stroke or bat swing. Even in your day to day life, you can use lucid dreams to ask the boss for a raise, prepare for a first date, overcome phobias, get over writer's block, etc. Lucid dreams can help you visualize and rehearse an event in your mind before it actually occurs. It helps to overcome fears and anxieties. The application of lucid dreams is limited only to your imagination.
Because brain activity during the dream state is the same as during a real life event, what you "learn" or "practice" in your lucid dream state is similar to the training and preparation you do in the waking world. Your neuronal patterns are already being conditioned.
At least half of all adults have had one lucid dream in their lifetime. Many have reported having lucid dreams without even trying. Often flying is associated with lucid dreams. With practice, lucid dreaming can be learned and achieved at your will.
Altered State Dreams
The use of mind altering drugs is not recommended for proper dreaming. It is an altered state of mind and anything can happen in altered state dreaming.
Dream Symbols and Life Circumstances
In decoding dream symbols, it is also important to consider what is going on in your life around the time of the dream. For example, if you are actually moving home, and you dream of moving, you may just be processing that physical experience. But if you have been 'in a rut' in life and you dream of moving, you may be telling yourself you are ready to make some big life changes.
So the meaning of a symbol will vary depending on the context of the dream, your unique personality, and the circumstances of your life at the time of the dream.
We have a lot of experience interpreting different types of dreams and helping people understand how to fix the problems the dreams show us.
Dream Dictionaries
Dream dictionaries can help point to general themes and get you started. But dream dictionaries cannot customize the interpretation of a dream and its symbols to the uniqueness of you and your life. You will get deeper insight from a personal dream interpretation.
Interpreting Your Own Dreams
It takes time to learn what dreams mean but it is well worth the effort. Your dreams become a constant source of insight into your inner growth and healing process. Though when interpreting your own dreams, because we are uniquely blind to our own issues, there is always the risk of overlooking messages and misinterpreting meanings. It is often useful to have someone else offer you their independent reflections and wisdom.
Professional Dream Interpretations
A professional dream interpretation can offer you insight into layers of meaning you might otherwise miss. Someone with the wisdom of experience, and developed intuitive skills, provides reflections and guidance which can lead to those enlightening personal "ahas"!
If you are experiencing dreams and want our help to understand them then please get in touch.
Dream interpretation can be done in a reading or by email.
Please write down your dream in detail, as much as possible and send it to us with your request for an email or live reading. Readings take 30 minutes and are booked in advance.
Emails take several days to answer and are priced as a 3 question E-reading.