A while back I started writing a little bit about dreams and dream interpretation.
I keep a dream Journal. In fact I have been keeping a dream Journal for over 30 years. Now, I originally got started on this when I was in therapy during my early 30's.
Back then it was an exercise for me to get more in touch with my subconscious feelings which were being "very blocked," according to my therapist.
Marigolds catching a little sunshine...
Uncovering the Patterns
These days I still watch my dreams, and I still keep a dream journal... even though it has taken the form of a private blog, for the past decade.
Mostly what I watch out for are patterns.
Recurring themes in our dreams can tell us a lot about what's going on in our subconscious. Of course you have to be careful to not overanalyze. A lot of what happens during our dreamtime is merely jumbled garbage that's a reflection of things that happened to us during that particular day.
However once you sort away the bits that are meaningless garbage, you do end up with the essence of things you're working with, down below.
Butterfly resting on a flower...
But What Does it MEAN???
One of my recurring themes is that I fall into water and I'm at risk of drowning. Sometimes I'm caught in currents, sometimes I'm so far from shore that I quietly resign myself to drowning. In general, though, I tend to wake up before anything serious happens, or within the dream I manage to get myself back on the land, or a boat, or a life raft.
A few days ago I dreamed that I fell into a somewhat stagnant and still lake (or large pond) and something unusual happened.
It was as if the water of the lake had a much lower specific gravity than water normally does so I quickly sank to the bottom more or less like a stone... and no amount of swimming could bring me back to the surface. Pretty soon, I hit the brown silty layer at the bottom of the lake, and recognized that I had absolutely no option but to drown. Then I woke up.
Mastrutiums in our garden...
The reason this was significant was because this was the first time I have had a drowning dream in which I actually drowned as opposed to swam back to safety.
Patterns Within Patterns...
Evidently, I must be working with something that feels like it is bigger than I, and I have no capacity to overcome it.
What's more, the "game" is unreliable. Water is not "behaving like water."
I remember working with changes in patterns, before. During those early therapy days, I had recurring dreams of being in a car, and always being in the back seat, and the car was moving through traffic as a car normally would... except nobody was driving.
Delicate pink "paper" poppy
Then we'd get to a step upgrade somewhere, and the car would stall and start rolling backwards down the hill, with me in the back seat, feeling helpless.
Gradually, as I got my life more under control, the car would have a driver, then I would "graduate" to the passenger seat, and eventually I would be driving.
Discovering WHAT to Heal
Quite often, people understand that "something" in their lives isn't working as they want it to... and we have a tendency to hone in on some superficial issue that's actually more of a symptom than a cause.
Wildflower in the garden
Looking at our dreams can often help us discover just what it is we should be working on healing in ourselves... even though the things we find may make us feel quite uncomfortable.
Many years back, it made me quite uncomfortable to realize that I'd much rather have life "live me" and just be swept along with the current of "whatever" (the driverless car), than take responsibility for life and "driving."
In closing, I'll hasten to add that dream interpretation is just one tool to help us work on our mental health... and should not be taken as an adequate substitute for working with a qualified mental health professional!
Thanks for reading, and I hope the week has been treating you well!
How about YOU? Have you ever kept a dream journal? If yes, was it just for fun, or as part of therapy? Do you believe we can learn something from our dreams? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20200918 00:12 PDT
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