33 Ways to work with your Dreams: #10

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Hello again Lovelies! Let’s look at #10 in my list of 33 Ways to work with your Dreams.

Today’s Way is one of my favorites because it brings the dreaming world concretely into the waking world.

#10 Pay attention to the dream imagery for 1 whole week.

Ok, so this is one of my favorite methods because it focuses our mind in waking life on the creative imagery supplied by the unconscious mind for 7 full days. If you commit that much time to anything, it will yield new insights. So doing this with a dream is a way to let the image from a dream integrate more deeply into your waking world.

Here’s how you do it-

1. Choose a dream that has some image (an inanimate object, a color, a person or conflict) which carries a large amount of energy with it. Dreams are full of energy-charged images so choosing just one might be a challenge. It doesn’t matter so much what you pick as it matters that you pick; because by picking one thing, you’re using your conscious mind to engage with the unconscious material. That assertion of consciousness is a grounding part of the process.
2. Hold that image in your mind (or even better, write it down) and focus on that image as you go about your waking life. Notice where/when that image comes to mind during the day. For example, if I chose a lioness who appeared in a dream; I might notice a couple of days later when I find myself at a museum staring at a life-sized model of one on display. Or maybe it suddenly occur to me that the color of my office  matches that of a lioness hide. And so on.
3. Write or share what you notice. This solidifies the experience in your mind and helps to validate the work you’re doing to integrate this dream image into your life.
4. At the end of 7 days, review your experience and attempt to explain what the image has come to mean for you.

The goal of this exercise is not to come to fully understand the image’s place in your dream and in your waking life. Rather, the point is to open yourself up to being curious about the connection between the image and your waking life.

Dreams are much more layered, complex and wise than we give them credit for- staying with a single dream image for a full seven days will give you a more accurate concept of the complexities and insights that are available to you through dream work.

Just a word here, y’all. This is the type of work we do in dream coaching sessions. We delve more deeply into your personal dreaming patterns and you learn many strategies that are tailor-fitted to your distinctly unique interior landscape! If this calls to you, contact me or go to here to learn more.

 

Sweet Readers, I hope you’re enjoying this post series. I look forward to hearing from you in the comments, or on social media. I welcome your questions and if you want me to work with your dream, I offer email dream interpretations and private one-to-one dream coaching sessions!

 

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33 Ways to work with your Dreams: #8 &…

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In today’s post from 33 Ways to work with your Dreams  we’ll discuss two strategies for the characters (people) in your dreams.

Even though lots of people have questions for me about the animals that show up in dreams, research shows us that the majority of characters the appear in dreams are people. So I’ll share with you two strategies I have learned to understand the meaning behind the appearance of people in dreams.

First up is #8 on our list.

#8 Identify the traits of the characters.

People dream of their friends, family members and enemies very frequently. The question I pose to a dreamer when she shares about a known character (someone from her waking life) is “What qualities does that person represent in your life?” And then, explore whether or not that quality is being newly introduced in waking life, or maybe is missing in life right now, or maybe if that combination of qualities is useful to resolve a current conflict.

The character in your dream, when it is someone you know, sometimes acts as a stand in for those qualities you associate with him or her. Identifying the traits you associate with each character can give you new insights into ways you might channel that person’s personality or qualities for your benefit.

One of the most common dream questions is

“Why did I dream about my Ex?” The dreamer shows up on my doorstep with a wide range of questions-Where did that come from?, what could it mean about my current relationship? Do I really still long for that person? Will he/she come back?, Does this mean I am not happy in my current relationship, even though I think I am in waking life?, etc…

Using strategy #8 is a wonderful, non-judgemental approach to these types of dreams that allows the dreamer to see the dream from a different angle.

Today’s second method for understanding characters in your dream(s) takes a little bit of imagination.

#9 Dialogue with each character

Dialoguing with characters that show up in your dreams is one approach to get more information out of them. It takes some practice, but if you are persistent in this approach and willing to try a few different ways to get the character talking to you, it can pay off with powerful insights.

This strategy takes the theory that all characters in your dream are aspects of yourself. They are different expressions of your own psyche. If that is assumed, then having a conversation with a part of yourself may reveal some perspective or information that isn’t yet conscious to you.

There are a few ways to try and get a dialogue going with your dream characters. And, honestly, this way of interacting with your interior mind could be an entire blog series to itself. So, in the interest of keeping things quick and easy for us all, I’m going to list a few ways to approach this Way to work with your dreams and leave it up to you to learn a little bit more about them if you like. Or, you can contact me and we’ll explore them more deeply.

Here are ways to try and get into a conversation with your dream character-

~ Journal
~ Journal with 2 hands- dominant hand (right for me) writes questions, then the non-dominant hand (left for me) writes the response
~ Active Imagination session (with someone who can help if you get ‘stuck’)
~ Ask for another dream with that character, get clear on what it is you want to know before going to sleep and then write down your next dream
~ Meditation, Contemplation, or Prayer with a focus on that character

Do you have other ideas about how to engage a dreaming character? I would love to hear your thoughts on today’s strategies! Who do you dream about the most?

Sweet Readers, I hope you’re enjoying this post series. I look forward to hearing from you in the comments, or on social media. I welcome your questions and if you want me to work with your dream, I offer email dream interpretations and private one-to-one dream coaching sessions!

 

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33 Ways to work with your Dreams: #7

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Welcome back, Sweet Reader! How are you enjoying this series, 33 Ways to work with your Dreams ?

Is it helpful so far? I hope it has shed some light on different ways to can get curious about the message your dreams have for you. And, speaking of light, that brings us to Way #7…

#7 Pay attention to the lighting in a dream

Sometimes light and shadows play a prominent role in a dream, but more often than not, lighting goes unnoticed.

In the Haden model of dream groups, after a dream is presented, the group gets a chance to ask questions to get a more complete picture of the dream. One of the questions that sometimes takes a dreamer by surprise is, “What time of day was it in the dream?” It’s become one of my favorite questions to ask to help a dreamer get more information from a dream.

Asking questions about the lighting in your dreams might give you insight into where to begin working with that dream. The parts of the dream that are in bright daylight might represent parts of your waking life that are conscious to you already; while parts of a dream that are shadowed or cloaked in darkness could represent things in life that are unconscious to you as of yet.

To work a dream in this way, describe the dream while paying close attention to the details of lighting throughout the dream story line. Journal about what you find.

Sweet Readers, I hope you’re enjoying this post series. I look forward to hearing from you in the comments, or on social media. I welcome your questions and if you want me to work with your dream, I offer email dream interpretations and private one-to-one dream coaching sessions!

 

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33 Ways to work with your Dreams: #6

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Welcome back, Sweet Reader! Today we will cover suggestion #6 in the series, 33 Ways to work with your Dreams .

Carl Jung theorized that if you hold the tension between two opposites long enough, a solution which transcends both opposites will arise. Dreams are vivid, emotionally-charged images interacting with one another; and this brings about tension between the opposing forces of the images. So, the way to work with your dream that I am suggesting today is to sit inside the tension of a dream.

#6 Contemplate the tension

Take a dream and ask the question, “where is the tension highest in this dream?” (or where is the energy the greatest?) Asking this question will direct your attention to some aspect, action or detail within the dream. Once you are ‘there’ in your mind, hold the image and study it. By intentionally opening to the process of contemplating the inner tension within a dream, you’re dissolving the barrier between your right-brain thinking (logic, reason, verbal expression, math, objectivity, etc) and your left-brain thinking (creativity, imagery, pre-verbal expression, music, emotions, etc). Sit inside this moment of tension within the dream for as long as you can without trying to draw any conclusions about it.

This type of dream work can trigger some surprising responses. Sometimes, contemplating the tension within a dream without any expectations of what should happen can lead to strong responses.

• For example, open contemplation might result in
  – suddenly breaking down in tears
  – suddenly realizing a waking life connection that seems perfectly aligned with a dream but you have no idea ‘how’ you came up with it
  – finding your mind wandering back to some ‘random’ distant childhood memory, which when you consider it, somehow aligns with an image or emotion in the dream

All of these realizations are very natural and are the reason that contemplation (without expectation of a certain outcome) can lead to some profound insights! Try this with a dream that presents a very clear moment of tension and let me know what happens. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Sweet Readers, I hope you’re enjoying this post series. I look forward to hearing from you in the comments, or on social media. I welcome your questions and if you want me to work with your dream, I offer email dream interpretations and private one-to-one dream coaching sessions!

 

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33 Ways to work with your Dreams: #4, #5

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Welcome back, Sweet Reader! Today I am pairing #’s 4 and 5  of 33 Ways to work with your Dreams together.

When I first started working with dreams, a decade ago, all I knew to do was Way #4. And then I learned that it is “frowned upon” in the field of dream work. So, I tried to get away from it. But I’ll tell you the truth. I discovered that so long as you pair #4 with #5, you can keep using Way #4 very successfully.

#4 Use dream dictionaries

Yes, dream dictionaries. You can find them everywhere. There are countless dream dictionaries available online and in bookstores around the world. People generally either dismiss them as nonsense, are obsessed with figuring out which one “works”, or amass a library-like collection of them (like I do)! I have my family and friends to thank for my hefty collection. And every professional in the dreaming field, including me, will (or should) tell you that dream dictionaries are not to be used to define the meaning of any dream. That’s not what a dream dictionary is for, y’all.

Dream dictionaries help you begin to consider various ways to think about each symbol. When looking into a dream dictionary, you need to know what you’re looking up. That means you have to decide what symbols or actions in the dream are considered the “main” ones. Doing that is helpful in and of itself. And then, you look into the dictionary to find the meaning. But, please please do not take what is written as definitive and stop there. Do not JUST go to a dream dictionary.

Use the dictionary to peak your curiosity and then keep on exploring!

In fact, I’d encourage you to use many dream dictionaries– this is where the internet might be preferred over a physical book (unless you have a collection at home). Use dream dictionaries to see various ways that different cultures and societies and professional fields (psychology, astrology, etc) might approach a symbol from that specific point of view. And then pair your findings with the next strategy…

#5 Define a symbol for yourself

After you look through a few different symbol interpretations from other “experts”, give it a try yourself. Think about your own personal experiences with your chosen symbol. Some dream coaches might even suggest that you do this before you reference dictionaries. In fact, well I think I will suggest it too! Yes, do this first, y’all.

For example, if a bear appears in your dream, in addition to studying various interpretations of bear, ask yourself these questions-

What do I think of bears?
How do I feel about them?
What are my personal experiences (if any) with bears?
Do I have any favorite stories or movies that contain a bear?
If so, what did the bear mean in the story?
Have I encountered any animals similar to a bear in waking life recently?
…and so on.

In essence you’re defining the symbol for yourself. Record what you discover.

#5 Bonus idea: Keep a running record of all the dream symbols you define for yourself- making your very own personal dream dictionary!

I have so enjoyed our trek through the first five Ways to work with your dreams! Thank you for joining me on this rummage through my treasure chest of dream work tools. I’m attempting to post on Monday-Thursday for this series, so check out the next post on Monday, OK? Sweet dreams until then…

Sweet Readers, I hope you’re enjoying this post series. I look forward to hearing from you in the comments, or on social media. I welcome your questions and if you want me to work with your dream, I offer email dream interpretations and private one-to-one dream coaching sessions!

 

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33 Ways to work with your Dreams: #3

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Welcome back, Sweet Reader! Today we will cover #3 on my list of 33 Ways to work with your Dreams.

This one may seem like more of an overall goal than a way to work with your dream; but you can actually apply it as a strategy too. Let me explain…

#3 Make waking life connections

In all of the creative approaches you take to exploring a dream’s meaning, you will come across many “Aha!” moments and make connections between the dream symbols and your waking life. These insights, when taken altogether, help you understand what your dream is trying to tell you.

Ok, but in addition to the waking life connections that arise as a result of the other approaches you take to dream work, I’ve also found that just looking at a dream and asking the simple question, “What does this remind me of in my waking life?” can be a way to get direct answers.

Here is how to make waking life connections as a strategy,

• Consider one of your dreams,
  – tell or write it down so you have the full dream in your mind,
  – list on a piece of paper as many waking life connections as you can,
  – see what you discover.

“Yes, but what is a waking life connection,” you ask?

By connection I mean that the dream (or dream symbol or character) reminds you of something you recently encountered in life. Here are a couple of examples.

• a dream about a chasing a crab across the beach might be connected to watching my son chase after a chipmunk in the front yard a few days earlier.
• something about the way the unknown stranger in my dream from last night made me feel might remind me of the fear I felt when I was riding in the elevator last week and suddenly felt someone’s eyes on me.
• and so on…

Connections are sometimes very clear and pop up instantly in your mind and other connections may take some time to arise. By listing them on a piece of paper, you’re letting go of judgement and opening to the brainstorming mindset that brings about some of the most powerful “Aha!” moments in dream work.

Give it a try and let me know what you discover!

Sweet Readers, I hope you’re enjoying this post series. I look forward to hearing from you in the comments, or on social media. I welcome your questions and if you want me to work with your dream, I offer email dream interpretations and private one-to-one dream coaching sessions!

 

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33 Ways to work with your Dreams: #1, #2

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Welcome back, Sweet Reader! Today we will begin our list (33 Ways to work with your Dreams) with the first two dream tips I share with everybody.

People approach me from all walks of life and with all levels and variations of dreamscapes. Some people complain of never dreaming, while others are bombarded with numerous dreams on a nightly basis.

So, the first thing I tell all dreamers is our tip #1.

#1 Write down your dreams

This piece of advice is helpful for both audiences. First, for the non-dreamers this advice can be a trigger for them to remember a dream. Non-dreamers are actually dreaming, but they are not remembering their dreams. By planning to write down the next dream they recall, they’re more likely to remember one!

The second audience, the vivid dreamers, receive an onslaught of imagery from dream after dream. Writing down a dream helps this type of dreamer slow down their mental activity long enough to record a coherent version of their dream.

Writing down a dream also serves the purpose of making you, Sweet Reader, decide which dreams are ‘important enough’ to take the time to write down.

#2 Give your dream a title

Even if you choose to skip the first way to work with a dream, you should still take this second step as a way to quickly isolate the important parts of a dream. Some people just choose to tell me the dream rather than putting it into writing. And that’s fine, because as we’ve discussed, I love a shared dream in any form. But, y’all, dreams can get really really really long. The best place to begin working a dream, then is in the main idea. Instead of telling someone your entire dream, try telling them the name of your dream and see what happens.

So, try giving your dreams a title and see how that effects your understanding of the dream.

Sweet Readers, I hope you’re enjoying this post series. I look forward to hearing from you in the comments, or on social media. I welcome your questions and if you want me to work with your dream, I offer email dream interpretations and private one-to-one dream coaching sessions!

 

33 Ways to work with your Dreams: Introduction

Hello Sweet Reader! I’m proud to share with you this amazing blog post series, 33 Ways to work with your Dreams!

In the coming weeks, I’ll cover lots of useful ways you can approach a dream to discover it’s underlying message for your waking life. I am a certified spiritual director and a dream coach with over ten years of experience in the field of dream work. I have facilitated hundreds of small dream groups over the years.

My calling is to work with people to discover how their dreams can lead them towards a deeper relationship with their inner voice and source of wisdom.

On this website I offer services that include spiritual direction, dream coaching (one to one with clients, and dream group facilitation (for groups).

Don’t miss out on any of the posts in this series! Subscribe (top left) to receive posts in your inbox.

In this blog series is to share with all of you

33 ways you can approach a dream to get more from it.

This list includes many of the strategies I personally use with clients and groups all the time.

About dream work

Dream work is about brainstorming and creatively exploring many different ideas about it’s meaning and then listening intuitively to your body’s reaction to that exploration. My approach and training is based on the Haden model of dream work and on Carl Jung’s ideas about the psychology of dreams. In his work, Jung explains that when exploring a dream’s meaning, the dreamer will feel a certain “Aha!” moment when some new and significant association is made between the dream and the dreamer’s waking life.

So, as you read these posts in the coming weeks, I hope you will try the strategies out on your dream(s) and listen in that intuitive nudge that let’s you know you’ve discovered something new!

And before we move on to the first Way, there’s something else you should know about me, y’all. I can’t pass up a chance to talk about dream work. I have tried but I can’t pass it up! So I absolutely encourage you to share all of your dreaming questions with me as we go along. I promise to provide lots of feedback to your comments!

What do you think? Are you as excited to get some new strategies as I am to share them? I hope so! Thanks for joining me on this adventure, y’all!

The first way to work with your dream will be coming out tomorrow- stay tuned and sweet dreams tonight…