How to Explore Your Dreams

By Psychic Ariel

Now that we know how to record and remember our dreams, it is time to consider how to explore these nighttime wanderings.

To begin, when recording your dreams (however you choose to do so), write in the present tense. Then make a note of the day and date of your dream. Another good idea is to give titles to your dreams. You will soon realize that by titling your dreams, you are giving new insight to them. And many dreams are actually “theme dreams,” that is part of a sequence of similar ideas. This can become an excellent way of tracking your emotional progress during different periods of your life. If you would like to expand on this emotional tracking, remember to write down significant daytime events that were taking place during the times of your dreams.

Although a single “aha” moment in a dream is a significant part of dream interpretation, know that dreams have many levels and therefore can have many “aha” moments. Always look for multi-level meanings to your dreams.

Draw your dreams. This, I find to be very significant in revealing true objective meaning to the dreamer. Remember to put color into your drawings (see the last two installments of dreams in this blog). The act of drawing is a creative process and as such, reaches deep inside the creator, revealing more of what our inner psyche knows. For instance, see if your drawing is done in light fanciful strokes, or poured on with thick deliberate heavy marks. This act reveals more of your emotional mood at the time of your dream.

Another wonderful way to record dreams for all those who love to write, is to put the dream into poetic form. This also will give wonderful objectivity and much added information. Try it for yourself and see!

Give your dream an ending. If you were awakened before the dream came to its natural conclusion, give your dream an ending. Write down your own way to finish this dream. Go with your feelings and just write stream of consciousness, do not do this exercise with your brain, but rather with your heart.

For the actors, try physically enacting the dream from the viewpoint of one of the characters in your dream. Employ your friends to help out with this exercise. This is best done with others, but can also be done alone. Simply act out the character roles one by one, addressing empty chairs or props for the other people in your dreams. Frequently, body memory will allow an emotion of recollection to spring forth during this exercise.

A fanciful and metaphysical idea is to create a dream mask of one of the more important characters in your dream. Then wear it while enacting their part in the dream. Also note your feelings while creating the mask. You will be calling on your memory for details.

Another interesting way to interpret dreams is to add “Part of me” to everything you dream about. For instance, “I run through the dark forest part of me, chased by unknown parts of me.” Well, I think you get the idea. This method can add amazing “aha” moments for you.

And lastly, please remember that dream fragments can give amazing insights to your dreams. Sometimes we recall only a fragment because our dreaming mind has carefully edited memory so that the dreamer gets a very clear and symbolic picture from the tiny fragment. So give these fragments credence and be prepared to work with them.