Dreams can be a very powerful way of receiving messages from our subconscious. When we’re asleep, the ego has finally shut up, which allows subconscious messages to come to the surface. In my experience, not all dreams will carry profound insights. Some are simply continuation of events or themes of the day – for example, have you ever dreamed you were trying to finish a work project that had taken up your focus during the day? And before you put your dreams down to your love of cheese, bad news: there’s no scientific evidence to support the cheese-dream connection (sorry). The sorts of dreams that are actually worth paying attention to are those that just *feel* meaningful. Perhaps they were particularly vivid, and you can still recall strong aspects of them days, even weeks, later. Maybe they repeated a theme that’s come across in previous dreams.
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One reference I come back to again and again is Denise Linn’s book The Hidden Power of Dreams, which explains how to interpret dreams really well, so I’d recommend that to anyone who wants to get more proficient at this sort of thing.
This article contains tips that may help you get a better idea of what dreams could mean. Please keep in mind that these are very general, and you must use your own discretion. And for the love of Oprah and all that’s holy, *please* don’t message me detailing your dreams and asking what they mean (which tends to happen whenever I talk about dreams). Keep in mind I cannot offer personal guidance outside of sessions.
Tip 1: Notice the symbols
Rarely are dreams prophesising events in real life, but often they contain symbols and metaphors that can inform real life. Ever dreamed you were pregnant, then woken up panicked, frantically checking your period-tracker app? (Just me, then?) Pregnancy symbolises a new chapter beginning in your life.
Common symbols include modes of transport, which represent the way you’re travelling through life. A dream where you’re a passenger in a car that’s travelling on the wrong side of the road might symbolise that someone could be leading you down the wrong path. Houses can symbolise our lives – so if your dream is set in a house that’s burning down, your subconscious is likely telling you there’s a part of your life on the verge of collapse, and needing your attention.
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Symbolism applies to people, too. The message is probably not literally about that person who played a role in your dream, it’s about what they represent. For example, if you’re dreaming about a female boss you had back in your early 20s, think about what that person means to you. Were they aggressive or controlling? If so, how does that relate to your current situation? Were they nurturing and wise? If so, that person could be a stand in for your mother or represent your ideas about strong female figures in your current life. Do they simply represent a particular phase in your life, such as a time when you were less inhibited? If so, what bearing does that have on your current circumstances?
Names, including place names, can be meaningful. A friend of mine once had a vivid dream where she had to drive to Grafton (overseas readers: that’s a small town in Australia) to pick up a beautiful dress. She had never been to Grafton in real life and didn’t have any particular mental association with it. The meaning was right there in the name – GRAFTon. She understood the dream to mean, ‘When the hard graft is done, you will collect the reward.’
Tip 2: Sex dreams are worthy of note
You knew I’d talking about this, right? Sex dreams are common, and can often cause a lot of angst – especially if you’re dreaming about someone other than your partner (eek!). The good news is, sex dreams don’t mean you’re attracted to that person in real life, and they probably don’t mean you might cheat on your partner. I can still recall many years ago when I had not one but *two* sex dreams (spaced about a month apart) involving a colleague. Even though I knew the dreams weren’t literal, I couldn’t look him in the eyes for a long time!
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Sex can symbolise a joining together or a shared intimate experience. They can also be about desire, of course. In this case, the guy was a very popular member of the team who’d been put on a pedestal. Because I have been the outsider so often in my life, including in that organisation, the dream was about my desire to possess the charisma and acceptance that he had (or at least, that I perceived him having).
It’s also worth paying attention to symbols in sex dreams. Are you at the beach? Water symbolises big emotions that may be associated with intimacy. And don’t forget sex can also be about our comfort levels around sexual expression in the real world – perhaps there might be some repression or baggage that needs healing. If the dream’s about an affair or secret relationship, is there a belief deep within you that you don’t deserve pleasure or even that it’s shameful in some way (ie it’s something you have to steal or can only enjoy on the downlow)?
Tip 3: Watch for patterns
If a dream is recurring, you can be sure it’s trying to tell you something. It might indicate a fear that you need to work through, or a deep emotional wound that needs to be healed. For example, across several decades I have had various iterations of dreams where I was getting married. Always the dream ended badly. Once, I took so long to get ready that I missed the ceremony. In another, I got to down the aisle to find the groom was a complete stranger who patently was not interested in me. And in one that haunted me for a while, the groom rang before the ceremony to say he’d changed his mind, leaving me utterly humiliated. This pattern was partly about my fear of committed relationships – think: the shame, the panic – but it also reflected my desire for an intimate relationship that I was afraid I would never have – think: the sense of running out of time. The dreams were drawing my attention to limiting beliefs sitting at a deep subconscious level, including this one: ‘if you commit to a relationship, it will go badly’.
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These dreams continued for a while even after I had met my now-husband, which just goes to show that relationship issues do not simply disappear when you meet the right person (despite what the fairytales led us to believe). I haven’t had a dream like this for a year or so now, but I imagine this dream theme will probably recur at some point – like any deeply embedded long-term emotional baggage that we commit to healing, the issue often comes back later when we hit a new layer of wounding. Thankfully, I have the tools to work through that.
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The takeaway
Dreams can be a helpful way of understanding where we need healing or what we need to bring our conscious attention to, so it’s worth looking for symbols and patterns, and seeing how they reflect on your life. However sometimes this sort of thing can be hard to decipher alone. If you’re getting stuck, it’s worth reaching out to an energy healer for guidance.
If you’d like to book an energy healing session with me, reach out here. More information about what I do is available right here.