All You Wanted To Know About Dreams and Nightmares – Theories, Interpretations, Analysis and What You Can Do to Improve Their Quality - Part 3

Read part 1 here.

Read part 2 here.

More intriguing facts

Towards the end of this “trilogical” article, I will share tips on how you can control your dreams, learn from them, and get inspired by them.  Before that, let me share a few other dream theories – you can decide just how many of them resonate with you. 

The metaphysical school strongly believes that every dream is about the dreamer, of the dreamer and for the dreamer and that every dream reveals the person’s state of mind in the past 24-48 hours.  Dreams thus give the dreamers the ability to understand themselves and their own state of mind in a better fashion.  Unfortunately, most tend to ignore the message, pretend not to understand it, or play the victim instead.  No one, other than your own subconscious mind is responsible for your dreams!

It goes to say that if every dream is about the dreamer, than every person is truly and really you! Every single person in your dream (stranger or relative) represents a part of you.  If the person in your dream is a bully, probably you were being a bully in the past couple of days.  If the person is kind, that’s how you were.  If the person is aggressive, timid, lazy, stubborn, rushed or in panic, look back at your past 24-48 hours.

The language of the subconscious is not words but symbols.  The subconscious uses the images from our working life to communicate metaphorically, analogically or symbolically.  Regular meditators as well as day dreamers experience this state of mind even whilst awake.  For example, in your dream, a car may represent your body to your mind, a transportation that takes the mind from place to place.  If you are unable to accelerate, it may mean that you are lazy or not pushing yourself enough.  If you are going too fast, well it means you are probably burning yourself out.  Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Let us take this example a little further, so that you learn to interpret your dreams for yourself.  Only you can do it – no other person can!  It takes time and patience, but you can get there.  Upon waking up, try and recollect if the car was as good as new or looked old and damaged.  What would that mean if the car represented your body?  Was it moving or was it at rest (parked)?  Were you driving the car, was someone else driving your car or were you unable to control the car?  Was it going faster or slower than you intended it to (in the dream)?  Introspection can lead to great insights for yourself!

Some more plausible ways to interpret your dreams.  Are you dreams realistic or are they fantastic?  How do you live your day?  Are they short and sweet or long and rambling?  Do they have a logical progression or do you jump randomly from one event to the other?  Are you in a rush doing multiple things anxiously?  Now look back at your day and see if it makes sense to you.  What would you like to change?  And what you prefer to accept?

Your attire reflects how you like to express yourself.  Being naked in a dream could mean that you are being transparent in your interactions with people or you are experiencing your true self without any layers.  If you are not embarrassed, in all likelihood it means that you are very comfortable ‘in your own skin’.  People will see you for what you are.  If you are overdressed, extravagant, loud, boisterous – you do the math!

Take Charge of Your Dreams

It would be incorrect and inappropriate that we know everything about dreams.  We know very little, and we have quite a few theories.  But nothing can replace experience.  So the way to know for yourself is to try things out for yourself and see how it improves the quality of your life (and dreams). 

Here is what you can (and should) do –

1.    Stop reading and listening to standard interpretations of dreams.  As I have explained to you, only you can interpret your own dreams – no one else can, although they can guide you.

2.    Start maintaining a dream diary by your bedside and start recording your dreams today!  Try and ascertain the ones which recur – as a theme, as an event or as a fantasy.  What does this mean to you?

3.    Start interpreting your dreams as much as you can.  There are a few guidelines above, nothing can ever be exhaustive or comprehensive when it comes to interpreting dreams.  Identify the areas you need to work upon, areas of change, areas of contentment.  Identify the different parts of you and decide how you would like to be as a person.

4.    Take time to de-stress and meditate every day, if only for a few minutes.  Practice Nirmiti Nidra^TM.  Work on your affirmations, align behavioural conditioning with thought conditioning. Start observing the changes in your dream patterns, get encouraged to work on yourself some more. 

Look for solutions in your dreams.  In a state of Nidra, ask for solutions to your problem.  Or just before you go to sleep, ask yourself how you can resolve a particular issue.  Don’t forget to record your dreams!  Stay blessed.

The author is the founder of Nirmiti Nidra, one of the easiest effortless techniques to connect with and program your mind in addition to de-stressing at will anytime anyplace.  In addition to being a corporate board member, he is a Certified Leadership Coach, Life Coach and Success Coach.  He is also an NLP Master Practitioner and therapist. Know more about him at www.rajeshseshadri.com