The use of dreams

[lvxseeker]

it got to the point that I was writing tons of dreams in my notebook, but I couldn't figure out what any of them meant. I couldn't find any suitable answers to the "symbols" that came during dreams, and they hardly ever seemed to apply to any emotional or physical state I was in. So over time it felt like I was just writing for the sake of writing, and reading about these dreams were nothing more than a cheap past-time.

It would be great to be able to get more out of my dreams, but everyone has so many opinions about what they mean, that Ayadew's comment is perfect--there's no real common ground, and everyone's symbol interpretations can be completely different from one another because of the subjective nature of dreaming.

I'd also be interested in hearing what people get out of their dreams. I would love to make better use of them!

Steve

Hi Steve
I have been keeping a dream journal since 1982! I can't believe it is over a quarter of a century but there you go. I never look at my old dreams but they are up there in storage in one of my cupboards.

Dream work is difficult - there is going to be a slight resistance to working with dreams because they are roads to the unconscious, and the ego doesn't like being woken up. You have to amplify a dream image through associations. So if you dreamt of driving in your car, sit down with a pen and paper and write down all the associations about driving. Your feelings about driving, about cars, about your car, maybe something happened the day of the dream when you were driving. Who is with you in the car, your feelings about them etc.

It is also good to consider the feeling in the dream as a whole.

The other thing is that quite often dream images are redundant. That is they are saying the same thing, just cloaked in another way to drive the message across

hope this helps. I am sure there are many websites on dream work.