For centuries, people have theorized and speculated about what causes dreaming and what role dreams play in our lives. You may take a spiritual approach and feel that dreams are messages from our visits to other realms. Or you may have a more practical viewpoint and believe that they reveal messages from our own subconscious mind and emotions. We at Soul Wisdom Therapy believe that they are a window into our unconscious and into unprocessed emotions, and we love to help clients work with their dreams in therapy.

Our sleeping states allow our brains to decompress and process information from our daily lives. Although there is no firm answer on the role dreaming plays in our lives, we do know that everyone dreams, whether they recall dreaming or not. In fact, even animals dream.

If you would like to explore your own dreams in greater depth, a journal is a wonderful tool to not only help you record them, but also to encourage your mind to remember them. If you focus on thoughts about wanting to remember your dreams as you fall asleep, the chances are much greater that you will remember your them.

The moment you wake, either during the night or before you get out of bed in the morning, write in your journal any emotions and thoughts you experienced during the dream. Write in present tense: “I am running through the woods…” Make note of key words you notice, or recurring themes…these are a clue to the meaning. Further meaning can be derived if you record events that occurred the day of and a few days prior to your dreams that might be related to what you experienced.

Another way to find the meaning in a dream is to draw an image of what you saw and felt during the dream you experienced. Both words and images can help you interpret the hidden meaning and uncover the messages about your life.

You can derive meaning from your dreams when you follow your dream sequences and emotions to learn what patterns appear.