As a psychiatrist, I believe that dreams provide extraordinary insights into improving your health, relationships and career. I consult my dreams for all important decisions using a technique that I describe in "Emotional Freedom" and below. You'd be surprised by the invaluable advice that your dreams give, either spontaneously or on request.
Science magazine reports that sleeping on a problem, which results in "unconscious thought," can lead to smarter decisions than over-thinking -- especially when it comes to important choices. For instance, if you're going crazy analyzing the pros and cons of a relationship, the Science study suggests that that won't get you very far; rather, it proposes that you think less and sleep on the dilemma, to give your subconscious an opportunity to solve the problem.
I subscribe to the "sleep on it" school of decision-making, which involves drawing on the wisdom of dreams. Why do we dream? To find answers, resolve emotional conflicts and discharge negativity, as well as to stabilize our biochemistry and mood. However, to me, another interesting question is why we wake up. Native American and Aboriginal cultures revere dream-time over waking life; they base tribal law on information obtained there. The Maoris believe that when we die, we return to the dream world. Kalahari Bushmen say, "There is a dream, and it is dreaming us." So, in your own life, your dreams can contain advice that goes beyond the Annals of Internal Medicine.
How To Remember And Interpret Your Dreams
I recommend the following 5 strategies to remember your dreams:
Try this every day for a week. Keep at it. You are programming your subconscious to remember. Soon it will become second nature to you.
How do you interpret dreams? One key is to notice the most highly charged emotion in the dream -- for instance, anger, fear or joy. Next, ask yourself, "Where in my life am I feeling these emotions?" Then, consider how you can heal the situation or else celebrate a success. In addition, here are some common dreams and their interpretations.
A Guide To Interpreting Common Psychological Dreams (From Emotional Freedom)
Dreams About Your Fears, Anxieties and Insecurities:
Meaning:You feel exposed, vulnerable and unsafe about a situation.
Meaning: You feel unprepared to meet a challenge or solve an emotional dilemma.
Meaning: You're trying to escape a scary person or emotion (past or present) instead of facing it.
Meaning: You're afraid that you're without the emotional resources to cope with one or more aspects of your life.
Meaning: You feel that a source of power has been taken away in your life; you can't bite back or assert your needs in a situation. Also you may experience a lack of energy or nurturing from others. (Without strong teeth, it's hard to chew food and assimilate its nutrients necessary for vitality).
Meaning: You lack a sense of inner or outer direction. You don't know how to get back on track with a situation or relationship and don't feel emotionally supported.
Dreams Affirming Your Strengths, Emotional Achievements and Largeness of Spirit:
Meaning: You're empowered, creative and unfettered by the drag of negativity.
Meaning: You have the courage, strength and heart to overcome difficult emotional obstacles.
Meaning: You're coming into your own, thriving. It's a time of new beginnings for relationships, career or revitalizing health and emotions.
Meaning: You're nourishing yourself emotionally, and others are nourishing you.
Meaning: You're becoming whole! Your physical, emotional and spiritual sides are becoming integrated. You're ready for more of an emotional commitment to yourself, your work or another person.
Dreams let you pinpoint an emotional conflict so that you can solve it. For instance, if you're standing naked before a group of jeering co-workers, ask yourself, "Might I have feelings of being exposed or berated at work?" Then take steps to feel more protected in that environment. Or if, in a dream, you're wandering aimlessly, consider, "Where am I lost in my life, and how can I find my way?" Also, it's crucial to honor the messages of encouragement that dreams send. Emotional freedom comes from removing blocks as well as acknowledging your own clarity and power.
Follow Judith Orloff MD on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JudithOrloffMD
it seems significant that my unconscious won't let me get high. to me it means that the part of me that does drugs is not part of my core self / soul and not part of my unconscious. it is like a separate entity, if i were religious i would call it evil, like being possessed. doing heroin is NOT me. i was into LSD, art, travel, experience, excitement. heroin turned my life gray, stagnant and miserable for 8 years. unlike some addicts, i don't identify with heroin.
the demon is trying to get me to use in the dream, but the "real" part of me is stronger while dreaming than awake. I am two months clean, but i have relapsed countless times in the past. I wish my "real", unconscious self were as strong in real life as when i'm dreaming. maybe it's getting stronger. i think this time it's really the end. the dreams are less frequent now.
http://www.skepdic.com/dreams.html
http://thespiritualskeptic.com/2011/03/the-skeptics-guide-to-dream-interpretation-2/
A psychiatrist is supposed to be an M.D., a doctor and therefore a scientist.
Belief has got nothing to do with it.
Now if her fist sentence was; "As a psychiatrist, I can prove that dreams provide extraordinary insights into improving your health, relationships and career." I would be much, much more interested.
Skeptics are such a passive-aggressive lot. They claim to uphold intellectual maturity, yet post psycho-babble about word choice, emotional compromise and the rape of real science. Stringent, flimsy and brainless, like all intellectual supremacist groups.
Having said all that: excellent article Judith. You've included several perspectives on dreams, including the clinical and shamanistic approach. You also make good use samples in Emotional Freedom that show us a flow of logic in dream narratives. Logic is something NHBill ought to appreciate, n'est-ce pas? (Well, ...maybe not.)
incedentally, when the love of my life (when i was 20) returned to me after having left me a year earlier, i was beside myself with joy and completely stopped dreaming during the month that we were together. after he left again, the dreams reappeared. now that i am with the REAL love of my life, who doesn't leave me randomly, i still dream, though now it seems that my fear dreams are about my fear that my perfect life will disappear.
i don't think anything should ever be so all-encompassing or fulfilling that one would be completely content and stop dreaming -- to me that signals the end of growth, and life is growth. the 1st love of my life was like heroin -- too good to be true (i am also an ex heroin addict, so the metaphor is especially apt). by saying "this guy will make me complete" i was doomed. now i believe in more nuanced happiness -- maybe less narcotic, but more stable and reality-based. i'm much happier now, and i still dream. :)
"To dream that you cannot dial a phone number correctly, suggests that you are having difficulties in getting through to someone in your waking life. Consider whose phone number you are trying to dial. Perhaps he or she is not taking your advice or listening to what you have to say."
somehow i got over my social anxiety and i stopped having the dreams. every year or so i might have one again. so weird how our brains work.
kidding.
i do have strange dreams.
i keep the TV on all night.....for my dogs., however, now i am conditioned also ...
my dreams = what is on the news . .....and my past , meshed in together..
(i keep MSNBC on weekdays .CNN on weekends).
i do have a re-occuriing dream .............anyone else?
Second, I have found from personal experience that if I do not open my eyes soon after waking up, I am more likely to remember my dreams.
It's also wonderful a great way to receive clarification and information.
Our inner worlds - when we listen - always steer us right.
Thank you.
Catherine
1. Was at a wedding somewhat away from home that I was supposed to officiate at (WTF?). Small slow-moving quake and then much larger one pre-empted the proceedings.
2. Got home after a quake and couldn't find my dog. Another quake happened and then I finally did, but he was hurt (not badly).
3. Tsunami, even though home (in reality or dream) is not near the coast.
4. Another tsunami, this time when I am at the coast.
I'd put it down to events in Japan, or worry that they were premonitions of things to come here in the PNW, but the fact is that dreams of natural disasters (and tsunamis in particular - have had hundreds of those) have been with me my entire life.
Memories of a past life, perhaps?
All the information you require to identify who and what is detrimental to your well-being is contained in this article.
Get on it!
I agree that dreams are good for us; in fact, not having them can literally drive us insane over the long run. Also, to clarify, it might sound like dreams about tsunamis and other disasters would be nightmares, but I rarely wake up frightened, and more often than not, they don't even leave me with a bad feeling.
It's not that I don't believe there's some merit to dream symbol interpretation or the view that to some extent we use them to work through things. I just don't think that's all there is to it; there doesn't have to be just one answer and for many people, including myself, the standard dream interpretations consistently miss the mark.