Innholdsfortegnelse for WellBeing Dream Decoder i WellBeing Dream Decoder

“When we are asleep in this world, we are awake in another.”—Salvador Dali When I sat down to write this introduction, I found myself at a loss on where to start. The topic of dreams feels so vast, and my relationship with them so long and enduring, that deciding what was most important to include here felt overwhelming. So I did what I often do when I can’t decide a way forward, I slept on it. To be more accurate, I focussed my intention on the issue, asked my subconscious for guidance, and then turned the problem over to my dreams. That night I dreamt I was asked to pilot a helicopter. I had no idea how to do it and the thought of doing so terrified me. But I…

It is worth remembering that dreams are usually played out in highly symbolic ways, so rarely is real violence a concern. However, if you have experienced a traumatic event, attack dreams that repeatedly play out your own experience can be symptomatic of PTSD. The best thing to do in this instance is seek professional help to guide you through it. In a more general sense, dreams of being attacked often relate to fundamental issues of security and confidence. They may be exploring ideas around issues of power, dominance and control. These kinds of dreams are very often about unresolved internal conflict but can also explore what it means to do harm or be harmed, usually in a psychological sense. Dreams about being attacked often relate to feelings of your own…

You may dream of caves and dark places to alert you to internal influences that may be at play in your life that you are unaware of. You may experience this dream as a cave or series of caves, a well, dark underground tunnels, or even a basement that seems to go further underground than it should. Whatever form the dark takes or unknown place appears as, when it does, you can be pretty sure you are entering the realm of the unknown, moving beneath the surface and exploring your subconscious. Caves can appear in dreams to encourage you to explore issues from your childhood and family or even previous generations of family that may still be relevant in your life. Dark, underground places can symbolise where you bury your…

Even if the flying event includes struggle, the overriding sensation of flying in dreams is usually an uplifting one. Flying dreams also seem to be unusual in that, while they are common enough for many people to have had one at some stage in their lives, they don’t happen frequently for most people. There is something quite special about a flying dream. So, what do they mean? To dream of flying is to participate in one of humanity’s greatest desires; to soar like a bird in the sky, free from all earthly limitations. This freedom is one of the key meanings behind flying dreams. When you dream of escaping the restrictions of gravity, you are also dreaming of escaping other restrictions in your waking life, as well as your own…

When you dream of a mother, it may relate to your own (possibly complex) relationship with your mother, the way you feel about being a mum yourself, or it could be a more symbolic dream about what mothers mean to you in general. This could be about what the concept of mothering means to you, or even the idea of Mother Earth. It can be helpful, before reacting to your own mum in waking life, to take a moment to consider what the idea of mother means to you personally, then reflect on how these attributes are relevant in your day-to-day life. You may have associations of love, responsibility, appreciation, support, protection, sacrifice, control, resentment, guilt, criticism, deep ambivalence or rejection. Each person’s relationship with their mum is unique, and…

Thanks to Signmund Freud, modern Western society began to take dreams more seriously. But this new thinking came with the approach that most dreams were suppressed desires, very often about sex or violence. While this is no longer the dominant paradigm in Western psychology, the influence of dreams as suppressed desires lingers in popular thought, especially in relation to sex. Let us begin by revisiting the idea that dreams are more often than not symbolic. They work on multiple levels simultaneously and usually reveal more about our own inner world than about other people. Or, to put it simply, just because you dream about having sex or someone else having sex does not mean you want to have sex with the person in your dream, nor that the person in…

Travelling dreams could be as big as the “life journey” itself, but may more specifically relate to a spiritual journey, the development of a relationship, a career path, the gaining of education or inner wisdom and so on. Travelling in dreams can explore your current goals and the efforts you are making to achieve them. To understand your dream involving a journey, it can help to look at the means by which you travel, the landscape you travel through, any obstacles you encounter, signs you see along the way or special characters you meet. Often dreams of travelling have much to reveal through the journey itself, though sometimes the destination seems particularly meaninful. This may relate to a very important goal to you or the significant closure of a certain…

To fully understand what your dreams mean, and make the most of the application of this knowledge, you must start to engage with your dreaming mind. Like anything of value in life, when you give something your attention and energy, you see greater rewards over time. This is most commonly referred to as “dreamwork”. Once you begin the fascinating adventure of understanding your own dreams, I am sure it will seem much more like play than work! Understanding dreams can seem overwhelming and confusing to begin with. However, once you realise a few key insights, it becomes a lot easier. The first thing is to understand this is happening within your own mind, so everything in the dream somehow relates to you and your direct experience. The second is that…

Before we can explore the meaning of falling as a symbol in dreams, it is important to differentiate it from the sensation of falling that you may experience sometimes as you are drifting off to sleep. This sensation, though it feels like falling, has some significant differences to dreaming of falling once you are actually asleep. The feeling of falling you get as you fall asleep, which suddenly jerks you awake, is a biological reaction and not a dream. Usually referred to as Hynagogic jerks or hypnic jerks, these involuntary muscle spasms are believed to affect up 70 percent of the population and are entirely normal (if not completely understood). Some theories suggest hypnic jerks occur as a result of misfiring muscles. Others posit that the reaction occurs due to…

Just as food in waking life gives energy, makes you stronger, provides immunity from disease and helps you grow, food in dreams can symbolically represent what nourishes and supports you psychologically and spiritually. Eating in dreams may specifically relate to what ideas and beliefs you are taking into your own psyche from outside, what you may be swallowing and integrating into who you are. Depending on what you eat in the dream, this can serve as a warning or as encouragement. Food in dreams can also be a prompt to consider what you are consuming. Not just from a literal perspective regarding eating or drinking but also what you purchase, what media you consume and so on. You may need to think about whether the substances in your dream are…

More common than naked dreams either relating to freedom or sexuality are dreams when you find yourself naked or partially dressed in an inappropriate, usually public, setting. For example, you may find yourself at work or school inexplicably without pants on, or you may emerge into a public space from a shower or swimming pool and realise you forgot to put your clothes back on. You may actually be seen by others or you may be frantically trying to find clothes or to hide yourself before you are noticed. The overriding emotion that arises from these dreams is often one of embarrassment, of being caught off guard, being exposed or, at its most extreme, a feeling of shame. Other times you may feel reckless, liberated or simply not that bothered.…

Dreams of elevators in buildings are more likely to relate to your constructed self and, therefore, have more to do with social or professional lives. Conversely, stairs going up or down into tunnels or into the ground are likely to be functioning on a more intrinsically personal level. Stairs or ladders in castles or ancient ruins may relate to experiences from your past, or even from your family history. Ladders against walls often relate to specific obstacles or opportunities in the present. Stairs in a house or mansion may relate to your sense of self, the role you play among family and friends, your material needs and the way you feel inside compared to the version of yourself you portray to the outside world. This list is only indicative. Dreams…

You may dream of watching a wall of water approach you from the shore or you may be in the water with it. You may feel terrified watching the wave surge towards you and be filled with dread or you may feel overwhelmed. You could feel a sense of panic and the urgency to flee, or you may feel utterly powerless and rooted to the spot, unable to move. You can also be overcome with a sense of awe. It is also possible to experience the wave as something about to obliterate you, or something full of incredible majesty and wonder. The magnitude of feelings that tsunami dreams invoke is no surprise when you consider that water in dreams most often relates to our emotional state. A huge overwhelming dream…

Synchronicity happens when you start to realise how everything is connected. It begins with dreaming of things we have seen or experienced in waking life and comes full circle when we see or experience things in waking life that we have already dreamed of. When this happens, it can feel a little like magic. The greater your awareness, and the higher your dream recall, the more likely you are to experiences these fascinating moments. It is important to recognise that synchronicity is more than simply a chance coincidence. To truly be synchronicity, the chance occurrence must have meaning. Of course, the person experiencing the synchronicity is usually the one best placed to define this. So keep your heart and mind open and look for meaning in the world around you.…

Most people dream in colour, and take that for granted. Dreaming in black and white seems to be a peculiarity from the times when people watched black-and-white TV shows and movies, as this visual conditioning influenced their subconscious. You may, however, struggle to recall the colours in your dream upon waking. While you might not describe the dream as being exactly in black and white, it may simply feel colourless, with no colours seeming to stick in your memory. The more practiced you get at recalling your dreams, the more likely you are to remember vivid colours in them. People who work in very visual fields, such as artists, graphic designers, fashion designers, merchandisers, interior decorators and film-makers, are likely to have very colourful dreams. So too are people who…

Like mothers in dreams, fathers can have a multitude of meanings and will be influenced by your own relationship with your father, your relationship with other “father figures” (which may extend beyond people and include the patriarchy or even who you identify as God) and, of course, whether you are a dad yourself. To understand what it may mean if your own father appears in your dream, it can be worthwhile considering not just your relationship with your dad, but also what he may be representing to you. Fathers may be associated with support, guidance, control, discipline, power, competition, protection, love, sacrifice, resentment, shame, criticism, deep ambivalence or rejection. Often our relationships with our parents are complicated and nuanced. As we grow and mature, our innocent adoration may become slightly…

While sometimes headless dreams are truly shocking, especially if occurring in a dream where you or someone is being attacked, you may be surprised to know that many times these dreams are not as horrific as they may seem at the outset. Despite the gore, fear and disgust you may expect from such a dream, for many, these dreams rarely invoke such feelings. This makes a lot of sense when you consider the symbolic meaning of the head and what its detachment from the body may represent. Consider your overwhelming feeling in this dream. Was it one of shock? Or did you have a lack of feelings? Were you mortified? Or did the event seem disturbing in a more subtle way? Our heads, being the seat of the brain, are…

Teeth have a wide variety of symbolic meanings. Dreams about teeth can relate to being seen and heard, how you communicate and your relationship with authority. Teeth form some of the basic building blocks of the body and remain as part of the skeleton even after death. In this way, teeth can relate to issues surrounding your core beliefs, the building blocks of who you are, as well as to concepts around integrity, compromise and basic values. On another level, teeth can relate to aggression, self-preservation and power. Teeth falling out in dreams can reflect how you engage with the world and, like many dreams, may arise during times of transition. Teeth in dreams often relate to how you think you are perceived. One of the ways people perceive us,…

This guide is intended to help you reflect on how certain symbols may have a specific meaning to you. But, nobody else can tell you what your dream means. It is up to you to go within yourself and to find the meaning it has deep within you. To understand dreams, it can be helpful to consider the role that dreams may play in life. One of the reasons dreams can be so difficult to understand is that they explore feelings we would rather not admit to or face directly in waking life. Dreams also appear to give advice, help with decision-making and offer solutions, though it may require courage to change direction or face up to something that needs your involvement. Dreams can help explain why we feel the…