how to interpret your dreams
How to Understand the Meaning of Your Dreams.
Dream interpretation may make you think of a psychoanalyst-like character sitting coolly by the side of a couch as a passive patient reveals the content of their most inner psyche while the "analyst" spins his or her own ideas of the psychological meaning on what is being so vulnerable revealed.
Dream interpretation, in the way I have learned it, is anything but that! And it certainly far from a passive endeavor, or something that someone does "to" us, or even "for" us.
We also tend to believe that our dreams have meanings that are static and fixed.
For example believing a certain dream symbol has a pre-determined meaning already assigned to it and we only need to look it up in a dream dictionary or do a Google search to discover it.
Or we look to others-those we feel are more qualified than ourselves- to interpret our dreams for us.
But the truth is that there are no pre-determined definitions of dream symbols. It just is not possible. And no outside person can tell you what your dream means.
That's because the dream belongs to you- the dreamer.
And the symbols that appear in an individual dreamers dream will have unique meaning to that individual that simply cannot be known by a dream dictionary or even the best outside dream analyst.
These meanings may have some similarities to what's written in a dream dictionary, or there may be common associations to certain dream symbols that are inherently embedded in the collective unconscious.
But the meaning itself is not fixed in the way we tend to want it to be. It is much more fluid and subjective to the dreamer and the dreamers interpretation of their own life experience and reality.
So the purpose of working with an outside person to help you understand the meaning of your dreams and to interpret your dreams most accurately, is more about helping you to excavate the subjective associations you personally have with each symbol.
It's not about the outside person telling you what your dreams mean, giving their own interpretations and psychoanalysis on them.
But rather their role is to guide you in learning how to cultivate an intimate relationship with your own inner dream life so that you can begin to allow your dreams to reveal their hidden meanings to you.