Creatively Tap Into The Meaning Of Your Dreams
What do dreams mean? Do they carry a message? If so, how can you find out what this message is?
Freud thought of dreams as the manifestation of how we attempt to digest information in our subconscious. From this perspective, deciphering the content of a dream means getting in touch with information that is important but difficult for our conscious mind to access.
As neuroscience started exploring dreams from an experimental perspective, some findings suggested that dreams may not be related to meaningful information processing. However, further studies indicated that they might be. So there is currently no consensus on whether or not dreams are a language that accurately reflects the thoughts and issues in our minds, as opposed to random images.
It doesn’t mean that you can’t benefit from paying attention to your dreams. In the rest of this article, I want to outline how you can do it creatively.
Don’t interpret your dreams
The key to this process is that you don’t try to “interpret” your dream as a language, the way you would translate Chinese into English or hieroglyphs into English. Instead, I suggest you use the dream as a starting point for a creative process.
Use the dream’s story and specific images as an entry point. Focus on putting yourself into the situation or images suggested by the dream. Let yourself be aware of what it feels like when you do so.
You’re no longer trying to make sense of the weird language from the outside. You are very much into the thick of it. You are living it at the moment. You are paying attention to what it feels like, to what it evokes, and you take it from there.
Let your dreams inspire you
Notice that this is inspired by the dream, as opposed to dictated by it. We are not talking about a literal meaning of the dream, not even a meaning that is inherent in the dream. instead, we are talking about a creative process that the dream inspires you to start and follow.
What is it that makes this process work? It is very similar to what happens in a Rorschach test. In the test, you look at inkblots and describe what you see, reflecting what’s on your mind. In this creative process, your dream works as the point of departure.
It feels more poignant than an inkblot because it contains imagery pertinent to you. Your mind has already singled it out from many other dreams to remember it (we all forget the majority of our dreams).
So, don’t think in terms of rigid meaning. Play with your dreams. Let them launch you into a creative journey and open up new horizons.
