People often share their dreams with me, and ask me what I think they mean. My response to this is “what do you think they mean?” Often people can relate them immediately to current problems in their lives, and then use them to gain insight and guidance.
When it is not so obvious what the dream means, there are several steps you can take. Avoid running to the dream dictionary as a first step. Instead try to encapsulate the dream into a one-sentence theme, restating the action in the dream in a simple, general way. For example, you might dream that you have given birth to a baby and are running around trying to find food for it so it won’t die. The theme might be “Someone is trying to feed something new so it can live.”
Then you may begin to work with the symbols in the dream. Dream symbols may be personal, or they may have more common cultural or universal significance. In the example above, the baby could represent your own child, or it may represent a new beginning.
Therefore this dream could mean that in your real life you are frantically trying to find what will nurture your child. Or it could mean you are beginning a new venture, and are trying to find support to keep it alive.
As you work with the dream symbols and themes, see where they may fit into your life, and what kind of guidance or insight you can reap from that. Let’s say I had this dream, and I have also decided to write a blog. So this dream could mean for me to do things that will support this new activity such as to go to a blogging class or to read other blogs. Or maybe the frantic nature of the dream is a statement about how I am dealing with this new beginning; maybe it is better to be centered and calm when starting to blog.
Happy dreaming!