For example, your recent history involves searching for something to inspire you, and a related “review” dream involves castles, monarchs, knights, damsels, dragons, and the Holy Grail. There’s no dream content to trace directly to recent memories, but it really is a story about your life, and if you step back to see that it’s really about finding inspiration, you find the connection with your life. The search for the Holy Grail is an allegory about searching for inspiration, purpose, meaning, and spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can find the source of some dreams in your deepest inner processes, especially the movement of spirit (your inner self) to find expression in your life, and your development and actualization as an individual. “Individuation”\u2014the process of becoming complete and self-actualized\u2014is a lifetime process. As you mature, your dreams tend to focus more on it, and dream content becomes more personalized as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
D3 in action: reflect on your life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
By the time you work up to this point you have the information you need to find out how a dream parallels your life. It’s not to say it’ll be obvious, but at least you have something to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By working the D3 steps you have information about the dream’s symbolism<\/a> and story. You have context<\/a> that helps you understand what the dream is really saying and how it connects personally with you. You connect the dots around a central idea. Or at least, you’ve tried to. You’ve made the effort, and at this point even if you don’t know what the dream means, the energy you expand feeds back to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now reflect on your recent life. Just… think. Contemplate. Feel. Listen to your heart. Listen to your body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use the dream as a starting point for thinking about where you’re at in your life, how you got here, and where you’re headed. Use it like inspiration for a diary and just write (or talk, or ruminate\u2014whatever you prefer). Remember simple fact #1: you already know subconsciously what the dream means. It’ll let you know through your feelings and hunches and insights whether you’re getting hotter or colder as you reflect, but you must give it something to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your dreaming mind WANTS you to understand it and APPRECIATES your efforts. Carl Jung says the intelligent source behind your dreams is the mind of nature itself, and by working with your dreams you interact with it, and something within you grows and flowers. The initial growth is behind the scenes, in the soil of the unconscious mind, then suddenly it emerges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Search your dream content for anything that reminds you of something you recently experienced or that sums up where you’re at in life. When your dreams involve a person you’ve seen recently or place you’ve been to, reflect on it. Test to see if the dream connects with the experience involving that person, place, thing or whatever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When dreams remind you in any way of something that happened recently, even if just symbolically or from the story, reflect on it. Zero in. Look for parallels. Look for symbols<\/a> and ways the story is told that remind you of your waking life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The connections and meaning are found by exploring your related thoughts, feelings, and memories. Go below the surface and notice how you react to the experiences you have in life. Notice what’s really happening inside you. Focus on what’s most important for your development and personal growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my dream life, the story of the dream is where I’m most likely to find the meaning because it reflects the broad themes and most important story lines. But it’s not obvious nor is it easy even with all I know as a dream interpreter<\/a>, I tell ya, and my dreaming mind makes me work at it. Good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I like to say that dreams are the story of your life written day by day. Each day of experience adds to your story. Each night you chronicle it in your dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Particularly potent and metaphorical dreams can connect with something that happened about a week ago that was the subject of a dream at the time. An outsider is not likely to see the connection between the two dreams\u2014they usually appear unrelated\u2014but you will know intuitively that the recent dream connects with an earlier one, or is part of a series of recurring dreams. These dreams are particularly important to understand because they are like capstones that cover everything you have learned and integrated recently in your life. They address the biggest questions and most difficult issues. You know the dreams I’m talking about. They’re unforgettable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your dreaming mind is a translator that takes any input and translates it to symbolism. When you review memories of the day while dreaming, the memories are the input. But occasionally dreams are direct in their references. The “day residue” in dreams generally doesn’t make much of an impact on you. It’s not very memorable for most people. They’re the opposite of powerful dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One reason why you dream<\/a> is to process memories. A lot more is going on while dreaming than just memory processing, but it is a core function and it’s where I like to begin reflecting. When you recognize residue from your memories in a dream, focus on those memories and the events, situations, circumstances, thoughts, feelings, and emotions involving them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And keep in mind, sometimes dreams reference memories of something that happens during the day because it needs deeper review by night, or it connects with thoughts and feelings that arose at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Say that you dream about looking through your postal mail. The scene hews closely with a memory of looking through your mail earlier that day, while awake, obviously. In the dream though you look specifically for a letter from a friend. You reflect on the memories brought up by the dream and suddenly remember that a thought passed through your mind about a friend you haven’t heard from in a long time as you were sorting through the mail. You made a note-to-self to get in touch with the person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now you have the connector. The dream brings up the memory because it’s reminding you of your note-to-self, which is associated with the memory of looking through your mail. This sort of memory-to-dream association is the reason behind much of the day residue in memorable dreams. You are reminding yourself of something. So when a dream features a memory that matches closely with your waking reality, begin your search for the source with the thoughts and feelings you experienced when the memory was created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rarely do dreams just replay memories verbatim. Instead, they turn everything into symbolism<\/a>, and it\u2019s up to you to hunt through your memories and think creatively to trace the symbolism back to its source. That\u2019s half the fun. The dream is a mystery and you are the detective, which means your life is the crime scene\u2014haha!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dreams can start with something you experienced in your outer life and show how it affects you internally, or they show how your outer life is shaped by your inner one. A two-way street. Most dreams connect with events within you\u2014what you think, feel, and perceive\u2014and how you integrate new information and experience into the existing structure of who and what you are. Begin there and work outward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sex dreams<\/a> can be about integration of something new into your personality. The symbolism derives from sex involving the integration of bodies, minds, and hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Identifying the source of a dream provides a path to understanding it, and the trailhead is found in your recent life. In this sense, your dreams are like a diary. They chronicle your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes, dreams replay events of your waking life as stories told through symbolism. But a common mistake made by people new to dream interpretation is they look only at their outer lives for the sources of their dreams. Dreams tend to focus on inner life and what’s happening below the surface of your awareness. They focus on heart and soul and the person you are deep inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Studies have shown that most dreams are accurate representations of your everyday life and reflect everyday concerns<\/em>. They connect closely with your emotions. Once you know what to look for, it\u2019s not hard to find what they speak to about yourself and your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look for what a dream shows you that’s new, that you didn’t already know. There’s always something new to be learned from a dream, even if it just clarifies or expands on what you already know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Give high priority to your recurring dreams. You can do the most good for yourself and potentially learn more in the long run. Recurring dreams<\/a> come in a few types ranging from repetitive day residue, to serial recurring dreams, to Groundhog Day dreams that repeat themselves exactly. Use the link above to gain access to an extensive lesson on recurring dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I have a solid grasp on something that recurs in my dreams, I gain deeper understanding of how it’s used and connects with me and my life. For example, see what I wrote about lottery dreams<\/a>. Briefly, there’s a lesson embedded in my lottery based on the symbolism of the lottery meaning “set yourself up for success by taking every opportunity.” It was a recurring theme in my dreams. Decoding the meaning helped me understand other dreams with the same symbolism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Resolution is closely tied with reflection. It’s relevant in the way a dream directly suggests something or helps you tap your deeper wisdom or ability, or how it influences the course of future events or connects with them. You can find lessons of resolution here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"reflect](\"https:\/\/www.dreams123.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/flower_growing_night_400.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nDream content from recent memory<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"jm](\"https:\/\/www.dreams123.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/headshot-2017x200-1.jpg\")
<\/a>Powerful dreams<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Day residue in dreams<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Example of day residue<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Identify the source of a dream<\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Recurring dreams<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Resolution<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n