Freud said, "A dream is never fully interpreted."
Indeed, a dream contains all the information of the past, just like how you don't know why you do a certain behavior. We call this "habit," which implies a lot of information. This is reflected in dreams, forming intentions, behaviors, and even the atmosphere of the entire dream. It encompasses everything and becomes the universe within a nutshell.
The best dream interpreter is oneself. Interpreting one's own dream is easy but contains a lot of information.
- So how do people who haven't learned dream interpretation understand their own dreams?
This is for those who are still persisting.
1. First, don't let your dreams "slip away."#
To understand your dreams, you must first record them, which is very, very difficult (laughs). Speaking for myself, I am lazy by nature. I would ride a bike instead of walking, sit instead of standing, and avoid doing anything unnecessary (laughs). I have tried: voice recording, notebook recording, constantly recalling dreams until they are flushed away by the first morning urine.
I once tried a sleep app that could record audio. So you would often hear a person who just woke up mumbling and occasionally pondering for a long time, which would make you fall asleep again... The most unbearable thing is listening to your own recording after waking up, feeling like a mentally disabled child. Voice recording ended in failure.
I once tried putting a notebook by the bedside every morning. But the terrible sleeping position messed up the blanket, and the dreams would be forgotten while searching for a pen. Before long, the notebook would escape into the depths of the bed, never to be seen again. The notebook plan ended in failure.
I once dreamed of a particularly important dream, although I don't know why it was important because I forgot it. I kept recalling this dream in my mind, back and forth three times. In the end, it was completely forgotten on my way to work, leaving only a trace of "I think I had a very important dream today." The plan to repeatedly recall the dream failed.
Dreams always come and go without a trace but will hit you hard one morning. A dream that you can't forget no matter how hard you try appears because it is so important. You will think about the dream when you wake up, think about it while washing up, and recall it while having meals, as if you can never get rid of it. At this time, I would pick up my phone, unlock it, open an article, and finally open a document to calmly record it. I think it should be done this way.
Do you think I will give you advice on how to remember dreams? No, don't force it. Dreams that are recorded will always be remembered, and those that are not remembered should be left alone. When you feel that a dream should be remembered, pick up a piece of paper or your phone and calmly record it.
Analyze your dreams#
Okay, you have a complete dream. If you can (using my method) record this dream, it means that the dream is completely worth analyzing. So let's take a look at your dream.
Those who have learned dream interpretation can analyze intentions and analyze the theme. Because it is your own dream, you can control the intentions well and even do in-depth analysis.
I'm sorry if you haven't learned dream interpretation, you might be confused. Here, I have another method to give you as a bonus (since I am a dream interpreter, shrugs) "Connect with reality using your feelings."
Connecting with reality using your feelings can only be easily done with your own dreams. Beginners are not recommended to use feelings to interpret other people's dreams because it is difficult and easy to impose their own thoughts on the dreamer.
Since only you can do it, it's easy. Experience the emotions in the dream, not too many, just the most profound one. Then connect it with recent events in reality (within a week, usually one to two days). Put similar feelings together, and voila! That's what the dream means (laughs). Some people say it's not reliable. There's nothing I can do. Who told you that you don't know dream interpretation? But I heard that this method has an 80-90% success rate.
Don't believe it? Give it a try.
(This dream interpretation method is based on "free association," one of the main methods of psychoanalysis used by Freud to explore the subconscious. By freely associating based on the feelings in the dream, it is easy to associate with certain things in reality.)
However, some people resist it. I once met a visitor who would tremble and have a blank mind whenever she talked about her dreams. This is a manifestation of high resistance, indicating that she is unwilling to face herself and resist her true thoughts.
But most people have some resistance, more or less, to their own dreams and are reluctant to think about them. This is normal because if it's a nightmare, thinking about it will make you scared. However, dreams that you don't want to think about often have obvious emotions. You can try to record the emotions, such as fear, anxiety, tension, etc. When you look back at the dream after a few days, you may be able to make a connection. If you can't connect it to reality, it's also normal because besides resistance, there are some deep thoughts in your heart. It may be something that happened in childhood or something that has been hidden for a long time. It's not easy to experience them.