YOUR dreams really can help you unravel complicated issues you might be working through.
They can be a window into the workings of your mind and give an indication of something you need to deal with.
Working out what your dreams are symbolising can be very usefulCredit: Getty – Contributor
Sometimes, they are just your brain processing the events of the day, but they can also be a springboard into something deeper.
You could be thinking about your ex for a reason, or your boss popped into your dream to help you reflect on yourself.
We asked dream analyst and author Jane Teresa Anderson what it means when you dream about prominent people in your life, and common scenarios imagined in slumber.
She advised anyone keen to look into what they dream up a dictionary isn’t helpful, saying: “Your dream symbols are unique and personal to you, and there are tools and techniques you can learn and apply to discover what your dream symbols mean.
“As well as looking at your dream symbols, the dream drama – the storyline of your dream – is also an important guide to interpreting your dream.”
So lets hear from the expert why you could be dreaming about work, your parents or giving birth…
Your ex
Nothing your ex says or does in a dream is a reflection of how they are feeling about you.
Your ex is a dream symbol. In the early days of a breakup, you may dream about your ex because you’re processing your feelings. In later years it is common to still dream about your ex.
Think about their personality and approach to life: for example, if you see them as clingy, your dream might be processing how you handle clingy people, or it might – depending on the dream drama – show you that you are being clingy in your current relationship.
Dreaming about your ex can actually show you how you are behaving in a current relationshipCredit: Getty – Contributor
Your boss
Your boss or colleague is a dream symbol. Think about her personality and approach to life.
For example, if you see her as confident, she may your dream symbol for confidence. If you see her as aggressive, she may be your dream symbol for aggression.
How do you get on with her in the dream? The dream drama gives you clues about how you handle these issues in life and within yourself.
Our dreams tell us more about ourselves than about other people: in this example, you learn more about your conscious and unconscious confidence or aggression issues.
Your parents
As children we learn about the world from our parents. We either take on their beliefs, or we rebel against one or both parents and take up opposite views.
Either way, our parents play a key role in shaping our foundation beliefs.
As adults, daily life can challenge these foundation beliefs, and, when this happens, our dreams may use our parents as symbols of those beliefs.
When you interpret these dreams, you discover the conscious and unconscious beliefs you have inherited from your parents, and you can see whether or not these are serving you well in today’s world.
Being pregnant or giving birth
While you may be dreaming about your wishes, fears, or feelings about pregnancy and birth, these dreams are usually more symbolic.
Pregnancy dreams might be about an idea, project, or new attitude that you are developing and preparing to bring into the world.
Birth dreams may be about ideas, projects, or attitudes that you are ready to bring into the world, or the challenging labours you are going through to do this.
Ideally life is about growing and changing, and the drama of these dreams might help you to see where you resist and where you flow with these changes.
Old friends
Our dreams process our conscious and unconscious experiences of the previous 1-2 days and then sweep back to compare with similar past experiences.
Comparing the last couple of days to the past might help you to see that past unresolved issues are affecting your life today, or they might help you to see how past experiences still colour your life today.
Old friends from a particular period of your life might simply be the dream’s way of taking you back to that time to reveal those issues. Or ask yourself what the friend means to you.
Losing someone you love
While these dreams may be processing your fear of loss of someone you love, they are usually more symbolic.
A rewarding approach to dream interpretation is to look at everyone and everything in a dream as symbolising something about you.
These dreams can be about losing touch with an aspect of yourself and may be a wakeup call to reconnect to what is important to you.
If, for example, you dream of losing someone you love who is creative, ask yourself if you are losing touch with your own creativity. What does this person mean to you? That’s your clue.
Dream analyst and author Jane Teresa Anderson
