Our Soul Speaks to Us through Dreams!
One of the most well known ways our Soul speaks to us is through our dreams - both daydreams and night dreams! Since the dawn of time it seems, people have been interpreting dreams as messages from Spirit. We see this in stories from ancient civilizations across the globe in which seers or shamans were called in to interpret dreams of the royals, the sick, or the tribe in general in order to understand important situations unfolding. If you’re reading this seeking more connection and wisdom from your soul, you are in luck, as there is no need for wise others to interpret your dreams! We each have our own inner seer or wise one, and this article will help you access this part of yourself!
First off, not everyone has easy recall of their dreams, don’t worry. Daydreams and night-time dreams are similar in nature, in that both are accessing our subconscious awareness. It is in this drifting, ethereal mental realm that our soul speaks to us with images and symbols, which can come in the day or night. Sometimes during our waking hours, you may simply feel a flash of awareness, which feels distinctly different than thoughts from your conscious thinking mind.
The rational mind is usually quite preoccupied with thinking and doing, turning over a problem, worrying or fretting. With mindfulness practices on being present with the breath, body, and moment, we begin to make space within the mental landscape for being. With a little more spaciousness, it becomes easier to pick up messages from the subconscious realm, because you have become more awake! This is similar to what happens when we’re sleeping and dreaming … we have to develop enough consciousness in our sleep time to carry the dream messages across the bridge of awareness into awake time.
A couple of practices that help with the process of dream recall are...
1) Setting your intention before bed to connect up, dream, and receive symbols.
2) Do some meditative breathing before falling asleep to clear your mind and relax your body.
3) Upon awakening, immediately journal - stream of conscious writing. Notice what you’re feeling / emotions, and express what comes up, and then see what else comes to you. You might be surprised that you will begin recalling symbols and messages from dreams, perhaps not always, but at least sometimes. Many times we don’t need the whole story line, one symbol may express the whole story, or at least enough to convey a message.
What to pay attention to within dreams to find the messages from your Soul.
Notice that certain parts of your dreams are much more vivid and clear - these are important. You may also notice themes within one dream, over the course of a week’s worth of dreams, or over a longer period of time. These themes showing up repeatedly tend to be an important message! Repeated messages are an ingenious way for your Soul to get your attention. Some dreams also make a big emotional impact, this too carries the weight of an important message.
How to interpret the message encoded within the symbols.
Be careful not to fall into the trap of attempting to interpret dreams literally, as the messages are symbols. Symbols are images that contain a story, we miss the story when we take the images / symbols literally. Example: Your child / father / lover dies in a dream. Rather than interpreting this literally, lets interpret the story.
First symbol: The person … who is this person to you, what role do they play in your life? How do you feel about them? The answer to these questions will give you clues to what part of you they are representing, i.e., the child could be your innocence, playfulness, as well as your unwillingness to own responsibility, etc. It could be a vast array of associations with the child self. What’s important here, is what associations occur to you instantaneously - stream of consciousness writing. We don’t want to get caught up in the logical mind: it has no idea what to do with symbols.
Second symbol: Death - remember, death is a symbol here. What does death represent to you in this moment? Perhaps you are already aware of a process of letting go you’re currently in the midst of. Perhaps you’ve been feeling stagnant in some area, and this death is an opportunity for change. Death is always a sign of transformation - the act of letting go of something, allowing for new growth / expansion. Death might represent fear itself. Whatever it is, your Soul is encouraging you to become conscious of this death process that is unfolding or about to unfold in your life, and to embrace the change as growth … letting go is a necessary step to make room for the new!
Notice the difference it made to interpret the symbols literally versus symbolically. The message is completely different! The messages from our Soul are always helpful, although they may seem challenging intially, as our Soul is universally encouraging and supporting growth. Your Soul is guiding you always to your highest evolution!
Trust the process!
Blessings on your Sacred Journey!
Lynn and Cheryl