Dreams
My book club has been studying Martha Beck's, "Steering by Starlight." It's an excellent book and she is a delightful writer. The gist concerns finding your path and being true to yourself--steering by your own "north star" as it were.
One section of the book deals with dream interpretation and, for the first time, I have found a form of dream analysis that makes sense to me.
I've never really agreed with those analysts who take the position, for example, that "If you dream of a car, it means you are going on a journey" or "Being in a large group of people means you are going to meet someone . . ," etc. These authors have never been inside my head so how the hell do THEY know what my particular brain means when it selects a certain symbol?
Beck attacks dream analysis from another angle. According to her, you are to take each symbol in your dream and speak to yourself as though you were that symbol.
I realized, for example, that I was having a LOT of dreams that included children. Now I have to say that I adore my kids and g'kids but I'm not the type of person who says, "I LOVE kids. I'm going to go get a job at a daycare!" So I wondered why I was having many, many dreams that involved interacting with young ones.
In trying Beck's exercise, I said, "I am the children in my dreams. What are the children trying to tell me?" Then, after some thought, it came to me: the children represented all the little parts of myself that I was trying to form into a whole. The explanation felt "right on" and, actually, I haven't dreamt of children since! I guess my subconscious heaved a huge "whew" when I finally got it!
Of course, in order to do any analysis, you have to REMEMBER the damn dream in the first place but writing down as much of it as you can when you awaken helps. One of our club members also says that you mustn't THINK too much but just try to re-enter the dream atmosphere. Anyway, to my surprise, writing down even snippets of my dreams has helped me see various patterns forming.
I DO find that the pattern that continues to emerge (even after the children left) is of large houses and many rooms and many people. (The subconscious is evidently unable to just come right out and tell you something--it has to use pictures and hope you get its drift!) I haven't decided yet if these symbols mean that I'm working with a lot of decisions and trying to decide among them or WHAT but no images of me alone on a sandy beach, enjoying a drink and watching the waves! Oh, well . . . maybe someday!
One section of the book deals with dream interpretation and, for the first time, I have found a form of dream analysis that makes sense to me.
I've never really agreed with those analysts who take the position, for example, that "If you dream of a car, it means you are going on a journey" or "Being in a large group of people means you are going to meet someone . . ," etc. These authors have never been inside my head so how the hell do THEY know what my particular brain means when it selects a certain symbol?
Beck attacks dream analysis from another angle. According to her, you are to take each symbol in your dream and speak to yourself as though you were that symbol.
I realized, for example, that I was having a LOT of dreams that included children. Now I have to say that I adore my kids and g'kids but I'm not the type of person who says, "I LOVE kids. I'm going to go get a job at a daycare!" So I wondered why I was having many, many dreams that involved interacting with young ones.
In trying Beck's exercise, I said, "I am the children in my dreams. What are the children trying to tell me?" Then, after some thought, it came to me: the children represented all the little parts of myself that I was trying to form into a whole. The explanation felt "right on" and, actually, I haven't dreamt of children since! I guess my subconscious heaved a huge "whew" when I finally got it!
Of course, in order to do any analysis, you have to REMEMBER the damn dream in the first place but writing down as much of it as you can when you awaken helps. One of our club members also says that you mustn't THINK too much but just try to re-enter the dream atmosphere. Anyway, to my surprise, writing down even snippets of my dreams has helped me see various patterns forming.
I DO find that the pattern that continues to emerge (even after the children left) is of large houses and many rooms and many people. (The subconscious is evidently unable to just come right out and tell you something--it has to use pictures and hope you get its drift!) I haven't decided yet if these symbols mean that I'm working with a lot of decisions and trying to decide among them or WHAT but no images of me alone on a sandy beach, enjoying a drink and watching the waves! Oh, well . . . maybe someday!