Interpreting Your Daily Life Dreams
Now that you are sleeping well, remember your dreams, and have created a notebook or journal, it’s time to start interpreting what your dreams are telling you.
In this chapter, most of the dreams we will discuss fall into the category of the daily life dreams. At first glance, when reviewing dreams, some of them can seem pretty easy to figure out, like a dream about being scared of something that you’re afraid of in real life. But in dream interpretation, there are many levels below the surface that must also be considered.
With the ability to interpret your dreams, you can connect the bridge between the subconscious, the conscious, and the superconscious mind and work through situations in your life very quickly through dreamtime.
To explain further, the subconscious mind is hidden. It records every thought, feeling, and action we take, but it often hides this information from the conscious mind. Though it is hidden, it influences the conscious mind, often leaving us wondering why we feel a certain way about something when it makes no logical sense to our conscious mind.
The conscious mind is the active part of the mind with which we make all our daily decisions and take action. It is very busy but is often reactionary and unaware of our deeper thoughts and feelings.
The superconscious mind is what I also refer to in the spiritual sense as the higher self, the part that I see as connected to our soul. The superconscious mind is aware of everything that is happening to us in our human body on the earth, while also being connected to the spiritual planes of existence.
While we have a conscious, there is also a “global consciousness” that holds all the thoughts and ideas of all humanity above the earth plane. Our superconscious can access this fount of ideas and often does. This is where we pull great ideas “out of thin air” or where they come to us “out of the blue.” In my book The Awakened Aura, I describe this as the aura, the energetic field around the body, which is able to reach into the global consciousness and the higher spiritual planes to connect with these masterful ideas and thoughts as well as seek guidance from spirit guides to help with decisions and life plans.
When we meditate or when we learn how to engage directly with our dreams and our daydreams, we can access the superconscious and gain greater insight to and inspiration from what our dreams are attempting to communicate to us.
In your dream journal, you are writing a brief description of each dream along with how you felt emotionally in the dream. As you remember more about your dreams, the descriptions become more vivid and detailed. You’ve also begun to note symbols that repeat frequently in your dreams. In the appendix, I discuss the most common dream symbols that people experience, so you can flip back and forth as needed to help interpret the symbols in your dreams. Keep in mind, though, that these are suggested definitions for common symbols and may not always be the case. The best interpreter of your dreams is always going to be you because you understand on a much greater level what is going on in your daily life.
As you become more skilled at recording and interpreting your dreams, you’ll begin to see the patterns that appear in your dreams.
Let’s look at two example dreams that will give clues on how to interpret a dream.
Dream Example 1: Banana Dream
Imagine that you have a dream about a banana that follows you around in dreams that have to do with your love life. This banana is always interjecting its thoughts about what you are doing in your dreams whenever you dream about being with a lover, whether that person is from your past, present, or perhaps future.
If you were to look up online or in a book what this banana might mean, you might read that bananas are a fruit and that dreaming about fruit usually indicates happiness. You might also find specifically that bananas are a reference to a penis, and so this can indicate that a new loving partner who will bring you romance and sexual pleasure is coming into your life.
On a personal level, when interpreting the rest of the dream, including why the banana follows you around and is giving you advice, you may recall upon further reflection that your great aunt was named Anna and that your great uncle and everyone else always called her Anna Banana. Anna Banana loved to give advice about relationships and was known as a great matchmaker. She is coming to you in this dream in the form of a banana so that you will distinctly remember what she is saying. Most people remember a talking banana when it appears in their dreams more than they remember a relative.
When you look back at your banana dreams at this point, you can see clearly how the talking banana was indeed your great aunt, whether she was communicating with you from the spirit world or whether she was just a representation that your higher conscious self used to help you work through your thoughts about your relationships.
Let’s say that in one particular banana dream, you were in a café where you had just broken up with your last relationship partner. As you left the café, this giant banana was standing outside and began to follow you. The banana would not stop talking about how you always pick the wrong type of partner and why you were never satisfied.
These are the first indications of what the dream about the banana is attempting to communicate to you. Here’s what you do to interpret your dreams:
Step 1: Become Aware of Your Emotions and
How Actively You Are Participating in the Dream
The first step when interpreting your dreams is to determine how you felt emotionally in the dream. Were you experiencing a strong emotion, like fear or joy, or were you more of an observer in the dream, watching the event unfold without feeling an emotional connection?
In the example of the banana dream, you were actively engaged in this dream, having just broken up with your most recent lover. As you left the café, you felt sad, wondering if you would ever find someone who truly understood you and whom you felt could be a real partner in your life. The banana kept you company as you processed these feelings.
As you think about the meaning of this dream, you realize that you long for a relationship with a person that you are also friends and partners with in life, with a deep spiritual connection. In addition to these attributes, you want to be romanced and to experience passion in this relationship, with intense and fulfilling lovemaking.
Step 2: Determine What Subliminal Message
Was Shared with You in the Dream
In the banana dream, did you feel relieved that this relationship was over? Perhaps while the breakup was difficult, it was a restrictive and unsatisfying relationship that wasn’t working for you.
Thinking back to the banana now, was the talking banana sad like you, or was it upbeat, reminding you that the love you are seeking will soon find you?
What message did you receive now that you can think back on the dream?
Step 3: Determine the Subject of the Dream
Looking back at your notes from your dream, determine whether the dream was directly about you or a story about other people.
For example, in the banana dream, the focus is about you. The banana is talking, but it’s giving you advice about what just occurred with your breakup and what relationship may come for you in the future. The person you broke up with in the dream plays a very small role in the dream: they are there and they are gone, and the rest of the dream is focused on your feelings about what you deeply want in a relationship with someone new.
Determining whether a dream is about you or about someone else is very important, especially when it comes to predicting prophetic dreams.
Step 4: Consider the Frequency of the Dream
If the dream is about you directly, it’s important to look over your notes about what happened to you in the dream and compare them to how you felt emotionally.
If this dream repeats itself, you are being prompted to take active steps to work through this problem. The dream is attempting to show you what is on your subconscious mind.
In the case of the banana dream, the dreamer is being shown that they are ready to pursue a relationship that will meet their needs and expectations on the mind-body-spirit level and that it’s time to seek out a partner who is looking for the same experience.
If you want to take your dream skills to the mastery level of dream manifestation, when reviewing your dream the next day, state out loud that you are ready to meet the right person for your next relationship. Ask the universe to show you this person when you meet them by having a banana somehow appear around them as a sign. Perhaps you’ll meet this person in the break room at work eating a banana or in a grocery store with bananas in their cart, or perhaps during a conversation when meeting someone new, somehow the word “banana” is mentioned or referenced.
Dream Example 2: Falling Dream
Let’s look at another type of dream to interpret. For example, let’s say you had a dream that you were falling, which is a very common dream.
Since you are having the experience of falling, this dream is about you directly. Perhaps you see the cliff that you fell from or a tall building, and now you are falling and feeling the wind rush around you.
Step 1: Note How the Dream Feels
Are you falling quickly, or is the fall in slow motion, taking up most of the dream? Are you scared, or are you looking at your surroundings as you fall, such as the windows in the building or the balconies or a tree growing sideways off the cliff ? Do you see people in the windows as you fall past the building? Is someone hanging onto a tree branch and reaching out to catch you?
All of these details are important as you process the emotional temperature of how you felt in this dream.
If you are falling in slow motion and observing your surroundings, this can mean that you are aware of a potential “fall or pitfall experience” coming into your life. If you are able to observe your surroundings in this dream, you will be consciously aware that there are opportunities to receive help during this experience, which will help stop your fall. In this case, you could reach out to grab the balcony to stop your fall, or the person in the tree branches may reach out to catch you along the way.
If you are falling quickly and feeling afraid, it can mean that the experience that is coming will catch you unaware and off guard when it happens. The surprise of it will temporarily make you feel that there is nothing that can be done to help. This is your subconscious and higher conscious self trying to warn you the best they can that an unexpected surprise of an unwelcome nature is coming your way.
When having a dream like this, it’s a good reminder to have a little pep talk with yourself that you are strong and can handle what comes your way, even when it comes as a surprise. The surprise might take you off guard for a moment, but there are always resources available to help you.
Once you are able to move past the first instinct of fear in this type of dream, look past your emotions into understanding what the dream is communicating to you in more detail.
Step 2: Look at the Color and Size of Objects in Your Dream
What color was the building, the sky, the tree limb? What color clothing were you wearing?
All of these colors indicate the challenge around you and how ready you are for the experience to come. If the colors are vibrant, you are at full strength and will easily bounce back. If the colors are more muted, they may indicate that there will be a greater emotional trauma through the experience. In this particular dream, the colors in the sky will be the most telling, as will the clothing you are wearing.
The next aspect to note is the size of things in your dream. How tall is the building or cliff ? How large are the tree limbs or the balconies on the building? If the limb is very large and substantial, it indicates that help will be within easy reach. The same is true if the balcony is of ample size. If the branch or balcony is small, it means that help will be available, but the majority of the work will come from you.
Step 3: Note the Length of the Dream
Do you fall for most of the dream, so that you are falling for so long that even in the dream you start to wonder what’s happening?
This is describing the amount of time that the experience will take. If it’s a very long fall, it can indicate that the situation will go on for some time. If the event leading up to the fall takes a long time (say, for example, you are standing up at the top of the building for a long time or at the edge of the cliff for an extended period), it indicates that there will be clues to what is coming and you have time to prepare.
Step 4: Determine the Subject of the Dream
At this point we’ve discussed what it means if you are the one falling in the dream. What does it mean, though, if you are not the one falling? What if instead you are dreaming about other people or objects falling from the sky?
When it’s not about you, it’s usually about watching an object or objects fall rather than other people. The focus is on the object, the type of object, and the number falling.
The best way to interpret this is to consider rain. If raindrops are intermittently falling, you are aware of it, but it might not stop you from your activity. You might hasten to finish your work before the rain falls more heavily, but the drops are manageable. However, if the rain is pouring down around you, all work stops and you seek shelter. This is the same with objects falling. If one object is falling from the sky in your dream, take notice and determine how large it is, how close it is to you, and how quickly it is falling. Is the object falling over a forest, a city, or a specific area or space that you recognize?
All of these are clues to how the object will affect you or others. If there are many similar objects falling at the same time, this gives warning that what is to come will be more intense, like a thunderstorm rather than a gentle rain shower.
The Most Common Types of Dreams and What They Mean
There are dreams that are so common that almost everyone can share a story of having a dream of this type. Most of them fall into the daily life dream category.
Chasing Dreams
In dreams in which you are being chased, many times you never see what is chasing you; you just experience the fear of being chased and needing to run or hide.
It is most important in these dreams to note what action you take. Do you run and run and keep on running, or do you seek shelter and hide? If you hide, is there a familiar place you seem to return to frequently?
In general, chasing dreams typically indicate that you are running away from something, such as a problem, a person, or both combined. If you can see who or what is chasing you, it can help identify the problem. For example, if your mother is chasing you in the dream, it can indicate a problem with her directly, or it can indicate that you are not not dealing with something to do with your feminine side.
Other clues should be considered in the dream as well as what’s going on in your personal life. If a woman is having this dream, the next question is, are you a mother or thinking about becoming a mother, and if so, are you concerned about how you will be as a mother in comparison to how you were mothered?
If the being chasing you is an animal, it’s important to note the type of animal. Is it the proverbial wolf at the door? Or when you finally can turn around in this dream and confront what is chasing you, perhaps you find that the wolf changes into a gentle lamb, which has been trying all this time to help you soften and connect with your emotions regarding this particular situation.
In coming chapters, you’ll learn how to interact with your dreams while dreaming so that you can engage with the characters in your dreams and change your dreams at will.
Falling Dreams
A great majority of people have indicated having a falling dream at least once in their life. As described earlier, the dream is connected with a feeling of loss of control in a situation.
Flying Dreams
Many dreams that begin with falling move into flying. This can be associated with facing a fear and realizing that not only can you handle this situation, but you can be free from the fear and master the situation.
When flying, notice how you fly and where you are flying. Is it over a city or so high in the sky you can only see the clouds? How do you fly—is it Superman style, with your arms stretched out in front of you, or are your arms out to the side like a plane? Do you move around while flying—are you able to do flips or veer left or right? How about hovering—can you float stationary in the sky and look around? Do you leave Earth’s atmosphere and fly into space?
The more control you appear to have when flying, the stronger you are feeling about your situation. Flying dreams are almost always about feeling free in some way and reaching new heights.
Magical Power Dreams
The most fun common dream is having magical powers! This is always a good sign, as it indicates that you are connecting your subconscious mind with your conscious and superconscious minds and are realizing your unique gifts and abilities.
It means that you are awakening to understanding how to achieve what you wish for in your dreams and life goals. Pay attention to what magical power you have been given in the dream and see how you can harness this symbolic power in your daily life.
The only time this dream is negative is when you dream that you can’t do something and wish you had a secret magical power to make it happen. This indicates that you are not connected with your personal power and believe that you can’t make something happen on your own.
Money Dreams
Money dreams can involve winning money, finding money, earning lots of money, or losing lots of money. That’s no surprise, as money dictates so much of what goes in our lives and in the modern world: money is necessary for survival, to give us shelter, nourishment, and care.
Most money dreams really don’t indicate that you are winning or losing money. If you want a sign that you are about to come into money, I still say that the itching palm is the best indication. This is an Old World teaching that I have found really works. When your left palm itches, it means money is coming to you from a source outside of yourself, such as winning a lottery or an inheritance or gift. When your right palm itches, it means money is coming to you from your hard work, in the form of a raise or promotion.
So then what do money dreams mean? If you are winning money in your dream, it indicates general success in your endeavors, from which you will prosper. If you are losing money in the dream, you are experiencing lack of self-confidence and are in doubt about the situation at hand. If you are losing a lot of money or dream about having lost all your money, you are concerned that you do not know where you belong or what your status is in life.
These types of dreams happen often when experiencing a loss, such as losing a loved one, going through a divorce, moving, changing or losing a job, and other big life changes. While it’s easy to see how in any of these scenarios money is a potential problem, the dream is actually related to how one feels about the situation and if they have the potential to prosper and move forward.
What surprises many people is that dreams about money often indicate thoughts and attitudes about love. A person who dreams about being generous and wanting to share money with others or give it away is a person who is very loving and looking to share their love with others, so it can often indicate a new relationship is coming. On the other end, a person hoarding and withholding money or feeling like they never have enough money in a dream feels unloved and insecure. They are hoarding because they feel that they are not truly being cared for and loved by others.
A combination of the two, in which you are giving away lots of money and feel that money is slipping away too quickly, can indicate that you are giving too much of yourself in your relationships and not feeling that this is being reciprocated. This may or may not indicate what is truly happening in your relationship, as it can also indicate that you are giving away too much of yourself as a people pleaser and have unrealistic expectations of what people are willing to give back in return, leaving you feeling emotionally bankrupt.
Naked Dreams
Dreams of being naked, especially in a classroom or public-speaking environment, are usually associated with anxiety about taking a test or being judged in a public environment of one’s peers. It’s pretty obvious that this dream typically means laying oneself bare, exposed, and open to others.
What I have found to be most interesting about this kind of dream is that many people who have it often describe finding that their body looks better in the dream than in real life. This is a good sign, meaning that your self-esteem is pretty good and that while you are stressing about a particular situation, like public speaking, overall you have a healthy attitude about your capabilities and what you can handle.
It’s important to notice how you react in the dream when you realize that you are naked. What part of the body do you cover in the dream?
When you become a master dreamer, you’ll learn how to interact in the dream while experiencing it, so you’ll be able to change your posture and how you feel. For example, you may have a dream of being naked in which you are crouched down and trying to cover certain areas while feeling embarrassed. When you can become consciously aware in your dream, you may proudly walk to the front of the classroom or podium, shoulders pulled back, head held high, with a big smile on your face.
This might not feel possible right now, but in upcoming chapters I’m going to show you how this can be achieved. For now I hope it at least brings a smile to your face to imagine changing a naked dream from something uncomfortable to something bold and empowering.
Pregnancy Dreams
For women, they usually are the one pregnant in a pregnancy dream, and for men, the dream is about a woman they know becoming pregnant. Surprisingly, dreams about being pregnant are rarely about the real thing.
They more often indicate a big change and something new coming into your life.
Most typically when a dream indicates that a pregnancy is coming to you, you will dream about the baby, rather than the pregnancy, in ways such as holding a newborn baby and experiencing warm feelings of love and happiness. Pregnancy indicates something new coming your way, so in the dream, look at what stage of pregnancy you are in. Are you about to give birth, or are you newly pregnant? This will help establish a time frame of when this new change is coming in your life. If you are in labor, how intense is the labor? This will give clues to how challenging this new change will feel. Who is helping you give birth in the dream—your partner or a midwife, who might be a friend that you recognize? This can indicate who will be there to support you through this big change.
If the dream is about becoming pregnant, such as having sex with your partner and then realizing you have become pregnant. and you feel happy about this news, it indicates that you and your partner have shared goals and are growing closer together with your life plans and dreams. If you feel worried during this type of dream and are nervous that you might become pregnant, it can mean you are worried about the stability and support missing in the relationship.
Sex Dreams
Another common type of dream is a sexual dream, in which you are engaged in sexual relations of some kind. These are very complex dreams, and it is difficult to give an example of what one might mean. Many times sex dreams are really about you rather than the partner in your dream. You may be awakening to experiencing a greater depth of emotional connection and passion or feeling bolder in life.
Sex is connected to the second chakra, which is also the chakra of creativity, so a sex dream can actually represent the subconscious mind working to open the conscious mind to being creative and artistic. Many times, sex dreams are awakening pent-up desires that are not being released, which could directly be about your sex life but may also be about wishes, dreams, and goals that have gone unfulfilled for some time.
In some sex dreams, you may be surprised to find that you have switched roles. If you are a woman, you may dream that you have a penis and are taking on the role of a man. This is a sign that you are balancing your masculine and feminine sides within, which we all have, and are seeking to bring them into balance. It may indicate that your spiritual progress is going very well and that your two inner natures are working well together. It indicates strength and the ability to harness and work equally with your masculine and feminine natures.
When you have a sex dream with a stranger or someone that is not your partner, it does not always indicate that you are considering an affair. Many times, it means that you are opening up to new opportunities in life. This usually doesn’t mean that you are going to have sexual relations with that person, but rather that on a subconscious level you are ready to have new adventures and experiences and try new things.
Uncomfortable sex dreams, in which the sex is against your will, for example, often indicate that you have not found your voice in life to speak about what you really want in a relationship or in life. These dreams indicate that you need to learn how to step into your personal power and take back some control.
Teeth Dreams
Another common dream is about teeth: missing teeth, having all of your teeth fall out while speaking or smiling, and, strangely, dining in public and your teeth almost always fall out into your plate at the table. Most often these dreams are connected with anxiety over a particular situation or concerns about aging and feeling less powerful.
Women tend to have this dream more often than men and it’s often connected to a situation where they feel they have lost influence over people or situations. These dreams occur most often in conjunction with major life changes. Children have this dream often when they are losing their baby teeth and when they are going through puberty, and women experience this dream most often when they are going through menopause.
Water Dreams
One of the most common dream symbols found in dreams is the presence of water in one form or another. This is discussed further in the appendix, but it’s important to bring it to your attention now because it is so predominant. Water most often indicates your emotional well-being in the dream.
If the water is choppy and rough and stormy, you are very upset emotionally about what’s happening in the dream. If the water is calm and flowing gently, you are at peace with what’s occurring in the dream. If the water is deep and still, there is still much to be revealed about the subject that you are dreaming about.
At this point, I hope it’s becoming clear that while there are some generalities in understanding dreams, to really interpret dreams you have to go beyond the generic dream dictionary and delve deeper into your thoughts and feelings and what is happening in your life.
The problem with most dream dictionaries is that the meanings come from various cultures and can be associated with cultural mores of the time as well as the morals and superstitions of those people. Many of these no longer apply in today’s world.
In creating your dream notebook, you are in a sense taking your notes and observations from interpreting your dreams and then writing your own dream dictionary, which will serve you much better in this work.
Creating a Dream Workbook
It’s time to start converting your dream journal into a proper workbook. Now that you are able to remember your dreams and record them and are learning how to look objectively at and intuitively interpret your daily life dreams, it’s time to compile the dreams into categories.
Step 1: Categorize Your Dreams
Look at your dreams and determine into which of the four main categories each should be organized. As a reminder, the four categories are:
Daily Life Dreams: Dreams about things on your mind and subconscious that you are working through in daily life. These types of dreams allow us to work through troubling events and personal experiences when we are unsure of how to handle these experiences properly on an emotional level.
Prophetic Dreams: Intuitive dreams about people, places, and events to come.
Teaching Dreams: The higher self journeys to the other side to explore and learn.
Visitation Dreams: Loved ones and guides in the spirit world visit.
Separate your dreams into these categories. It’s important to note that they may fit into several categories, as prophetic dreams often include visitation dreams as well, and so on.
Step 2: Create Subcategories
Subcategorize the dreams into groups that you can easily reference in the future. The categories should include groups such as dreams about family members, dreams about your life, dreams about the area of the world where you live, dreams in which you visit with family and friends who have passed on, dreams in which you connect with spirit guides, and dreams that are so mysterious that you are not sure what they mean.
Step 3: Take Note of the Symbols
Once the dreams have been separated into these sections, make notes about all the symbols that you have noticed in the dreams as well as how often these same symbols appear.
Symbols can include a variety of things, such as a family pet that always appears with you in a dream; a guide, seen or unseen, who appears to accompany you in dreams; and random items that appear frequently in dreams, such as a type of tree, a bicycle, car, other types of vehicles, wild and domestic animals, flowers, gemstones, a bag of money, or items that are specifically meaningful to you (a house you grew up in, for example).
In essence, what you are doing here is becoming a dream detective/analyst. You are becoming the expert on your dreams, and there is no expert better than you in interpreting your own. This is because the symbols and items in your dreams are more meaningful to you, and it is easier for you to directly correlate why certain items appear in your dreams. Perhaps you’ve noticed that I often say what a symbol can mean, rather than what it will mean. This is because dreams are incredibly subjective and unique. There are common dream symbols, but even these can change meaning according to what is happening in the dream. There is no one-size-fits-all dream, nor can any book specifically describe what each dream means.
Now you’ve learned how to take your dream journal and turn it into a dream workbook so that you can analyze and interpret what your dreams are trying to tell you. Take this time to go back over the dream journal you’ve been keeping and convert your notes into a workbook that is better organized. Many people create a dream database on the computer that makes it easier to search for specific details. As your dream workbook grows, you may find it to be a helpful tool, as over time you’ll be recording hundreds of dreams.
By this time, you’ve been regularly recording your dreams, you’ve been setting goals and intentions to remember your dreams, and perhaps you’ve been asking your higher self to help you remember your dreams in greater detail. At this point, you are well on your way to interpreting your dreams.