Sometimes you’ve got to go deep within your mind to understand and interpret your dream.
They say nothing worthwhile is ever easy.
And it’s not true. Many worthwhile things are easy: brushing your teeth and getting dressed, for example. Those things are so easy that they get taken for granted. They’re also very worthwhile.
Plenty of things are easy for some, less easy for others, and worthwhile for all.
Whether they’re easy or not depends on your circumstances.
When they say nothing worthwhile is ever easy, they mean to be encouraging. What they’re saying is, “stick to it. Don’t give up.”
Don’t get me started on quitters never win, and winners never quit.
You must know when to cut your losses. Period.
When it comes to interpreting your dreams, whether it’s easy or not is relative. Sometimes, the answer to what the dream is about hits you right after you wake up. Sometimes not. Sometimes you’ve got to think about it for several days or more.
Don’t bother asking someone to interpret your dream for you. If it’s stumping you, it’s going to stump them.
Why is this so?
Nobody knows everything
I’ve realized that often it’s because your subconscious or spirit guide is trying to communicate something you know little about.
Your subconscious is drawing from a memory bank with a shortage of symbols.
The dream is like conversing with someone speaking a foreign language or who doesn’t know the basic concepts of what you’re trying to communicate.
It’s a dilemma faced by screenwriters trying to write a movie script for something with few symbols.
The storytelling is very different. Some stories make for better books; others make for better movies.
Not everything is easily communicated with symbols. Symbols comprise the language of dreams.
Get curious about your dreams
So that’s sometimes what’s happening when you have a dream, and it doesn’t make sense.
Your subconscious wants to communicate with you about something you don’t have a bank of symbols for.
One night recently, my subconscious wanted to make a point about Guatemalan and Honduran refugees. I know about those countries only in the most general terms.
It could have shown me a man or a woman.
Fine. Not specific enough.
Same as showing me a jungle scene.
Lots of countries have jungles.
I didn’t know what the flag of either of those nations looked like.
I suppose it could have simply spelled out the words. If it did that, it would have been great because that would have been obvious. The subconscious doesn’t usually make it so easy.
In my dream, I was walking into a kitchen where tortillas were being heated on a comal. The tortillas were burning.
I pinned down the meaning to Guatemala and Honduras. Mexico didn’t feel right.
The subconscious operates in the back of your mind somewhere. If you come up with a couple of possible interpretations, eventually you’ll intuit the right one.
It’s not too far from playing charades with yourself.
Work for that interpretation! Go deep! You’ll know when you get it right.
James Cobb RN, MSN, is an emergency department nurse and the founder of the Dream Recovery System. His goal is to provide his readers with simple, actionable ways to improve their health and maximize their quality of life.
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