What is Your Dream Life Telling You? | Johannesburg | Jungian Analyst | Leslie Zimmermann

Do you have many dreams, occasional dreams or are you one of the people who say they never dream? If you think you don’t dream, it might surprise you to know that laboratory dream research has established that all people dream and that we have about 5 dreams every night!

Freud and Jung viewed dreams as psychical phenomena, which have meaning and which can play an important role in healing and transformation. We might have interesting or even embarrassing dreams. We may have recurring dreams or nightmares. None of these are what they seem and all have important stories to tell us about our inner and outer worlds and what steps, behaviours, approaches and new attitudes can help us. Unlike the waking, mind, which communicates in the language of words and logic, dreams use the language of symbols to communicate with us. Because dreams speak from the standpoint of the unconscious they have a wider perspective than the narrower conscious view or they may at least bring a new wider aspect to an existing situation.

If you would like to explore your dreams, you could buy a book to help you to understand how to work with dreams and some books on symbols to help you to understand their fascinating language (see some book suggestions below). You could join a dream group if there is one in your area. Or, you could work with an analyst or psychotherapist who has trained to understand and to work with dreams.

SOME HINTS ON REMEMBERING DREAMS BEFORE THEY EVAPORATE

Although laboratory dream research has established that all people dream and that we have about 5 dreams every night, we can’t possibly remember all of these and we usually don’t wake up after each dream but, in order to remember those that we do become aware of, we need to write them down. Think of how often you’ve had a dream and you felt certain you would never forget it. And how many times have those dreams just disappeared from memory? Here are a few suggestions to help you to remember them.

1. Have a notepad and a pen next to your bed
2. When you wake up, don’t change your position in bed. Lie still and try to recall the dream’s details and then write down what you remember.
3. Don’t feel upset if sometimes you have forgotten half or even most of your dream. Don’t feel that the dream has no value in these instances. We usually remember the most important part of the dream and even a single image can hold a wealth of meaning.
4. If you wake up during the night and you remember a very long dream and it seems impossible to write it all down, just write down some key words. You may be able to string the story together the next morning. The dream may come back to you in its entirety, or the key words may not make any sense. Don’t feel concerned if you’ve forgotten it. The issue and therefore, the dream message, remains within you for as long as you have not understood it or have not worked through it. This means, you will have another dream about that particular issue – perhaps in the form of a different story, but it will deal with the same theme.
5. Finally, don’t concern yourself too much with writing the dream story in the order it took place. Write down the parts of the dream that come to you in whatever order they do and write down the images even if you leave out parts of the story.

SOME BOOKS YOU COULD BUY

1. BOOKS TO ASSIST YOU IN WORKING WITH DREAMS

• – A Little Course in Dreams by Robert Bosnak
• – Dreams, A Portal to the Source by Edward C. Whitmont & Sylvia Brinton Perera
• – C.G.Jung Dreams

1. BOOKS OF SYMBOLS

• – Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery by Ad de Vries
• – The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols
• – The Herder Dictionary of Symbols
• – A Dictionary of Symbols by J.E.Cirlot

For an appointment Leslie Zimmermann can be contacted on:

leslie.zimmermann@gmail.com

+27 (0)83 384 9812