From the Author: This article describes exercises for doing your dream work on your own.
Each of us dreams - bright and happy, sometimes disturbing, with exciting plots or incoherent, abstract images. Any person at least once in his life, wanting to unravel the secret of sleep, opened numerous dream books in search of interpretation. Often, explanations in dream books are relieving, but sometimes they can be alarming, as they predict something negative. A person believes in prediction and unconsciously adjusts his behavior, thereby only helping him to come true. So what is a dream and, most importantly, how to understand it?
There are several main theories in psychology that explain our dreams. The well-known Sigmund Freud argued that every dream contains information about our hidden desires. After him, Carl Jung put forward the theory that dreams through symbolic images of the unconscious show the state of our psyche at the moment. Fritz Perls, the founder of gestalt therapy, saw dreams as messages about unfinished situations, about the relationship we are in with ourselves and the world around us, as clues about what we do not notice or avoid in life. They also show exactly how we ignore and deny some aspects of our personality. Later, summarizing his idea, Perls called dreams short messages about the current or general state of human life.
Based on the latter theory, we can say that our emotions, states, as if with the help of a projector, are shown through all objects, phenomena, characters, fragments of the landscape, fantastic images that we see in a dream. In some cases, the projection can even be our physical state, i.e. the work of our internal organs.
Very often "nightmares" become the cause for the experience. However, the "scary" plots are also just projections, only filled with more energy.
Each person "creates" their own unique images in a dream. With this understanding of dreams, the whole absurdity of being carried away by various dream books becomes obvious. How, then, to sort out your dreams?
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There are various techniques for working with dreams, depending on the direction of psychology in which the psychologist works. Within the framework of gestalt therapy, one of the main techniques is “identification with the dream image,” which aims to make the dream more understandable for a person. This technique has a large number of varieties, including exercises that you can do yourself.
First, write down your dream and make a list of all its details. Think of every person, every object, every element, and then imagine yourself with each of them. Try to reincarnate in each of these elements and play them. Really become one.
Option 1. Then take each of these elements, characters and parts and allow them to communicate with each other. Write a script. Come up with a dialogue between two opposing figures - and you will find (especially if you have correctly identified the opposing sides) that they will definitely begin to feud with each other. Any part of the dream is yourself, this is your own projection, and if there are some irreconcilable sides, and you force them to fight with each other, then you are playing an eternal conflict game. As the communication process continues, mutual recognition occurs until you finally come to the unity and reunification of these two opposing forces.
Option 2. Having reincarnated as an element of a dream, say or record an emotional monologue addressed to any other character in the dream. After that, it is necessary to list the feelings experienced at the same time, and transfer them to relationships in real life. Ask yourself the question: To whom in my life could I address these feelings?
Option 3. If the dream represents various landscapes, cosmic landscapes, fabulous complex plots that are difficult to divide into elements, then art techniques become very effective. Create drawings, illustrations, collages of your dream in order to clarify the elements on which your state is projected. And then, as in the first two versions, tell the dream in the first person or, if there are other elements, enter into a dialogue with them.
Option 4. Draw the piece of dream that interests you most, select two elements and draw yourself in the same picture. It is useful to choose not only animals or people for exercise, but also objects or parts of space. Next, make a first-person view of these two elements (Who am I? What am I? What qualities do I have? What am I striving for? What am I doing in this dream?). After that, conduct a dialogue in which each element expresses its attitude towards the other (including towards you, shown in the figure). Then you yourself address each of the elements, and then answer on their behalf. Be sure to contact directly, "on you". After that, return to the experienced emotions and transfer them to the relationship in real life. With whom do you conduct a similar dialogue in real life? With whom do you develop this type of relationship? What do you want to get from him?
It is often difficult to recall a dream in its entirety, some elusive images appear, traces of sensations remain, but the dream is not recalled. There are easy recommendations for this, following which you can learn to remember dreams in the smallest detail:
- do not get up immediately after waking up, lie down a little with your eyes closed;
- listen carefully to yourself, your feelings and images that come to you, do not try to specifically remember the dream;
- keep a "diary" of dreams, in which you will need to record the emerging images, sensations;
- It is better to leave the notebook next to the bed so that it is easy to take it by stretching out your hand.
What is it for? Understanding dreams can help you have a clear idea of the events in your life, better understand yourself. In addition, you can reduce negative experiences and emotions, reduce stress, and maximize the pleasure, enjoyment and joy of life!
Author: Babich Vera
