Dreams… Gateways to Our Intuition
Anything wild going on in your dreams lately? Mine have been off the charts out-there. Like, my cat was eating pretzel sticks off the ceiling and I felt relieved because, whew, I didn't know how I was going to clean up those pretzels since I couldn't reach them... good thing she could walk on the ceiling and take care of them for me! What?!
Is it a nod to the snacks I was eating the other day? Or is there some deeper meaning? A sneaky intuitive message trying to make its way through my subconscious and into my real life in the waking world? Maybe I need to look at a problem from a new angle or perspective. Hmmm...
It could be a little bit of both! But let's explore a bit more on the mystical side… how you can use your dreams to tap into your intuition.
Mental housekeeping & hidden messages
Sometimes I find my dreams are a direct mind-dump of situations from my day, including similarities with obscure twists on them. Re: the example dream above. I had finished off a bag of gluten-free pretzels the other day, so no surprise that was an element in my dream. But, my cat eating them off the ceiling? Now, that's where things get weird. I tend to write off the instances I can recognize (the pretzels) as coming straight from my waking life situations. To me, that's my brain doing the necessary housekeeping to keep my memories free and flowing.
The other parts of the dreams are the ones I want to talk about. The part where my cat was on the ceiling... and the entire rest of the dream I didn't get into. The parts that may have hidden and secret meanings between the lines. The juicy messages our subconscious wants to reach us with. Maybe your dreams are hints to real-world events, with hidden messages sprinkled in.
Now you may be wondering, how do I access these intuitive messages?
So what are these hidden messages? How do we figure them out? What could our intuition or subconscious be trying to communicate to us? A simple way to finding the answers to those questions is by cultivating a dreamwork practice.
Do you remember your dreams? Do you recall recurring places, themes, or feelings? And have you ever sat down to really think about the meaning behind them?
What's dreamwork?
Dreamwork, in short, is practice of observing your dreams, the overarching themes, and the symbols and then contemplating what it all means in relation to your life.
A simple dreamwork practice
Set an intention - before bed, set the intention to remember your dreams in the morning.
Have a notebook, voice recorder, or new note on your phone at the ready for the moment you wake up.
Write down/record your dream right when you wake up - details begin to drift away the longer you're awake. Even jotting down a few words about the dream will help keep it fresh to write more details later. Take special note of your feelings in the dream. How did you feel as events were taking shape around you?
Stay vigilant. It may take a few days of doing this practice before you actually start recalling dreams. Keep at it and don't give up hope!
Set aside some time to analyze your dreams. Journal them out and look for underlying meaning in the situations that happened. What were the feelings you experienced? How do they relate to your feelings in the waking world? Note: I don't recommend going on a google deep-dive of dream interpretations since dreams are so individualistic! Interpretations out there tend to be overarching themes across cultures... which may be helpful in some instances. However, they won't take into account your own personal life experience flavor, so take your dream and look at it through your own eyes! What do you see?
Be sure to date your dream journal so you can look back at it over time and notice any patterns. Maybe you always have the same types of dreams on Mondays. Or similar themes show up around the cycles of the moon. Perhaps your dreams have a specific life lesson to teach you that's playing out over a longer period of time.
Now you're equipped & ready to tune into the incoming messages!
How else can I use dreamwork?
You can take it a step further by seeking answers to specific questions while you’re dreaming.
Write down a specific question in your dream journal and consciously set the intention to receive the answer during your sleep. When you wake up, journal like usual and see what answers come through! You may have to do this multiple nights asking the same question to form a full answer.
What if my dreams are, yikes, scary?
If you're having dreams that are scary or you'd call "bad dreams" or nightmares, it could mean that something energetically is a bit off-kilter. (Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. If you're having seriously detrimental dreams and need extra support beyond these practices, I suggest seeking a doctor or mental health professional). I've had particularly disturbing dreams that I couldn't seem to shake during my awake hours. I've learned that, for me, these are times to double down on self-care; to really tune in and give myself extra attention and support.
I usually tend to have at least a couple of these dreams in a row before I remember, oh hey! This is alerting me that something's going on- I need to pay a bit more attention. I then take the time to sit and give myself reiki, or sign up for an energy healing session with someone else. And then the nightmares go away! Back to my regularly scheduled bizarre dream programming. It's like my subconscious TV was stuck on one of those fuzzy static channels and by applying some consciousness & energy work, I'm able to tune back into the regular, clear channels.
Energy Work & Dream Work
Energy work can also help you on your dreamwork journey during the times you’re having your usual dreams, not just when things are feeling “off.” By regularly tending to yourself on an energetic level, you're keeping a clear, flowing path for these intuitive messages to come through.
Asking for guidance and listening to your inner self or intuition takes time and practice. Cultivating a dreamwork practice is a fun way of honing into your intuition and building a more conscious relationship with yourself, and in turn, with others.
tldr;
Our dreams may be a mix of real life events with secret coded messages from our subconscious lingering throughout. By adopting a dreamwork practice and becoming more inquisitive about the themes and symbols showing up in our dreams, we may open up a portal to a deeper connection with our intuition. Energy work can be a supportive modality on our journey to decoding these dreamy intuitive messages.
In practice
What have you been dreaming about lately? What sorts of messages come to you through dreams? I'd love to hear about them!
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