Advice for understanding your dreams

Our dreams reflect our subconscious and our fantasies. They serve as a valve, liberating us from what suppresses us during the day and allowing us to free ourselves from anxieties, worries and desires. Here are a few pointers to help you understand your dreams better.

1) A dream can never be fully analysed: only certain parts can be decoded. A dream will always retain an element of mystery and you'll never be able to explain everything.

2) Don't go to extreme lengths to try and work out what your dreams mean. While some of them prompt us to think about a situation, others don't necessarily have a particular message to give us.

3) So that you don't distort your analysis, write your dream down as accurately as possible. As soon as you wake up, write down whatever comes back to you, omitting no detail, however small and seemingly insignificant.

4) Try to isolate the dominant image of your dream as much as you can, or the symbol that disturbed you the most. Reflect on its meaning: what does it refer to? Is it related to the past, future or present?

5) Once you've done that, take a look at the details: these are important too. The minor characters, scenery, dominant colours, etc are important elements and they'll help you interpret your dream. 

6) Don't draw hasty conclusions. Symbols and their meanings can vary from one person to the next. The language of dreams is individual. There are no fixed rules on the subject, just trains of thought, so when analysing your dreams take your own personal experiences into account.

7) Don't just rely on any old book which tells you that a symbol has one definitive meaning: get hold of a dream dictionary that explains symbols through different civilisations and ages. A good dictionary will interpret symbols in many different ways. If it doesn't, it's not worth investing in!