Table of contents
- A dream diary helps to interpret dreams
- Interpreting dreams: Why it makes so much sense
- The most important theories in dream interpretation
- 7 important steps in dream interpretation
- The most common dream symbols and their meanings
- 1. Dream motif of flying
- 2. Dream motif swimming
- 3. Dream motif cheating
- 4. Dream motif packing suitcases / traveling
- 5. Dream motif quarrel
- 6. Dream motif falling
- 7. Dream motif teeth or tooth loss
- 8. Dream motif naked in public
- 9. Dream motif being pregnant
- 10. Dream motif death
- 11. Dream motif snake
- 12. Dream motif spider
Psychologists and psychoanalysts attribute an important role to dream interpretation. The fantasy experiences that we experience while sleeping play a significant role in stabilizing our psychological equilibrium. Interpreting dreams means gaining valuable insights into your own subconscious and personality.
Whether you remember it the next morning or not: We all dream. Some of these dreams are beautiful - so beautiful that you wouldn't want to wake up at all.
Then there is thisthat shake you awake in the middle of the night. And finally, the completely puzzling dreams where you just ask yourself: “What was that supposed to mean?” These are often particularly frustrating, especially when you know that dreams are anything but inconsequential.
And that's exactly why we're giving you a few valuable tips on how you can better interpret your dreams. Once you know the most important dream symbols, you will be able to understand your own dreams much more easily.
A dream diary helps to interpret dreams
If you want to interpret your dreams, you should get a dream diary. This is nothing more than a notebook or notebook in which you write down your dreams and the symbols that appeared in them when you wake up.
With the help of the dream diary you can recognize recurring patterns that can play a crucial role in dream interpretation. This makes it easier for you to draw conclusions between what you dreamed and what you experienced.
Tipp:There are also special dream diaries you can buy with pre-printed pages in which you can write down your dreams and which also contain instructions on how to interpret dreams.There is a well-rated dream diary on Amazon here!*
Interpreting dreams: Why it makes so much sense
Dreams contain numerous clues about our needs or about a previously unknown psychological reality. For example, a dream that is about the opposite of what you want can reveal a repressed need that you would otherwise repress due to moral constraints. A dream interpretation works like a translation of encrypted symbols.
The most important theories in dream interpretation
Sigmund Freud laid the foundation for modern methods of dream interpretation with the invention of psychoanalysis in 1900. Freud assumes that an unconscious need is satisfied in dreams and that this wish fulfillment cannot be interpreted spontaneously.
In order to be able to interpret your own dreams, you first have to separate the individual elements from each other and then put them back together again with regard to your personal life and environment.
Carl Gustav Jung developed a slightly different approach to interpreting dreams: According to his theory, every person is guided by a collective subconscious. For him, the symbols and messages of dreams are identical for all people and form a kind of universal language.
7 important steps in dream interpretation
Our dreams reflect our subconscious and our fantasies. They are, so to speak, the outlet through which we express fears, worries and needs that build up within us throughout the day. Here are seven tricks that will help you better understand, analyze and use your dreams positively.
Not a complete interpretation
A dream can never be fully interpreted. Only certain elements can be deciphered.
No interpretation at any price
Don't obsessively try to find deeper meaning in every dream. Certainly some dreams can make us think about a certain situation. But there are also dreams that have no profound meaning.
As precise as possible
In order not to distort the interpretation, the dream must be reproduced precisely. Therefore, every time you wake up, write down as precisely as possible what you dreamed - even the details that seem rather insignificant to you - keyword: dream diary.
Find out dominant symbols
Try to isolate as much as possible the dominant image in your dream or the symbol that confused you the most. Think about its meaning: what could it refer to: your past, the present or the future?
Also look at small details
Once you have isolated the central element of your dream, you can move on to the details, because these are also interesting. Secondary characters, landscapes, dominant colors – all these elements are parts of the puzzle and make dream interpretation easier.
Don't be too hasty
Don't be tempted to jump to conclusions. The symbols and their meanings may vary from one person to another. There are no hard and fast rules, just ideas for reflection and food for thought. The interpretation must be done taking into account your real life.
Look at the big picture
Don't trust any literary work on the subject of dream interpretation. Create a lexicon that looks at dream symbolism across different cultures and eras.
The most common dream symbols and their meanings
1. Dream motif of flying
Anyone who dreams of flying often experiences this as a kind of intoxication. You feel light, superior to everything, unassailable. Sigmund Freud interprets dreaming of flying as an erotic wish and a need to overcome boundaries (including self-imposed ones) or conflicts.
In modern dream research, the focus is no longer on the desire for changes when dreaming of flying, but rather on self-confidence. Depending on how high the dream is flying, it is assumed that it is exaggerated to varying degreesout of. The risk of falling is always taken into account.
Anyone who floats weightlessly over landscapes that cannot be defined more precisely in their dream may be trying to avert their gaze from stressful things in life, to close themselves off and to suppress unpleasant things. In this case, flying is something like an escape from yourself and your own problems.
2. Dream motif swimming
In dream interpretation, water is generally a symbol of everything emotional and is therefore associated with feelings. Freud sees water as unconscious psychic energy, a sign of the unconscious.
When interpreting swimming in dreams, you must first differentiate between whether you are swimming in clear or cloudy water. Swimming in clear and/or flowing water indicates balance, contentment and a state of happiness, which can be characterized, for example, by love or professional success.
Cloudy water, on the other hand, can mean fear of, for example, an exam. It symbolizes insecurity or a lack of self-knowledge.
Statistically speaking, women dream of water particularly often. For example, anyone who has already experienced pregnancy will consciously or subconsciously remember the child's movements in the amniotic fluid, which in turn can trigger positive dreams about water.
If women dream of water, it can also mean that they have a strong desire for a change in their life.
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3. Dream motif cheating
If you dream of cheating on your partner, you don't have to immediately panic that you will actually do it soon. However, you should think about whether you are really happy in your current relationship situation.
Dreaming about infidelity indicates that you are not in harmony with your personality and have problems that you may not have admitted to yourself yet. There is something in your life that prevents you from meeting your own needs.
Another way to interpret this dream: feelings of guilt are expressed here. However, these do not necessarily have to relate to your own partner, but can have other causes.
If the dream is extremely sexually charged, it could simply be that you are not able to sufficiently live out your sexual needs - and you want to change something about that.
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4. Dream motif packing suitcases / traveling
If you dream of packing your suitcase and / or going on a trip, you may be longing for a change in your life path. The further the journey takes you in a dream, the greater the desire for change.
The journey in the dream can also represent the desire to explore one's own personality. In any case, such a dream always has something to do with shaping your own path in life.
A departure indicates a new beginning. When you sit behind the wheel, you enjoy being in control. The nature of the travel destination can also provide information about the dreamer's future wishes.
5. Dream motif quarrel
As banal as it may sound, anyone who dreams of an argument is dealing with inner conflicts for which they do not yet have a solution. A distinction must be made here as to who is arguing with whom and whether you are involved in the dispute or not.
If you only watch an argument in your dream as a spectator, you may be going through a turbulent phase in your life from which you cannot escape. Anyone who is at the center of the conflict may feel pushed into a corner in their current life situation - or the dream is an indication that one should be more flexible towards other people.
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6. Dream motif falling
In general, the fall symbol is associated with fear, insecurity and self-doubt in dream interpretation. The dream of falling can refer to the fear of not being able to meet the demands and expectations of others.
A fall can also symbolize current problems that were caused by a significant change in the dreaming's life. Anyone who falls into the void or from a staircase can interpret this dream as an indication of a certain emotional emptiness or as fear of the future.
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7. Dream motif teeth or tooth loss
In general, dreaming of teeth indicates sexual or material needs, because teeth represent an important instrument of power and aggressiveness. Anyone who dreams of having white and healthy teeth is probably going through a positive, successful phase in their life.
Dreaming of wobbling or pulled teeth can symbolize loss of power and fear of any powerlessness (affective, sexual, professional). However, tooth loss can also relate to a lack of vitality.
Tooth loss can mean strong emotional excitability and lack of self-confidence, which prevent the dreamer from developing his personality.
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8. Dream motif naked in public
Anyone who runs around naked in their dream has at least two ways to interpret this. By the way, neither of them has anything to do with sexuality - although 'nudity' suggests so.
If you feel comfortable being naked and being watched by others, you may want to show (even) more of your true self than you normally do.
Anyone who feels good naked in a dream and is completely alone and unobserved is at peace with themselves and has no problem expressing this freely.
Anyone who walks around naked in a dream and is ashamed of it (alone or under observation) may have a problem with exposing themselves (mentally or physically).
This dream is therefore related to a feeling of fear, possibly also to a lack of self-confidence. This dream often also indicates how much importance the dreamer attaches to the opinions of others.
9. Dream motif being pregnant
If women dream of being pregnant, this can indicate the most obvious thing: a desire to have children. But the environment can also cause women to dream that they are pregnant by constantly asking questions about pregnancy.
But the dream symbol “pregnant” can also mean something else. A pregnancy symbolizes new beginnings or personal growth. In addition, the symbol of pregnancy is also associated with creativity.
The expression “let an idea mature” is no coincidence. If you dream that you are pregnant, this can also indicate an upcoming personal change or a creative process.
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10. Dream motif death
Anyone who dreams of death, whether their own death, that of a close relative or a friend, often wakes up with the uneasy feeling that this could be a premonition. Don't panic, these dreams are not about a dark prediction!
Dreams about death are rather a sign of a new beginning or of the end or the fear of the end of a relationship of some kind with someone important to us.
It can be about a love that we have long since known has no future, or about our fear of losing a good relationship with our sister, for example, because we haven't gotten along with her at all lately .
Death dreams can also be a sign that you want to change something about your chosen path in life, but have not yet consciously realized this. In general, it must be said that dreams about death are among the most complex dreams and allow for many interpretations, depending on exactly what you are dreaming about.
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11. Dream motif snake
There was a snake in your dream? This dream symbol can have very different meanings, depending on which snake it is or how you interacted with the snake in the dream.
In dream interpretation, for example, seeing a snake can be a symbol of a false friend. Or it is a warning that someone around you is betraying you. If a snake crawls towards you in your dream, it can predict impending disaster.
And the type of snake itself can also provide information about what your dream means. Do you dream of one?constrictor snake, which has a grip on you, it can mean that you feel trapped, that there is something in your life that is crushing you. This could be the partner who is jealous and controlling you, or the job in which you feel trapped.
One comes in your dreamVenomous snakeBefore, it usually has a completely different meaning than you might think. Because the poisonous snake can represent unfulfilled erotic desires. Being bitten by a poisonous snake in a dream can also mean that the issue of jealousy plays a major role in your life.
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12. Dream motif spider
Hard to believe, but true: dreaming of spiders generally bodes well. Because in dream interpretation, the spider is a symbol of luck. Anyone who previously thought that the crawling creatures were announcing impending danger can rest assured.
A spider in a dream can even represent an imminent financial blessing. It can be interpreted as a good sign if you dream of a spider before the salary discussion with your boss.
By the way: a dream in which you try to catch a spider can mean that you are striving for happiness. If you have actually caught the spider, it can be a symbol that a difficult situation has been resolved and that you have your life firmly under control.
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