Did you know that you can use dreams as a tool for more than just checking in on your thoughts and feelings?
In fact, while dreams can be useful in identifying problems we might overlook in our waking hours, they can also be a line of communication between you and your higher self. Many people also believe you can receive messages from God during dreams.
Dreams Are Not One-Size-Fits-All.
Below are 6 major types of dreams and how to identify them, as well as how you can use them as a tool in your spiritual and physical world journeys.
One of my favorite YouTube Channels is Christina Lopes’s channel. Known as the Heart Alchemist, she is great at giving answers to spiritual questions, all while being entertaining and helping her channel’s followers with her giving heart. If you have never watched her channel, you might want to check it out.
In one of her recent posts, she talks about 6 of the Major Types of Dreams, ways to identify them, and ways to work with them.
6 Major Types of Dreams:
1. Astral Projection Dreams- might include flying. We have them nightly but don’t usually remember them. So, when you do remember, pay attention.
2. Collective Consciousness Dreams- sometimes nonsensical and might make you feel disgusting when you wake up, depending on which part of the collective consciousness you tap into.
3. Garbage Pit Dreams- might seem like a movie montage, with random images that don’t tie together. Typically, these happen when we don’t make time to reflect, but they are not usually significant. Remembering to pay attention to how the dream made you feel will help you determine if the dream is junk mail.
4. Guidance Dreams- Do you ask a question directly prior to a meditation session, only to be disappointed over and over again, with no answer?
If you answered “yes,” my next question is what you dreamed about the night following your last fruitless meditation session. That’s because we can (and do) receive guidance from God, our soul, or guides in our dreams. Keep that in mind the next time you need an answer to something. If you don’t get an answer while meditating, be on the lookout for your answer when you drift off to dreamland.
5. Healing Dreams- If you’ve ever avoided thinking of something, only to dream about it at night, it might be a healing dream. In a healing dream, your mind tells you that you need to work through something. Dream journaling can help you through this process. More on that in a bit.
6. Prescient (Psychic) Dreams- feel like you are seeing the future, and you probably are. However, the actual event might not end up exactly like the dream. They are more of a heads up than anything and give you the opportunity to course correct or be otherwise prepared.
Identifying your emotional reaction can help you decide how to categorize your dream and what it means to you.
Notice I said, “to you.”
That is one important distinction that will come in handy when you are interpreting your dreams, as well as when you are identifying them. Since our dreams are typically more of a communication through symbols, there is no “one size fits all” dream interpretation, and most dreams should not be taken literally.
The bottom line is, your dreams are as unique as you... and as special.
Now, let’s talk about interpreting it.
There are many books which help you interpret your dreams. If you search Amazon Bookstore, you will likely find many suggestions, and you can also find several dream interpretations online.
No matter where you are getting your interpretation from, consider 2 things:
1. The source. Does the person providing the interpretation have expertise? For instance: A Psychologist or a Shaman.
What makes the person qualified to give you an answer (science or spirituality), is up to you. The important thing is to always have a checklist or some other criteria to qualify your sources.
If you wouldn’t listen to someone in real life, why would you pay attention to them online?
2. Place as much emphasis on how the dream made you feel as anything. Your intuition is a highly valuable resource. Use it often.
The same is true for interpretations. If an interpretation feels wrong, find another interpretation, and/or give yourself some time to process the interpretation and decide if it is actually wrong, or if you might be refusing to believe the interpretation because you don’t want it to be true.
Journal it.
Lastly, one way to understand your dreams and use them for communication with your higher self and other higher beings is to journal. Another suggestion from Christina Lopes, Heart Alchemist, is to write down your dream as soon as you wake up and she even offers a tip to make sure you aren’t forgetting important points, before you get the chance to write it all down. She says she finds it useful to create a voice note, directly upon waking, especially if she wakes up after a dream in the middle of the night.
Your dream journal doesn’t have to be elaborate, unless that’s what you like. The point is to write the dream down, so you can decipher it or decide that it has no value.
Here’s my process:
1. Write the date somewhere on the page, because you might want to refer back to the page, later.
2. Start with describing the events and any feelings you noticed, throughout the dream.
3. Once you’ve written it all down, you can decide what type of dream it is. It might not foretell the future but as you can see, there are many ways a dream can be useful.
4. Now that you know what you dreamed and how it’s relevant, you might find it useful to go through and highlight the parts of the dream which caused a notable emotion. The reason is that most dreams communicate through symbols, meaning they aren’t to be interpreted literally. Considering the way you felt about various parts of the dream can give you valuable insight into what kind of dream it was and what it means for you.
5. As you are reading through to highlight the highly emotional parts of your dream, you may have thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere that tie the dream to real life. Write those parts down.
I have often found that doing this will help me make sense of the dream without an interpretation book or forum, but I have been known to use an interpretation book to confirm my thoughts about the meaning of the dream.
6. Next, use your favorite way of interpreting what the symbols in the dream mean. Remember that interpretations are often similar amongst people, but there are exceptions. Your dreams can be as unique as you.
7. Last, reflect on what this interpretation means for you. Is it a warning? Is it your brain telling you to make some time to just be, throughout the day?
You can make your own process or follow mine, but dream journaling is an excellent way to use your dreams as tools. In fact, I have found that dreams are like a shortcut to communicating with your higher self. We often hear our intuition less as we get older, but our intuition can be retrained like a muscle.
When you write your dreams down and act on inspiration, it’s like opening the door for your intuition just a bit wider.
I hope you found this post valuable. If so, make sure you like, follow, and consider sharing with someone you know will love it or find it valuable.
Also, if there is content you would like to see more of, let me know. For example, if you have a specific question about dreams I haven’t answered yet, let me know, and I will get right on it.
Thanks for reading and take care.