Connecting the Dots in Your Dreams

Nearly every dream features a number of moving parts, sometimes there are so many that its easy to get to get them all confused.  We interact with a number of people, other symbols, and even animals, that cause us distress or fascinate us, or churn up a number of other emotions.  In fact, unless we take the elements in our dream and separate them from one another, it’s all too easy for them to all run together in confusion.

Take a deep breath.  Separating the elements within a dream isn’t as difficult or complicated as you might think.  All you have to do is find the answer to a few simple questions.  Once you have those answers it’s really not that difficult for you to connect the dots in the most intriguing of dreams.

First, get two pieces of paper and place them side by side.  On one of these pieces of paper write your dream down from beginning to end with as many details as you remember.  Then go to the second piece of paper.  Before you write anything on it answer this question: Who or what in the dream receives the attention and the action of the dream?  From my experience I can tell you that most times the answer to that question is the dreamer, unless the dreamer is observing something and is not a part of the action.  When you have the answer to that question, you have found the focus of the dream.  Write it in the center of the blank piece of paper.

The next question to ask is : Who or what in the dream has the greatest effect on the dream’s focus?  Next, circle the focus and sub-focus and connect them by drawing lines between them.

Everything else in the dream are details.  If you come to the point where you feel that one of the leftovers is too important to be a detail, go back and rework the first two steps.

These details should be drawn around the sub-focuses they describe.  For example, if you have a dream where you are driving a blue convertible you are the focus.  The convertible is the sub-focus and the color of the convertible is a detail.  Once all those dots are connected, you can move on to the second way of connecting dots in your dreams — looking for connections.

In every dream there are connections between things that seem very dissimilar, but they are indeed connected.  This is done courtesy of that wonderful mystery called dream logic.

For example, if there is a reference to the color orange in the first scene of a dream, then again in the final scene of the dream, it hints at a connection of stubbornness.  It’s a subtle hint, but it can be detected if you know what to look for.

Another example is how the emotional state of the dreamer changes throughout the dream.  Let’s say the dreamer feels fear in the first scene of a dream and then feels it again in the fourth scene.  This could very well point to other connections the two scenes have, more obvious connections once this initial connection is made.  But it can easily be missed if that first surface connection is not made.

What has helped you connect the dots in your dreams?  Share in the comments.

EB

Photo credit: jimblodget via Foter.com / CC BY