Dream Journal — Beth Mitchum

Much has been written about the nature of dreams and dream interpretation. There are many dream dictionaries that seek to explain and interpret your dreams and these can often be helpful in getting to the meaning of your dreams. However, dreams are as personalized and unique as each dreamer. Yes, there are similarities in theme and the symbolic language of dreams, but the true key to understanding YOUR dreams is to be found in your psyche. Dream dictionaries can aid you in discovering the universal meanings of some symbols, but only your psyche knows what your dream means to you because dreams arise from our individual psyche as well as from the Collective Unconscious where universal archetypes/symbols reside. To unlock these meanings, you have to find the key to your own psyche. Since dreams speak the language of symbols, which is the domain of concepts and the right hemisphere of the brain, it often helps to utilize a left brain activity, such as writing, to connect the right brain activity of dreaming to the left brain activity of translating symbols into written language. Using a dream journal is like constructing a bridge for the conscious mind to use to pass between the two worlds of the dreaming mind and the waking mind. Used regularly, a dream journal can help us to understand what our unconscious is trying to tell us. It can act as a link between our Higher Selves and our egoic selves.