I’ve dreamed of a world in perpetual war over puzzle pieces that hold enormous power, of being chased through empty streets by a Gothic carriage pulled by a ghost dog, of demon worlds and trains in the sky.
I’ve dreamed of being stuck in my actual dream, of mysterious forests with whispering trees and of fighting off invading Canadians on Nall Avenue.
Since I was a little girl, I’ve been fascinated by the psychological and scientific aspect of dreams, and I’ve always wondered, what do our dreams mean? What do they represent?
My dreams aren’t a series of random scenes that make no sense. My dreams are stories. And for someone who loves storytelling, they have become undeniably precious to me.
They are a source of inspiration, and each morning, I grab my dream journal next to my pillow and scribble down the basic summary of whatever I remember from the night before.
Sometimes, they are story-worthy material.
Most times, they are just fun to laugh about with friends. Like the three-week recurring dream of being stalked by a serial killer, which scared me so badly that every time me and my friends hung out, I had to drag them outside to check my trunk before I drove home.
But other times — the most important times — my dreams reveal truths that I would have never garnered from everyday thinking. And during those times, the true purpose of dreams appear.
I dreamt one of my most memorable dreams when I was in late elementary school. A girl had been harassing me pretty badly because of how I talked and my stature. After a particularly grueling day of bullying, I went to bed. I dreamed the girl died in a car accident, and I woke up crying.
The girl had tormented me for years; why would I care enough to cry? But I did.
I started wondering what might be going on in her life to make her so angry.
With that realization, I decided to make things change. I might not be able to change the way she treated me, but I could change the way I treated her. Instead of responding to her taunts with snotty remarks or my own anger, I just laughed it off. A month later, she accepted my invitation to sleepover at my house.
So, as silly as it might seem, dreams really do provide amazing insight into your life and emotions.
They lift up the veil called denial and force you to face your fears and anxieties, without fear of failure in the refuge of your own mind.
And only by analyzing, or at least, considering the meaning behind your dreams, can you find such insight.