In this email, I’m going to tell you about a patient’s dream that revealed incredibly valuable information and helped her understand some unresolved issues in her own life. Pay attention because I’m sure you’ve found yourself in a similar situation.
I first heard Anna’s story in a psychology seminar. It was a clinical case we were all learning from.
Anna was in her early 40s, a successful lawyer, and an insomniac. When she finally managed to sleep, she had recurring dreams about being late.
These dreams kept happening over and over again. She was late for work, late for a train, late for a mysterious appointment she never quite reached.
Each time, she would wake up anxious, heart racing, sweating all over.
At first, she dismissed these dreams as stress-related. Well, of course, we have this innate tendency to blame everything on stress or anxiety, but why? That is the real question.
Until she started therapy.
After discussing them with her therapist, she realised something, the dreams weren’t just about time. They were about unfinished business.
(Disclaimer: this process could take a loooooooooooong time, aka a lot of sessions for the patient and therapist to reach this conclusion.)
Years ago, Anna had ended a serious relationship abruptly. She told herself it was for the best. You know, no regrets, no looking back. I want to focus on my career, blah blah blah.
But deep down, there was unfinished emotion, unspoken words, things left unsaid.
The dream, once interpreted, wasn’t about missing a train or an appointment. It was about missing closure.
This is classic Freud. The dream wasn’t random. It was Anna’s mind trying to communicate something she wasn’t ready to face.
Let’s talk about your dreams and your everyday life. Maybe you don’t have dreams about being late. But have you ever dreamed about:
- Your teeth falling out? It could mean… anxiety about control, or lack of it.
- Being chased? It could mean… avoiding something, or someone, in real life.
- Flying? It could mean… a feeling of freedom or, sometimes, the exact opposite, a desperate need to escape.
These are just examples. You should know that the meaning of a dream will never be generalised. So, you will never be able to decipher it by looking it up in one of those typical dream dictionaries or any of that nonsense.
If there is one thing we can be sure of, it is that dreams have individual meanings, which only the dreamer can attribute.
The details differ, but the pattern remains, dreams reflect what is happening inside us.
Freud called this dream work, aka the process of turning hidden thoughts into dream symbols.
And yes, sometimes a dream is just a dream. Not every weird image means something deep. Relax.
You might not actually want to kill your brother-in-law.
Or maybe you do. Who am I to judge?
But if a dream sticks with you, if it makes you feel something powerful, it might be worth a closer look.
So, the big question is:
How could you use your dreams to understand yourself?
Freud wasn’t suggesting that every dream should be taken literally. If you dream of crashing your car, it doesn’t mean you’re doomed to an accident. It’s not literal, just like Anna’s dream of always being late.
Instead, the key is to look for patterns.
Ask yourself:
- What was the strongest emotion in the dream? Fear? Relief? Excitement?
- Does this dream remind you of anything in your waking life?
- Have you had similar dreams before?
Most importantly, be curious. Instead of dismissing a dream as just weird, consider it a message from your mind. It might be telling you something worth listening to.
Or not, but you have to pay attention before dismissing it.
But, but.
There is something terribly frustrating about doing dream work.
You wake up from a dream, it’s clear as day, and then, poof, it’s gone. Why does this happen?
Freud believed that we forget dreams because our minds censor them.
If dreams reveal hidden desires, some of them might be too uncomfortable to keep in our conscious memory. So, the moment we wake up, the mind erases them.
There’s also a more practical reason, dreams come from a different part of the brain than conscious thought. They don’t work in neat, logical sentences. Instead, they appear in images, emotions, and sensations. Once we wake up, our rational brain tries to translate them into words, and in the process, details slip away.
But not all is lost.
If you want to remember your dreams, try keeping a dream journal. Write down whatever you recall as soon as you wake up, even if it’s just a single word. Over time, you’ll get better at catching them before they fade.
So, next time you wake up from a strange dream, don’t just shrug it off. Think about it. Maybe it’s your mind trying to tell you something important.
You could try this to learn more about your dreams, for the next week, write down every dream you remember. At the end of the week, look for patterns. Patterns, they are the key to almost everything!
You might be surprised at what you discover.
To make this easier, you could use a simple notebook or a dream journal app to keep track of your dreams with zero to none hustle.
I found this app called Dream Journal Ultimate, a free app that helps you record and analyse your dreams over time. You can download it on Google Play or App Store.
Sweet dreams.
Love,
Noemi
P.S.: To get the Dream Journal Ultimate app you can download it on Google Play or App Store.
