Dreams

Everyone knows what dreams are, and that they are normal. But why do we dream, and what do they mean? Dreams are memories, thoughts, and or feelings that occur when we sleep. They are basically your mind processing what happened throughout the day. Dreams occur to analyze recent events that we experienced and a way for our brain to clear out unneeded information.

A lot of times, dreams are just a distorted version of reality. They are your unconscious thoughts and desires. If we can better understand and interpret our dreams, it is a way to better understand ourselves. Dream work, or interpreting our dreams, has four elements.

The first element is condensation, which describes when one single statement or thought in your dream that represents a large concept in your reality. The second element is displacement, where the dream disguises the important takeaway with many unnecessary and confusing details. The third element is symbolization where objects are used to portray important content in the dream. The fourth and final element is secondary revision where the strange parts of the dream are recognized and the dream becomes more comprehensible.

So if you are ever confused about what a dream means or why you had it, review the four elements of dream work and compare them to your life.