Whole Life Magazine

August/September 2019

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A dream is the conversa- tion you are having with yourself concerning a very specific situation in your life you are attempting to problem-solve. Further, the solution to what's bothering you comes to you in your unconscious mind before it gets to your conscious. If you understand what you were saying to yourself when you had the dream, you can propel your problem-solving. That's how dream anal- ysis works. I help dreamers understand the language of metaphor. Psychiatrist Dr. Carl Jung proposes that all the parts of a dream represent differ- ent aspects of the dreamer. This begs a discussion of how polarities appear in our dreams. In fact, establishing the polarities in a dream often leads to the 'answer' or strength therein. The solution to an issue is often found by helping the dreamer explore a reaction somewhere in the middle of two polarities. We humans are self- regulating, and we regulate ourselves through our dreams. For example, if we are experiencing an extreme feeling, idea, or behavior in our waking life, the complete opposite will often appear in the dream. In essence, just the appearance of the complete opposite forces your reaction to "pull" itself toward the middle. For example, let's propose your dream tonight was triggered by the fact that somebody hurt your feelings today, but you stood there not saying a word about how it made you feel. You didn't speak up for yourself at all. Well, don't be surprised if you go to sleep tonight and the person who you associate with as having the most assertive personality appears in your dream. If that happens, we would be looking at a polarity. The very assertive person you dreamed about is the antithesis of how you behaved when someone was rude to you today. As for the solution, we don't change our behaviors overnight. It does take a little work, but if you're someone who has difficulty expressing yourself, that very assertive person in your dream is your unconscious' way of tapping you in to the potential you have to speak up! You're not going to turn into that personality-type overnight, but the polarity can help you reach toward more of a balance. Maybe the dream will even inspire you to speak up just a little. In his Interpretation of Dreams, psychoanalyst Dr. Sigmund Freud said, "Dreams are quite incapable of expressing the alternative 'either – or'; it is their custom to take both members of this alternative into the same context, as though they had an equal right to be there." So, when you are trying to say to yourself either I'm going to say nothing, or I'm going to express myself, your POLARITIES IN DREAMS: WHEN DARK WHAT DID YOU DREAM LAST NIGHT? WAS IT STRANGE OR SEEMINGLY CONTRADICTORY? 18 wholelifetimes.com

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