Winter is a good time to start a dream journal as our dreams tend to become stronger during “hibernation season.”

In dreams, we often live out our worst fears, fantasies and forbidden scenarios without inhibition, and do and feel things we wouldn’t in normal life. They can be quite entertaining — a good dream can rival a five star movie...!

If we listen to our dreams, we can get a better understand of how we feel on a subconscious level, and what motivates us in our conscious life.

Do you remember your dreams? Many people don’t... One way to encourage dreaming is to keep a journal and record whatever comes to your mind after waking up. A predictable sleeping schedule helps, as does exercise.

Staying away from alcohol helps to maintain a clear mind receptive to dreaming and I wouldn’t be surprised if meditation helps, too.

I have noticed that if I talk to other people about my dreams, or simply pay more attention to them, I start to have longer and more vivid ones.

As I have an analytical mind, I tend to jump right into interpreting my dreams upon waking. I’ve been told, however, that allowing the feelings of the dream to sink in, and fully absorbing the content of the dream is a crucial step in the process of “getting the message.”

Writing dreams down, and describing colors, symbols and events helps me to do that, and I’ve noticed that being able to read the dream later makes it easier to interpret.

Dream interpretation is kind of tricky... Symbols are personal And culturally relative. So when I read books about it, I tend to take some of the information with a grain of salt. I have gained insight by reading them; it’s just a matter of being selective.

An easy way to go about interpreting a dream is to simply go by its feeling. And if a symbol appears strongly in your dream, consider what that symbol represents to you, specifically, as we all can have different associations regarding one symbol.

In certain cultures, people live their lives by heeding messages in dreams. I can’t help but think that this is a wise way to live because staying in touch with subconscious mind is a powerful tool to self-understanding.

This might sound odd, but I have had many positive experiences where I’ve dreamt something and then copied that dream in “real life” and it helped me in some way. It could be something as small as going to post office (I didn’t have to wait in line) or as big as visiting a friend (the friend had something important to tell me).

We have much to gain by tapping into the psychic well of dream-knowledge... and, free movies!

What will we learn from our dreams tonight?