As both a Tarot reader, intuitive and therapist I work a lot with the subconscious mind, I am particularly interested in dreams. I have studied the work of Carl Jung on this subject and if this is a real area of interest for you I recommend his work most highly. His theories on dreams are fascinating and the interpretation of dreams can be a fascinating journey into your own subconscious.
The first thing I would recommend that you do if you want to understand your dreams and to use them more effectively is to keep a dream journal. Keep it at your bedside and jot down any dream that you have as soon as you wake. Note any themes, people, objects in the dream and any feelings you have. The more you keep the journal, the more dreams you will remember, it is like saying to the universe ‘I am listening’ it rewards you by giving you more recollection.
I would also recommend setting a positive intention before you go to sleep each night, that you wish to remember your dreams, it’s surprising the difference this can make.
When it comes to interpretation of dreams it is important to remember not to take them literally, the people, places and objects you dream about are symbolic and often represent parts of your own personality: for example if you dream about a child, this will often represent your inner child telling you that maybe it’s time to embrace that part of you more.
The important thing to remember is what those places, people or objects in your dream mean to you, after all we all see things differently. A person who had a phobia about spiders dreaming of them would be quite scary and the dream may be talking about some inner fear you have. Whereas if you just see spiders as a pretty cool clever animal that makes a beautiful web to live in your dream could be about you being able to renovate your home. It all depends on perspective.
The more you keep a journal the more you will start to understand your dreams, if you keep a little note of the things going on in your life at the same time it will really begin to make sense. In mine I use the left hand page to note daily thoughts, feelings, things that are happening around me and on the right hand page I note my dreams (I do it this way around as the right side of the brain is the side that deals with intuition, subconscious, art, colours, emotions dreams etc.). If you do this over a period of time you will notice the patterns as they start to emerge.
Most of all have fun with this, use your dreams to enhance your life they will often show you the good around you and how to get more out of life, if you can understand and use them you just might find you feel more in touch with who you truly are.