Understand Your Dreams

"The Dream Maker loves you... [it is] our loyal companion [and] wants us to thrive."

p.17 "Dream Wise"

Do you have an active dream life? Have you wondered what on earth they mean? Have you tried to find out by using a dream dictionary but it didn't make much sense? Yes? Well this could be the book for you to help you understand your dreams. It's a detailed guide written from a Jungian perspective.

"Dream Wise" (pub. 2024 and written by the hosts of This Jungian Life podcast) explains what our dreams are for and how we can tap into their information and wisdom. However nebulous, convoluted and complex our dreams are, much like our emotions and feelings, they give us useful and important information and can guide us in our everyday life.

This book has a clear and logical format and gives many prompts and questions to help you unlock the secrets of your dream life. It's written in a relaxed, comfortable style and also gives explanations of the main Jungian concepts with lots of dream examples to show how to use these with your own dreams.

If you want a quick dream analysis this book is probably not for you. There's a great deal of information to digest and putting it into practice requires serious commitment but that's par for the course for any meaningful internal work.

"Inner Work" by Robert A. Johnson is a great alternative which would be a good way to see if dreamwork is for you before plunging into the fascinating depths of "Dream Wise". It can also be picked up second-hand.

Tip: those small reading lights which clip onto your book are brilliant for when you want to jot down a dream in the dark, without disrupting your sleep too much (or your bed mate's!). They are inexpensive, very light, have different brightness and light colour levels, are rechargeable via USB and one charge lasts a very long time. They are also great in a power cut, for camping, using on a night flight or as a lightweight torch. Can you tell I love mine?!