Health and healing through dreams

Can your dreams help alert you to health issues, and can those dreams be used to explore avenues for healing?

If you dream that you have cancer, you’re most likely dreaming about something in your life that seems to be growing out of control, or about your fears or feelings that something in your life is terminal, perhaps a relationship or business you’re involved in, or the finite amount of energy you can devote to a demanding situation. The dream is unlikely to mean you have cancer, or that you will develop cancer. Dreams are usually symbolic, painting your life experiences – both the conscious and unconscious sides – in metaphors.

You might have read the above paragraph and taken note that to dream of cancer means that something in your life feels terminal, but that was just an example I used to illustrate the symbolic nature of dreams, and the way that you need to take a sideways look at any dream to connect its metaphor and brushstrokes to the experiences that your dreaming mind is processing and painting. Consulting (or writing) a dream dictionary is unhelpful. The art of interpreting dreams is rather one of developing an eye for considering a dream from its various angles and discovering how to read it as a manifestation of the way you uniquely process your conscious and unconscious experiences.

While you should always consult a health professional if you’re concerned about any aspect of your health, if you’re looking for health alerts in your dreams, think more metaphorically.

You might have dreams of a home invasion or war if your unconscious mind picks up on a bacterial or viral invasion or senses your immune system mobilising its defence forces. (You might equally well be processing feelings of having your personal space invaded, of being defensive, or caught up in an inner conflict.)

You might see signs of ailing in your dreams, perhaps a sickly looking plant, or signs of infection, perhaps murky looking water, but these may equally well be your dreaming mind’s way of processing the feeling of ailing personal growth, failure of a cherished project to thrive, or – in the case of the murky water – feeling unclear or even toxic about something.

You might be reading this and thinking that, on a mind-body level, these things are connected; that feeling emotionally defensive may lead to an over-vigilant or exhausted immune system, or that difficulties setting your personal boundaries may lead to being run down and susceptible to an infection, or that a feeling that something in your life is growing fast beyond your control might lead to cancer. Perhaps, perhaps not, but if it takes a dream to alert you to feelings of invasion, defensiveness, or issues around control, you have the opportunity to explore those feelings and find new balance in your life, healing at the mind level before any amplification occurs at the body level.

If you go to bed worrying about your health, your dreams may process your conscious concerns, again, most likely in a symbolic manner. Such dreams may process your beliefs about health and wellness, or your fears about sickness, or why you have a propensity to worry, or whether your health worries are based on actual health issues.

Your unconscious mind can pick up on symptoms or potential health issues before they become obvious, and these may be reflected in your dreams, metaphorically rather than literally.

If you’re living unhealthy life choices and you know it, your dreams may process your conflicts and self-betrayals, and if you’re in denial of your unhealthy habits, well, your dreams are going to process all of that as well as the deeper underlying causes of your denial.

We’ve been exploring whether dreams can alert you to health issues, but let’s now change tack. If you’re already sick, how can you use your dreams to assist healing?

Let’s say you have a cough. Look through your dreams for metaphors of the cough, like a spluttering chimney, or crackling fireworks, or a car engine fitting and starting instead of working fluidly. Then apply dream alchemy, perhaps visualising – while awake – that dream chimney clearing, or the fireworks producing flowing music, or the car engine running smoothly and silently. In doing this, you are handing over to your unconscious mind to find a healing solution for your cough. Your unconscious mind chose your unique dream symbol – the chimney, the fireworks, the car engine – for your cough, so you’re communicating with your unconscious mind, speaking its language: Heal this.

When your health issue is deeply rooted in unconscious feelings and beliefs (the real reason why you chose unhealthy habits, for example), healing needs to begin with transformation at the unconscious mind level. Such is the power of dream alchemy. You’ll find yourself automatically making healthier choices on every level, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

Health and healing in dreams was our topic on Today Extra (Nine, national television Australia) last month. You can watch the segment here if you access from Australia (Today extra’s videos are geo-blocked beyond Australia).

 

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