Dear Reader,

Alice wonders if you've done some dream analysis with your therapist, or even on your own. Dreams happen when we're sleeping, but they can aid our desire for greater contentedness when we're awake by providing problem-solving perspectives and ideas. Going beyond the dream itself to venture a guess at what some of the players, scenes, and symbols mean might in and of themselves make them less disturbing. It doesn't matter if the dream detective is right or wrong in his/her analysis as it would be pretty difficult to make such an absolute determination.

Could your dreams about your old relationship suggest that you still have anxiety related to that experience, or perhaps you're not completely resolved about the breakup? The dreams might just represent endings or loss for you in general. "Alice Freud" will stop there because it's probably more productive for the dreamer to do the interpreting.

In his textbook, Managing Stress, Brian Luke Seaward gathered some of these dream analyses held in common by experts in the field:

• We all dream, but we all don't remember our dreams.

• The dreams that stand out to us are the ones we think are really bizarre, scary, or sparked by something that happened during the day.

• Most of the information in our dreams comes from input that we received when we were awake during the previous two days.

• Recurring dreams represent major unresolved issues.

• Interpretations of what dream images symbolize vary, i.e., a train going through a tunnel may spell something sexual, but it could also just be a train going through a tunnel.

With or without a clear picture on the meaning of a dream, you can rewrite them, sort of. If you are the "victim" in your sleepy cinema, for example, try to imagine yourself in a new role as "victor." Writing a new dream script where past, present, and future situations play and resolve as you direct and desire, along with your original interpretation, gives you the advantage of seeing them in black and white. Carrying the dream chronicling idea one step further: write down, draw, or paint your bad dreams, then rip and trash them as a way of symbolizing and visualizing the end to unwanted feelings and events.

Pleasant dreams, or not, they're a part of you, and may be another road to better health.

Alice

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