There's such a great amount of information in a dream that we often get impeded by all the little details or by the complicated story of the dream and can't locate the basic message. We can't see the backwoods for the trees as it were. Our conscious personality has to endeavor to make everything fit into a decent three-act story, and in doing so adds extra information that's not essential to the issue or issues at hand. By stripping away the details, we can get to the essence of the matter and lessen the time and frustration it takes to analyze the dream.
All the time we discover analyzing, or interpreting our dreams to be a daunting and tedious task with little reward. We put in hours, even days, going over the images, words, characters and settings, and after all our work regardless we aren't sure what the message is. The greatest obstacle for many of us is figuring out which meaning an explicit image is referencing. Is the house in the dream a representation of the body as many dreamworkers adamantly argue. Is it a reference to the distinctive areas of our lives; Perhaps the house is a metaphor for our psyche? Maybe it's exactly what it is by all accounts, a message about our living arrangement. It tends to be extremely frustrating endeavoring to deal with all the distinctive conceivable meanings, references and associations for each image/image in a dream.
To demonstrate this trouble I'll use an example with a standout amongst the most baffling universal dream images; water:
I'm in a boat on the ocean when abruptly an ominous tempest shapes and is heading straightforwardly toward me. As the breeze grabs, giant waves slam against the sides of my boat. I'm hurled around like a ragdoll. The waves are persevering and are threatening to topple the boat, dumping me into the water. I start to panic and I'm certain I will bite the dust.
Obviously, water and waves are the predominant images/images in this dream. The trouble arises when we endeavor to interpret the water image. Water can speak to a variety of things: feelings, soul (or spirituality), hydration, life. As well there's the meanings that are gotten from popular culture; phrases, metaphors and adages we use each day; mouth-watering – desirable; in high temp water – in a bad position, or trouble; up the creek without a paddle; suffocating paying off debtors; water under the extension. I'm certain there are many more, yet the fact is, water can allude to various things, issues, or situations.
The subject or point (also alluded to as the theme) of this dream recommends that the message is that "somebody's on a violent adventure," or "somebody feels overpowered by something." Both subjects avoid the probability that water is alluding to soul, hydration or want. In setting, the water imagery is by all accounts proposing an emotional and/or troublesome issue.
A brisk side note here. Don't confuse the subject or point (theme) of your dream with the general "themes" that are always touted all over the web; universal dream themes, regular dream themes, and so on. These are broad, sweeping "categories, for example, being chased, being attacked, falling, flying, losing your teeth, being naked out in the open. I classify these as categories because they're normal to all individuals – we all have the same sorts of dreams because we're all human creatures with human needs, wants and fears. We all have the same concerns and issues on our psyches; family, home, finances, love, relationships, career, confidence, achievement… You get the idea. These categories are representative of something different, they are not the issue the dream is attempting to get across to your conscious personality.
Although it's useful to realize what type or category of dream it will be, it's not nearly as detailed or personal (emotional) enough to enable us to get profoundly meaning/s of any one explicit dream. With the end goal to discover the message amongst the madness, we have to decide the subject/s (or theme/s) being addressed. This can be done fairly rapidly and painlessly.
To begin with, you need a dream to work with. This is stated all over and is apparent, however just to be exhaustive, you need a composed dream answer to work with. On the off chance that you haven't gotten into the habit of recording your dreams, it may be a decent time to start.
Next, we have to figure out what's happening and to whom. This is a lot easier than it sounds. Just eliminate all the specifics from the dream. For example:
I'm being chased down a swarmed city road by three zombies and a pink poodle amidst the day.
Record (without specifics) what's happening and to whom: somebody is being sought after by something strange for all to see.
There are always unique ways to phrase or understand a scene or image. The above image can also be interpreted as, "somebody's being harassed or tormented amidst a group by something.”
Don't give the choices a chance to get you frazzled. Run with your first intuition.
Dreams often have in excess of one theme. Nothing in life is basic, straight forward or just black and white. Dreams aren't either. However, similar to the boat dream example above, you can usually tell what the main purpose of the dream is. In case you're chipping away at a since a long time ago, detailed dream, I'd recommend you break it into sentences or paragraphs that appear to be logical to you and decide the point of each. When you're done deciding the subjects of each segment, you'll see a general pattern or a supporting theme that clarifies the main point.
Once you've found the main subject (theme) of the dream, whatever is left of the analysis is a lot easier and makes more sense when you think about the components inside the setting of the theme. The details then aid in filling in the blanks, adding information and giving guidance. You should then be in a superior position to make an association between the dream (the point) and an issue that you are, or have been, dealing with in waking life. And on those occasions where the dream isn't about you or your life, the substance of the dream will give you a smart thought of to what or who the dream is alluding.
