It’s the worst kind of nightmare, jotting wide awake, with heart pounding, scared near to death and out of breath nightmare. The one that causes you to carry around this terrible dread all day long after. That’s the nightmare, or any bad dream, that can help you realize your happiness!

Why Nightmares?

The base of a nightmare is subconscious fear surfacing to consciousness. It’s bringing something to our attention, some issue that needs to be addressed. Or reoccurring dreams may be about something we are anticipating or have to make a decision about. Nevertheless, they are about issues to address.

Post-traumatic nightmares that are repeated may be the subconscious recycling in the trauma and we are being re-traumatized, even though the event is unlikely to reoccur. Through nightmares we are becoming conscious of fears that’s been stuck in the subconscious, circling causing us to suffer emotionally and even physically since emotions are such a powerful force in our reality. The consciousness is giving us an opportunity to realize self-autonomy and self-determination, rather than being a slave to the ego.

Types of Dreams?

I’ve had what felt like post-traumatic dreams from a past-life experience; a remembrance of that reality. The dream gave me insights to questions I’d had about a situation and relationship. It doesn’t matter if the dream was truly a remembrance of a past-life or not, and it is not something that I know happened. Yet it was beneficial in that it gave me some insight about my attitude stuck in the subconscious concerning  another person, and from that insight came compassion for us both and our relationship was harmonized. 

There are many types of dreams and nightmares, which occur for many different reasons. There may be medical reasons for night terrors, such as illnesses or medications or there may be deep psychological reasons, for which we should consult medical professionals. Yet for most of us, our nightmares are pointing out issues to address. Of course, those issues may come through symbolism, in which case dream interpretation can become a means of self-analysis. 

Analyzing your dreams

There are many dream interpretation websites and books available to help those that are not familiar with symbolism in dreams. The two references I use are: In Your Dreams, The Ultimate Dream Dictionary by Mary Summer Rain and Dreams, Your Magic Mirror with Interpretations by Edgar Cayce by Elsie Sechrist.

Yet, the information on the websites and in books is only a guideline for possible interpretation of your dreams. Everyone is different. A nightmare with a snake may symbolize an attack or retaliation to you, while it may symbolize wisdom to someone else, and temptation to another. 

Over time you will come to know how to piece together the key elements in your dreams and their representation. Consider keeping a dream journal near your bedside to write down your dreams as soon as you awaken, since the subconscious also likes to forget. We start thinking about our day and our dreams fade away.  

What to do about a Nightmare

If you can use your dream to solve an issue with conflict thinking within yourself then all the better for you to make a decision and draw to yourself what you need to enact it by your positive energy, thoughts, emotions and behaviors.

For those nightmares in which there is no logical resolve then visualization can help bring you into positive emotions. In a silent and reflective state visualize a positive and empowering outcome of the dream. You are putting positive energy back into the subconscious with your thoughts and emotions to change your attitude, empowering yourself to create a happier reality. 

Another practice to consider that I do is just before you fall asleep is to make positive I am Declarations of Truth. This sets the tone and frequency of our thinking before going unconscious. Sleeping is beneficial for us in this stage of our evolution because the body uses it to regenerate since it is in a relaxed state, releasing stress. 

Think of Air as Power. Breathe deep and take the Star position in bed, consciously contacting Universal Life Energy. Universal Life Energy is the first physical manifestation of the Eternal, connecting you with All Power, All Intelligence, All Truth, All Love and All Harmony. Consider an I am Declaration of Truth. The one below is taught in Science of Being:  

Father, thou art inspiring me on the Spiritual plane. Guiding me on the Mental plane. Sustaining and protecting me on the Physical plane. I am an individualized projection into thy own Eternal substance. Proceeding from and indissolubly connected with thee, manifesting all the same qualities and powers. Thank You.

Living in the moment

Sometimes we do things we are not proud of, and it troubles us, which can go into our subconscious to grow and cause us to have nightmares or effects our behaviors without knowing why we act the way we do. Or we experience something that troubles us. And, it could have happened long ago, even when we were a child. Your consciousness can retrieve the images from nightmares and dreams and use it to release negative energy. 

We can choose to be happy rather than carry around fear through the methods described above and those in other entries (specifically as described in the series Releasing False Beliefs about Yourself and Gaining Control over Negative Emotions).

The best thing we can do for ourselves is to live  in the moment being lead by unconditional Love, releasing egotistic temptations.

In the hope You find Love close at hand, PortiaSLB

“Our conscious self must learn the lessons of Love. Our Higher Self does not need to learn it. Our subconsciousness all the time emanates hatred into our consciousness. It has no Love in it.”

Eugene Fersen, Aphorisms of The Ligthbearer, page 148. 

Your comments, experiences, insights and inspirations are welcomed. Remember your Higher Self never hesitates!

Photo: Florida reflection 2016