How does this work? Dreams help you become aware of what is and is not working in your inner world. They bring to light unfinished business, inner conflicts and deep emotions, while demonstrating your spiritual side and your best self. Dreams let you know exactly where you are stuck and where you are flowing. Taking the time to examine what comes up from the depths of your dream world will keep you in your quest for optimum health.

Read more about what to expect when improving your diet

If you are careful to watch your dreams while undergoing a physical cleanse, your dreams may even offer information about the state of your health, perhaps guiding you to make changes in your lifestyle or eating habits. I once had a very graphic dream about my liver crawling with bugs. I told my Naturopath about it and I tested positive for parasites. While not many allopathic (Western medical model) doctors are interested in their patients’ dream life, Naturopaths and Homeopaths will always take their patients’ dreams into consideration, mining them for information and clues as to the state of their patients’ health. This practice goes back to ancient times where the whole patient-their lifestyle and diet, work, attitudes, experiences, dreams, and symptoms-was taken into account. We seem to have lost this whole-person approach today in general medicine. These healing arts are still alive and well in the holistic and integrated health world.

While undergoing a detox, our dreams will often shift and become wild with nightmares or recurring dreams. These shifts demonstrate the interconnected nature of dreams and the body, where the process of the body releasing toxins and old material is reflected in the dream content. If dreams can show us things that we are already aware of, as in the case of an intentional detox, then surely they can point towards goings on in the body that were previously unknown to us.

These kinds of dreams are called “prodromal” dreams: from the Greek “pro” meaning before and “dromos” meaning running (forerunner), or warning dreams that signal the onset of illness. Wanda Burch experienced a prodromal dream when she dreamt that she had breast cancer, long before her medical doctors discovered her aggressive cancer. She wrote about it in her book, She Who Dreams, describing her journey to regain her health by listening for messages in her dreams, then using their images as part of her healing program that included meditation and visualization, along with traditional chemotherapy. She is alive and well today, having dreamt that she renegotiated her life contract. In fact, Wanda believes that she is alive because she dreams. Dreams are very powerful and important for our ongoing health.

During your detoxification process, watch your dreams for body signals such as excessive amounts of water that can suggest fluid retention in the body, extreme heat, cold or water, dryness, itchiness, pain, or any focus on a particular body parts. Breathlessness, blockages, damage, destruction, impairment, malfunctions, or breakages can all indicate imbalances in the body. Yet, we still have to strive to understand the meaning of the dream before we can say if it is a body signal or not. Dream work is therefore so powerful; whatever the message turns out to be, it has taken us on a journey of self-exploration that leaves us healthier than when we began. Dreams are truly the perfect tool for detoxification.

READ MORE: My Mysterious Ailments – And What I Discovered About Magnesium Deficiency 

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Read more about Healing Anxiety Naturally

Here are some typical scenarios followed by some suggestions these anxious times:

• Unable to Call for Help: Are you the type of person that has to do it all? Are you in over your head (perhaps quite seriously) and unable to ask for help? Even in less emotionally serious versions of this dream, we often find a stressed out perfectionist who cannot or will not ask for help. Suggestion: Ask Aunt Betty and best friend Leslie to bring dessert, during the holidays or for that big dinner patrty or whatever else will relieve you from having to do "one more thing." But you do have to ask.
• Missing the Plane, the Bus, or a Deadline: Typically, dreamers express the feeling that they are "missing the boat." They constantly feel anxious, frustrated, and concerned that they are missing out on opportunities, or so overwhelmed that they can’t make their deadlines. Suggestion: It is time to prioritize. Take a deep breath. See what you can reasonably do and let everything else go.
• Phones Don’t Work: A frustrating dream that is a variation on the "Unable to Call for Help" dreams. These dreams may suggest that the dreamer is in a situation where s/he deso not feel heard or cannot communicate their true feelings. Suggestion: Ask yourself, “Is there something important that I have to say to someone in my life?” Maybe it’s time to tell your mother-in-law that you would like to have the family dinner at your house, not hers. This type of dream tells you that you have something to communicate, and are having some trouble expressing it. Keep trying.
• Exams or Forgetting Your Lines: These dreams can cover the spectrum from taking an exam, not finding the right room, not having the right pencil to being on stage and not knowing your lines. This dream theme may indicate a feeling of not being prepared, or of being put to the test in some way in one’s life. It may be the dream of a procrastinator, someone who is never fully ready. Suggestion: Ask for help getting ready, and include the kids. Let go of the Martha Stewart, picture-perfect family get-together fantasy. It’s okay to skip the perfectly ironed tablecloth. Really.
• Body Dreams: The final dream theme to watch for is information about the state of your body and health. Dream symbols often reflect the subtle body processes before we are consciously aware of them. Watch for dream symbols, metaphors, story lines that touch on nourishment, cleansing, and elimination, and ill health such as infection (bugs or fires, for example), or things not working properly, as well as images of houses and cars that can often represent the body. Suggestion: If you dream of a run down old car that is out of gas, go lie down!

Now that we have got your anxiety dreams under control, try shifting from personal worry to a more global dream. One theory about dreams is we rehearse our next developmental steps and that our dreams are an instrument of both personal and evolutionary development. Most simply, children will dream about riding a bike before learning to ride one. As women, we dream about giving birth long before we reach that stage (though men dream about giving birth too).

We also dream about emotional challenges and relationships, working them through in dreams so that we can face them in waking life. Sandor Ferenczi, a contemporary and colleague of Freud and Jung, called dreaming the workshop of evolution. This theory is also found in Native and Shamanic traditions. We dream on a personal, individual level. We dream globally as well.

It is important to look at our personal anxiety dreams, but once we get the message, what if we used our energy to dream society’s next step? What if we dreamed peace? Like the child dreaming how to read and write, long before he can do so; perhaps we can dream about a time when terrorists no longer brutally kill the innocent and when each of us respects our neighbors no matter how unlike us they are. We have to ask for these dreams. We have to choose to dream our world into a better state. The same way an inventor has to first dream of their invention then create it, we too have to dream peace then work towards manifesting it. This year, I am asking for a better world in my dreams. Join me and we can help create it. But, first we have to dream it.

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Babies can hint at a literal new birth, but their appearance in our dreams is most often symbolic. Is there a new project at work you have been waiting to launch, a new creative outlet, new friendships or new directions? Sometimes, babies represent new ways of looking at a problem or a rejuvenated attitude. The manner in which the baby is being treated or cared for in the dream will give you an idea as to the nature of the underlying message.

Here is an example: A dreamer, a 40-something female, dreamed of a filthy, neglected baby, crying and in need of a clean diaper and some tender loving care. The dreamer was asked if there were any actual babies that the dream could be referring to. There were no babies in her life. There were no new projects either. The dreamer felt that this baby was referring to her “inner child” or a young tender part of herself; she was not physically neglected as a child. What resonated most for the dreamer was that her emotional life and her own needs had been neglected. As an adult, she continues to put herself last. The dream gave her a visually shocking picture of this neglected infant, which in turn became a powerful message to take care of her own emotional and physical needs. Dreams are universal in nature as are some of their messages; the image from this one woman’s dream could be a powerful message for so many women who put their own needs at the bottom of the list.

But what about dreams that are really about actual babies, not the symbol of a baby? After my daughter became pregnant, but before I was told the news, I awoke with Paul Simon’s song in my head telling me “a mother and child reunion, is only a motion away . . .” At the time, I did not understand why I woke up with a song in my head (though many people do, it was not typical for me), nor did I understand the reference. Nevertheless, I wrote it down and filed it away, which is an invaluable practice as dreams are so easily lost and forgotten. Since then, I have dreamed about the child (who has just made his debut). In all my dreams, I saw my unborn grandchild as a girl. At the time, we could not say with any certainty if there was a precognitive element to my dreams. Now that my grandson is born, I can maintain that my dreams were definitely symbolic!

In all my efforts to understand the mystery and the message of dreams, I approach each one in the same way. No matter what we imagine the dream might be about, we take a look with “beginners mind” at what personal meaning the dream might have for the dreamer, which would encompass their life situation, their personal psychology and their relationships and all their associations to these parts of their lives. We may also look for meaning that may touch on their spiritual life, depending on the dream and the dreamer. This may very well expand into the realm of precognition and other intuitive ways of knowing. In my case, my dreams were showing me that I was processing my own “new baby”-my new role as someone’s grandmother. Now that the baby has arrived, I am right into my new role, without hesitation. Since my daughter announced her pregnancy, my dreams showed me that I was processing, rehearsing, and getting ready for this new role and the issues that come with a new stage of life; aging and self-image chief among them. Unpacking this series of dreams is never a simple process but well worth the venture.

See if there is a baby (or child) in any of your own dreams, reflecting new possibilities for birth and growth for you in the coming year. You will be all the richer for it.

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Patti’s A: Thanks Stephanie. You shared with me the fact that you had just suffered a miscarriage two days after this dream and wondered if there was a connection and wondered what the dream means. As a Veterinary doctor, you remembered your student days at the OVC and shared your associations along with the fact that some pet owners consider their pets to be surrogate children. With this in mind, there are dreams, called “prodromal” dreams that warn of illness in the body. So we might feel a connection between the death of the dog-a surrogate child symbol-and the loss of your pregnancy. Probably your body was already picking up the subtle signs of your non-viable pregnancy. While you couldn’t stop the miscarriage, even had you understood the advanced warning, the dream is important because it tells you what you think is dead (your chance to be a mother again) is not really dead. So on one level the dream offers hope. But dreams often have more than one meaning for the dreamer and the theme of premature death (the dog was pronounced dead a little too soon) definitely can be seen in the dream. I might wonder, beyond the issue of your pregnancy, is there anything else in your life that has been written off as dead-whether a feeling or an issue in your life-that isn’t dead at all?

What also strikes me as important in this dream is the fact that you were being dismissed and pushed out of the way! I suspect the dream is reflecting a situation in your waking life where you or your ideas or feelings are being dismissed in a similar manner. The dream then can be telling you that you have to trust yourself and what you know to be true. Maybe that relates to your work, but it can be about anything.

I also noted that you put your hands on the dog and shortly after that, he came back to life. If it were my dream, I might wonder if I might have any hands-on healing abilities? So the challenge will be to see if the actions in the dream are meant to be considered literally or as metaphors and symbolic of feelings and situations in your life. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful dream and I wish you a recovery filled with hope in your future and confidence in your truths. Sweet Dreams.

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A: Thanks for your dream Mavis. I can help you make some sense of this disturbing dream. All my dream interpretations come from both experience and intuition, but I never "pronounce" interpretations without the dreamer's own associations and input. The ethics of the dreamwork that anyone does, have to be in place! Based on your emails, this is what I would imagine "if it were my dream" (the famous dream group phrase):

In classic Freudian dream interpretation, food was associated with sexual appetites but your dream isn't about that at all! Your dream is about the challenge of being a first-time mother. You are delighted in the sweet "dessert" of your new baby daughter in your life. The dessert which you described as smooth and delicate, describes your daughter. And you have never felt happier. Sometimes the powerful love we feel for a dearly wanted child seems overwhelming at times. What mother hasn't nibbled at the delicious child in her arms where it seems as if she could devour her child with love? So the dream very specifically shows you that picture in the image of your daughter as dessert, and the powerful feelings that you have for her, which may be new for you. Eating the eye, may represent something you don't want to see. The missing arms, parts with which we reach out to others, are missing. You might have trouble reaching out to express your feelings or ask for help.

What jumps out at me next is your relationship with your own mother. First time mothers, if they are lucky, have their own mothers to turn to for advice or help. In your case, your own mother is very helpful to you, especially around the new baby. Yet at the same time you described her as a very harsh critic, who is not considerate of other people's feelings. In the dream, you were relieved that your mother didn't notice that you had eaten the baby- relieved to avoid her criticism! The dream is showing you that perhaps your relationship with your mother, the very woman who both helps and criticizes, is distressing for you. The stages we go through raising children will bring up any unfinished business we have with our own parents or in our own childhood, and the dream is showing you that you may have some work to do around your feelings in relation to your mother. Though the dream was disturbing for you, it is the kind of dream that our psyche wants us to pay attention to. I'm glad you were listening! Now, it is up to you to decide what to do in your waking life with this information.

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I dreamt that there was a rather big snake chasing me, but in my dream, I was very tired and at the same time extremely anxious because this big snake was after me and I didn't know where I was going. Then I looked back and found that the snake had died. It's head was disconnected from the body and the long body was no where to be seen. I could only see the head and I was so relieved that the snake had died and not after me anymore. I wasn't even sure if I killed the snake or not, but all I remember is that I was very relieved when I turned back that the snake was dead. I have never been a fan of snakes. I find them scary and their poisonous tongue vicious. How is this dream related to my life right now? Can you please help me?  A.L.

Patti's Answer: Snakes are deeply rooted in many cultures. In Christian cultures it is associated with temptation and evil. In the ancient world predating Christianity, it was associated with the goddess cults as a psychopomp, a creature that goes between the worlds of mortals and the underworld of the gods. The snake lent itself to that symbolism as an animal that lives both on the ground and underground, on land or on water. Later, snakes were associated with the cult of Asklepios and healing. That symbol is with us today in the form of the caduceus, the snakes entwined around a winged staff, and is still a symbol of medicine and healing. In other shamanic traditions, snakes are associated with rebirth, grounded in the image of a snake shedding its skin.

That brings us to you, the dreamer. You’ve shared with us your waking attitudes on snakes and three things really stand out in your dream and your attitudes: 1) that the head and the body (of the snake) are disconnected and 2) your fears focus on the snake’s “poisonous, vicious tongue” 3) in spite of your fears, you dealt with the situation.

If you check to make sure that there is nothing in the dream scenario that is pointing to an actual encounter with a green snake, and you find there is nothing precognitive about the dream, then we can assume the snake is a symbol. I would ask myself what in my life feels like it is chasing me (or conversely, what am I running away from)? Am I in a situation where someone’s vicious tongue (i.e. gossip or hurtful words) is threatening me?  And finally, do I have to disconnect my head from my body (or heart) to conquer it? If you can connect your answers to something in your life, whether inner life or an outer life situation, then you will be on your way to understanding the messages in your dream.

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In another fragment:

“I am about to be rear-ended by a car . . . or so I thought . . . but in trying to remember the details, I recall seeing myself as both the rear-ended and the rear-ender! I see myself get closer in the rear-view mirror, as well as knowing I am about to be hit. I awake before impact with my heart pounding.”

These are wonderful examples of a situation that is often seen in dreams: a dream with many points of view. It is common for dreamers to relate that they see a dream action through the eyes of many people, or as participants and observers simultaneously; that naturally confuses them. This is an interesting phenomenon and most dreamers feel that they are either confusing two dreams or must be remembering things incorrectly.

If you have even had a dream with two or more perspectives, take the time to look at the images carefully. You may realize that they are being offered to show you different ways of seeing many possibilities. Sometimes, it will appear that one perspective is your usual way of seeing things, and the other perspective is through someone else’s eyes, offering you another way of seeing something, a more distant or detached perspective. Alternatively, the different points of view may be offering you an opportunity to see the many choices before you-especially useful during times in our lives when we feel we have no choice at all.

How do we work with these shifting perspectives and do these dreams cause shifts in our waking lives? Let’s first go back and take a look at our dream fragments. In the first dream, we have a dream that tells me that the dreamer’s typical point of view is already slightly detached. I learn this from the location (slightly higher), which may also be an indication of a thinker (higher up meaning ‘in her head’) and the window (a ‘big picture’ window) where the dreamer takes in the big picture. For the dreamer, everything is where she thinks it should be with buildings on the ground, viewing the water in the distance. Then, suddenly things in either her inner or waking world are shifting and what she thought she could count on is no longer the case. She is turned around and feels unsettled and ungrounded. The only explanation her mind comes up with is that she must be on a ship.

Notice the details: If a ship is the way we travel over water, which often is symbolic of our emotions, then the type of ship it is will be important. Is it a tugboat, a canoe, a fishing trawler? In her dream, it was a cruise ship. In her associations with cruise ships, she said that they were a luxurious way of traveling where you can get a taste of the place you visit while relaxing. The dream may be telling her that when she relaxes, gets a taste of any situation, and does it with self-care in mind (luxury), then she can get a different perspective on any situation. In order to fully understand the message of the dream, the dreamer can also see if she can build a bridge between her waking life and the dream. Where in her life does she feel ungrounded and disoriented? Is there a situation that seems to be shifting and changing? The dream is both making her feelings clear to her, while offering her the instructions on how to cope.

In the second dream, we have an example of two distinct points of view. The dreamer was both the victim about to be hit, and the hitter! The dream gave her precise information on how she is in her inner world: victim and perpetrator. When she worked on the dream, she was able to get in touch with the two opposite sides of her personality. This pull did not mean she was unstable, rather that she was quite normal. She was conflicted by the many complex feelings that the dream showed to her clearly. It pointed out the way she sabotages herself as she “rear-ends” her forward movement that causes herself to stop growing. Her fear of changing was “driven” home.

If you have dreams that have multiple perspectives, try playing both parts and speaking from the point of view of each part. See what one way of thinking will show you, then shift and see what another way will reveal. Then, your real choices in any situation will be clear: Do you want to continue on as you always do, or with the new vantage point the dream affords, will you allow the wisdom of your dreams to help you shift your life?

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Patti's Answer: Thanks for your dream. Snakes are powerful, multifaceted symbols, but as this dreams illustrates, we need to know what snakes mean to the individual dreamer in order to understand the dream’s message. For more information on snakes, Click Here.

In addition to old religious associations to the snake, there are modern connections that Freudian analysts have raised to new heights (i.e. the snake as phallic symbol) or common expressions in language such as a “snake in the grass”. The snake, as he sheds his skin, is a symbol or regeneration and healing for many. In other cultures it is associated with pregnancy and not all of the associations around snakes are negative. Yet, when I asked you for your own associations to snakes, you thought of them as “something evil, a spirit” as well as a common feature of your childhood dreams. Your associations are in line with traditional Christian beliefs in the snake as an agent of the devil and the powers of destruction and evil.

In addition to the snake, the dream features a bee. You said that you have a phobia about bees and are inclined to run when you see them, so no matter what the bee symbolizes to others-like immortality, rebirth, industry, the goddess Demeter and so on-it will be a fearful symbol for you. You also mentioned a challenging relationship you are currently in and the dream occurred the night before a visit from his parents.

With your own associations in place, the dream is clearly telling you that you feel as if you are under attack. You feel that the snake (possibly your partner’s mother who you described as “dark”- see if anyone one else in your life is snake-like) is trying to poison you and that will get in your eyes, meaning you won’t be able to see things clearly. You feel attacked from two sides; the snake on one side and the bee that follows your every move on the other. It is a strong feeling of fear in this dream, and you actually felt the bite of something attack you. The dream makes your feelings clear and perhaps is showing you just how strong your fear and pain is. For some, the left side is associated with our intuitive, feminine or receiving side, so the attack is wounding you in that area of your life. If you are also left-handed the symbol of the bite in your left arm would take on additional meaning, where your ability to act is wounded. By understanding your dreams, you will better understand your emotions and hopefully be able to protect yourself and your needs from future “attacks”.

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Oddly enough, there is no consensus in the scientific community as to exactly what the function of dreams is or why we dream at all. There are a number of good theories; however, I would like to bypass this line of inquiry altogether. When someone asks "Why do dreams matter?" they are not looking for a dry scientific definition of a physiological function, rather they are asking, "Why should dreams matter to me?"

The reason dreams should matter to us, as individuals on a path of health and healing, is because the “me” that we think we know represents only a small part of our whole Self.

We all put forward a face or mask, a comfortable veneer, to match our life and needs. Dreams help us expand that guarded view. They introduce us to the rich, multi-dimensional souls that we truly are. Dreams can highlight roles we play in our own personal dramas while also providing experiences of the roles we avoid. We are not merely personalities with a "best before" expiry date, doomed to simply live and die. We are much more interesting.

Dreams help point out our personalities’ psychological shortcomings. Freud was correct when he labeled dreams the "royal road to the unconscious." The journey via our dreams does not stop there. We are first and foremost souls experiencing the adventure of being physical and human. When we dream, we are offered the opportunity to experience more of that multi-dimensional self. Our dreams reconnect us with our personal psychology through precognitive information and clairvoyance, visits from deceased loved ones, flashes of past lives and out-of-body-travel.

Dreams can give us information about the state of our health. Through the ages, we have learned about people who discovered through their dreams early-stage medical conditions before their doctors did. More than 2,000 years ago Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, wrote that specific dream images foretold future ailments. Today, we still find books telling of the author’s recovery from serious illness by paying attention to their dreams.

Dreams can tell us about the state of our mental health as well. Because of the early influence of Freud, most people make the dream-psychological connection. Did you know that dreams take us into the realm of psychic experiences too? If you caught the TV series In Dreams last season, you saw a husband and wife sharing the same dream on the same night and dreamers who received messages from dead loved ones through their dreams.

Dreams are the source of creative art, literature, and scientific discoveries. They are also useful for problem solving. Sleeping on a problem is not just for the few, rather it is a technique used by inventors, entrepreneurs, and corporate and world leaders.

Our spirit is often the most elusive element of our Body-Mind-Spirit triad. Yet, dreamers have reported dreams of angels and religious figures along with spiritual, heart-opening moments. They awaken connected to their soul, and they find what matters most in life and beyond.

Keep in mind that dreaming is available to anyone, every night. No experience or special equipment is required. Two millennia ago, Plato wrote, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Simply stated, dreams provide us with an easy and entertaining way to examine our lives and our souls. Now, that is something that matters.

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This is all the more exaggerated before and after a trip when I find myself "juggling and struggling"-juggling my work with extra effort to clear my desk and get away and then struggling with the process of catching up upon my return. (And we call this a vacation?) Take today for example; I feel like I'm loosing my marbles. I was sure that I had some appointments this afternoon and yet there is nothing in my calendar. Now, how is this a soul issue you may wonder?

I believe it speaks to the over-busy, over-scheduled nature of our lives. Perhaps you've lost your marbles now and then as well. We are generally so out of balance, with too much to deal with on any given day or month that recurring scheduling snafu's can become a reminder to slow down, breathe and regroup. In soul terms, words like rest, regenerate, restore and renew come to mind. March is the perfect time for us to pause because many of us in the colder climates are sick and tired of winter but spring is still a longed for dream.

Balance in the small things, translates to overall balance in the bigger issues in our lives, but especially in our souls. To the soul, a small shift, or a single act of kindness, for example, is actually a "big" or important shift. Change can come in very small packages. When we pause to just "be" in any given moment, we can use the pause to check in with our body, mind and spirit and adjust where necessary. From that place of silence and listening, where the time and space available to us seems to expand, we are better able to hear and respond to the call of our soul.

From this place of pause, I learned that there was nothing that I had forgotten; my marbles weren't lost after all, but I did need some time for myself.

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