Have you ever had a crazy dream and mistook it as nonsense? What if there was some symbolism to be uncovered? Maybe even a prediction for the future!

My name is Abby, and the purpose of this speech is to inform you about how you can learn to interpret your dreams as well as to understand how they can help you shine a light on the state of your mental health.

At a very young age, I have always been infatuated with interpreting my dreams. I had kept a journal specifically for recording my dreams, but it wasn’t until my junior year of high school that I truly started to understand how to properly and thoroughly connect my dreams to my reality.

After hearing my speech, you should have a better awareness of why dream interpretation is important for understanding all areas of your mental health and how emotion and symbolism are the two main points to look for when analyzing and interpreting your dreams.

According to Psych Central, dreams are influenced by your waking mental well-being.

I’m sure everyone has experienced the anxiety of a big test, and I’m even more certain that many people have dreamt about failing a test the night before taking one. Both examples combined demonstrate the power of the mind and the survival tactics it creates by expressing the fear of any stressors in your everyday life onto your dreams.

Understanding this will allow you to recognize the pattern of your dream and connect it to any stressors that are present in your waking state of life. Therefore, being aware of what’s impacting the well-being of your mental health and being able to think of solutions for lessening the stressors.

My second Main point is how emotion plays the biggest part in dream interpretation

Upon further research, psychotherapist Dr. Leslie Ellis has concluded that sometimes dreams bring up specific feelings for the purpose of fully processing them.

By this, she means that most times when we dream about intense feelings, it’s a trauma response that our mind initiates. By dreaming about intense feelings, our body can fully process the emotions and let go of any tension. When the dreams become reoccurring that’s when you need to take time from your waking life to process them even more in an attempt to better your well-being.

By understanding this, you should be able to pay very close attention to the way you felt during the dream to determine its positive, neutral, or negative interpretation.

My third main point is how symbolism is the second biggest part of dream interpretation

Tony Crisp, a renowned expert dream interpreter and author, refers to the information given to us through our dreams as an obscure puzzle that may hold many meanings.

By this, he means that sometimes our brain places physical objects, insects, or animals as clues that can reveal more information about what the dream is about. As an author, he wrote a book called “Be Your Own Dream Interpreter,” where he wrote an alphabetical list of common symbols and even actions found or done in dreams, along with their meanings. For instance, he wrote that if you dream about a chair, it can mean that you have a relaxed attitude in the dream simulation or your waking state.

By considering the symbolism, you may allow yourself to expand the meaning in the dream simulation or when comparing its relevance to your waking life.

Today, we discussed the importance of dream interpretation.

I told you that dreams are influenced by your waking mental well-being, therefore giving you insight into your overall mental health, and that emotion and symbolism are both important factors that come into play when analyzing and interpreting yourdreams.

The final piece of advice I’d like to leave you with is: Understanding your dreams may help you understand yourself even more.

Again, my name is Abby, and thank you for listening.