In the words of Billie Eilish, "When we all fall asleep, where do we go?" It's a question I've been fascinated with since sixth-grade recess when I analyzed people's dreams on the playground. The subconscious mind is one of the greatest mysteries and also one of the greatest storytellers—I don't know about you, but dream Julianne lives life on the edge so much more than everyday Julianne, outrunning bad guys and canon-balling off ocean cliffs.
Now listen, I'm no psychology expert, and you don't have to be to analyze dreams. While this is, of course, an extension of the human mind, I look at dreams as an internal self-discovery analysis because it is so deeply personal.
Sure, there are universal symbols, like how water represents emotions and fire represents desire. That being said, much like any self-discovery tool, dreams aren't one-size-fits-all. They're dependent on what people are going through at the time, how they're dealing with emotions, relationships, etc.
The best thing you can do if you want to understand your dreams is to write them down and use a dream dictionary to guide your analysis so you can formulate your own meaning. Once we understand the power of our dreams—aka becoming in tune with our subconscious—we can best guide our decisions, actions, and emotions to create a ~meaningful~ life.
