What would you do?

[Chazz]

After keeping my dream journal for a couple of days, and just being able to remember my dreams pretty well, Ive began to realize that, for some reason water guns appear in my dreams from time to time. Now I know one of the reasons to keeping your dream journal is to help you to realize recurring elements in your dreams, so now that I've found one what can I do, or what should I do about it? Any advice is appreciated thanks. Chazzzzzz

[blahaha]

Hey Chaz, welcome to dreamviews and congrats on your dream sign. That's good stuff. So basically what you want to do when you think you've identified a dream sign is to just perform a reality check every time you see it, whether you're in waking life or in a dream. It's easy to let our dreams trick us into thinking we're awake in the real world when in reality we're asleep, so it's best to check every time just in case. The idea is that if you always reality check when you see one of your dream signs then it's only a matter of time before you do it in a dream and become lucid. If you look up at the top of the website you'll see a link to the wiki; there's a bunch of good info in there so definitely check it out some time. See ya and good luck with your new hobby!

[Chazz]

Alright will do thanks man

[Rothgar]

Identifying dream signs is important. I would also meditate a bit on that fact about water guns, and visualize seeing a water gun and saying thinking "I'm dreaming". If that dream sign occurs 4 or five times you eventually will become lucid seeing that sign, I suspect. I have 3 or 4 dream signs now that work for me.

[Linkzelda]

Like previous users have stated, when we identify dream signs and add them to our dream journal, it can help a lot with building awareness when we find those themes and signs repeating in some way. But it's not only just to have ourselves doing reality checks naturally, it's also building a conditioned response in knowing we are dreaming without relying too much on the reality checks altogether, because reality checks themselves can have their cons as well. When you find yourself becoming more aware of your dreams, you'll have moments where the model of realities or abstract realities is as consistent as this reality, so it's even harder to do a reality check. The dream journal's aren't just about identifying your dream signs and dream themes, it's much more than that. Here's what I would do when I find a reoccurring dream sign or theme: I take it into consideration, but I don't revel too much in the thought where it prevents me from identifying more dream signs. One dream sign I was so into identifying was "blonde," seeing how it's one of the top tag clouds I have, but the dream sign itself started losing its value. When we start putting the pieces of the puzzle together, the tagging of the dream signs themselves are just supplements. So just keep at it is all I can really suggest for you, just keep adding on to dream signs that are apparent, but aim for ones that can be really significant for you. And the more you do it, it may feel overwhelming trying to categorize which ones are important to you, but only with practice and perseverance that you'll know what feels right for you.

[Chazz]

Ok so should I just acknowledge the fact that I have this reoccurring dream sign focus on it while I'm awake for a while every day or only when I'm about to sleep? Should I write them down and keep track of them in my journal? Because I never see these t dream signs in real life anymore. Along with these water guns, there is also a person I knew from high school who is frequently showing up in my dreams, and even did last night but I failed to realize it until morning. And I get that Im supposed to write down the dreams I remember, Title them, go over them, try to distinguish reoccurring elements, and reflect on them but if I'm missing a key element, if someone would let me know that would be great. Thanks for the help

[Linkzelda]

Ok so should I just acknowledge the fact that I have this reoccurring dream sign focus on it while I'm awake for a while every day or only when I'm about to sleep? Should I write them down and keep track of them in my journal? Because I never see these t dream signs in real life anymore. Along with these water guns, there is also a person I knew from high school who is frequently showing up in my dreams, and even did last night but I failed to realize it until morning. And I get that Im supposed to write down the dreams I remember, Title them, go over them, try to distinguish reoccurring elements, and reflect on them but if I'm missing a key element, if someone would let me know that would be great. Thanks for the help If you want to have the dream signs relate to real life, that's fine and dandy, but when you go through that, that's just more interpretations with dreaming meanings that might not be something practical for you to do. The idea with dream signs is just like what you stated, keeping tabs so that you build habits of becoming more aware of them IN your dreams, so that you have a higher chance of lucidity. And as for a person you knew in high school in real life, it's common to have people who are perfect doppelgangers or dreaming counterparts of those in waking life. Their actual existence in the dream has several meanings, and it depends on your relationship with them and how you may feel towards them. If you're wondering if you're missing a key element with the water gun dream sign, you'll have to ask the confines of your mind directly, but here's what the water gun could mean: To see or play with a water gun in your dream signifies your passive aggressiveness. You are expressing your anger in such a playful way that others do not recognize or acknowledge your true feelings. You are having difficulties expressing your real feelings. http://www.aboutdreaminterpretation.com/water-gun/ Maybe it's that person having those feelings or you probably aren't aware of your feelings for them. Even though dream dictionaries and databases should be taken as supplements for finding underlying meaning in your dreams, based on what the water gun can mean, combined with your friend in High School, you should check out some of those dream meanings here: Dream Interpretation | About Dream Interpretation | dream dictionary | dream meaning | dream search | dream encyclopedia Even though some of the interpretations are basic and subjective, it should give you some basis if you're trying to interpret your dreams and how your unconscious can be giving you messages to acknowledge/handle/resolve a conflict/situation.