Note that if you had that dream, found the element in your life that was precious to you, and you know it could be in danger, yet you do not see a solution, your mind does! Re-examine the situation and the solution might just reach out and grab you! If it were hopeless, the dream would have been different. Sometimes your sleeping mind can arrive at conclusions far better then our normal thinking processes. As you can tell, theming-to-life is best done through emotion. Only by examining your own emotions as you try to fit the theme into a given situation can you know you hit the mark. Our lives are sometimes so complicated that we many have so many things going on that could fit the theme, our emotions are our best clue to pin pointing the exact application. Emotions are a very good clue to the dream itself. Pay strict attention to your emotional state while in the dream. For example if you were happy through-out the hall dream, it would have a far different meaning then if you were sad!

You've developed good sleeping habits. Then you got on a regular schedule of taking your vitamins and chelated minerals. You learned how to relax, and you are dedicated to writing things down or recording them. Giving yourself the suggestion to remember your dreams, you are now doing so quite frequently. Themes come easily and you can fit them into your life accordingly. Are you done? Somehow you don't think so, as you seem to be missing a large part of the picture. The details. This is where symbols come in. Symbols in a dream, are actually the elements that make up the details. Even specific actions are sometimes symbols (such as falling). In the dream above about the hall, the pictures, ceiling, arches, paintings and even the mouse, are all dream symbols. All the little details mean something. Symbols, for the most part, are a very personal thing. Meaning that a dream dictionary may not necessarily have the correct definition to the symbol in your particular dream. Why? Because we associate meanings differently from one another at times. For example, I might associate a candle with pain, hardship and poverty if I spent enough time with no money living in the dark and lighting my home with a candle. But, I might associate a candle with God, if the only time I ever see one is in church! Two dramatically different definitions of the same thing. When you read a dream dictionary, it is usually not bogus, it merely gives the most common definition for that particular item. If you were unaffected at all by an item in your life, then the dream dictionary definition would most likely be valid. However, there are a certain amount of symbols that seem to always mean the same thing for people all the time. These you would do well to write down, memorize or at the very least, bear in mind while interpreting your own dreams. Why exactly these symbols are universal is a mystery to a certain extent, though I am sure there is a good reason.

They symbolize our own traits, good and bad. When you see an animal doing something in your dreams it usually represents a bad trait. As it is far easier for us to accept and watch an animal doing something negative then to take the credit for it ourselves. Here is a good example: A woman on a diet and really wants to loose weight but is prone to binge eating. She has tried and failed many times, but this time has resolve. That night in a moment of weakness, she eats a big slice of cake, and a bowl of ice cream. That night she dreams of being on a farm on a cloudy day, and watching in disgust as a big manure covered sow eats and sucks non-stop at her sloop. She is astonished and ashamed when she noticed what the sow was eating! (cake and ice cream). It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out what that dream means, or what the animal symbolized! Her dream was telling her she would feel about as good about herself as she felt about the sow if she did not control her eating.

Vehicles that you ride in usually reflect two things; the direction you are heading in life, and your body. (the thing you travel or ride through life in) This might vary if you are a mechanic or designer of vehicles. Unusually over exposure to a specific vehicle type may easily change the meaning. The condition of the vehicle might give you an idea of your health. Driving an old beat up car down a muddy road on a stormy night would be considered a pretty bad dream! However flying a Lear jet through blue skies with a song in your heart and the wind at your tail would be a rather good dream.

A child represents to most of us, something new, different and joyous. Using this logic, it is easy to see why a child represents a new phase in your life or a new project as well. How well the child gets along and fares in the dream is an indication as to how well what it represents is doing. Also, a child symbolizes innocent parts of yourself sometimes, and at other times, immaturity and childishness. It all depends on the theme and emotions used in the dream.

When you get into different moods you tend to choose different clothing, so clothing, for this reason best symbolizes your mood or state of mind. They also signify attitude. We wear clothing for all sorts of different reasons including, work, dating, play and social occasions. Attitudes and moods are similar to clothing in this regard, they are the camouflage we hide behind, our face we put on for the world in various situations so we can better cope. Take a look at what you, or other people in your dream are wearing to get even more clues to the dream's meaning. Also, a commonly overlooked clue is sometimes you see clothes on a clothes line, or lying around. It would be a good idea to take note as to what style and condition the clothes you see are.

Nearly any dream you have that refers to death, dying or attending a funeral, or the like, pertain to change. Most all the time this change is very dramatic and major. It can be change in your life attitude or emotional balance. These types of dreams can also symbolize confronting fear, usually fear of death or change. Since most of use will agree that death is the ultimate change, and many people fear it. Death dreams are generally big changes and should never be ignored. Sometimes they really do signify death! Another possible symbol of a death dream is threat. Whichever suits the dream depends on how well the theme was arrived at. Most death dreams are about major change and not about literal death though, so don't panic if you have one. Just patiently go through the analysis process, and make sense of it.

The building in a dream usually points directly to a specific area of your life. Dreaming of being in an office complex, or factory can pertain to your working environment. It does not need to specifically pertain to your exact line of work. In other words, an office worker dreaming of a loading dock still can relate the dock to work, because that's the association made in his mind. A bathroom, may pertain to your general health and hygiene habits, and a kitchen might be about your eating and nutrition. What you associate different locations to mean in general, usually points to what the dream was getting at specifically. To dream of your childhood house, tends to be a reflection of your life today though. A dream of mass chaos in your childhood home can indicate great disturbances in your life either now, or coming shortly. These kinds of dreams are often prophetic. You should always write down and deeply analyze dreams of your childhood dwelling. Dreams of great buildings like cathedrals and large churches usually indicate the dream has a great meaning, and should be taken seriously, as well as any applied association.

People most often portrayed in dreams are actually reflections of your own personality traits, provided the dream is not prophetic.These traits are ones that you need to enhance or develop, or if negative, work on eliminating or reducing. You should immediately ask of yourself, what traits do I like, and what traits do I dislike in the characters I dream about? Then look for those traits in yourself. You may be very surprised to find a match up! People in dreams work most commonly to reflect, or mirror important aspects of your personality. You do well to always make this association.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Dreams are very efficient. Meaning, they can address multiple issues on multiple topics all in one story line! A dream can warn you of health dangers, predict the future, point out personality flaws (or credits) and solve a current problem all in one dream! Some dreams are worthy of repeated analysis, and just because you can come up with two or three interpretations, does not mean that only one can be right, in fact they could all easily be right.

Analyzing the Dream:
Personal Symbols... All symbols in a dream create some sort of reaction in you. Look for the symbols that get the most reaction, they are usually keys. Since all symbols are not universal, in fact most aren't, before you pull out your dream dictionary, you need to decide if the symbol has a personal meaning or not. Here is an example: A knife might symbolize happiness to a woman who dropped the knife on her wedding day, and if was a big joke because it stuck handle up in the floor. This is associated with joy because it was humorous at the time and was a fond memory she shared with her husband. However, the next woman might cringe in fear over dreaming of a knife because she was attacked by a knife wielding thug in her teens. There are countless examples that could be given, but I think you get the picture. But how does one know what something means in a dream? How do we readily decode the symbols? There are several methods, lets explore:

A traditional psychological method of looking at something and taking note of the first thing it reminds you of. After you think of something it reminds you of, do it again with the next association. Example I say Cat, you associate dog. Then I say dog, and you associate fire hydrant. I say fire hydrant, you say Fire. You see how this works? You have been lead in this example from cat, all the way to fire, two unrelated subjects! You can play this game with yourself with your dream symbols until something clicks and you get the ah-hah feeling.

Instead of associating, you list what each symbol means to you. Different from the association method, amplification can sometimes work were association falls short. For instance, I dream of a candle, intstead of associating I make a list of what a candle means to me personally. Example: candle means happiness, love, romance, mysticism and light. Though it seems similar to association, it varies because you are approaching it from a different point of view.

Symbol defining is very easy, and you know when you hit the mark by the ah-hah feeling. There is one factor you should also keep in mind, and that is the laziness factor. You must devote some time and thought to the analysis of your dream to get a clear picture. If you go about it in a half hearted way, you will get bad results and feel disappointed. If you relay solely on dream dictionaries to do your symbol defining you will have lost quite a bit of the meaning your dreams were trying to share. I am putting a dream dictionary online in the future, but it is only to be used when no personal symbolisms can be found. It is my hope that you will try to define as many of your own symbols as possible.

I hope this has provided you with some useful information.