I spoke to someone today who had a nightmare last night. It really shook them up and when they described what had happened in the dream it was very dramatic. So, I told them about my philosophy on dreams.

I believe dreams are part of our unconscious brain making sense of the information it has collected during the day. Both factual and emotional. But our poor brains can’t write it in an ongoing notebook or expect to record every visual and sensual moment of every day (unless they have a photographic memory I guess). So, it creates visual clues and stores them.

A bit like a mind map. Mind maps work because we don’t remember whole passages verbatim or whole conversations so by noting ‘trigger’ words or phrases in a theme it triggers a callback.

So, the visual images in a dream are not a story or a warning, they are visual interpretations of our thoughts and experiences from the day. The trick is therefore not to concentrate on the actual image or story but to look more deeply into what those images represent. 

For example, if in your dream you are about to do an exam in the altogether it may represent a deadline or a need to collate information on a work project and you are worried you don’t know the brief properly and you feel vulnerable. See, nothing to do with your state of undress or an actual exam.

This theory will be a great relief to you if your dream ever involves an intimate moment with a colleague, as you delve into what the images or scenario represent it will become apparent it actually has nothing to do with the colleague or romance.

But to understand your dreams you must reflect on those images. Just as reflecting on real-life experiences can build our understanding and knowledge. The University of Cambridge study skills website states,’ Reflective practice was something which developed in disciplines such as teaching, medicine, and social work as a way to learn from real-life experiences.’ Yes, it fits real-life learning, but I argue it equally fits imagined life such as dreams analysis.

When I embark on management training as part of the induction, I get the students to start a personal development plan, to do this they need to reflect on their skills, their aspirations, and their weaknesses. It calls for personal honesty and a willingness to accept that you don’t know everything.

In addition, the students set up a form to fill out as part of their continuing personal development (CPD). For my master’s we had to set one up and I was amazed how, as it builds and grows you can see your own learning blossom. 

A CPD has a set of questions such as ‘What happened’, ‘What did I do’, and ‘What will I do as a result’ and collect supporting evidence where possible. The CIPD defines CPDs as ‘learning experiences which help you develop and improve your professional practice. This can include building on your strengths, as well as developing yourself where you have capability gaps’. It also helps you realise just how much you learn, every day from a wide range of areas. Something on the news, something that happens at work, an Instagram video, or a conversation.

We are constantly learning, developing views, changing opinions, and growing our knowledge. But it happens so constantly that we risk forgetting things we learned and it’s left to our poor brains to sort and file it via dreams for later use but how can we recall it if we can’t recall the learning and how it may help a future situation? My WhatsApp is full of Instagram videos I send myself on gym exercises and Excel hacks. I’ve used the exercise clips when I go to the gym to do the body area on the video but still not gotten into Excel, but the intention is there!

Our experiences shape our understanding of the world, without learning nothing moves forward, and we can’t move forward. So, I urge you to become more aware of reflecting, looking back, and thinking. In my counselling or rather, helping sessions, reflection often means the person sees for the first time just how strong and resilient they have been, that maybe finally seeking help isn’t a defeat, it’s a reward. That is such a wonderful thing to help them realise through active listening and reflecting on what they have said back to them.

You don’t need to set up a CPD to assist awareness of your learning. Get a cup of tea, sit quietly for a short while, and think back over the day. You’ll be surprised how much you have learned or gained awareness of, but don’t delay as the next learning experience will already be occurring. Even the act of reflecting is you learning, hopefully, you reading this blog is learning, see it never stops.

The CIPD defines CPDs as ‘learning experiences which help you develop and improve your professional practice. This can include building on your strengths, as well as developing yourself where you have capability gaps’.

It also helps you realise just how much you learn, every day from a wide range of areas. Something on the news, something that happens at work, an Instagram video, or a conversation.

We are constantly learning, developing views, changing opinions, and growing our knowledge. But it happens so constantly that we risk forgetting things we learned and it’s left to our poor brains to sort and file it via dreams for later use but how can we recall it if we can’t recall the learning and how it may help a future situation?

My WhatsApp is full of Instagram videos I send myself on gym exercises and Excel hacks. I’ve used the exercise clips when I go to the gym to do the body area on the video but still not gotten into Excel, but the intention is there.

Our experiences shape our understanding of the world, without learning nothing moves forward, and we can’t move forward. So, I urge you to become more aware of reflecting, looking back, and thinking.

In my counselling or rather, helping sessions, reflection often means the person sees for the first time just how strong and resilient they have been, that maybe finally seeking help isn’t a defeat, it’s a reward. That is such a wonderful thing to help them realise through active listening and reflecting on what they have said back to them. 

You don’t need to set up a CPD to assist awareness of your learning, get a cup of tea, sit quietly for a short while, and think back over the day. You’ll be surprised how much you have learned or gained awareness of, but don’t delay as the next learning experience will already be occurring. Even the act of reflecting is you learning, hopefully, you reading this blog is learning, see it never stops.