Dreams are more than just the random findings of our brain's overworked neurons. Most authorities think that understanding our dreams is an important component to maintaining emotional health and well-being. Properly known, dreams can tell us how to make good decisions, help us be more self-aware, and tap into our vast, unused creative potential.

How do dreams help our lives? There are three very practical ways, says Shirley Ma, an internationally respected Jungian analyst who teaches workshops and has a private psychotherapy practice in Toronto. They can alert us to something wrong in our psyche -- our inner self -- and tell us how to fix it. They can tell us if something is missing in our life, and point the way to our seeing what it is. They can also, says Ma, "connect you more deeply to the spiritual realm." Through this connection, we can get a clearer understanding of how to achieve our destiny.

One way to wrap our minds around the power of dreams is to see them as a tool of our subconscious to communicate with the conscious mind. These messages sent by our subconscious are often a good deal more straightforward than they might at first seem.

Remembering Your Dreams A number of simple techniques exist that can help you learn to interpret your dreams -- on any level -- and apply the information to your life. One simple technique is to begin writing your dreams down.

Shirley Ma says anyone can benefit from keeping a dream journal. To begin she suggests you take the time to think about your dreams as soon as you wake up. When you do, she says, it is important to focus on the feelings the dream generated. Then, she days, your should record the dream -- or any remembered fragments -- and the feelings associated with it in your journal. Later, you can deepen your understanding of the dream by checking a book on traditional symbols, such as The Herder Symbol Dictionary -- that gives you not dreams symbols but cultural and traditional symbols. A tool such as this can help you discover what different objects, animals and so on that appeared in your dream have symbolized in different cultures throughout history. You can then consider what these symbols might indicate about your own life.

"It is very simple, really," says Shirley Ma, "dreams tell you what to do with your life. In every dream there is a message, and if you collect all your dreams over a period of time, you will begin to see a pattern. That pattern is your path -- and the dreams guide you along."