A helpful approach to a dream (especially a short one) is to look for opposites.
You have: fresh vs going off (the smell after a few days).
Your dream starts with something potentially tasty and nutritious (fresh fish you could cook and eat) and ends with something potentially carrying disease (the rat).
So the rat emphasises the theme of something fresh going off.
Was the dream friend someone you know in waking life? If so, what three words would you use to describe her personality? Look for links between the words you have chosen and the theme of something fresh rotting.
For example, you may have described her as full of life, someone who tries everything, someone who often takes on too much. In this example, the link would be that someone who takes on too much cannot really succeed in all her goals so some ideas/ tasks must be left to rot. In this example you then apply this to yourself and ask yourself, “Do I take on too much and end up losing out on opportunities by not acting on them soon enough?”
Dreams often portray clichés or expressions we use a lot. “She looks like a drowned rat” is a common expression, sometimes implying a lack of self-esteem over looks. Do you use this expression? What does it mean to you?
What situation in your life feels as if it changes from a lovely fresh, potentially fulfilling opportunity into a lost opportunity? Where in your life do you start off fresh and end up ‘going off’ an idea, person or situation? Where in your life do you fail to act while something is fresh?
Your dream suggests, with the drowned rat image, that you may hold back and lose out because you do not feel confident enough – you feel more of a drowned rat, perhaps.
Affirmation:
Here’s an affirmation using your dream symbols:
“I nourish myself by cooking and eating a healthy abundance of fresh fish. I share extra fresh fish with others.”
How to use your affirmation/ and how often:
Say your affirmation out loud and with feeling 30 times a day for the first week. From the second week say your affirmation out loud and with feeling once in the morning and once before you go to sleep for three more weeks.
How does this work?
This works by communicating directly with your unconscious mind using its own language, to transform the belief your dream is revealing.
More details on Affirmation as a Dream Alchemy Practice in: “Dream Alchemy” by Jane Teresa Anderson, pages 331-333.
Jane Teresa Anderson
