What did you dream last night?

There's a function in our body that creates dreams.

Ayurveda views this function as a discharge of nerve cells - the drainage of incomplete thoughts, actions and feelings.

For example, during the day, while taking my dog on a walk, I had a brief thought about an old friend. The thought just popped into my head and bounced right out. There was really no awareness around it. It was an incomplete thought.

But, my sweet God Pod picked up that incomplete thought. My brain knows it has to complete these types of thoughts in order to restore order and balance. 

This is where dreams come in. In a dream, Ayurveda believes that you finish unfinished business and the brain is able to restore order.

That same night, I had a dream with my old friend in it.  Cool right? 

Going even deeper, we can classify our dreams into three categories; vata, pitta or kapha.

• Vata dreams are active
  • examples: falling, being attacked, being pursued, sex. frozen with fright, death of a loved one, being locked up, flying, snakes, autumn, fulfillment
• Pitta dreams are fiery
  • examples: schooling, teaching, studying, sex, arriving too late, eating, fire, failing, an examination, killing someone, being inappropriately dressed, being nude in public, summer, problem solving
• Kapha dreams are romantic
  • Swimming, finding money, eating candy, sex, doing the same thing again and again slowly, arriving too late, seeing self as dead, snow, spring, winter, satisfy unconscious needs

By classifying dreams we can get a good sense of where our lives are out of balance. If we're consistently having pitta dreams, we'd be wise to lay off fiery foods and activities.

For example, one could replace spicy foods with ones that are more cooling such as:

• fresh sweet fruits like mango, coconut, berries and peaches
• bitter greens like arugula, kale, asparagus, and bok choy
• astringent veggies like lentils, cauliflower and cilantro
• other foods that have “cooling” qualities like cucumber and watermelon

If we let ourselves go, without checking in & striving to maintain a delicate balance, it's possible that a disease or something more serious will develop.

Check in. What are your dreams telling you?

Make a record of your dreams and try to alalyze them as vata, pitta or kapha. Do it for one month. Within that time you will discover the pattern of your dreams .