A second ago, were you running various solutions to a problem through your mind?

Perhaps you were fantasizing about the romantic relationship you wish you were in. Or maybe you were wondering what other remedies or approaches you could try to heal a health challenge.

Our minds are always busy... figuring out… longing for... or looking to discover…

Yet, what many don’t know is that when we’re asleep and dreaming, our minds are doing some of their best work –– giving us the answers to what we ponder by day, as well as all sorts of other valuable insights about our lives.

(And below, you’ll find 7 keys for gleaning the most authentic wisdom coming through your dreams.)

You may not believe the many notable people throughout history whose dreams have greatly influenced their contributions to our world….

Albert Einstein's theory of relativity was inspired by a dream; many of the unique plots for bestselling author Stephen King’s books emerged in his dreams; and former Beatle Paul McCartney reported that the tune for the group’s song "Yesterday" came to him in a dream.

Psychotherapist Carl Jung wrote extensively about our capacity to experience precognitive or future-telling dreams –– his own mother’s death was foretold in a dream.

And cancer surgeon and bestselling author of self-healing books Bernie Siegel lectures medical students on the importance of listening to patients’ dreams for insights into their healing.

Yet, as you know, the answers to our daytime questions and other important revelations that come to us in our dreams are not usually spelled out for us, like in a letter (although, sometimes they can be).

Most often, they appear as images: characters, animals, fanciful landscapes, even people we know or have known.

So, we’re left to work with these usually cryptic dream “messages” metaphorically...

We ask ourselves or a friend:

What does that black cat in my dream mean? Why was my ex-husband in my dream? I haven’t thought of him in years. Or, I was given a dazzling amethyst necklace in my dream. Who would give me such a beautiful gift, and why?

This is a great first step! Our dreams have gotten us thinking (outside the waking mind’s box). We’re letting in the wisdom of our dreaming mind, untethered by the influence of our ego, always at play by day.

But as we work with our dreams, how do we keep our ego and rational thinking at bay, so that we can further unfold our dreams’ important messages — that inner knowing that comes deep from within our soul and is refreshingly, and sometimes embarrassingly, honest?

Of course, you can’t completely fend off the ego or know the “exact” meaning of a dream, but you can make room for your dream’s authentic soul wisdom to shine through –– the meaning that is most important and pertinent to you and your life in that moment.

And after you’ve practiced the fun and life-transforming experience of tuning into the wisdom of your dreams, you’ll gain a sense of when a dream interpretation feels alive with something you’d never imagined or potent with something that strikes an emotional cord –– as well as when it’s really just your thinking, waking mind at work.

So, how do we distinguish between the reasoning of the waking mind and the real wisdom of the dreaming mind?

Here are 7 ways to keep your ego in check and soul’s wisdom flowing while working with your nighttime dreams:

>> Click here to download a copy of this infographic

And, one last general, yet all-important, tip for allowing the wisdom of the night to see the light of day:

Don’t ever let someone tell you what your dreams mean.

A good dream buddy lets you know the parts of your dream that touched or interested them and why. And from this gentle and respectful feedback, an authentic new insight can be born –– which you’ll recognize as it reverberates in your body and flows out into the world with your resounding aha! of recognition.

Learn to access vital messages from your soul, uncover new realms of personal transformation and healing, and bring magic and synchonicity into your daily life through shamanic dreamwork practices in Robert Moss’s FREE class, The Power of Active Dreaming: How to Use Your Dreamtime for Healing and Transformation.