Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - Do Your Money Dreams Mean Anything?

Episode Date: May 26, 2022

Have you ever dreamt that you won the lottery? Do you have a recurring dream you can’t figure out? Have you had a dream about your boo and you feel like it means… something? Nicole wants to help YOU with your dreams in more ways than one. Dream expert Theresa Cheung is joining Nicole on today’s episode in order to answer the question: what are our dreams trying to tell us?  To read more about Theresa’s work, check out her website here: https://www.theresacheung.com/

One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees. If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that

I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it. If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime. Feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. Members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits. Terms and conditions apply. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details.

I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash, but I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your

reservations, messaging your guests, giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble, so I don't end up making time to make my house look guest friendly. I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself. Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. Hey guys, are you ready for some money rehab? Wall Street has been completely upended by an unlikely player. GameStop. And should I have a 401k?

You don't do it? No, I never do it. You think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't. Charge for wasting our time. I will take a check. Like an old school check. You recognize her from anchoring on CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg.

The only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. Nicole Lappin. Have you ever had a bizarre dream that seemed to come out of nowhere? Do you have a recurring dream that you just can't figure out? Have you had a dream about your boo and feel like it means something? Today, we're decoding your dreams. Why are we doing this, you may be asking? Well, we've had some heavier topics on the show lately, and we wanted to do something fun.

So I invited the most fun person ever, Teresa Chung, dream expert extraordinaire on the show. Plus, it's my goal on Money Rehab to help you with your dreams. So I figure I might as well do that in every sense of the word. Now, I'll be honest, because it's the only way I know how to be. I'm not a big believer in some of the more woo-woo ways of thinking. Here's my personal opinion, which you may take or leave as always. But with things like dream analysis, I make decisions not on the analysis itself, but how the analysis makes me feel. So, for example, I've had friends who swear by making decisions through flipping a coin and say the universe talks to you through

whether it's heads up or down. But when I've given this a try myself and flipped a coin to make a decision, if I feel disappointed in what the coin tells me to do, I do the other thing. And that's what I find most valuable. Sometimes I don't know how I feel until someone or something tells me what I should do. And then I realize I don't want to do that thing. I want to do the exact opposite. And that's how I want us to think about dreams.

So, Teresa, welcome to Money Rehab. Oh, it's a dream come true to be here, if you will forgive the pun. I would never hold puns against you. In fact, I would celebrate them. You are in the right spot, sister. So let's talk about those dreams. Dreams can feel like little random movies that play in our head every night. But they're more than that, right? I mean, what can we gain from analyzing our dreams? Everything. We can gain self-awareness, self-knowledge, and we can gain creative insights and everything we need really to be a fulfilled human being. It has been the mission of my life to try and alert people to the incredible life-changing transformative potential of their dreams. And it's such a shame that people

wake up in the morning and say, oh, it was just a dream and go on with their life. It is so much more than that. It is your nocturnal intuition talking to you about what is current in your waking life right now. And it's trying to offer you brainstorming insights, creative connections, and tools to help and heal you and to move you forward in life. And also point you in the direction of what truly matters in your life. Because we spend so much of our life focusing on what doesn't matter. But your dreams every night are trying to focus you in on what truly matters, which is self-knowledge, self-awareness and personal and spiritual growth.

As I often say to people, we have an inbuilt therapist or counselor and much cheaper than a real one. And if people could just work with their dreams for at least a month, write down your dreams for at least 30 days, and then compare it to what is happening in your life, you will see that your dreaming mind is acting like a commentator or a narrator, but commenting symbolically and using metaphors and figurative language and puns and association to offer you insights. And why does the dreaming mind speak like that? Well, it does because it's from a different state of consciousness. Your unconscious speaks in the language of symbols. And that's the big problem. A lot of people, because their dreams don't make sense, they just dismiss it. But I'd like you all to go back to like when you were at

school and analyzing a poem, or you were asked to study a work of art or great literature or music you would look for the meanings beneath the surface to get a richer and deeper interpretation and that's exactly what you have to do every night think of your dreams from now on as a poem or a work of art your dreaming mind is a visionary speaking to you through the language of symbol and metaphor and sending you really important messages every single night. Because if you're one of those people who say you don't dream, you do. You're just not recalling them. We dream at least five or six times every single night.

Brain scans show that. And what if you wake up and you forgot it? Are there techniques that you can use to try and remember right away or write them down or wake up in the middle of the night? Or what would you suggest? Yeah, dreams are so fragile and subtle. As I say, they come from a different country, a different place, the dreaming state, which is very subtle and gentle. And in the dreaming state, your ego, consciousness, logic and reason don't exist. So as soon as you wake up and you snap into reality, where with all the to do's you've got to do, the dreaming mind and its subtle imagery, it can't

compete, and you're going to forget it. So the first thing you need to do when you wake up, and I hope everyone listening does this tomorrow when they wake up in the morning is stay still, keep your eyes closed for at least one or two minutes. Try not to move straight away because any kind of movement puts you into the waking state too quickly. You need to sort of linger in that blissful twilight stage that's called a liminal state between sleeping and waking. And if you do that and keep still, keep your eyes closed so you mirror the dream state and just allow the images to surface. If no images or stories or symbols surface, focus on the feeling because that will be a great teacher as well.

And then as soon as they come flooding through, and they will, they will come flooding through if you just, you know, the night before say, I'm going to dream and I'm going to remember it. And you stay still in the morning and you let the dreams come, write them down because you will forget them. Don't go to the restroom. Don't have a glass of water. Write them down immediately and then forget about them. Don't try and interpret them first thing. That's for later during the day or in the evening because you've got to get on with your day. Dream interpretation is best done with

hindsight and later in the day when you're much more relaxed. Yeah, I have to tell Penny, my little dog who wakes me up every morning and licks me and then I, you know, never remember any dream to maybe sleep somewhere else for the next week. So I can focus on this as well. Now, this is money rehab. So I want to zero in on interpreting money dreams. Of course, I have some specific money dreams to ask you about. But first, can you tell me generally what money might symbolize in a dream or I suppose what symbols might mean money in a dream? Absolutely. And I was so excited when I found out that I was going to come and talk to you because money dreams are fascinating. They're actually quite rare. They're never in the top 10 dreams, people dreaming about money which

is surprising consider considering how much value we place on it in our waking state but that's as i said because the dreaming state focuses on different kind of value um it's personal value what truly matters in life so it doesn't really focus in on money as such, you know, because it wants you to focus on the things that are more important than money, love, kindness, compassion, who you are as a human being. However, when money dreams do occur, and people do dream about money, they do dream about paper money, cash, banks, coins, treasure, shopping, credit cards, Bitcoin. I've had people messaging me about all of that. Whenever money appears in your dream, what your dreaming mind is using money as a symbol for what you truly value, what matters to you in life and what price are you willing to pay

to get what truly matters in your life. So that's how you've got to think about it. It's really about personal growth. When money appears in a dream, it's about what it's your dreaming mind is asking you, what really do you value in life? Now, I grew up actually with a little dream dictionary, by the way, and this probably hocus pocus compared to you being the expert. But I remember, it might have been like bird poop or something in my dream that equated to money or riches, or it was something that was so opposite. Does that often happen in a dream? Like something so weird can be actually really good? Absolutely. Yes. Because dreams celebrate opposites. Because in the dream state,

as I say, logic, reason, time and space don't exist. And that's why so many great discoveries and insights and great works of art and literature and movies and games and even Google was inspired by a vision in a dream. Because in a dream, you can make these brainstorming connections between two things that you never would in your waking life. Because your waking mind, your reason would say, uh-uh, not going there. It's impossible. But nothing's impossible in the dream state. And that's why it's such a treasure trove. It truly is a treasure trove for you to dig into every night. But again, it breaks my heart so many people dismiss their dreams. But you talking to me about them today is really helpful because I'm hoping people will pay attention to their dreams tonight

because dreams are starved of attention. They have been trying every single night since your birth to get your attention, right? And they're going to love it that you're listening to this, that people are listening to this because they're going to reward you by, you know, where your attention goes in your waking state is what shows up in your dreams. So I'm predicting that people may dream tonight after listening to this. I hope so. What are some of those symbolisms that actually mean reward or riches to come or something like that? I don't know if it was actually bird poop, but is it something like that where you see in a dream and it actually means that maybe, you know, something big is where you see in a dream and it actually means that

maybe, you know, something big is going to happen in your career or finances? Well, dreams are very personal. I mean, there are common universal interpretations based on Jungian dream interpretation and archetypes, but basically it's a dream is a very personal thing. So if you have a dream where you feel amazing, where you're flying and you're being showered with wealth and riches and you're on the stage and you're a celebrity superstar and you feel good, that's a sign that your dreaming mind is pushing you in that direction in your waking life, that things are working out. So pay attention to the feeling. If you wake up feeling incredibly positive and excited and you're smiling because of a dream you had, that is a really good sign. Hold on to that feeling because how you feel on the inside is what you attract into your life. This is manifesting, which is the big buzzword at the moment. How you feel from the inside out

is what you're going to start attracting in your waking life. So if you have amazingly happy, joyful dreams where you're dancing, flying, singing in space, celebrate that. Just thank your dreaming mind when you wake up and think, right, life, it's going to be an adventure today. Well, sometimes I have such yummy dreams that I don't want to wake up. I'm like, wait, wait, wait.

Let me go back to that. That was so fun. I get disappointed. I mean, that's when i knew i fell in love with dreams because i would actually i was one of i must have been such a lovely child for my parents because i couldn't wait to go to sleep i mean i watched the wizard of oz and i wanted the dream like dorothy you know um that's i remember but we can because the more attention you pay to your dreams the more they're going to reward you and the more you're going to

have and the more vivid dream recall you know you will have in the morning as well. It's where your attention goes, as I said, and it really is. So much insight can come to you through those symbols at night. You know, novels have been born through a dream. Did you know Mary Sherry's Frankenstein was a dream? Stephen King, many of his plots come from visions and dreams. You can tell that. Many Xbox games were dreams first. So who knows, the next dream you had could be a great work of art, literature, or even a scientific invention.

Einstein dreamt the theory of relativity. It came to him through a vision and a dream. Incredible. I think humanity has moved forward because of spellbinding dreams people have had. But the trouble is we don't trust the dream state. We fear it. And for reasons I don't understand, we fear those images and stories at night because we put a cult and fear and evil into it. But there's nothing there at all that can harm you.

Hold on to your wallets, boys and girls. Money rehab will be right back. One of the most stressful periods of my life was when I was in credit card debt. I got to a point where I just knew that I had to get it under control for my financial future and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to $200 with no fees.

If you're an OG listener, you know about my infamous $35 overdraft fee that I got from buying a $7 latte and how I am still very fired up about it. If I had Chime back then, that wouldn't even be a story. Make your fall finances a little greener by working toward your financial goals with Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime. Open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime. Feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A. Members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits.

Terms and conditions apply. Go to Ch chime.com slash disclosures for details. I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash, but I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what you don't have time for, like managing your reservations, messaging your guests,

giving support at the property, or even create your listing for you. I always want to line up a reservation for my house when I'm traveling for work, but sometimes I just don't get around to it because getting ready to travel always feels like a scramble, so I don't end up making time to make my house look guest-friendly. I guess that's the best way to put it. But I'm matching with a co-host, so I can still make that extra cash while also making it easy on myself. Find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. Now for some more money rehab.

So now we're revved up. We are so excited to fall asleep tonight and then wake up. You've killed in so many years. Right? And then have our journal in the morning. right? And then have our journal in the morning. I suppose looking them up in what I had growing up is probably not the best next step, but what would you suggest? If they're so personal, then how do you analyze them or interpret them? Well, first of all, write them down, but don't try and write everything down because often dreams, they are literally like a full

length movie. You'd be writing for hours. Just write the key symbols that stood out and the feelings. Give your dream a title, maybe draw the dream, put it away. And then maybe in the evening movie you'd be writing for hours just write the key symbols that stood out and the feelings give your dream a title maybe draw the dream put it away and then maybe in the evening is a good time to look at it and just to sort of like brainstorm around them if you dreamt of a tree what are the associations you have bring in your if they say a tree appeared in a poem and your teacher was asking you to interpret why the the the poet chose to use a tree in the metaphor, you'd unpick it. You see, you know, we have lost this ability in modern life to think symbolically and look beneath the surface. Everything's on one level. But dreams encourage us to look beneath

and see the meaning beneath things, to start becoming a bit like a detective in our own life. So you look at these symbols and you brainstorm around them. And I tell you, you will know when you've hit on the right interpretation because you will get an aha moment of illumination. It will just, oh my goodness, that's what this dream means. You will know. And I will tell you also, your dreaming mind will tell you something you don't know about yourself already. Dreams are all about surprise. They don't tread over old ground because they want you to evolve.

They want you to be more than you are. So they will tell you things that will enrich you and fill you with positivity and surprise you. and fill you with positivity and surprise you. And you will just know because it's your dream. If you think about it, you're the creator and the director. It's happening in your mind, in your brain. You have created it. And every symbol in your dream is an aspect of your state of mind. It's you. You are dreaming you.

I always talk about the movie Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio. There's anyone go and watch it for homework where everybody looks at Leo in the dream because he's in the dream and all the characters, everything stops and stares at the dreamer. That is what it is. Everything, every color, every object, every character is an aspect of you symbolically represented. It's like a hall of mirrors stepping into a dream. And basically, you want me to interpret straight away, give yourself time, just give yourself time and also look at it in combination with other dreams that you've had over the week. People make

the mistake of obsessing over one dream. But dreams are like a Netflix series, they need, they run and run and that one episode will comment on another, right? You've got to look at it in hindsight. And a dream journal really is spellbinding. I mean, I've kept one since I was 16. And looking back, I can see my dreaming mind kind of like new already, was commenting, was trying to help new things about me that at the time I didn't know. And also keeping a dream journal over time will help you learn the symbolic language of your

dreams because you will look in your waking life and you'll see certain symbols coming up in your dreams and you'll recognize patterns. It's all about pattern recognition as well. patterns. It's all about pattern recognition as well. I remember speaking with a Native American dream expert at some point, and I told him, yeah, you know, everybody has that recurring dream that they don't finish college and that they panic, right? So what does that mean? He's like, no, not everybody has that. That's just you. And I would think about it not necessarily as not graduating from college per se, but as the college as an institution or rules or bureaucracy or something like that beyond literally what it is. So how would you help somebody interpret their dreams if they're a literal person and they think maybe everybody has this dream because we

don't really talk about it. Let's say you win the lottery or you get robbed or you steal money or something like that. How should you think about it differently than just what happened in the dream? Well, I mean, recurring dreams. I'm glad you mentioned that because recurring dreams are your dreaming mind tough love. You're not getting the point that it's trying to make. So the dream will keep recurring until something shifts in your waking life that you don't need to have that dream anymore because you've kind of got the message. So if you are having recurring dreams, that's the number one to think, is there something in my waking life? And that could be something you're doing doing or it can be a state of mind that needs to change.

Because as soon as it does, the recurring dream will stop. Now, what you don't want with recurring dreams is that your dreaming mind will get a bit frustrated and start sending nightmares. And nightmares are extreme tough love. They're trying to shock you into the memory because the thing is with nightmares, you're gonna remember it in the morning

because the dreaming mind is nightmares you're gonna remember it in the morning because the dreaming mind is fed up of being forgotten so what it may do occasionally is send you the odd nightmare because you're going to mull that you're going to go online and google the meanings and you're going to think about it because that's all your dreaming mind wants is you to think about it but your dream of not graduating from from college is very very actually more common than you realize. Many people, especially high achieving people have these kind of imposter syndrome dreams, which means that they, and I tell you why, because in their waking life, they're not going to allow themselves to fail. However, the dreaming mind in its infinite wisdom knows that failure is a great teacher.

You learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes. So it will make sure that in your dreaming life, at least, you know the misery of failure because you learn from it. Because your dreaming mind doesn't, your brain doesn't know the difference between the dream state and the waking state. So if you've experienced something in a dream, it's almost like you have been there. Your brain has kind of processed it. It's almost like you have been there. Your brain necessary scenarios for your personal growth and evolution because we learn more from failure and mistakes. So it's your dreaming mind helping you. You can do it safely without facing the consequences in your waking life. In fact, the more people dream of failing,

the better, right? And it's often very, very high achieving people. You know, CEOs and successful people, they write to me all the time about having these dreams that their company collapses, they lose all their money, they're humiliated, they're often being on stage, forgetting your lines if you're a successful actor. And that happens because it's kind of giving you that experience of it. So that when you're awake, you think, I don't want to go there.

I'm going to do all I can to make sure that doesn't happen because I felt the humiliation and I didn't like it. So then using mine, let's say as a guinea pig, how could that be a teacher to me? Or how could I use what I keep seeing in my dreams or my nightmares, I suppose, when it really wants to wake me up to do something different in my normal life? Well, having a dream like that, I'm sure when you wake up, you will think, well, I don't want to feel like that. I don't want to, you know, to drop out or not live up to expectations. So you're probably going to be more extra prepared in coming days to make sure that you don't experience that feeling of

humiliation or disappointment. Your dreaming mind's just giving you a bit of a wake up call. That's all. For today's tip, you can take straight to the bank. Once again, I am the financial expert, not the dream expert. But I'd recommend giving my take on dreams a little try. You can use dreams to help you make decisions, even if that's not exactly how Teresa describes it. Make your choices not necessarily based on analysis, but based on how a dream makes you feel. Money Rehab is a production of iHeartRadio. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. Our

producers are Morgan Lavoie and Mike Coscarelli. Executive producers are Nikki Etor and Will Pearson. Our mascots are Penny and Mimsy. Huge thanks to OG Money Rehab team Michelle Lanz for her development work, Catherine Law for her production and writing magic, and Brandon Dickert for his editing, engineering, and sound design. And as always, thanks to you for finally investing in yourself so that you can get it together and get it all.