Dreams About Obstacles: When the Dream Stays With You

If your dream involved chaos and confusion, your subconscious mind is most definitely trying to tell you something!  Below is a recent dream submitted to Dream Prophesy for dream interpretation. The dreamer is looking for the meaning of the dream because the frustrated feeling the dream left with her is lingering.

I hope you can help me with a recent dream I had.  I woke up feeling so frustrated and confused and the feeling is still with me over 24 hours later. I have the feeling that my mind is giving me a message of some sort but I can’t figure it out.  Here’s my dream. I was in a village in the middle of nowhere. The people didn’t talk at all. They didn’t even use sign language.  I tried to communicate with them but they just looked at me, then looked at each other like I was crazy and they were amused by me.  If they did make noise, I knew they would laugh at me.

Because no one would talk, I couldn’t figure out how to get out of the village and to the town.  See, I knew that I had to leave the village and, for some reason, it was the most important thing in the world to get back to town. Whatever town it was!

Each time I tried to take off for a certain direction, I found trouble or a dead end then had to go back to the village, where everyone was looking at me like I was a crazy woman. The people were Indians – all dressed up like you’d see in a Western movie. Feathers, tomahawks, etc. They were so beautiful, but I hated them because they wouldn’t talk or help me find where I needed to go.  I can’t describe how helpless and frustrated I was or how much I knew I needed to get to the town.  But each way I tried lead to mountains or lakes or fire or wolves. Nowhere I went was the right way!  I woke up completely frustrated and the feeling won’t go away.  Please help so I can have peace of mind. Thank you. – Brenda

Brenda, fascinating dream! I can feel your frustration in your words and can practically see it in your dream symbols.  The good news is that this dream’s meaning is pretty clear to me. The bad news is, you may have a little work in front of you for the peace of mind you’re looking for.

The first thing that came to my mind after reading your dream is this:  Somehow you have lost your way in life and are, subconsciously, trying to find it.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve gotten WAY off track in some area.  It could be as simple as slacking off with a few goals or even New Year’s Resolutions.  Many people, after trying to battle some particular goal they’ve set for themselves (losing weight, saving money, controlling their temper, quitting smoking….) will fall off the wagon, so to speak.  They grow frustrated and even wonder if they can meet the goal – they often wonder if they should even try.

During this time, they can sort of lose their way.  Their purpose in life is clouded by the clouds of doubt and frustration.  This can quickly lead to great frustration.

Another instance of losing your way is if you allow other people to make choices for you.  If you keep allowing someone else to decide where you go to school, where you work, what you eat, who you spend time with, what you wear (or any combination of personal choices) – you’ll eventually feel trapped and wonder where that person ends and you begin.

If you recognize your personal situation in either of the descriptions above, I’m sure you realize how frustrated your subconscious mind is. YOU are inside trying to get out! Whether you are in your own way, circumstances are holding you back, or someone else is in your way can only be determined by you.

The bottom line is that you essentially feel that you have lost your way. You find yourself lost within a situation that your subconscious mind wants out of.  The way you longed for the “town” in the dream is symbolic for what you yearn for in your real life.  The best way to figure this out is to simply sit down with yourself and have a good old-fashioned self-talk! Free yourself from all distractions and really get in touch with the real you – beneath the layers of day-to-day stress, responsibilities, relationships, etc.  You will undoubtedly uncover what it is you feel is holding you back.  This thing (whether it’s a personal trait, situation, or individual) is symbolic of the obstacles you kept encountering.  You feel that, in life, something is in your way

The villagers represent helplessness.  In some area of your life you feel helpless – just as helpless as the people were when they either refused to help you or didn’t know how.

One final thought about the dream symbols. The fact that the people, themselves, weren’t aggressive and the fact that the obstacles you met were not human obstacles leads me to think that the obstacle you face in your day to day life is probably yourself and/or circumstances.  I believe that if your obstacle involved another human being, you would have encountered an angry or aggressive human in your dream.  By contrast, they were silent.  In society, we have often referred to people as dumb who refuse to speak.   I believe this is an important symbol in the dream and believe that you somehow feel “dumb” because of your situation.  Of course, that’s ridiculous because we all “lose our way” from time to time.

As for the dream staying with you, when this happens we can rest assured that our subconscious mind is deeply troubled and looking for answers.

I have complete confidence that you’ll get back on the right track right away. Keeping a Dream Journal is an excellent way to keep track of your dreams. They really help you sort things out.

Best of luck and thanks for sharing your dream!