What Does it Mean to Dream About Losing Things?
The majority of dream interpretation requests I get have to do with 1 of the following types of dreams:
- Dreams of dying
- Dreams of a lost loved one
- Snake dreams
- Dreams of falling
- Dreams of being lost
- Dreams of losing things
I thought we’d take a good look at one of these dreams today: Dreams of losing things. Many people want to know what it means to dream about losing things – some wonder if it’s a sign that they’ll be losing something (or someone) in their life. First of all let me say a resounding NO, these dreams do not tell the future or imply that you’ll lose anything or anyone in your waking life.
Dreams deal with what’s going on in our lives – or with what has gone on in our lives. Dreams are where we sort it all out.
When we dream of losing things, its almost always because we are (in our waking life) overwhelmed and are currently being pulled in too many different directions or are trying to do too many things. These dreams often have to do with us, personally, more than things we lose. They’re just symbols for the bigger picture.
It’s our brain’s way of telling us: Too many pots on the stove! Something’s going to happen if you don’t get it together. Dreaming of losing things often means we are “out of touch” or “out of control” in some area of our life.
Many times, life gets so hectic and twisted that we lose touch with who we actually are. We try to be so many things to so many people that we sort of lose who we truly are. We forget the things that truly matter (or at least should matter) in life. At the risk of wading into the deep end of the pool, dreaming of losing things often reflects that we’ve “lost a part of ourselves.”
If you dream that you have lost something, examine your heart and life the very next day, while the dream is still fresh in your mind. Have you lost touch with yourself lately? Are you too busy? Are parts of your life sort of spinning out of control?
As I point out in the article, Dream Prophesy: When Dreams Come True, dreams simply tell us that The stage is set for something to happen. Whether it does or not is almost entirely up to us.
Dream Prophesy: When Dreams Come True
Do dreams come true?
Are my dreams trying to tell me something?
Does dreaming of death mean that someone’s going to die?
If I dream of losing something, will the dream come true?
What is dream prophesy?!
All viable questions. All questions dreamologists hear all day long – and dreamers wonder about each night. The questions are confusing and can be hard to sort out, but the answer is pretty simple, actually…. once you understand the initial contradiction!
Dream Prophesy deals with the phenomenon of your dreams “playing out” or “coming true” in a way. To be certain, sometimes they do! President Abraham Lincoln dreamed of being assassinated. Countless people have dreamed about fighting with a loved one, only to find themselves in the middle of an epic disagreement hours later.
I read (and experience first hand) accounts of fascinating situations of dreams seemingly coming true. Although I KNOW that we control our own destiny, I also know that our dreams sometimes do come true – or at least come true in some fashion. If I didn’t believe this, would I have named my dream website Dream Prophesy?
Doubtful.
So, you may wonder, why do I countlessly (on this very dream website!) teach and preach that dreams don’t tell the future? That dreams don’t control our destiny?
Here’s the truth… the whole truth…. and nothing but the truth. We DO control our future, our dreams DO NOT. If we dream of losing something, we don’t necessarily have to lose our keys (or cellphone, papers, book…) on an upcoming day. If we dream of losing something, it’s because our mind is recognizing and warning us about something troublesome to it: We’re overwhelmed and the stage is being set for something to happen – such as losing something. When we dream about losing things, our mind is telling us to get our sh-– together!
If after having one of these dreams, we actually lose our car keys – we either didn’t heed the dreams warning or didn’t act upon it soon enough.
Here’s another scenario. I had a dream interpretation request submitted through the contact form about a year ago. The woman explained that she’d been dreaming that she kept fighting with her husband. The most recent dream involved divorce and she was greatly troubled by how “real” the dream felt to her.
She wanted to know if this dream meant big trouble for her marriage. I told her that it did if she didn’t try to fix what was obviously troubling her subconscious mind. After a few e-mails back and forth, she let the cat out of the bag…. and it was a mother in law!
Seems that her mother in law was causing a few simple little spats between her and her husband. Her resentment was building and building. Her dreams were letting her know that she needed to confront these feelings. Fortunately, she did just that by having a good, long talk with her husband (after baking him his favorite meal and even his favorite cookies…. I hear from such smart people.).
Future trouble was averted – and, as she put it, her husband told her that his mother was becoming a “thorn in” his side as well!
Now, if this dreamer had ignored her dreams – without trying to figure out the meaning behind them, she would not have made this meal, the cookies, or the first move. She’d have kept going along, quietly, letting the resentment and anger build… until… you guessed it – a huge fight took place.
Then, to a bystander, it would have looked like the dreams came true – that the dreams were prophetic. Not exactly. We are always in control.
Another scenario: If a young boy dreams that he has a car wreck, it could be his mind “processing” all the warnings his parents (and possibly even his girlfriend) give him about his speeding. His mind could be letting him know (while he’s asleep and less likely to protest the idea) that he needs to slow down. If he heeds this warning – the dream prophesy, if you will, and slows down, his risk of having a wreck will go down.
If he doesn’t heed the warning… well, speeding young boys often find themselves in fender benders!
Let’s go back to the White House with President Abraham Lincoln. He had a famous dream where he was assassinated. No duh? He was President during a time of total turmoil and upheaval. He was a highly controversial man during that time. We know him as nothing but a complete HERO, but some poor souls who didn’t know any better saw him as a villain.
He knew that. He saw the looks on some haters’ faces, he read the papers, and he (no doubt) even had a few threats. He knew the possibility and likelihood of being killed existed. As someone who adores President Abraham Lincoln (I collect everything I can get my hands on related to him in any way) – I sometimes get lost in this thought: What if he had “heeded” this dream and taken extra precaution. What if, for the time being – while so many people were still so out of sorts – he’d laid low, upped his protection, etc?
I love to think about what other impacts this man would have had on history.
Sadly, his dream did prove to be prophetic and he was murdered by a cowardly moron.
As with our cookie baking wife, our speedster, and our heroic president – their dreams let them know one thing: That the STAGE WAS SET for a particular thing to happen.
Dream Analysis: A Plate Upside the Head Doesn’t Spell Future Headaches
I dreamed about 4 nights ago that my husband and I were fighting so bad that I hit him in the head with a plate. We were yelling and yelling and he was so unreasonable and was saying such mean things that I felt like I had to just shut him up. I am not a violent person and actually don’t even fight with people that much. I argue with my husband sometimes but all marriages have that. But I never hit him with plates. Why would I be so violent in my dream? It is really troubling me. I can’t get the image of the plate and his cut head bleeding so much blood out of my mind. It makes me sick and I don’t know what to do. Is it a bad omen for something happening to one of us or to a big fight. As you can see I am really a wreck over this. Please help me.
First of all, rest assured that there is no omen involved. People often think that, but dreams can’t tell the future. They do, however, often indicate something that is currently going on or something that has gone on. A dream such as this one indicates that there is something “below the surface.” More times than not, if we dream about an open wound (or surgery, pulling teeth… that sort of thing) – our mind is trying to “dig” beneath the surface for something.
In this case, I would be willing to bet that you have been trying to get something across to your husband for a while – something that he either isn’t accepting or simply isn’t “catching.” It could be hints you’ve been dropping for a new sofa, something around the house that you want him to take care of, or something on a grander scale. It could even be a case of wanting him to listen to you or pay more attention to you.
The hit in the head with the plate was pretty much your subconscious mind’s way of saying, “Now I’ve got your attention!!!”
As far as dream symbolisms go, I think that the fact that “so much blood” came out of the wound indicates that you fully expect to be able to get through to him – in your heart you believe that you’ll get to the source of the problem. If, in your dream, you had hit him on the head and nothing had come out, I’d worry that you might be fighting a losing battle and that (down inside) you knew it.
Think about how this relates to your situation. I’d be willing to bet that a light bulb has already appeared!
Again, this is absolutely not an omen for anything. If, by coincidence, he cuts himself shaving or you have an argument about what movie to see Friday night – know this: The dream did not predict or cause either one. Dreams rely on what happened yesterday, not tomorrow.
Sweet dreams!
What Do Fairy Tale Dreams Mean?
Have you ever had what I call a “Fairy Tale” dream? One in which everything seems more surreal than usual. Things are bright and sunny, pretty and larger than life. If you had to describe it, you would probably use the words “like a fairy tale.”
In these dreams, you may or may not be a prince or princess and there isn’t always a castle and moat! Yet there’s something distinctively “fairy tale” about the dreams.
So exactly what do these “fairy tale” dreams mean? In a word: ESCAPE. That’s not to say you want to escape your life altogether but, make no mistake about it, there’s some element of your life or a particular date on your appointment calendar that you do want to escape from.
Oddly enough, the people who have this sort of escapism dream are the ones who are going along, acting as though everything is great, and coming off as though they haven’t a care in the world. The girl with a school assignment that she’s sweating bullets over acts as though it’s a breezy cake walk. Because she’s in such denial, the stress builds up. She’s a perfect candidate for an escapism dream such as fairy tale dreams.
The man who refuses to face his relationship problems, trying to cover them up any way he can is another candidate.
Sometimes just admitting that we aren’t perfect and that we have worries and insecurities can free us up to find solutions. Whether the solution is studying harder, preparing more, or talking things out with a loved one – the solution is always a HEAD ON approach and never a HIDE FROM approach.
If you’ve had a fairy tale dream recently, ask yourself what you could possibly be trying to escape from. It could be any of the following types of situations:
- an upcoming test
- a dental appointment
- meeting someone in particular
- work evaluation
- a project at work or school
- a confrontation
- vacation
- an interview
- etc!
Meet your fear and reservations head on – admit them, then prepare for them. Create your own fairy tale ending.
Why You Need a Dream Journal
Keeping a dream journal isn’t just important for analyzing and interpreting your dreams, it’s crucial. When someone asks me about what steps they should take to interpreting and understanding their dreams, my advice never changes: The first step is to invest in a Dream Journal.
Why should you keep a dream journal?
Trying to “master” your dreams without a dream journal is like trying to cook without a cookbook. It’s like trying to remember a month of appointments and special dates without writing them down. Most of us are simply too busy and have far too many things going on not to benefit from putting them in writing. The same is true of our dreams, we have them each and every night – if we don’t write them down, we’ll soon forget the details and often the dream, itself.
However, if we write down the most important things about each dream, including the dream symbols, colors, people, and emotions – we’ll have an accurate account of the dream. Then, we can look back over the dreams we’ve been having and see a pattern develop.
You should write down a brief explanation of what’s going on in your life as well – either in a different color of ink from the ink you use for dream description – or in a place where you can tell definitely where the real world ends and the dream world begins!
The importance of recording what’s going on in your life (such as if you’re feeling happy, sad, lonely, guilty…) is this: In the future, if you have a series of nightmares, you can look back in your dream journal and find a time when you had similar dreams. You’ll probably see that what you’re feeling in your day to day life is similar to what you felt then.
Dreams are extremely fascinating and extremely insightful. Having a Dream Journal will help you both enjoy and benefit from your dreams more than ever.
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