What We Can Learn From the Things We Say and Do in Our Dreams
Did you ever have a dream where you did or said something completely out of character for you? I’m sure you have, in fact, we probably all have at one time or another.
- A shy, soft-spoken person will dream of telling off an obnoxious co-worker.
- An extrovert will dream of a situation in which she was shy and unsure of herself.
- A daredevil will dream of being terrified.
- A total chicken will dream of soaring to new heights.
- The quietest man in the office will dream of being the life of the next office party.
And so on. In our dreams, we often “dare to go there.” The reason is this: Our inhibitions are totally down and the fears and reservations we experience in our daily lives simply don’t exist. We are invincible!
While the occasional dream may not carry much in the way of a life lesson, if we regularly dream of stepping outside of our comfort zone, our subconscious may be dying to do just that. Every now and again, examine your dreams for a pattern – especially if you possess traits in your dream that you seem to lack when you are awake. It may be time to open up a different side of yourself and take a few chances.
Our subconscious often craves the unexpected from us. The same-o, same-o can drag on and like a long-winded high school teacher. If your subconscious seems to be telling you to loosen up and “step livelier,” take its breath away by doing a dance.
Dreams of Being Lost – What Do These Dreams Mean?
A Recently Submitted Dream for Analysis:
I always dream about not being able to find my way somewhere, or not being able to find something that I knew was there before. I either can’t find my way home, or can’t find my way out of a house, or can’t find the proper road, etc. Last night’s dream – I put my bag in a post office box (that was on the outside of the post office for some reason), and then when I went to find it, I couldn’t. I went up and down streets looking for the box I put my bag in, but couldn’t find it. One other time, I was trying to find my way home and kept walking on different roads that kind of looked familiar, but were not the roads I needed to get home. One other was I was in a house with many rooms, and could not find my way out of it. All my dreams are like this, and I wake up before I find my way. What does this type of dream mean?
Fascinatingly enough, your dreams are actually covering several areas. They’re taking you by the hand and pulling you in several directions. It’s a wonder you aren’t completely frazzled!
Dreams of Being Lost
The key symbolism for dreams in which we lose our way (or can’t find it in the first place) is frustration. It’s a pretty common dream theme, simply because all of us are familiar with being frustrated. Whether it’s in school, at home, at work, or in a relationship – we all know the feeling of wanting something to go THIS way as we sit and watch it defiantly go THAT way instead!
Many Christians will experience dreams such as this when they feel that they’re “losing their way,” or that they aren’t reading their Bible often enough, praying enough, etc. I interpreted a dream for a lady,once, who had gone to her Catholic church for over 20 years. An injury at work left her unable to leave her house for a couple of months. She had dreams just about every night of losing either her teeth, her hair, her clothes, etc. Her church was such a huge part of her life that she felt like she was actually “losing herself.” I suggested that she call up members of her church and invite them over for coffee. When they found out how much she missed them, a few ladies began automatically coming by after each service – bringing her cookies, drinking coffee with her, and telling her what had gone on at the service. Is that sweet or what?! The dreams ended because she didn’t feel the loss so much any longer.
Dreams of Losing Objects
When we dream of losing something, it’s an indication that we feel we have, indeed, lost something. Parents who have young children suddenly enrolled in school (whether it’s first grade or college) will have frequent dreams like this because they subconsciously feel that they’ve lost something. Soon, however, they realize they haven’t lost the child at all and the dreams fade away.
On an even deeper level, many people who have made compromises in relationships (personal or professional) will have these dreams because they feel that they’ve lost a piece of themself.
I’d say that your dreams are definitely trying to tell you something. Any time dreams recur like this, there’s an underlying issue or emotion. I like to think of these hidden emotions as unopened e-mail. You know when you log in to your e-mail, it’ll tell you when you have unopened mail? Recurring dreams serve the same basic function – alerting us that we have undealt with emotions.
When we click on the unopened mail, the message goes away. We’ve dealt with it and there’s no need for it to bring anything to our attention any longer.
Think of your dreams along these lines. Spend a little time with yourself (no distractions) and ask yourself what losses you feel – whether they are literal, physical losses or emotional. More likely than not, you’ll get in touch with feelings you didn’t even fully realize you were having.
Good luck and sweet dreams!
Scratches in the Dream and Scratches in the Morning
A Troubling Dream From a Reader:
I sit up out of the bed with a strange feeling. I look at the clock and its 3:10 still early in the morning. My throat is dry so i get some ice like i always do and try to turn on the kitchen light, but it doesn’t turn on. My mind makes me turn to the door as i feel something there. I see a shadow with a short height as i peer at the dark blue curtains. I walked over to the curtains and opened them up to see my son of 6 years standing outside with a blank expression on his face. I opened the door in a rush and asked him why he was outside at 3 in the morning. He didn’t answer me. When I went to reach for him something gave me a small cut on my hand. I thought nothing of it as I brought him inside. I took off his brown coat and something swiped across my hand again. when I looked at his hand he held up a gold screw about the size of my pinky and I could see the extra sharp point on it. I watched him take his hand across his chest and felt the point swipe across me again. I jumped up out of my bed to notice everything was like my dream. My house was dark, it was 3:10, the only difference was that my light turned on in the kitchen, and my son was peacefully sleeping on the couch. My body was cold and tingling and on my hand were 3 small cuts. They weren’t random as they are above each other…my hand was really scratched..maybe you could help me and tell me what this means or what’s happening to me. I remember dreams often some more than others and I have some dreams repeatedly altho this is the first time I ever had this….thank you.
It’s really a wonder that this sort of thing doesn’t happen more often. While we’re asleep, sometimes we’ll scratch ourselves, get our limbs twisted around, or just find ourselves in some sort of uncomfortable position – then, our mind will work this into our dream. Some people dream that their finger is bitten by an animal only to wake up with their finger in their own mouth!
More likely than not, you somehow managed to scratch yourself while sleeping (it’d be much easier to explain if you had a pet!) – then your mind sort of inserted the experience into your dream.
Many times when we dream of a loved one in this sort of dream, it’s an indication that we were thinking about them right before we drifted off to sleep. I guess that’s why parents so frequently dream of their children. The dream also seems to indicate that you’ve been somewhat worried about “getting through” to someone recently. This person could or could not be your son.
It appears that you know what is best for someone else but are having a little trouble helping them to see. It could be something like trying to convince a friend that she’s wrong about a certain guy or it could be a case of trying to get your son to pick up his toys – it honestly could be just about anything. However, the intensity of the dream suggests that it’s something you feel very strongly about and that has been worrying you more than you really realize.
As for the clock reading the same time, that can be chalked up to crazy luck. The fact that you were cold and tingly can be attributed to the fact that you are a mother who was dreaming about her young child. Lots of emotions are involved there, and your body registered each one. Also, the fact that this dream seems very much like a lucid dream would explain its extreme effects on you.
Thanks for sharing your dream and I hope your scratches heal soon.
Dreams About Snakes in the Grass
I had a dream three nights ago that I can’t shake. I was in the yard, at a picnic or something like that. I looked down and saw a snake coming toward me in the grass. No matter where I tried to run, there he was following me. I felt so scared and helpless because no matter where I went, he came.
I ran into a circus type tent and thought I was safe. But then the ring leader, who looked more like a talk show host, held the snake up in the air and started walking toward me with it. The snake still had grass on it and was, at first, playing dead. Then he reared up and looked really angry. I knew he was mad that I had tried to get away from him. Thankfully I woke up before the ringleader and the snake got to me.
I can’t get this dream out of my head and keep expecting a snake to be everywhere. I hate snakes anyway, so this is a really horrible deal for me. Any help would be greatly appreciated. It may sound silly, but I don’t even want to go outside.
I can totally relate to you – snakes are one of my own biggest fears, so I don’t think it sounds silly. You will get over this feeling in a few days, though, so don’t worry about it too much.
A few things strike me about your dream.
- The fact that you said you couldn’t “shake” the dream and that it is affecting you so strongly that you expect a snake to be “everywhere” mean a great deal. It takes a particularly powerful and vivid dream to stay with a dreamer like this. This is almost always an indication that there are extremely strong emotions tied to the interpretation of this dream.
- Most dreams involving snakes stay in our minds because of a snake’s symbolism. We associate snakes with satan to a great extent, thanks to the Garden of Eden. It’s hard to get any scarier than that, right?! Even thought any animal could have been used to speak to Eve, the fact that satan chose a snake stays with us.
- Your snake was so persistent! This is another indication of the importance of this dream’s interpretation.
- The fact that you said you were scared and felt helpless are huge.
This dream seems to indicate that you are feeling more helpless lately than you have ever felt before. Because of the impact this dream is having on you, I’d say that feeling helpless is a feeling you aren’t at all familiar with. The fact that your subconscious mind chose something you hate so passionately (snakes) is a clear indication of the inner turmoil you’re feeling. You probably aren’t even fully aware of just how much stress you’ve been under or how helpless you’ve been made to feel.
Once you realize that the snake in the grass was merely symbolic for this emotion, you’ll realize that you don’t have anything to fear around the next corner – not even outside! This snake in your dream only symbolizes whatever it is in your day to day life that you feel helpless against.
When you find a way to deal with this particular problem, you will have won the battle!
Until then, here’s something to keep in mind about snakes – so many of us are afraid of them, but we can’t name one single person we know who has ever been bit by one. Yet, most of us can name several people who’ve been bit by dogs or cats – yet we aren’t afraid of them in the least! Or cars – most of us know of people who’ve been badly hurt in car wrecks, but we get into them every day without fear. I, myself, have been in 3 car wrecks and have never been approached by a snake EVER, yet I’m terrified of one and can’t imagine life without the other.
Try to focus on solving whatever it is in your life that has made you feel helpless and overcome it. Try not to dwell too much on snake dreams. When you do think about it – be thankful! He may have helped draw attention to something in your world that you need to address before it gets the better of you.
What Does it Mean to Dream of Death?
A lot of people have the mistaken idea that dreaming of death foretells of a loved one dying.
First of all, dreams are a many things, but psychic they are not. Our dreams reflect what is going on inside our minds and hearts. They deal with (and sort out) things that we are currently experiencing or things that we have currently experienced.
Now having said that, we can take the information and symbolism found in our dreams to help us in the future. So, in that regard, they can provide warnings and admonitions. However, please don’t ever think they foretell bad omens or that dreaming of darkness is a prediction for upcoming darkness.
If you have had a dream which involved death, rest assured that you are far from alone. We’ve all had death dreams and, while troubling, we all know that they slink out of our lives just as fast as they slunk in.
Death dreams generally mean that you are anxious or worried. You may not fully realize how much anxiety you’re actually feeling. Many times, troubling dreams like this wave a flag for the individual and cause them to realize just how much stress they’ve been under. The dreamer can then realize that they need to pull back a little bit – enjoy life more rather than just anxiously trying to get from point A to point B!
Almost all dreams of dying can be traced back to an overworked, overly anxious individual very much in need of some time off!
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