How New Year’s Resolutions Can Affect Your Dreams
How You Can Use These Dreams to Keep Your Resolutions!
If you’re anything like me, you’re “all about” New Year’s Resolutions. I love them to distraction and I always have. Making a fresh new set of resolutions is such a traditional process for me that I’d never dream of breaking my streak.
I think it’s safe to say that most people either make New Year’s Resolutions or at least THINK about them in one way or another each January. I’ve noticed a trend with dreams around this time of year. Resolutions actually play out in dreams in several different ways. Best of all, realizing why and how they’re affecting your dreams can actually help you keep your resolutions.
Below are the main ways resolutions show up in our dreams (with examples!):
- Annie had a “frustrating” dream that stayed with her for days. Although she was actually bank teller, in her dream – she worked in a library. She said that as soon as she put a book on the correct shelf, it’d turn up somewhere else. She’d take the time to put all of the books exactly where they were “supposed” to go, but someone would always be unable to find the book they were looking for and when she went back to the shelf to get the book for them, it would be gone. She said the dream left her feeling “frustrated and helpless” and feeling like she was “letting everyone down.” Because the dream was around the first of February, I saw a correlation between potential resolutions and wayward books. I told her that the books represented at least one resolution that she’d probably made. The fact that she felt frustrated and helpless in the dream indicated that she lacked confidence in being able to keep at least one of her resolutions. Also, the fact that she felt that she was letting people down in her dream suggested that she was afraid of letting people down if she were unable to keep her resolution. She replied that she’d made a resolution to lose weight but that it had been the same resolution she’d made for at least 6 years in a row and had not been able to keep it yet.
- Jack began having a series of dreams in January that had similar themes. Although the situations in each dream were different, the gist of each dream was indecisiveness. Irregardless of what was going on in his dream, his dream self couldn’t make a single decision. In one dream, he couldn’t decide which top to wear to work and ended up being an hour late. In another, he was in a restaurant and couldn’t decide what to order and the server got angry. The third dream involved indecision in choosing a cell phone – and leaving the store without one because he couldn’t decide. Because each dream had its own consequence, they stemmed from the fact that he wasn’t fully committed to one of his resolutions. It turns out that, sure enough, he wasn’t 100 percent behind his resolution to give up eating meat. His indecisiveness was manifesting itself in his dreams. When he realized that he wasn’t really feeling this particular resolution, he changed it to simply cutting back on red meat and the frustrating dreams went away.
- Not all resolutions dreams are negative. In fact, many people are so inspired by their own resolutions (or, more to the point, by the promises they bring) that they dream about positive results that the resolutions will bring about. Someone who resolves to lose weight may dream of fitting into a smaller size. Someone who vows to control their anger may dream of being level-headed and calm (even in a trying situation). By providing a “taste of things to come,” dreams of this nature inspire the dreamer to stay on track!
Whether your dreams follow under one of the three categories above or branch off into their own category, spend a little time with the dream and try to discover what it’s trying to tell you. Is your subconscious mind inspiring you to stay on track because the goal is worth the struggle? Is your subconscious telling you that you need to find ways to build confidence if you’re going to be successful? Or, maybe, your dream is suggesting that your heart really isn’t even in it and that one of your resolutions should be scratched out altogether???
Only you can say for certain, but make no mistake about it – your dreams are trying to tell you something!
Dreaming About Clowns: What Do Clown Dreams Really Mean??
It All Depends on Your Feelings About Clowns
Clowns can mean many things to many people. In fact, you could say the word “Clown” to two different people and get two different reactions. When I hear the word, I think of positive words and emotions: Fun, laughter, free-spirits, happiness… But I know several people who actually have clown phobias and when they hear the word “clown,” they grimace like they just saw a three headed snake with a nasty attitude.
If, like me, you associate clowns with happiness, dreaming about clowns is an expression of happiness and fun. It could be that you’re having a lot of fun with life lately and your dream is just an extension of this fun. However, it could also mean that life isn’t all that fun recently and you’re CRAVING laughter and happiness. Needless to say, when you have a clown dream, you’ll know which of these is the case simply by thinking about where you are in life right now.
If you have a clown phobia – or even if you simply think they’re a little scary – your dream has a different interpretation. When we dream about our biggest fears, most of the time it indicates that we are apprehensive about something in particular. We know something lies in front of us that we’re fearful about and this fearfulness takes on the form or our biggest “real life” fear(s).
However, when we dream of personal phobias, it could also indicate that we’ve recently overcome a particular fear or faced a problem head on. The dream is sort of a celebration of this achievement! Generally, when this is the case… in the dream, we will either overcome the thing we fear the most or will simply see it with an absence of fear.
Dream Interpretation: Dreaming About Autumn Trees!
Usually This Dream Symbolizes Change of Some Sort
What does it mean to dream about Fall? My dream last night really doesn’t hold any interesting actions or occurrences. Nothing strange happened and no one unusual was in the dream. I was wondering what the dream meaning would be if the only thing that really stands out about the dream is autumn trees and colors? Thank you!
Autumn (or Fall) dreams generally are interpreted to dealing with “change” or “changes.” The dreamer could be excited about potential or actual changes or they could be apprehensive about them. The main thing is that a “change” of some sort is on their mind. Only the dreamer can say for certain if it’s a positive or negative dream.
Dreaming about Autumn can also have another meaning – IF the dreamer feels strongly about the season, one way or the other. For example, I love Autumn so much that a dream about Autumn, for me, can simply be interpreted to mean “great happiness” or “joy.”
On the other hand, some people cling so tightly to Summer and warm weather, that dreaming about Autumn, for them, actually indicates that they’re troubled or unhappy about something in particular.
Unless you feel especially strong about the season, your analysis is centered entirely around change – either…
- change you are going through
- change that is ahead of you
- change that you fear
- change that you know needs to take place
Only you can say for certain. I hope this helps!
Fascinating Facts About Dreams: What a Pain in the…
How Physical Pain Affects Our Dreams
The more facts you read about dreams, the more you realize just how fascinating they are. This week’s “Fascinating Fact” is one you may have experienced yourself. Have you ever dreamed that you were in pain of some sort, only to wake up and find that the pain was REAL?
Some people believe they hurt themselves in their dream, but that’s not the case. What happens is this: When we experience pain with any type of intensity, we often “work” this pain into our dream. If our spouse inadvertently kicks us in the middle of the night, for example, we may dream that something has hit us in the leg.
Lab studies have actually been performed that prove a couple of ways dreamers respond to pain during sleep:
- If it’s a mild, annoying type of pain (for example, they’re foot has fallen asleep and they’re experiencing the pins and needles business), they may dream that their shoe is on too tight or that their foot is stuck in something.
- If they are suffering from something more intense (such as a broken bone or pulled muscle), the pain may manifest itself in the dream as something the dreamer is trying to “escape” from. Physical suffering often shows up in dreams as something that the dreamer is trying to out-run, hide from, or even destroy.
I once got an e-mail from a woman who was CONVINCED she’d cut herself in her dream. She said that, in the dream, she cut herself on the leg with a piece of paper. When she woke up the next morning, she noticed a scratch exactly where she’d dreamed of being cut. I told her that – although this certainly would make for the coolest of stories – it was physically impossible for a dream symbol to leave a mark.
I asked her if she had pets that regularly slept with her or if she slept with someone who might just need to clip their toenails! She said that she had two cats that slept with her and her husband.
When I told her that it was pretty obvious that one of the cats accidentally scratched her leg – she agreed that it was “possible,” but that she planned on sticking with the paper cut explanation.
I guess a “good” story appeals to some people more than the plain old truth!
Analysis of Bird Dreams: What Does it Mean to Dream About Birds?
It All Depends on What the Birds are DOING!
Most dream symbols can have more than one meaning. In fact, sometimes one THING (or person, place…) can actually have many different possible meanings. The mystery lies in what this thing is doing in your dream and/or how it makes you feel.
If you think about it, it all makes sense. After all, even in our REAL world, a single object means different things at different times. If we use a knife to spread butter on a fresh biscuit, the knife is kind of a ticket to deliciousness. However, if we cut ourselves with a knife, then it’s anything but delicious. It suddenly becomes a cruel weapon!
When I think of symbols that can mean many different things in dreams (based upon what they’re doing, how they’re behaving, how they look, etc) – birds come to mind. There are almost as many different dream interpretations for bird dreams as there are birds.
Below are some of the most common. Remember, when interpreting or analyzing your dream, always try to pinpoint what you feel is the most important aspect of each dream component. This is usually the thing that “stands out” the most.
- If you dream of birds and the thing that “stands out” in your mind the most is the sheer number of birds, this is a dream about being overwhelmed in life… of feeling that your problems, anxieties, or worries outnumber you.
- If the thing that you feel is most important about your bird dream is the bird’s nest, the analysis will have everything to do with your home. How did the birds react or respond to the nest? Was it a place of refuge? Was it too small? Was it empty? The dream analysis will lie in the details.
- If the birds in your dream are “watching” over something or someone, the dream analysis is one of observation. You (in your day to day life) have begun to observe or “watch for” something – OR, deep in your subconscious, you know you SHOULD begin observing something or someone more closely. There are, like, a billion and one possible explanations for this one!
- If the most important thing about the bird or birds seems to be their flight, this dream represents freedom. Most of the time, this is freedom from something unpleasant (bills, stress, pain, anxiety, family discord, a bad habit…) but it can also represent freedom from someone or someplace.
- If the COLOR of the bird(s) seems to be the central theme of your dream, you have to look at what the color symbolizes: Blue (usually means peace and contentment – but it can also represent sadness, as in “the blues”) – Red (usually represents strong emotions, power, strength, and drive) – Purple or hues of purple (royalty, healing, Spirituality) – Yellow (health, well-being, happiness, joy, laughter) – Orange (friendships, happiness, fun) – Black (often stands for something elusive or mysterious) – Green (can mean money, innocence, purity, hope, and healing… it can also represent a “green light” for something you’ve been contemplating).
- If birds are fighting, it’s a sign of discord in your life – either within your relationships or discord you’re having with yourself.
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