Lost Keys and Recurring Dreams
Never a Fun Combination!
I was recently asked about “Lost Key” dreams – dreams that are obviously frustrating at best! The frustration is multiplied when the dreams are recurring, like this particular dreamer’s were. When a dream puts itself in reruns, it always leaves the dreamer perplexed.
Why is my mind doing this?!
The wonderful thing about “lost key” dreams is the fact that they’re usually pretty easy to interpret and analyze. Simply put… something’s missing! When we dream that we can’t find an object (or person, place…), the symbolism is generally of something we’re “looking” for in our day to day lives. This could refer to any number of things, such as:
- love
- peace of mind
- an answer to a particular problem
- better health
- weight loss
- money
- job or career
- car, house, or furniture
- better relationship(s)
- school or college
- how to find enough time for everything you need to do
- etc…
It could be absolutely anything that you’re searching for on somewhat of a daily basis.
When you have recurring dreams, you can rest assured that your subconscious mind is trying to tell you something. More importantly, it’s actually trying to “work something” out in the dream(s).
Our minds are amazing and complex things. The mind knows that when you’re asleep, all distractions are gone. The mind sees this scenario as the perfect time to “work out” issues or even hammer things out in an attempt to find a solution or a “best possible answer.”
If you’re experiencing recurring dreams (whether they’re about lost keys or something else), your mind is working hard to come up with an answer that’s eluding it. It may or may not mean that the problem is huge. In fact, if the problem WERE really big, it’d be pretty obvious to you when you were thinking about the dream.
Here’s an exercise that works for analyzing key dreams:
- Write down the first 3 things that come to mind after reading this question: “”What am I looking for that seems to be eluding me lately?” You may very well answer only one thing – if so, you certainly know your answer!
- If you do come up with 3 different answers and each seem to “weigh” the same in your mind, you’ll discover that you’re looking for more than you realized. If this is the case, it’d certainly explain why this dream is recurring. You’re looking for more than one answer.
- When coming up with the 3 (and remember there may only be 1 or 2), DON’T force it. If you have to pause and think, the answer isn’t that important to your subconscious mind. The answer(s) that really matter will come to you almost immediately.
More about Recurring Dreams in the next post.
Dreaming About Lost Loved Ones…
What Do These Disturbing Dreams Mean?
One of the most frequently requested dream interpretations on our dream blog had to do with dreaming about lost loved ones. For the month of June, the top 3 dream interpretation requests were for:
- dreams about lost loved ones, family members, friends…
- dreams about exes
- dreams about snakes TIED with Dreams about knives
I wasn’t too surprised with the requests, to be honest. These subjects are typically the ones I hear the most. I was a little surprised that “knife dreams” tied with snake dreams, though. They’re moving up in the ranks of disturbing dreams!
Dreams about loved ones who’ve died can sometimes be comforting and even enjoyable. I like to think of these dreams as our mind’s way of keeping our loved ones alive. We get to see their faces again and even spend time with them once more.
Why we dream about lost loved ones varies from one dream to the next. Sometimes we dream about them simply because we talked about them recently or thought about them that day. I recently had a dream about my mother-in-law for this very reason. She showed up in my dream because one of my daughters and I had been talking about her that very day. My daughters were pretty young when she died, so I like to keep her name and memory alive by talking about her. She was quite a character and I like for them to know that!
The dream was not disturbing in any way. She was simply eating supper with us. When I woke up, I couldn’t help but realizing that she looked EXACTLY like I remember her looking. She was even wearing the type of top (loud and floral!), pants, and shoes she always wore.
Some dreamers have similar dreams about their loved ones and wonder if the dreams mean something “deep” or “disturbing.” More times than not, they simply mean your mind is keeping their face in your life – and if you think of your dreams this way, they’ll disturb you less.
However, some dreams about lost loved ones ARE dark and unsettling. Our loved one may be in trouble, crying, or need our help – help that we’re often unable to give. Many experts believe that these dreams indicate that we have unresolved emotions surrounding their death – usually guilt of some kind. The thing about guilt is that 9 times out of 10 it’s completely unjustified. Oftentimes this “guilt” is very unrealistic and if we stand back and look at it rationally, we’ll realize there’s no way we could have possibly saved them.
Rather than guilt about their death, some dreamers feel guilty about how they treated them when they were alive. They’ll have ridiculous thoughts such as, “I should have spent more time with them…. I should have called him/her more…” These thoughts can lead to disturbing dreams My advice to anyone with these thoughts is to realize that if THEY had died in place of the loved one, the loved one would have probably had the same guilty thoughts. We NEVER feel like we did enough for a lost loved one. Ever. That’s just how it is.
Other times, unsettling dreams about lost loved ones may have more to do with us than them. We may feel that we’re developing some of the habits or traits they had or we may fear going down a road they went down. Sometimes fear of developing a disease the loved on had will cause disturbing dreams.
To keep your dreams about lost loved ones as light as possible, try to dwell on positive, happy thoughts about their life and push thoughts about their death, illness, and so forth out of your mind. It’s how they’d want it after all!
Finally, in times of stress, we may dream about a loved one simply because we associate them with a simpler, easier time. Very often, they represent the past to us and, let’s be honest, the past almost always looks simpler – even if it really wasn’t.
As for our loved ones “trying to warn us about something,” my first instinct is to say NO WAY. However, in a sense, this could be sort of possible. As I’ve said many times on Dream Prophesy, dreams are not (in and of themselves) prophetic. BUT, some people are much, much, much more intuitive or “in touch” with the world around them than others. These people can often “sense”danger because they are so incredibly in tune with everything and everyone around them. People like this often have dreams that seem “prophetic” simply because they are so uncommonly in touch with the world around them. They often “see” things other people don’t see and, therefore, their subconscious mind is able to sense perceived danger and potentially harmful situations.
If you are an overtly intuitive person, your dreams may, in fact, be somewhat prophetic in nature. Your subconscious mind may, indeed, use a lost love one to get its point across. And what better way than to get your attention than with a lost loved one?
Honey Dreams: The Dream Interpretation Depends…
What Does Honey Mean to You!?!
When I’m not given too many details – which is certainly the case here!! – it makes it a little tough to give a really accurate and thorough dream interpretation and analysis. However, I’m certainly going to try to do just that.
Honey, like countless other things in life, can actually be symbolic of more than one thing in dreams. A lot of the dream’s interpretation (meaning) has to do with what the dreamer is doing with the honey. For example, if the dreamer is eating the honey and enjoying the sweet taste, the honey is symbolic of pleasure and happiness. If the honey is “sticky” and the dreamer is trying to wash it off of their hands or something else, the honey is symbolic of a “sticky situation” the dreamer has recently experienced OR is symbolic of a situation the dreamer is afraid they’ll be “stuck” in.
Many times, if you see the word HONEY in a dream, it is symbolic of a sweetheart. More likely than not, he or she was on your mind before you went to sleep.
You can also get a pretty accurate dream analysis by asking yourself what honey represents to you. For me, personally, it’s a sweetener. Honey’s one of my favorite things in the world – in fact, I could eat it by the spoonful. To someone else, they may think of honey as something sticky. Naturally, honey would symbolize different things in our dreams.
Dream Interpretation: What Does it Mean to Dream About a Hole in the Road?
The Dream Analysis May be Tough to Hear…
What does it mean to dream about a hole in the road?
When one dreams of a hole in the road, it is symbolic of something the dreamer feels they need to “watch out for.” For example, a young lady once had a dream that she saw a hole in the road she was driving on. She was overcome with fear of falling into the hole, even though her car in the dream could have safely driven over it. It turned out that this young woman had recently reunited with an ex-boyfriend. Their first “time together,” as she worded it, had been a “nightmare.” They fought constantly, never trusted one another, and actually ruined BOTH of their families holidays with their non-stop bickering.
They broke up and stayed apart for about 5 months before deciding to give the relationship another chance. The “hole in the road dream” occurred after they’d been back together for about a week.
This dream was easy to interpret because the dream analysis was all but written on the wall. The dreamer knew that there was a situation that presented potential trouble and harm. The hole in the road was symbolic of their relationship and her feeling of dread and fear of falling in the hole symbolized the anxiety she felt about the relationship.
She actually felt more apprehension than she realized, and her dream brought it all to the forefront.
When a dreamer sees a hole as a threat in his/her dream, it’s a good indication that there is something (or someone) in their life who they KNOW, deep down, can spell trouble for them. Their subconscious mind is completely in tune with this realization, even if their conscious mind keeps shoving it aside.
Holes in dreams usually represent a fear of a particular situation – or at least a feeling of anxiety about something. But holes in dreams can (in the right context) be symbolic of hiding places and can, thereby, represent safeness. This safeness can mirror the safety and security the dreamer FEELS in life or the safety and security they DESIRE. When this is the case, the hole doesn’t pose a “threat” to the dreamer – it’s simply there.
However, more times than not, holes represent a perceived trap or danger the dreamer senses in life.
It all depends upon the other symbols in the dreams and, even more importantly, how the dreamer felt during the dream and immediately after awakening.
What Does it Mean to Dream of an Injury?
The Dream Analysis Can Help Healing Begin
If you dream of being injured, or dream that you are in some type of pain from an injury or wound, the dream analysis (interpretation) could go one of several ways. As with all dreams, the dreamer is the only one who can say for certain which dream analysis is “on the money” for them, so read through each dream interpretation below and see which one seems to apply to you, personally.
An injury dream can be a dream in which the dreamer is injured or in pain or it can be a dream in which the dreamer sees or even inflicts pain in another person. The most important thing about the dream is the fact that an injury or wound has taken place.
The first (and most frequent) analysis for an injury dream has to do with injury or pain that has been done to the dreamer. Because we think of pain in many types of context (physical, mental, emotional..), this injury, harm, or pain can be physical or emotional. The dreamer could have been physically or emotionally injured many years ago or as recent as the day of the dream. The most important symbolism is the fact that the dreamer is attempting to heal, deep inside, from this injury.
If injury dreams that fall under this interpretation continue for any period of time, it’s probably best for the dreamer to find someone to talk to about, because recurring dreams of this nature indicate that, although healing is trying to take place, it isn’t entirely doing so.
This type of injury dream is our brain’s way of trying to figure out questions such as:
- Why did that happen to me?
- Why did this person do this to me?
- How do I know this will never happen again?
- Etc.
Sometimes an individual who has been physically or emotionally injured simply needs a sympathetic shoulder to lean on and an understanding person to confide in.
Another analysis for injury dreams is at the other end of the spectrum. Sometimes people who have inflicted pain on others are haunted by guilt in their dreams. Now, this doesn’t ALWAYS mean they deserve the guilt. For example, if someone accidentally and unwittingly causes pain to another person (or even animal) – they may have injury dreams as a result of the guilt they feel. Sometimes they’ll be the one who is injured in the dream, which is their brain’s way of saying, “I wish it had been me instead” or “I deserve to feel this pain.”
Needless to say, the best remedy for this dream interpretation is to simply apologize from the heart. Don’t make excuses and don’t put if off another minute. Say you’re sorry and even buy something for the individual, if you can. You’ll both feel better and your dreams will be sweeter.
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