Have you ever had a dream that left you disturbed upon waking? Then throughout the day, the dream popped up making you wonder what it meant? Well, today we are going to talk about those disturbing dreams.
Good morning to all the Early Morning Wakers, the Late Night Netflixers, and the Coffee Sucking Heros of the Day! I’m glad we get to face this new day together.
Everyone dreams a little different, but most of us have had dreams to which we can all relate. How about that dream of finding yourself in school but you’re not wearing a shirt? Or standing at your locker having forgotten the combination and you’re late for class? Or the dream where you’re chased by something or someone terrible? Or a pending cyclone bearing down on you?
Disturbing dreams have a way of sticking with you long after you wake, and if you’re introspective like me, you may wonder, “What do they mean?” Well, Freud and Jung and psychoanalysts may disagree about the meaning of dreams, but I have found there are some consistent DREAM THEMES that help us uncover our inner feelings. I believe that dreams are an extension of our unconscious. Long after our day is over, our unconscious is hard at work, piecing together the fragments of our feelings until it’s put together a full puzzle. When our unconscious is piecing together a disturbing dream, it is a sign that there is an unresolved problem in the psyche that needs to be attended to.
Your disturbing dream is a message to you that your psychological state- or your inner life- needs some attention.
DREAM THEMES:
- Fear that the deep or embarrassing parts of you are exposed to the world.
- Fear that you will be seen as weak, dumb, incompetent or value-less.
- Fear of being controlled, or powerless.
- Fear of being left alone in the world.
- Fear of trying, trying, trying but never getting it right or being enough.
- Fear of being exposed as a fraud or impostor.
- Fear of dying.
Oh gosh, that seems like a depressing list. Take heart! These are just your dreams telling you to pay attention, to heal what is broken, nurture what is hurt, or comfort the part of you that is scared.
A while back, I had a recurring dream that I needed to go back to college to take one more class because I apparently never graduated. I tried and I tried to enroll for that last class, but was stopped by various things- tidal waves, grumpy registrars, no available apartment or dorm rooms. This recurring dream came to me several times over several years. I couldn’t figure out what it meant in its entirety. Incidentally, I had been working on an issue with my counselor seemingly unrelated to my college dreams simultaneously.
Well, one night, I graduated. I really Graduated! I was trying to register for my last class, AGAIN, and a Mark Twain Professor Einstein looking guy told me that I finished that class and was already graduated. Yippee! I have never had that dream again.
TIPS FOR SETTLING UNSETTLING DREAMS
- Pay attention, but don’t be alarmed.
- Ask yourself what you’re really afraid of.
- Remind yourself that you’re ok, and that you’re going to be ok.
- While awake, write a new ending for your dream- the way you want it to end. Remember, it is a DREAM, so you can write a wonderfully fantastically happy ending to your dream.
- Talk about it with a friend or counselor to get some perspective.
- When you figure out what your dream might be alluding to, take action. Give yourself the power, the comfort, the support, the protection you lacked in your dream, and make your happy life a reality.
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