|
Interpreting Your Dreams
Alastair Hall
Many of us suppress our emotions in the waking world especially extreme
ones for fear of somehow alienating those around us, or else of
appearing dangerously vulnerable, or even of disgusting ourselves.
This means that the only
way in which we can safely express our true feelings is in dreamland.
Dreams that are flooded with a positive emotion may furthermore often be
categorized as wish-fulfillment dreams, while those that are blighted by
a negative emotion may be classed as safety-valve dreams.
Below is an analysis of
two emotions common in dreams: fear and freedom.
FEAR
If you had a nightmare
that left you paralyzed with fear, you probably awoke feeling very
relieved to realize that it was just a dream, and you may have spent
most of the next day trying to push it out of your memory. However,
these types of dreams
are underlined by our waking fears which are very real, though perhaps
repressed which are likely to appear in our dreams again and again until
we confront and resolve them.
Symbolic and Verbal Associations
-
Unconscious fears; phobias
-
Something (or someone)
that one finds monstrous
-
Repressed personal
qualities or characteristics
-
External threats
-
A call to action; the
fight or flight response
Positive Interpretations:
If you have a waking phobia of spiders, did you wake up in a panic after
dreaming that hundreds of giant, hairy arachnids were crawling all over
you? Or, if you suffer from a
fear of heights, did you have a nightmare in which you found yourself
dangling precariously over the edge of a very high cliff?
If so, your dream was
probably just mirroring your waking phobias, especially if something in
the real world has recently triggered your fear. And, as scary as your
dream may have been to you, your unconscious mind probably selected the
nightmare scenario as a call to action, in order to urge you to confront
and conquer your fear.
If you have a recurring
scary dream, you may find it helpful to tell yourself that when you next
have the dream, you will not run from whatever it is that frightens you,
be it spiders or boogeymen, but will instead stand and face whatever it
is.
If you do, you may be
surprised to find that the dream consequences are not as bad as you
imagined them to be, which will help to allay your fear and hopefully
put an end to the dreams.
Negative Interpretations:
The unconscious will sometimes portray our fears in
monstrous form. Did you have a dream in which you were being pursued by
a hideous, fanged monster that had run you down and was about to
overtake you?
If so, the monster was
most likely a symbol of something that you fear in the waking world that
you feel is threatening to consume you.
Doing some free
association may help you to figure out whom or what your dream monster
represented. Was it your predatory lover? An ogre-like teacher? Your own
green-eyed beast of jealousy? Could your dream vampire have represented
your energy-sapping friend? (Or had you just watched a vampire movie on
late-night television?)
Once you have identified
the source of your fright, you will be better able to arm yourself in
order to do battle with whatever it is that is troubling you.
FREEDOM
Sometimes our dreams may
fill us with an exhilarating sense of freedom or liberation. And when we
awake from this sort of dream, we may feel somewhat let down or
disappointed to realize that we must now deal with the more mundane
reality of the world.
Dreams of flying may be
the most literal or obvious form of freedom dreams, but almost any dream
scenario may fall into this category, depending on our own subjective
feelings and experiences.
Symbolic and Verbal
Associations
Positive Interpretations:
In your dream, were you
soaring over beautiful mountains and valleys, or running carefree
through a meadow of wildflowers? Or did your dream self rise up and walk
out of your tedious office job for the last time?
Dreams in which we finally
break away from the chains and shackles that bind us physically or
emotionally are likely to fill us with an overwhelming feeling of
euphoria. Wish-fulfillment, escapist
fantasy dreams of this sort are special treats from our unconscious
minds, sent to us in order to make up or compensate for the tedium or
drudgery of our day-to-day lives.
These dreams may provide
us with the little extra boost that we need in order to cope with daily
life and if we heed their message, they may even encourage us to release
ourselves from whatever (or whoever) is holding us back or sapping our
vitality in the waking world.
Negative Interpretations:
If you felt extremely sad
or depressed after waking from a dream in which you experienced ultimate
freedom, do you feel that the dreariness and the confines of your
current life have chained you down so firmly that there is no way of
ever escaping to happiness? For instance, are you in a
relationship that is making you feel trapped or claustrophobic? Are the
demands of others, or of your workload, stealing your time, your energy,
or your individuality? Do you long for a more exciting, stimulating
relationship, job, or life? Do you desire the freedom to be yourself?
If so, your unconscious
mind was probably using your dream in order to urge you to seek
appropriate help to take the necessary steps to release yourself from
whatever situation is confining you.
Though your dream may have
provided you with a temporary release from your troubles, you may
continue to experience your waking sadness until you make a conscious
effort to cast off your shackles whether they were put on you by
yourself or by others and to live your life in whatever manner you find
personally fulfilling.
About the author: Clare
Gibson is the author of numerous books on dreams and astrology. This
article is part of an extract from her book: The Ultimate Dream Decoder.
The full extract can be read at
www.browsebooksforfree.com/books5-5
|
