Dreaming is something that we all do each night, for 90 minutes to 2 hours; scientifically it is known as REM sleep. Whether we remember our dreams or not, we all have them. Freud brought dream interpretation to the fore, and saw it as a window into the unconscious. While his interpretations may not be held as doctrine by modern psychology, the fascination with common themes in dreams and what they mean, persists today.
The appearance of certain actions or things in our dreams are commonly found in many people. While each individual who remembers their dreams need to examine them through the lens of their particular conscious life, these SYMBOLS can act as a guide for self-examination of issues you need to pay attention to.
THESE ARE 9 COMMON DREAM SYMBOLS THAT SHOULD NOT BE IGNORED:
1. TEETH FALLING OUT
If you have ever had this dream, you are not alone. In the dream you feel your teeth loosen, and usually feel horrified as they fall into your hand, as you try to save them. LOSS OF TEETH while dreaming usually represents a LOSS of CONFIDENCE, CONTROL or POWER somewhere in one’s life. It can be occurring in a relationship at work or in one’s personal life. The dream signifies your anxiety about this development, and bears looking at, to help resolve the issue when you are conscious.
2. FALLING
This again is indicative of a loss of control in one’s waking life; in this circumstance it can be showing a fear of loss. Examining whether it is something or someone that you fear losing, when you are awake, may help you to resolve the issue.
3. WEARING NO CLOTHES IN PUBLIC
This generally is pointing you to examination of a lack of confidence, or a fear of being exposed in one’s life. Are you being yourself in your interactions with others, or are you people-pleasing to fit in? Are you lying and feeling anxious that the truth will come out? Only you being truly honest with yourself, when you awake from such a dream, will reveal what aspect of your life you are afraid will be UNMASKED.
4. FLYING
Flying in a dream can be a truly exhilarating experience. If you are soaring up high it can denote a feeling of freedom…perhaps you are feeling liberated from something that has plagued you. If you are flying lower to the ground, perhaps nearly missing obstacles like cars, or wires, or other people, this can be more troubling. Are things getting in your way in your life, that are frustrating or upsetting, that you want to resolve?
5. DEATH
While dreaming about death can be upsetting, it strangely may be symbolic of positive endings in your waking life. Perhaps you have moved on from a situation or person that was having a negative impact. It generally is symbolic of change, which is a part of life that is ongoing, and some of us have more difficulty being in transition than others.
6. HOUSES
This commonly appears in dreams, and is an overall representation of the SELF. Is it a house from our past or present? Is it intact or is it falling apart from a flood or fire? Are there animals in the house making you feel in danger? What goes on in a dream about a house indicates how generally secure or insecure you are feeling.
7. BEING CHASED
The common dream experience where you are being chased and you either can’t move very quickly, or seem to not being moving at all as you try to run, is a common ANXIETY dream. Looking at what you are running away from in your waking life, and facing it, will help to relieve this anxiety.
8. MISSING AN EXAM
This common anxiety dream represents a fear of being unprepared. Perhaps you are procrastinating about certain things in your life; this dream may be alerting you that ignoring or putting things off are causing you unwanted stress.
9. WATER
Last but not least is the symbol of water that commonly appears in our dreams. What is important in analyzing what it is telling you, is the form it comes in. Water is the ultimate expression of the unconscious mind expressing your true emotions. Is it a giant wave coming at you that will suck you under? Is it a calm relaxing pool or lake? Is it a waterfall that gently cleanses you, or a torrent of water where you feel like you are drowning? Looking at how water comes to you in your dream, is a generalized indicator of the degree of ease or uncomfortability in your life.
As you can see, there is a lot to be learned by trying to remember and interpreting our dreams, so that we can make changes or adjustments that will lead to a more peaceful life.
All this being said, there has been a lot of scientific research around sleep and dreams. Recently, there have been some extraordinary breakthroughs, done by a team at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratory in Japan. We watch our dreams, just as we watch things in our waking life; this research that revealed scans that can actually re-form an object a person sees while awake, could lead to identification of visual imagery occurring in our dreams. Eventually we may be able, according to these researchers, to watch our dreams the way we watch waking events!
Let us know which of the above dream symbols have occurred in YOUR DREAMS, and what they have meant to you.
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