Most of us have dreams that repeat themselves periodically. If you believe that your dreams are trying to tell you something, a recurring dream suggests you haven’t gotten the message yet. These dreams, then, are especially important.
The dream a high-powered business executive related to me is a good example. She repeatedly dreamed she was walking naked along a crowded city sidewalk. Although this woman was very successful, she felt inadequate to the responsibilities of her job and worried she’d be exposed as a fraud. When she took a job that suited her better, she stopped having the dream.
From time to time most of us dream of being in a classroom taking a test for which we are unprepared. Not surprisingly, we tend to have this dream at turning points in our lives, when we’re facing new challenges or moving into a new phase of life.
During a particularly difficult time in my life, when I was faced with many daunting challenges, I dreamed my basement was crammed with old junk and debris that I had to clean up. (Usually a house in a dream symbolizes your life situation.) Several weeks later I dreamed my kitchen sink and counters were cluttered with dirty dishes. I continued having variations on this dream for some months, and each time the “task” before me diminished in size. The last dream in the sequence involved removing a few old garments from my closet and putting them in a bag for The Salvation Army. My dreams marked my personal growth as I sorted out the troublesome areas in my life.
What dreams keep replaying, like old movies, for you? Pay close attention to your own recurring dreams. Notice any changes in the dream’s narrative, setting, or characters––these will tell you how the situation referred to by the dream is progressing.
3 comments:
enjoyed the post -- recurring dreams are so interesting. I had a recurring dream once a week for 10 years concerning a love affair that had had no closure. It was disconcerting and unsettling because I knew the only way it would ever be resolved would be for me to let it go. Ten long years later, I finally made that decision and never had another dream. Slow learner I guess!
Wow, ten years! I agree that dreams sometimes help us to process situations and gain closure, when we can't do so in waking life. Glad you were able to resolve the issue and end the pattern of recurring dreams. Thanks for writing.
I've had a dream that has recurred for decades with minor variations --- I'm in a fabulous old building, often it's a church but sometimes a museum or a palace, and I'm looking for something. In the dream I have incredible awareness that I have been through this before and if I can just find the thing I'm looking for everything will be okay. There are lots of rooms and secret passages. Everything is somewhat familiar but I keep finding new things, too. Very familiar and yet very unsettling.
However, last night I was shopping for strawberries.....
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