Nightmares
Everyone has nightmares from time to time and when they occur it's easy to worry or stress about them, but they are fleeting and should diminish as quickly as they came.
Often, a one-off nightmare will be understood better when it has been translated correctly, and the core reason for it being scary was for you to remember it more clearly in the morning. Sometimes people suffer them more often and in this situation, it is well worth trying to work out the reason behind them.
Nightmares can be split into categories:
Obstacle Dreams
Dreams where you are fighting against several types of obstacles that stop you from accomplishing a task, reaching somewhere or someone, getting away (running is always impossible) or fulfilling a task, etc.
Obstacle dreams symbolise the difficulties in your life that you are trying to overcome and how well you are coping can be shown to you through your dreams. If you do not know if you managed to overcome your dream obstacle, then this shows how it is not yet known how you will manage to get over or through the problems in your life. It is after all down to you to choose the outcome, this is why dreams leave endings open.
Another common obstacle dream is the walking dream where you don't seem to be getting anywhere let alone to your destination. This dream happens when you need to take life one step at a time, there are some things that you cannot rush. Walking and getting nowhere brings forward the feeling of not getting anywhere with something, you will have to try and define what you are putting your energy into, perhaps things are moving too slowly for you.
Trying to get back home is used in dreams to represent when you are trying to get back to normal, or trying to get back to a place that is comfortable for you, the obstacle of getting lost of not knowing the way home happens because you don't know how to get back to the position which you were in previously. Wrong turns replicate wrong turns you have taken or the wrong direction, perhaps you are trying to get back something that is lost. The journey you take trying to get home replicates the journey through experiences, walking is a way to express the path you walk and where it takes you, lots of dead ends, obstacles, and delays that frustrate your journey. Walking represents the slow steady pace rather than the quick progress you may want.
Trying to get back home is used in dreams to represent when you are trying to get back to normal, or trying to get back to a place that is comfortable for you, the obstacle of getting lost of not knowing the way home happens because you don't know how to get back to the position which you were in previously. Wrong turns replicate wrong turns you have taken or the wrong direction, perhaps you are trying to get back something that is lost. The journey you take trying to get home replicates the journey through experiences, walking is a way to express the path you walk and where it takes you, lots of dead ends, obstacles, and delays that frustrate your journey. Walking represents the slow steady pace rather than the quick progress you may want.
Blindness is also an obstacle dream and becomes such because there is an obstacle stopping you from seeing things clearly, sometimes it is your own attitude preventing you from seeing a situation for what it really is. Blindness can be used to describe spiritual blindness and not being able to see other people’s needs as well as your own, or not seeing the bigger picture regards to what goes on beyond your everyday existence. Spiritual ignorance presents as blindness in dreams because you are ‘closed off’ to the possibilities of there being more to life than the things that you can see before you. Blindness can also symbolise being blind to someone’s faults. Any type of blindness dream is telling you to open your eyes and your mind to all the possibilities that there are for you to grow, learn and experience. Just because you can't see something does not mean it isn't there.
Not being able to reach someone in a dream happens for two reasons, either they are out of your reach or you are out of theirs, something is stopping you from being together and it's either because of their will, yours or situations being such that you cannot see each other. Also when you can't reach someone in a dream it explains when you are not able to get through to them, they are not taking in what you are saying to help them. If someone is lost or in a bad place in their life, this type of dream will recur until they can get themselves out of that negative phase.
There are many different types of obstacle dreams and sometimes they occur simply to remind us that we are actually our own obstacle.
Dreams where we are having to face fear like death, our teeth or hair falling out, being blind, being disfigured or hurt and also dealing with wild animals, monsters or any evil force or presence. Other types of fear dreams are: being in confined places or closed-in narrowing spaces, elevators dropping or falling from heights, any dream that makes you terrified is a prompt to take back control of your life and to do that, you must face your fears first.
Making changes and taking control of your life
Fear dreams become more prominent when you need to learn to face certain fears in your life, this links well with obstacle dreams because the real fear could be in having to change yourself in some way. You are the better judge of what your fears actually are but it could be anything from giving up smoking to a fear of the dark, your fears of death and loss can be examined this way, and especially a fear of the unknown. We get these dreams to help us come to terms with our fears if our fears are getting in the way of progress.
Making changes and taking control of your life
Fear dreams become more prominent when you need to learn to face certain fears in your life, this links well with obstacle dreams because the real fear could be in having to change yourself in some way. You are the better judge of what your fears actually are but it could be anything from giving up smoking to a fear of the dark, your fears of death and loss can be examined this way, and especially a fear of the unknown. We get these dreams to help us come to terms with our fears if our fears are getting in the way of progress.
Fears of death and dying are explored through our dreams, often the symbol of death is referring to the death or end of something rather than someone, like when a relationship is ending or a phase of life is coming to end. Death dreams are common when the teenage years are coming to an end and individuals learn to cope with new responsibilities. View death dreams as new beginnings and the fear will be alleviated somewhat.
Any dream that provokes fear happens so that you can learn to overcome that fear in a way that is easier for you to deal with so that if and when you are faced with your own personal fear in real life, consciously you have already dealt with it.
Pain Dreams
Dreams where you are wounded and can feel actual physical pain.
If any kind of pain is felt in a dream it is to bring the dreamer's attention to hurt that they have suffered which has not healed in the usual way. The dreamer needs to work out not only the cause of the hurt but also spend some time considering the remedy. Pain that is felt on the inside like heartache, for example, can filter into our dreams as an actual felt pain because it needs us to make a conscious effort to repair the damage that has been done. Inner pain needs positive action to kick start the healing process and in dreams, this can manifest into felt pain that you are not able to physically deal with in your waking hours. Occasionally pain filters into our dreams because we are actually in physical pain.
When you are wounded in a dream or disfigured it will help you to recognise the fact that you have been hurt or that you are hurting, people don't like admitting out loud that they have been hurt and if you have this type of dream its a way of you facing the fact that you have been hurt and haven't really dealt with it, or even admitted it to yourself. The extent of the wound often corresponds to how deep the hurt goes.
Dreams of Evil forces
In dreams, evil forces can represent the negative things in your life that affect you physically and mentally, so if you are trying to escape from someone or something evil in your nightmare, then it often means there is a negative influence in your waking life that you are trying to escape from. Only you can decide exactly what the negative influences are, it could be quite basic like an unhealthy lifestyle or the use of drugs or alcohol, anything that has a detrimental effect upon your complete well being. More commonly the evil can be symbolic for a negative person or someone whose influence you don't want in your life. Monsters and evil-looking people in your dreams can quite literally show how you have to fight your own inner demons and not an external source of negativity.
Why do dreams go to such an extent to get their message across? It would seem that the reason for frightening people in some circumstances is because the dreamer must try to understand the dream and its contents. After all, when a dream is frightening it will be taken notice of and not easily ignored. If the information is important enough it will be delivered by any means necessary.
Children's nightmares
When children have nightmares regularly their parent or caregiver needs to try and discover any underlying cause, a young mind is not able to work out what has triggered their dreaming mind to go into overdrive. They might need help finding the language to express themselves or explain their nightmares, as the adult you can help alleviate their fears and also look into what might be instigating the bad dreams, it could be something like bullying at school for example, but at least a conversation about a bad dream will open up a dialogue with them regards their fears. Recurring nightmares in children especially need you to delve into their worries because they recur until an issue is dealt with. Past life trauma has often been relived in young children's dreams so don't forget to consider this if no explanation can be found. If children are often dreaming about evil beings, monsters, ghosts or anything like that it's worth teaching them to say a prayer of protection, keep it simple and any type of protection prayer when asked of the highest good or God if you prefer, will be ok, whatever your beliefs are you can adjust the protection prayer to suit yourself and the age of your child and remember even if you have no belief in anything it can't hurt to try.
Evil and negative forces can also affect or enter your dreams as a form of psychic attack and try to keep you hostage in the dream, usually by restricting your movement or what seems like them digging their nails into you, these types of dreams also link with false awakenings below. There really is only one way to deal with this and you might like to try it out if you are ever affected by this type of nightmare. Pray hard, it doesn't matter what type of prayer you say or what religion you have if any, I promise that it is the only thing that works, it literally dissolves negative energy. This type of dream can happen as a way to show you who is really boss, many spiritual people have this type of dream as part of their learning. It introduces the power of god or introduces you to a higher source if you like. You can't walk a spiritual pathway without learning about who and what God is, it really is a subject to be reflected on at some stage in everyone's life. You will find that in your dream you can pray even if it sounds like nonsense, the attention and intention is often enough.
False Awakenings
False awakenings happen because we are trying to gain control of our dream, usually, because we do not want to be in it, this can overlap into real life as there are usually some circumstances we wish to escape from. It is time to wake up and take control of your life in the same way that you are trying to wake up from and control a dream.
If you are in a horrifying dream there is a tendency for the mind to think that this scenario is so awful it cannot be real, quite often when you realise this you will then begin to find a way to wake yourself up from the nightmare.
False awakenings occur when the dream plays out in such a way that when you are convinced you are awake you are in fact still sleeping and so the nightmare continues. False awakenings are a way for you to understand the frustration of trying to gain control in circumstances that are out of your control ironically. This also links with spiritual learning.
Recurring Dreams
These dreams happen when you have not worked out what you need from the dream, they also continue if you have not moved on from an issue, they will recur until a situation has changed or you have dealt with the unresolved issues.
When you understand the dream meaning some aspects of it will stop, this is why recurring dreams often keep the same theme and pattern, although small features may change. This is because you are making some effort to deal with a recurring issue but not enough for it to stop entirely. Sometimes things cannot be changed because it is not us who needs to change them, our life is affected by the choices and decisions of other people and therefore some recurring dreams are reliant on the actions of other people. Ultimately though, you need to consider that you do have control over your own life and can make changes to stop other people from having control over you.
Resolve an issue to stop recurring dreams happening.
Vivid Dreams
Everyone has dreams occasionally that feel completely real, these dreams are important and need to be remembered, they often translate an important message that must not be forgotten, or the dream just needs to be understood, these can be our premonition or warning dreams.
Warning Dreams
Warnings are usually given in dreams by the use of signs that you personally will recognise, what is noticed as a warning in one person's dream could be different for someone else. Most dreams that we have, are warning us in one way or another, warning us of upcoming situations or problems that we are come up against.
A warning will most probably be shown through a dream in a way that relates to the warning that you are being given. For example, traffic warning signs might be trying to warn you about motoring issues or could be referring to your life’s journey, telling you to slow down, plan the way forward or to stay on the straight and narrow. Warning dreams simply warn of events or circumstances that you need to prepare for or try to avoid. You might need to change an aspect of yourself so that you can continue being progressive rather than regressive.
The warning that is given to you through a dream is fundamentally aimed at helping you see pitfalls caused by your own actions or the actions of other people around you. These types of dreams happen to show you the greater plan when you need to understand that there are certain times in your life when you cannot escape destiny.
The warning that is given to you through a dream is fundamentally aimed at helping you see pitfalls caused by your own actions or the actions of other people around you. These types of dreams happen to show you the greater plan when you need to understand that there are certain times in your life when you cannot escape destiny.
Our bodies send us warning signals through our dreams as well, like when we dream of being hurt physically this can transcend the dream scenario to prompt you to think about your own physical or mental wellbeing. As human beings, the biggest obstacle we are presented with is 'change' we do not like it or want it, not for ourselves anyway and warning dreams usually happen to inform us that changes are on the horizon or need to be instigated.
Warning dreams can seem to predict the future and are experienced to help you gain some knowledge about important events or changes. You might not be able to change the outcome or alter the events but the prior knowledge you have gained through your dreams can help you to understand or come to terms with events should they come to pass. Just knowing that something was destined to happen is helpful in itself because it assists in the acceptance of it.
Finding answers to problems using your dreams seems difficult for most people but the important thing to remember is that ultimately your dreams are trying to give you more information so that you can move forward and grow as an individual no matter what obstacles you are presented with.
Does Everyone Dream?
I have only ever met one or two people who have said that they never dream at all, or at least never remember their dreams. I also met one young lady who said that she only ever dreams if she sleeps at somebody else’s house. I have experienced non-dreaming times but I noticed that more likely I was just not remembering any of the dreams I was having. If you get straight up when the alarm goes off and begin a busy day the likelihood of remembering a dream is reduced. I believe that we all dream and it is the strength of attachment or care that we give to the dream information that increases the ability to recall or remember our dreams.
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