Post by bluefedish on Apr 12, 2008 14:43:15 GMT -5
Dreams never occur in a vacuum – they’re always triggered by some feeling or event, usually something that has happened recently. Sometimes it’s easy to identify this trigger, but not always. Even if you don’t know exactly where the symbols originate, you can usually guess at the dream’s context once the emotional reality of the dream becomes clear.
Ask yourself what might be occurring in your waking life that may have precipitated how you’re feeling in this dream. Remember, dream feelings are always honest, but because waking feelings are not, what you find may seem surprising.
The 6 Symbols of Self-Understanding
* Control
* Criticism
* Emotion
* Loss
* Self-Esteem
* Vulnerability
Symbols of Control
These are dreams of personal control, the need deep within all of us to believe that we and not others or random circumstances influence the direction our lives take. It’s the opposite of helplessness, feeling out of control or with no sense of control at all.
Control, even in unavoidably noxious situations, lessens our pain. Psychological experiments with laboratory animals demonstrate that when the animal can control unpleasant or painful events, they’re better adjusted than those poor creatures that cannot.
Letting Go of Control
Dreams of control emerge when we feel that we’re being overly controlled. Most of us experience dreams of this sort on occasion, presumably because we all feel pressured and controlled at times, and out of frustration we want stubbornly to dig in our heels to get our way.
Sometimes the only way to gain control is to lose it. Track your dreams and notice if you’re repeatedly experiencing dreams of control that suggest it’s time to let go:
* Dreams where you’re convinced you’re right
* Dreams of isolation or separation
* Dreams when no one is listening – even if you’re shouting
* Aggressive dreams where someone is victimized
Letting go of control is like ‘choosing your battles’. We don’t always get our way, even when we’re convinced that our way is right. And we don’t always have control, certain situations are simply unchangeable, and accepting this reality is, paradoxically, and means of gaining control.
Symbols of Criticism
This is also called symbols of self-criticism because these dreams emerge when we’re being excessively fault finding with ourselves. Dreams of criticism are about getting in touch with our critical side – the part of us that so easily blames when things go wrong. It compares us unmercifully with the idea – and, of course, finds us wanting. It’s our superego, an unrelenting perfectionist, criticizing us for even the smallest mistake.
Most of us can punish ourselves as no one else can, but much of this self-criticism is unwarranted. Most self-critical statements aren’t true:
* I can’t do anything right.
* I’ll never get it.
* Everyone would be better off without me.
These negative self-statements may feel real when we’re depressed, but if you evaluate each statement objectively, you’ll see when you’re being unreasonably and excessively fault finding with yourself.
Experiencing these dream symbols repeatedly usually suggests excessive self-criticism:
* Any symbol or feeling of criticism or personal verbal attack
* Painful biting or stinging
* Blame or accusations
* Ridicule, sarcasm, or harassment
If you choose, seek out the counsel of a trusted friend to help sort out your feelings. First disarm your critic by recognizing it and then replace the blame with positive self-talk; just as negative self-statements are disparaging, positive ones are empowering:
* I believe in myself.
* I can achieve my goals.
* I am free to progress at my own rate.
* I can love myself.
Symbols of Emotion
Dream emotions are the essence and power of dreams. If they seem as real as waking feelings, it’s because they’re real. While a dream’s imagery is fickle – easily influenced by insignificant waking events, such as late night horror movie – a dream’s feelings accurately reflect your conscious and unconscious emotional state.
While dream emotions span the entire range of human feeling, 3 seem to emerge most commonly: anxiety, anger, and guilt.
Anxiety: is our most frequently experienced dream emotion – and probably our most common waking feeling as well. Mild anxiety can at times enhance performance, but severe anxiety always hampers progress. Fear of failure, making mistakes, embarrassment, or what others may think, all prevent us from self-exploration and growth.
Anxious feelings in a dream mean you’re anxious in waking life as well. However, dream anxiety may also represent unconscious feelings that are blocked from awareness. We often become aware of anxiety through dreaming before we recognize it in waking life.
If your dreams are consistently anxious:
* Fearful personality, insecure, worrier
* A tendency to live in a worrisome future
* Persistent irrational fears, such as hypochondria
* Symbols of pursuit or attack in a dream
If your dreams have only recently become anxious:
* Transient anxiety
* Something is currently challenging you in waking reality
* Symbols of an intruder in a dream
Anger: common and have psychological as well as physical meaning. Extremes of anger appear in dreams when we’re struggling to deal effectively with our waking anger or hostility:
* Externalize Anger: If we openly and indiscriminately externalize anger, we risk wreaking significant psychological and social havoc. We may engender bitterness, guilt, and deep feelings of worthlessness.
* Internalize Anger: If we internalize our anger, stuffing it deep enough so that we and others are unaware of its presence, we need really rid ourselves of it. It exists below the level of consciousness, churning and, overtime, affecting our health.
* Releasing Anger: As with all emotions, angry feelings were meant to be experienced and released, not necessarily acted upon and not repressed. We learn to recognize that anger, in and of itself, isn’t bad and is sometimes useful- anger warns us that something’s wrong.
Anger can be useful by protecting and mobilizing us to escape or defend ourselves in times of physical danger. It tells us when boundaries are violated, when we’re being pushed beyond what’s appropriate. Anger informs us that we need to set limits or that we’re being taken advantage of. It helps us overcome fear – it’s easier to assert our needs when we feel angry. Anger protects us from other feelings that, at the moment, may be too overwhelming, too difficult to feel – helplessness, loneliness, sadness.
But to be psychologically effective and physically benign, we need to experience our anger and move on. This doesn’t necessarily mean venting. Contrary to popular belief, venting anger isn’t always healthy, particularly when it’s at someone else’s expense. Once angry feelings are openly expressed, they can scar and are impossible to take back. While venting isn’t always healthy, experiencing angry feelings is – and stuffing them is physically harmful.
Guilt: these reflect conscious and unconscious feelings of guilt. Life is a process of continual transformation, of options, and it’s been said that not even God can change the past. But mistakes often engender guilt, a useful feeling if it tells us when we need to right a wrong. However, because of childhood conditioning, most of us feel more guilty than need be.
To understand your dreams of guilt, look for the frequency of these dream symbols:
* Dreams that are consistently guilty are warning that your guilt is no longer reasonable but has become an emotional drain.
* Infrequent dreams of guilt usually means healthy guilt – is there something you need to change?
* Dreams of frustration – difficulty reaching a goal, completing a project, or reaching the end of something. Energy is being wasted on guilt.
Animal Dreams
Symbols of animals are sometimes dreams of emotion. Animals can be symbolic f catharsis – an emotional outlet allowing safe, healthy release when expressing these feelings is impossible in waking life. The frustration, anger, or aggressiveness that build up over the course of the day is safely let go.
Psychoanalysis teaches that the human psyche is divided into 3 parts: id, ego, and superego. Our primitive side – the id – represents the basic drives of survival, aggression, and sexual gratification that lurk deep within us all. The superego is like a perfectionist conscience, scolding even the mildest transgression. The ego balances the 2. It’s thought that the human psyche is constantly at battle with itself, the primitive id pitted against the rigid superego, mediated by an often weary, struggling ego.
According to the great analyst Carl Jung, animal symbols represent basic human instincts and rives, the id. Animal dreams are common because we continually attempt to suppress the id in waking life, ignoring those needs and desires that may not be socially expressed, such as aggressive or sexual feelings. Our dreams are the playground of the id, and animal dreams often allow safe, appropriate expression of basic human drives.
The meaning of animal symbolism varies by species of animal present in a dream. Wild animals often represent basic human instincts such as the drives for survival, aggressive self-protection, territory, or sexual gratification. However, game or domestic animals may symbolize introspection or fear. As always, interpret these symbols within the context of the emotional tone of your dream.
Symbols of Loss
This could also be called symbols of grief, sorrow, sadness, and disappointment because it encompasses this range of feelings.
Emotional release is an important part of dreaming, and dreams of loss represent just such an expression. These dreams commonly emerge when you’re experienced a waking loss. They can also occur as a result of your subconscious working through feelings left over from a past loss – either way this is normal and a natural process.
Grief: dreams of loss are important because they encourage us to face our grief. While grief is hard to bear, and is one of the toughest emotions to work through, it’s the most psychologically healing of all emotions. It cleanses our subconscious, allowing us to accept loss with sincerity and dignity and enabling us to move forward.
Consciously acknowledging these losses, naming them, facilitates the grieving process. Grieving is natural and takes time.
Dreams of grief feel grief-stricken and may include these symbols:
* Any personal symbols of mourning or grief.
* Painful crying, weeping, moaning, or sobbing.
* Whimpering or despair.
* Symbols of depression or sorrow
* Helpless misery or suffering
Sadness: this may represent an emotional release of psychological pain. These are sometimes associated with the following life circumstances:
* Feeling sad or disappointed: Symbolizes the situation associated with your feelings.
* Feeling regret: Alerts you to something you’ve done or failed to do.
* Feeling lonely: Reflects your loss of companionship or discontentment with your present circumstances.
* Feeling depressed: Reflects these feelings of depression
Symbols of Self-Esteem
This means loving yourself completely, unequivocally, and without qualification. It’s putting yourself first, meeting your own needs, and respecting yourself.
Loving Yourself: If you love someone, you pay attention to them, you act lovingly toward them, you’re pleased to see them, you forgive their faults, and you do things for them. You love them regardless of status, position, or money – you love them for who they are, not what they are. They are a part of the joy of your life, and when they’re gone, there is great loss. If you love yourself, all of these apply.
You do for yourself as you would for the person you love the most. If you put off taking care of yourself, then your relationship with yourself, your self-esteem, is weakened. We must nurture ourselves as we do any relationship, but we are the easiest to neglect. Dreams of self-esteem inform you when you’re taking yourself for granted.
When self-esteem is sagging, dreams feel overly self-conscious. They may also feel:
* Tentative
* Uncertain
* Mildly fearful
* Noncommittal
Dream imagery may be vivid or fuzzy but usually involves humans or animals who are:
* Small
* Ineffective
* Subordinate
* Cowering
You can use your dreams to create a reality of self-esteem through incubation. Incubation is the process of seeding the unconscious to grow a desired outcome. Remember, dreams are dynamic, they respond to conscious intent as well as shape it. We can learn to exercise a great deal of control over waking reality as we become more adept at creating a powerful dream reality.
Incubating for self-esteem is a simple process. At bedtime, form an affirmation and repeat it quietly to yourself while you fall asleep. Keep your affirmations short, direct, and positive. For example:
* I love myself completely and without hesitation.
* I practice self-love in my dream and waking realities.
* I lovingly accept myself for who I am.
Actively incubate your dreams of self-esteem for at least a week, congratulating yourself for your effort the following mornings.
Symbols of Vulnerability
Dreams of emotional vulnerability frequently disclose a desire for psychological refuge. Jungian psychology teaches that we erect a barrier of self-protection called the persona, the outer appearance or mask we present to the world.
Dreams of vulnerability may also accompany the emergence of unpleasant memories. Feelings associated with these disturbing memories can prompt a variety of dream themes, all designed to be emotionally protective, cushioning the psyche.
Symbols of emotional exposure often include the following:
* Feeling exposed
* Unpleasant or embarrassing nakedness
* Recurrent dreams of clothing
* External signs of recognition – awards, praise – that feel hollow
* Recurrent dreams of public settings or theatrical performances
Dreams of vulnerability also emerge when we waste energy concealing feelings that we don’t want others to see. Although this process occurs out of our awareness, it consumes enormous amounts of energy. In fact, fatigue is a common symptom of emotional suppression. Look for these common dream symbols suggesting that you may be investing excessive energy in hiding your true feelings:
* Lack of or difficulty with intimacy
* Separation of any kind
* Weaknesses or unsolvable problems
* Embarrassment or feeling self-conscious and insecure
* Confusion, lack of clarity, fuzzy dreams
* Hiding or concealing a mistake
Remember that believing in oneself creates a positive reality of self-understanding.
Selected Source:
DreamScape – The Personal Interactive Dream Analysis System By: Nicholas E. Heyneman, Ph. D
Ask yourself what might be occurring in your waking life that may have precipitated how you’re feeling in this dream. Remember, dream feelings are always honest, but because waking feelings are not, what you find may seem surprising.
The 6 Symbols of Self-Understanding
* Control
* Criticism
* Emotion
* Loss
* Self-Esteem
* Vulnerability
Symbols of Control
These are dreams of personal control, the need deep within all of us to believe that we and not others or random circumstances influence the direction our lives take. It’s the opposite of helplessness, feeling out of control or with no sense of control at all.
Control, even in unavoidably noxious situations, lessens our pain. Psychological experiments with laboratory animals demonstrate that when the animal can control unpleasant or painful events, they’re better adjusted than those poor creatures that cannot.
Letting Go of Control
Dreams of control emerge when we feel that we’re being overly controlled. Most of us experience dreams of this sort on occasion, presumably because we all feel pressured and controlled at times, and out of frustration we want stubbornly to dig in our heels to get our way.
Sometimes the only way to gain control is to lose it. Track your dreams and notice if you’re repeatedly experiencing dreams of control that suggest it’s time to let go:
* Dreams where you’re convinced you’re right
* Dreams of isolation or separation
* Dreams when no one is listening – even if you’re shouting
* Aggressive dreams where someone is victimized
Letting go of control is like ‘choosing your battles’. We don’t always get our way, even when we’re convinced that our way is right. And we don’t always have control, certain situations are simply unchangeable, and accepting this reality is, paradoxically, and means of gaining control.
Symbols of Criticism
This is also called symbols of self-criticism because these dreams emerge when we’re being excessively fault finding with ourselves. Dreams of criticism are about getting in touch with our critical side – the part of us that so easily blames when things go wrong. It compares us unmercifully with the idea – and, of course, finds us wanting. It’s our superego, an unrelenting perfectionist, criticizing us for even the smallest mistake.
Most of us can punish ourselves as no one else can, but much of this self-criticism is unwarranted. Most self-critical statements aren’t true:
* I can’t do anything right.
* I’ll never get it.
* Everyone would be better off without me.
These negative self-statements may feel real when we’re depressed, but if you evaluate each statement objectively, you’ll see when you’re being unreasonably and excessively fault finding with yourself.
Experiencing these dream symbols repeatedly usually suggests excessive self-criticism:
* Any symbol or feeling of criticism or personal verbal attack
* Painful biting or stinging
* Blame or accusations
* Ridicule, sarcasm, or harassment
If you choose, seek out the counsel of a trusted friend to help sort out your feelings. First disarm your critic by recognizing it and then replace the blame with positive self-talk; just as negative self-statements are disparaging, positive ones are empowering:
* I believe in myself.
* I can achieve my goals.
* I am free to progress at my own rate.
* I can love myself.
Symbols of Emotion
Dream emotions are the essence and power of dreams. If they seem as real as waking feelings, it’s because they’re real. While a dream’s imagery is fickle – easily influenced by insignificant waking events, such as late night horror movie – a dream’s feelings accurately reflect your conscious and unconscious emotional state.
While dream emotions span the entire range of human feeling, 3 seem to emerge most commonly: anxiety, anger, and guilt.
Anxiety: is our most frequently experienced dream emotion – and probably our most common waking feeling as well. Mild anxiety can at times enhance performance, but severe anxiety always hampers progress. Fear of failure, making mistakes, embarrassment, or what others may think, all prevent us from self-exploration and growth.
Anxious feelings in a dream mean you’re anxious in waking life as well. However, dream anxiety may also represent unconscious feelings that are blocked from awareness. We often become aware of anxiety through dreaming before we recognize it in waking life.
If your dreams are consistently anxious:
* Fearful personality, insecure, worrier
* A tendency to live in a worrisome future
* Persistent irrational fears, such as hypochondria
* Symbols of pursuit or attack in a dream
If your dreams have only recently become anxious:
* Transient anxiety
* Something is currently challenging you in waking reality
* Symbols of an intruder in a dream
Anger: common and have psychological as well as physical meaning. Extremes of anger appear in dreams when we’re struggling to deal effectively with our waking anger or hostility:
* Externalize Anger: If we openly and indiscriminately externalize anger, we risk wreaking significant psychological and social havoc. We may engender bitterness, guilt, and deep feelings of worthlessness.
* Internalize Anger: If we internalize our anger, stuffing it deep enough so that we and others are unaware of its presence, we need really rid ourselves of it. It exists below the level of consciousness, churning and, overtime, affecting our health.
* Releasing Anger: As with all emotions, angry feelings were meant to be experienced and released, not necessarily acted upon and not repressed. We learn to recognize that anger, in and of itself, isn’t bad and is sometimes useful- anger warns us that something’s wrong.
Anger can be useful by protecting and mobilizing us to escape or defend ourselves in times of physical danger. It tells us when boundaries are violated, when we’re being pushed beyond what’s appropriate. Anger informs us that we need to set limits or that we’re being taken advantage of. It helps us overcome fear – it’s easier to assert our needs when we feel angry. Anger protects us from other feelings that, at the moment, may be too overwhelming, too difficult to feel – helplessness, loneliness, sadness.
But to be psychologically effective and physically benign, we need to experience our anger and move on. This doesn’t necessarily mean venting. Contrary to popular belief, venting anger isn’t always healthy, particularly when it’s at someone else’s expense. Once angry feelings are openly expressed, they can scar and are impossible to take back. While venting isn’t always healthy, experiencing angry feelings is – and stuffing them is physically harmful.
Guilt: these reflect conscious and unconscious feelings of guilt. Life is a process of continual transformation, of options, and it’s been said that not even God can change the past. But mistakes often engender guilt, a useful feeling if it tells us when we need to right a wrong. However, because of childhood conditioning, most of us feel more guilty than need be.
To understand your dreams of guilt, look for the frequency of these dream symbols:
* Dreams that are consistently guilty are warning that your guilt is no longer reasonable but has become an emotional drain.
* Infrequent dreams of guilt usually means healthy guilt – is there something you need to change?
* Dreams of frustration – difficulty reaching a goal, completing a project, or reaching the end of something. Energy is being wasted on guilt.
Animal Dreams
Symbols of animals are sometimes dreams of emotion. Animals can be symbolic f catharsis – an emotional outlet allowing safe, healthy release when expressing these feelings is impossible in waking life. The frustration, anger, or aggressiveness that build up over the course of the day is safely let go.
Psychoanalysis teaches that the human psyche is divided into 3 parts: id, ego, and superego. Our primitive side – the id – represents the basic drives of survival, aggression, and sexual gratification that lurk deep within us all. The superego is like a perfectionist conscience, scolding even the mildest transgression. The ego balances the 2. It’s thought that the human psyche is constantly at battle with itself, the primitive id pitted against the rigid superego, mediated by an often weary, struggling ego.
According to the great analyst Carl Jung, animal symbols represent basic human instincts and rives, the id. Animal dreams are common because we continually attempt to suppress the id in waking life, ignoring those needs and desires that may not be socially expressed, such as aggressive or sexual feelings. Our dreams are the playground of the id, and animal dreams often allow safe, appropriate expression of basic human drives.
The meaning of animal symbolism varies by species of animal present in a dream. Wild animals often represent basic human instincts such as the drives for survival, aggressive self-protection, territory, or sexual gratification. However, game or domestic animals may symbolize introspection or fear. As always, interpret these symbols within the context of the emotional tone of your dream.
Symbols of Loss
This could also be called symbols of grief, sorrow, sadness, and disappointment because it encompasses this range of feelings.
Emotional release is an important part of dreaming, and dreams of loss represent just such an expression. These dreams commonly emerge when you’re experienced a waking loss. They can also occur as a result of your subconscious working through feelings left over from a past loss – either way this is normal and a natural process.
Grief: dreams of loss are important because they encourage us to face our grief. While grief is hard to bear, and is one of the toughest emotions to work through, it’s the most psychologically healing of all emotions. It cleanses our subconscious, allowing us to accept loss with sincerity and dignity and enabling us to move forward.
Consciously acknowledging these losses, naming them, facilitates the grieving process. Grieving is natural and takes time.
Dreams of grief feel grief-stricken and may include these symbols:
* Any personal symbols of mourning or grief.
* Painful crying, weeping, moaning, or sobbing.
* Whimpering or despair.
* Symbols of depression or sorrow
* Helpless misery or suffering
Sadness: this may represent an emotional release of psychological pain. These are sometimes associated with the following life circumstances:
* Feeling sad or disappointed: Symbolizes the situation associated with your feelings.
* Feeling regret: Alerts you to something you’ve done or failed to do.
* Feeling lonely: Reflects your loss of companionship or discontentment with your present circumstances.
* Feeling depressed: Reflects these feelings of depression
Symbols of Self-Esteem
This means loving yourself completely, unequivocally, and without qualification. It’s putting yourself first, meeting your own needs, and respecting yourself.
Loving Yourself: If you love someone, you pay attention to them, you act lovingly toward them, you’re pleased to see them, you forgive their faults, and you do things for them. You love them regardless of status, position, or money – you love them for who they are, not what they are. They are a part of the joy of your life, and when they’re gone, there is great loss. If you love yourself, all of these apply.
You do for yourself as you would for the person you love the most. If you put off taking care of yourself, then your relationship with yourself, your self-esteem, is weakened. We must nurture ourselves as we do any relationship, but we are the easiest to neglect. Dreams of self-esteem inform you when you’re taking yourself for granted.
When self-esteem is sagging, dreams feel overly self-conscious. They may also feel:
* Tentative
* Uncertain
* Mildly fearful
* Noncommittal
Dream imagery may be vivid or fuzzy but usually involves humans or animals who are:
* Small
* Ineffective
* Subordinate
* Cowering
You can use your dreams to create a reality of self-esteem through incubation. Incubation is the process of seeding the unconscious to grow a desired outcome. Remember, dreams are dynamic, they respond to conscious intent as well as shape it. We can learn to exercise a great deal of control over waking reality as we become more adept at creating a powerful dream reality.
Incubating for self-esteem is a simple process. At bedtime, form an affirmation and repeat it quietly to yourself while you fall asleep. Keep your affirmations short, direct, and positive. For example:
* I love myself completely and without hesitation.
* I practice self-love in my dream and waking realities.
* I lovingly accept myself for who I am.
Actively incubate your dreams of self-esteem for at least a week, congratulating yourself for your effort the following mornings.
Symbols of Vulnerability
Dreams of emotional vulnerability frequently disclose a desire for psychological refuge. Jungian psychology teaches that we erect a barrier of self-protection called the persona, the outer appearance or mask we present to the world.
Dreams of vulnerability may also accompany the emergence of unpleasant memories. Feelings associated with these disturbing memories can prompt a variety of dream themes, all designed to be emotionally protective, cushioning the psyche.
Symbols of emotional exposure often include the following:
* Feeling exposed
* Unpleasant or embarrassing nakedness
* Recurrent dreams of clothing
* External signs of recognition – awards, praise – that feel hollow
* Recurrent dreams of public settings or theatrical performances
Dreams of vulnerability also emerge when we waste energy concealing feelings that we don’t want others to see. Although this process occurs out of our awareness, it consumes enormous amounts of energy. In fact, fatigue is a common symptom of emotional suppression. Look for these common dream symbols suggesting that you may be investing excessive energy in hiding your true feelings:
* Lack of or difficulty with intimacy
* Separation of any kind
* Weaknesses or unsolvable problems
* Embarrassment or feeling self-conscious and insecure
* Confusion, lack of clarity, fuzzy dreams
* Hiding or concealing a mistake
Remember that believing in oneself creates a positive reality of self-understanding.
Selected Source:
DreamScape – The Personal Interactive Dream Analysis System By: Nicholas E. Heyneman, Ph. D
