An Afterthought On Repeating Images
It’s funny. After this whole discussion about recurring themes and images in these last few articles, My Oprah Dreams: Repetition in Dreams, Recurring Dream Themes, and Dream Fragments 2. I was so focused on why we’ll have these recurrences over a short period of time, that I forgot to discuss what it’s about when you have a recurring image that stretches over a long period of time!
Interestingly and surely not by accident, this morning I had a Twitter follower ask me about two images in particular that she says she “always has”.
So I’m here to finish what I have to say about this subject!
I am forever professing that the dream (at the first level) is about something that either happened to you yesterday or something you thought about yesterday. That said a recurring image that repeats over a period of years is just like a favorite expression.
If my favorite expression is “Oh sh–” well let’s just say, “Oh darn it”… I could have used that expression 35 years ago when I missed the bus. I could have said it again 20 years ago when I didn’t put enough sunscreen on and got a sunburn. I may have said it two years ago when I accidentally brushed a pile of papers on the floor. And I could have said it when I got on the scale this morning…. (which I did, but that’s another story).
The point is I am using the same expression over a period of years but in each case the reason is completely different.
That is what we do with the metaphors that come from our unconscious mind. Your favorite expression has a picture. So let’s say when I am about to do something I never would imagine myself doing and definitely wouldn’t like to do like going on that single engine 4-seater plane I went on from Morrea to Tahiti, or sitting down to write an exam in which I would have had to memorize information, or signing up and actually going to boot camp!
Any of these certainly possible scenarios in my life could bring on a dream of me in a roller coaster. So in my personal dictionary in my own unconscious, as it very well may not be for some of you, the definition of a picture of a roller coaster = something I never would imagine myself doing and definitely wouldn’t like to do. It’s the same as a favorite expression, but instead of words, it comes in the form of a symbol.
One of the images the woman on Twitter is asking about is the picture of her diving into a pool. For me the image would have to do with me “taking a dive” into something new. Actually….it would also fit that roller coaster definition of “something I never would imagine myself doing and definitely wouldn’t like to do”. And we can even add to that something I DON’T know how to do!…So maybe I would use diving into a pool if I was about to begin a new project in an area I am not familiar with.
For her the feeling is one she loves.
When I dream about something that makes me feel particularly good, I ask myself two questions. Is the dream mirroring the fact that something happened to me yesterday that really did make me feel so happy? Or is the purpose of my feel good dream a gift I am giving myself; an escape because in fact things have been tough for me lately and I am giving myself the break.
Sometimes feel good dreams serve a great purpose too because if things are hard in our life a feel good dream can remind you what it feels like to feel good! In which case you’ll want to take the feeling the dream gives you and run with it!
In closing, one of the most interesting things I LOVE about the unconscious mind is that the minute you figure out what the image means for you? You never have it again!!!
Yes folks, interesting and annoying at the same time. Now the unconscious will come up with some new symbol or metaphor to set you back to the task of decoding.
And all I can say to that is… Welcome to my world!
