The Dream Log Ezine

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Recurring Dreams


Many of the questions I get from people are about recurring dreams. These dreams keep repeating over and over with insistence, sometimes for years, leaving the dreamer with no choice but to question it.

That is the whole point of repeating dreams. Your conscious mind is confused, or even unaware of something important and your smarter subconscious is trying to clear it up for you. So really — you might as well pay attention and find out what the message is.

If you do figure out what that message is, chances are the recurring dreams will stop completely...at least for that particular message.

As I always point out, you must write these dreams down. If you don’t take the time to write them down, they will probably continue to mill around in your mind until you reach a point of clarification somehow.

Here are a couple of examples of common recurring dreams and some possible interpretations:

• Being chased by a shadow, or a person (usually a man), or a wild animal such as a tiger. There may be other people around in the dream, but are of no help. When the pursuer catches up with you...you wake up.



• You’re in a large house (it’s usually the same house) and wandering the hallways looking for a particular item, or person. Frustration builds as you realize that time is running out and something will (or won’t) happen if you don’t succeed in your quest. You usually wake up with the quest unfinished.

Do either of these scenarios sound familiar?

The example of the chasing dream is in the nightmare category. The chaser is threatening and you feel overwhelming fear of losing your life. You plead for help, but no one steps in to save you...

Consider the emotion being presented in the dream:

Extreme fear, self is threatened, overwhelmed, feeling alone and totally out of control. Are there similar feelings (maybe not quite as intense) attached to a situation in your life?

Many of us are not really in touch with our feelings and these dreams are a great way to show ourselves how we are truly reacting to our day-to-day happenings.

Young people are especially prone to dreams like this as they don’t have a lot of say in what goes on their lives. Feeling overwhelmed in the growing up process is normal and informing our children as to what these nightmares are really all about will help to lessen the residual fear after such dreams.

The example of the house wandering dream in search of something is more typical of an adult dream...time challenged and anxious about ‘getting it done’.

I have occasional dreams like this and can usually pinpoint where in my life I’m feeling confused and stuck. Being aware of it is the first step in moving forward and taking care of whatever problem you’re having.

If you are having recurring dreams like this, then do your best to figure out why. Like I mentioned before many times, simply writing it down will often trigger the message.

Of course, there are many other types of recurring dreams significant only to the dreamer. The process of interpreting them is the same:

• Write it down



• Match the emotion to a situation in your waking life



• If the message eludes you, go back into the dream in a relaxed state and talk to the characters or objects involved and see what you can find out.

Find out more about going back into a dream in Transform Those Troublesome Dreams.

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