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Astrea responds:
Dear Lisa,
Believe it or not, you're very lucky to remember your nightmares. I've read that most people who have bad dreams block them out and are unable to remember what happens in any of them.
Bad dreams reveal our fears and anxieties; they show us what we need to work on or change in our waking lives. So in my view, being stuck or in slow motion in a dream and remembering it is a good thing!
For example, let's say that you dream that your car alarm goes off and you have no idea how to disable it. It's the hottest day of the year, and every time you try to start the car or open the door, the alarm goes off again.
You're in a crowded parking lot. No one stops to help you; in fact, everyone looks at you with disdain. Perhaps you're not alone, but have a squealing eight-year-old and teenager with you who are just FULL of helpful suggestions.
You call the significant other in your life to rescue you and learn that he's running a 103 degree fever and hallucinating on Tamaflu. What do you do in the dream that is DIFFERENT from what you would do in your waking life?
Do you and the children suffocate in the heat because you're stuck in the car? Do you step out of the car and blow it up with some explosives from the handy mega-store next to the parking lot, or do you find someone who can disable the alarm until you can get it repaired?
All are solutions to the problem, but certainly one stands out as more rational to the waking mind. That is not always true in dreams, however. Sometimes the most practical solution is totally ineffective in dreams, and it takes something crazy or extreme to get things going again.
You can break out of slow motion in your dream by confronting whatever is bothering you when you're awake. Most often, slow motion dreams like those you describe are caused by constant worrying or conflicts with family members or loved ones. They can also indicate that you're in too much of a hurry when you're awake, or are out of control in some aspect of your waking life.
Sometimes we gloss over the obvious and miss the hidden meanings of dreams while we're awake because we don't really want to consciously recognize and deal with the issues at hand. When we DO deal with the personal issues that are behind troubling dreams, our dreams naturally change.
This is when you can make a connection between recurring dream symbols and the messages or meanings they hold for you. Then if you have a slow motion dream again in the future, you'll know what it means and what you need to do about it.
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Susyn responds:
Dear Lisa,
I think you've answered your own question by identifying yourself as meek rather than strong.
This recurring dream indicates that you are going through life in slow motion. Because our dreams can illuminate buried or hidden fears, I think this recurring theme of feeling stuck reflects a subconscious message that change is needed.
For many years, I had a recurring dream of a certain house. Whatever state of mind or shape my life was in was reflected in the condition of the house each time I dreamed of it.
If my life was rather messy, the house would appear shabby and in disrepair. If something hidden was going on in my life, I would dream that thieves were hiding in the basement of the house.
The dreams finally stopped when I started recording them and noting their patterns. I was then able to recognize them as reflections of the life challenges I was dealing with when awake, and look for clues or guidance on how to go about changing things.
Returning to your dreams, it's clear to me that it's time to empower yourself by examining the fears that might make you pull back. What makes you keep quiet when you really need to speak up?
If you tend to be on the meek side, you've probably seen it cost you in terms of job opportunities, relationships or even trying to get medical help and attention. While you don't want to turn into a bossy, aggressive or forceful person, finding better balance between being meek and assertive will probably prove the key to eliminating these dreams.
Then the next time you have this dream, you may discover that you find a way to get unstuck, and are able to easily move forward.
I recommend you write down all you can recall of these dreams with an eye for recurring details, circumstances, people, places, issues, etc. In this way, you can get a clearer picture of what areas of your life need some work.
For example, if you've always had trouble standing up to your mother, you might see something or someone in the dream that represents her, and thus realize that there are issues with your mom that need to be healed and cleared.
Journaling about your dreams and any thoughts or feelings they bring up for you can lead you to new insights, and as you work with those insights in your waking life, your dreams will begin to change. You'll know you've made good progress when you begin to dream that you can move normally again.
While you consciously work on sorting all of this out, you might try sleeping with a turquoise or malachite stone under your pillow to keep unsettling dreams at bay. |
