Shoes

Shoes in general suggest the situation you are in or a position in life. They can also indicate your character or chosen way of life through what type of shoe – a plain shoe, a fancy  expensive shoe, an impractical and painful shoe.

With the right shoes we can walk in places we could only manage with great difficulty barefoot, so they can show you the character traits, life skills and strategies you have developed to deal with rough life situations.

Example: I put on boots to go outside on the raft. There’s something out there. It’s a pet, but scary too. I realize (again), that I must wear foot coverings because of possible poison things I could step on, but they’ve been stolen along with my can opener and other survival, important items. I go out pretending my bare feet are covered. I look out over the water. It’s cold, deep, and dangerous. B.S.

In some dreams shoes point out what direction you are taking in your attitudes – i.e. formal dancing shoes in a discotheque would suggest outmoded approach, so the shoes can show a way of life.

Some shoes are worn by particular social groups, for instance D.M’s are a cult shoe, and so – for instance – can stand for young women who do not want to conform with previous female stereotypes.

Barefooted: Going through a rough patch in life if walking is difficult, or feeling unprepared to meet your present life situation. Letting go of the everyday duties and responsibilities, or feeling in contact with nature and your life situation if enjoying it. Feeling embarrassed about not being ‘properly’ dressed, or that you are not conforming.

You might also have taken shoes off to walk quietly so as not to be noticed. If this is so it suggests you are trying to fade into the background in some way.

Boots: If male boots, usually about ability to meet difficult life situations, but practical and maybe not fashionable. Also strength and being down to earth practical.

If female boots they often connect with feelings about looking good, attractive or sexy.

Sport boots as with football boots, indicate the skill to be part of a team or handle ‘the ball’ – the challenges of life – well. One can also be ‘given the boot’.

Boots can also be used as a weapon to kick with, so at times can be used in a dream to show fear of violence or desire to hurt.

Clogs: Something slowing you down or making you clumsy. Perhaps is a wordplay on being clogged physically or mentally.

High heels: Feeling less secure in your footing in life. Feeling in an uncomfortable life situation. Feeling, or wanting to feel sexually attractive.

Gym shoes/boots: Ability to be sure footed in what you are undertaking. Feeling comfortable in yourself. If they are being worn in a formal situation it suggests you might be taking a too nonconformist approach to something.

In female dream: In many women’s dreams shoes are shown as a fashion accessory – matching other clothes. So this links with an awareness or sensitivity about how you appear.

Jogging shoes: See: Gym shoes.

Large shoes: Taking an attitude or role you are not quite big enough a person to fill – or having an attitude you can grow into – depending on feelings in dream.

Losing shoes: Not being clear about the right attitude or approach to your situation, or situation shown in dream. It can also suggest losing, or losing sight of the skills or strength to manage what you face. For instance you might to feel at ease or confident meeting someone if you didn’t have any shoes on, and this type of dream points to exactly that type of feeling.

Example: I am not wearing anything on my feet. This really troubles me, as I see myself searching endlessly for my shoes. For example I am at school, although nobody is looking at me, I feel inwardly embarrassed without my shoes.  Debra

Low heels: Comfortable way of life or attitudes. Practical approach to a situation

New shoes: A new start, new direction or a new attitude or way of dealing with what you are meeting in life.

Odd shoes: Two different not compatible ways of dealing with a situation. Being ill equipped to do what you are confronting, or feeling clumsy or in conflict about something. Perhaps making use of old ways of dealing with life that do not ‘fit’ the present needs or the person you are now.

Old shoes: This is either about an outworn way of life, or one that is known, comfortable and really fits you – depending on the dream.

Reversed shoes – the right shoe in my left foot and the left shoe in my right foot: Feeling confused, almost a reveresal to childhood, so still learninng the bestway to present yourself. An uncomfortalbe  situation.

Sandals: Lack of formality or a relaxed way of dealing with life. It could suggest inappropriate attitudes in some dreams where they are not suitable for what you are walking over.

Shoes from different roles i.e. nurses shoes: May indicate our need for the qualities of that role.

Shoes not fitting: Trying to live with the wrong attitude or approach. An ill fitting situation in life or in a relationship. Something not right.

Shoes without anyone wearing them: This can suggest the presence of an unseen, lost or dead person. It can also indicate a way of life you have left behind – the person you were.

Slippers: Depends on how they appear – in a hospital scene, a home scene, as an expression of being helpless – Consider the feelings in the surrounding dream scenes to understand their meaning. Sometimes points to attitudes that are not functional or appropriate in the given life situation.

Sole of shoe: one’s inner feelings, or the way you meet the rough parts of life experience.

Someone else’s shoes: Trying out a different way of life, copying someone else’s style, or perhaps you feel impoverished in your own life style or direction.

Taking off or discarding shoes: Leaving the past or an old way of life behind; dropping a long established role; being open to change; relaxing as you emerge from a situation or attitude, as when you might kick off your shoes at a party or in a relationship. See: nude.

Tight shoes: An uncomfortable or painful life situation, or one that you do not have a large enough understanding of or attitudes to deal with.

Work shoes: Denotes something you are working at or giving effort to. This is usually to do with changes you are making, either in yourself or outer life.  This only seldom relates to the actual work you do. The work shoes, the meaning depends on what work the shoes are for.

Idioms: Be in someone else’s shoes; don’t criticise your brother until you walk a mile in his moccasins; if the shoe fits, wear it; fill his shoes; the shoe is on the other foot; shoes like boats;.

Useful questions:

What type of shoes are they – babies shoes, working shoes, dancing shoes – define them and this leads to what they are suggesting?

What is the quality of the shoes, and what does this suggest about the way I am dealing with life?

Do the shoes depict a particular role, such as business or soldier?

If these are old shoes, what phase of your life might they link with, or what do they show they have been through?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming

Comments

-Elsa 2014-03-22 22:05:29

I dram I lost my wrk shoes and was looking for them and asked a lady look I lost my shoes their black and real preaty.She said they didn’t have them but only black shoes they had wete some guy dressy shoes without a omment I slip them into my red bag and left.I thought well atleast I gotshoes formy brother, since he has none..but I didnt find y work shoes

    -Tony Crisp 2014-03-23 11:35:16

    Elsa – Remember that dreams are a magic mirror showing you a reflection of your inner world. See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/inner-world/

    So your dreams says that although your works shoes – you thoughts and feeling connected with you outer work, and it tells you that in fact you are no longer in those shoes. In other words your attitudes and feelings are changing, you are leaving the past or an old way of life behind and are ready for a change.

    But remember that a dream is like a seed, it is something that comes from a deep part of you; it is something that is working upwards toward being conscious. As such it often, like a seed, takes time to break through to the surface, and then it has to grow. So dreams are not recognised for their full meaning until later – sometimes months or even longer.
    so watch out for changes that will appear.

    Tony

-fanny 2014-02-12 4:22:02

I dream about two red footware .one is look like gym shoes but rubber around.another one s semi high heel.two different footware in one box.
I am confuse because i bought a semi high heel sandal shoes in mall with my bf many weeks ago in my dream.and just today i dream again but this time i wanted to wear my semi high heel sandal shoes but when i open the box its not pair shoes
Red gym shoes and red semi high heels sandal.
I am confuse what does it mean.

-Monique 2014-01-19 12:08:00

I dreamt that I that I brought a new pair of shoes to wear to work, they were loafers with tassles but by the end of the day, the shoes were worn out, too big, they hurt, and they looked more like mens shoes. I felt angry about just having brought shoes and they were worn out n one day, so I went back to the store to return them and the store allowed me to return them.

-Erica 2013-12-11 16:41:42

I dream that I was buy my baby shoes in cards in on them was a bear face

-yolanda 2013-11-30 13:21:37

I dreamed that I was at my old work place (now closed) and was in the front office. Two big bins of my shoes were there. Some familiar, some not. I kept some but the others I think I was gonna sell.

-Alice 2013-11-05 11:59:47

Last night i had a painful dream about my brother who recently commit suicide.
In it, he had died and his ashes were still existent, but he came back to human form in his old body but just a bit less bulky. He seemed a bit annoyed with me, not for any particular reason, but just being the way he normally was when he was alive.
In the dream he was telling us about how he commit suicide and that he intended for my mum to find him and stop him. Although i am not sure this is really the case. But he also said (in the dream) that he was still partially alive when my mum found him. He said he could feel my mum pulling him down from the rope he used to hang himself with – he showed us the feeling of arms tightly gripping around to lift him down. This made me feel sick, so i ran outside and was throwing up on the grass. Then my younger brother came out and carried me to lye in the back of a car, at which point my brother showed up again looking very loving and told me to ‘PUT THE RED HUNTERS ON’. He then tried to put the red hunter wellies on my feet. I don’t remember any more of this dream.

His death was a horrendous shock. We never saw it coming. He was a light, easy going, happy man. Only 23. I am 20. Missing him incredibly but also feeling very guilty. I’m desperate to try and make contact with my brother and know that the most common and easiest way is through a dream.

Does anyone have any insight on this?

I would really appreciate it! Thank you.

-Tania 2013-09-27 12:02:12

What does it mean to be gathering together several pairs of your own shoes underneath someone’s bed order to leave that house?

-maggie 2013-09-22 5:48:08

I had a dream last night that I was in an amusement park, walking alone until a little boy approached me and told me he was my son, I was shocked since I’m only eighteen, but nonetheless accepted the boy as my son. I noticed he didn’t have shoes on so I bought him a pair and they were large to him, I bought a pair to for myself and the pair was also big for my feet, what does that mean?

-Lindsay 2013-09-19 14:23:11

Last night I had a dream that my favorite shoes were suddenly too small, and were pinching/smashing my toes, even though they are my most comfortable shoes and had always felt fine before. They are jogging shoes that I generally wear to work, and I don’t remember many other details. A shoe salesman had me take off the shoes and measure my feet. The measuring device showed the same size that the shoes are, so I was baffled as to why they were suddenly pinching.

    -Tony Crisp 2013-09-23 8:16:46

    Lindsey – The language of dreams cannot be understood by thinking about it as you were – very logically. You were comparing what you know from you waking mind with what was happening in your inner life. See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/inner-world/

    Dreams use images to represent your inner condition. So shoes represent your present attitude or chosen way of life. The dream is saying you need a bigger view of what you are doing, because you present attitude is not good.

    Tony

-Cherisse 2013-09-10 9:21:57

i had a dream last night that i am buying shoes for my boyfriend but in my dream he buys old shoes to sell them again and the shoes i got/ bought from other people for him i gave to him and he threw it out on the floor. some of it looked like my old shoes that i have and don’t what to get rid of. Please can you tell me what this means

-Lee 2013-08-23 18:05:44

I dreamed I woke up naked from a nap and there was a muddy boot print on my hip. It was a man’s boot print. I was terrified and felt a ghost had stepped on me and was afraid to wash off the print or disturb it with clothing because I felt it was evidence of the ghost. I showed my father but he couldn’t help me – he just shrugged as I walked around crying about the unknown source of the boot print on my hip.

-Laura 2013-08-16 16:09:14

Last night I dreamed that it was myself and a group of girls in a room. There were boxes of heels. They were shoes that brides had bought but never wore, so they were very cheap because they had left them behind. I was trying them on and not many were fitting, they were all too small. Finally I come to a white pair that were platforms. They fit, but then my friends said those are so not you, so I abandoned the idea of them.

    -Tony Crisp 2013-08-20 8:11:34

    Laura – The dream clearly says that none of the styles so wanted by girls who desire marriage are suitable for you. Again, “my friends said those are so not you.” It shows how you are too influenced by other people opinion, and that you have your own life to live and your own ways to do it.

    Tony

-Fola 2013-06-08 10:15:00

Before now i have had series of dream losing my flip flop slippers. I had another dream of someone exchanged my white flip flop and left an orange colour flip flop.

This morning I dreamt again that i went for an important occassion and i had 2 beautiful shoes that matches my out fit but i kept them somewhere and i entered the party wearing a flip flop and when i saw other people though i was well dressed, i started thinking if i should go back and put on my beautiful shoe which i kept somewhere. While in the party, the setting of the party was banquet and i sat with some people and suddenly someone on the high table informed us about a good news and most people in the hall including myself jump up with joy and started praising God.

Please interpret.

    -Tony Crisp 2013-06-14 8:08:28

    Fola – I feel your dream is telling you that it doesn’t matter to God what shoes you wear. What matters is the joy you share and the community you are a part of.

    Tony

-Robert 2013-05-29 23:40:06

It is not a dream. Real life happening.

Walking with my shoes, and out of nowhere and without warning my right heel disintegrated walking on the street.
What does that mean, except I need to get a other pair of shoes.

-lessermystery 2013-04-19 19:57:55

I dreamed of going to Hawii to visit a man I with whom I am in love. When I got there, he had me change into a light green summer dress and flip flops. Then we went out for a walk, where I noticed him staring at me and I knew he was thinking about the dress I was wearing. I asked him if seeing me in this dress reminded him of anyone special, but he didn’t answer. I then remember asking him what animals were indigenous to Hawaii. I also made advances to him. He was receptive. There wasn’t an explosion of passion, but it was very nice. The dream seemed very real, and very ordinary. I was struck by how ordinary everything seemed, except for the slightly magical feeling of being in a beautiful place like Hawaii, but nothing was present in the dream in an idealized way.

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