Swimming

Usually this shows your degree of confidence in dealing with the sort of impacts, anxieties or emotions which cause some people to ‘go under’, either in relationships or something like running a family or business. It indicates how you meet the many influences, urges and thoughts that buffet you and in which you live.

Example: ‘I looked at a large pool where a river surfaced. A woman swam in it and was going to enter tunnels leading away from it. As I watched I saw some huge crocodiles swim toward her. With great speed and confidence she swam away, obviously being able to match the threat.’ Laurie V.

Laurie explored the dream and found the swimming expressed his growing confidence in meeting feelings which in past years had led to depression.

Swimming can also be about expressive motivation, trusting yourself in life, and being confident sexually. There is an element of personal survival in swimming, and the dream might well emphasise this sometimes.

A parent dreaming about its child swimming might very well be considering whether they will ‘sink or swim’ in their dealings with life, and many women dream of swimming or being in the water during menstruation. See: Diving; Pool; Sea; Swimming pool; Water.

Idioms: In the swim; swim against the tide; sink or swim.

Useful questions:

Where am I swimming and what is the general feeling involved…am I swimming easily or with difficulty?

Is this about self confidence and trust that I can handle what I meet in life?

Do I feel fear and apprehension about my emotions, not trusting my ability to keep afloat?

Was this a healing dream, as in immersing myself in water as a cleansing influence?


Hanging about not getting in: Hesitation about a change, getting involved or something new in life.

Learning to swim: Learning to survive in a new environment, such as happens when we emerge from childhood into adult sexual drives, or the school or work environment.

Swimming against the current or tide: Meeting opposition, either from within or others. Perhaps you are moving against general opinions, or have feeling difficulties creating indecision or feelings of pressure.

Swimming underwater: Taking awareness into what was unconscious, so looking within and seeing what goes on under the surface in relationships, the body, etc. If easy it suggests ease meeting the varied aspects of your being.

Swimming with other people: Sharing common feelings, goals, etc., or your connections with others.

Diving in: Taking the plunge in a new activity, relationship or way of life.

Comments

-SunnyCandara 2014-08-09 23:51:10

Hi there, I, err, have a dream that I have a little trouble interpreting, so if you read this comment and could give some insight I would really appreciate it.

So, it starts where I am sitting on a massive boat/rig structure floating on a lake at night. (It is moored to the bank.) There are lots of people on the rig and there festivities going on all around. There were even beautiful water features built on the rig to entertain people. I sat on the edge of the rig watching a quiet stream flow downhill into the lake and had an overwhelming desire to just dive into it and flow along it, but I stayed on the rig because for some reason it also felt like it would do me harm to dive in. Then some random person comes up to me and says: “You really want to be in there, don’t you? So do I.” Then he grabs my hand and takes me to the stream. At that point I take off my skin (literally) and become some kind of black mass while the other person does it too. Then we both dive into the water and float into the lake, then we proceed to dance in the water. The whole time I could see the rig, it was brilliantly lit up, people celebrating, but I felt much more content in the darkness, dancing with the other person. Then somehow we get sucked into the pipes that lead to the water features on the rig and are spewed out in front of all those people. They either ran away screaming, started cussing at us or outright attacked us. We tried to flee by swimming along water features that emptied into the lake, but when we were out on the lake, dancing again, (this time literally on the water’s surface) the rig was quiet and everyone on it was staring at us.

If you could help me interpret this Tony I would be really thankful, because it has been haunting me for weeks now.

-Carlisse 2014-08-05 4:12:43

I dreamt of swimming in a pool. The water was clear but it looked like a green light was lit in the pool and It was also at night and very relaxing. When I got out of the pool I noticed a little tree with it looked like kumquats or some other type of small oranges on them and water was running over them like a waterfall. I sat in front of the tree and noticed they were all over the ground and I picked one up and ate it. When I left I walked into a store and noticed another small tree behind a man.

-steve 2014-05-19 1:55:51

Hello, recently I had a weird dream.I was really apart of the dream but I was someone else and he was on a boat with his family and his brother was showing his dad his dive and it was a good one. Then it was my turn and I went to dive and then I dove into the ocean but my hands hit the water and I slowed down like the water was stoping me from going through fast and I sunk in slowly and I tried a couple more time and the same thing happened but after the third attempt the person who was my father told I guess my mother that he couldnt do this and that she knew what he had to do .. so he took me to the bottom of the boat and through me into the water were I was attack by some type of evil clown type of mermaid thing and It wasnt really clear to me if he was killed but he like broke his neck and stuff. Please help me try and interpret this? I know its weird ha

-Ankita 2014-05-17 4:11:02

I dreamt that i was swimming in a dirty pool.. although i cant swim well i was swimming efficiently.. could you explain me its meaning

-bella 2014-03-28 7:33:41

I dream of a green, calm sea then people were swimming. This guy asked me to dive into the water but I refused because I couldn’t swim. i just watched them swim, but i have a lingering feeling to dive in. the wind was blowing softly and it felt serene.

    -Tony Crisp 2014-03-28 9:30:40

    Bella – You are holding yourself back from living your life. You know the term ‘diving in’ and you are preventing yourself from experiencing so much.

    Dreams are a totally different world than the waking world, and of course you can swim or do any number of wonderful things. And as you learn them in your dreams you will find your life changes. See – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#Summing it will explain so much.
    Tony

-jem 2014-03-23 23:14:29

I dream about my ex boyfriend, we swim, i don’t remember if it is in a pool or in a sea. We’re happy. We know that we are not in a relationship. And we run and walk away the water then we stop, I say to him that I love him, and when he respond, he almost say it back that he loves me to, but instead of saying that he kiss me fully, he find a place which we can sex, then we saw a basket ball and there a lot of boys who play. and we wAlk away, we ran back, when we stop, he kiss me again, i respond a lot. but he saw my mother with my auntie and grand mother. And we stop, we enter in a small Place, then we kiss again but my mother saw me, i ran to my mother, then i seea students, my mother and anutie have a mangga, and they are going to a plce where my ex boyfriend there. I’ve seen my ex trying to escape. And that’s is. I woke up. I want to know the interpretation. Thank you. My ex boyfriend and I broke up, it’s been 1 month and 11 days, but I am totally not moved on. He tried me to get out. But I refused not. Pls. Answer. This dreams about my ex boyfriend happened twice ir trice. Thanks for helping me.

    -Tony Crisp 2014-03-24 8:37:14

    Jem – In the first place you need to understand that most people are often totally unaware of the massive experience they take in during a relationship and how it interacts with them when we love someone. In other words the memories and experience we gather unconsciously change us and are not lost. It is part of you and is symbolised in dreams as a person or event. So it is not your ex you are dreaming of, but your dreams are showing you your inner feelings about the past relationship and all the memories needing to be digested and learned from. Remember that because you were together for a while there is no way you can ‘have nothing to do’ with someone you have been intimately involved with. It doesn’t work like that.

    The dream shows your in a close and satisfying relationship – except for the sexual side of it. You are very influenced by you grandmother and mother in the way you respond to sexual advances. I can’t say whether that is good or bad because it is your choice. But you should be able to allow your self freedom to have sex in your dreams.

    So in dreams about sex we do not have to live by the same small moral world often necessary in waking life. In dreams we experiment emotionally and sexually, so dreams often stand in place of actual experience. In doing so we expand our mental and emotional life without any danger or consequences; danger and consequences that could be a part of sex in the physical world. Through dreams we may experiment with new experience or practice things we have not yet done externally. For instance many young women dream in detail of giving birth. This function of what might be called ‘imagination’ is tremendously undervalued, but is a foundation upon which human survival is built.

    Tony

-Veema Madre 2014-01-11 19:59:25

Hi Tony,

I have read some of your explanation….it seems so true…I really your help. Since 10yrs old, I am dreaming of toilets, today I am 36 yrs old and this is still pestering me on and off. I would like to know why those toilets..shit and dirty thnigs keep on coming my dreams? I also dream of swimming pool where the water is dark..dirty or scary ones that I am swimming in …
Please help me 🙁

Thanks and God Bless U
Veema

    -Tony Crisp 2014-01-19 9:56:48

    Veema – You have to remember several things about us as human beings. One is that you were a seed planted in the fertile place of your mother’s womb. Like any seed that has been planted it didn’t suddenly appear, it was the seed of other seeds going back to the beginning of life on this Earth. As such it has a very long history behind its growth. I know that scientist say it is all due to our DNA, but there are many other factors that are not explained, because we are such an amazing mixture of influences such as the influence of language, the unconscious and consciousness itself.

    The truth is that we carry a lot of baggage/shit from the past. Another factor is that we have core self – which has been called many things such as spirit, higher self or even God. This central part of us is like compensatory factor for our ego, our self conscious personality – a personality that is almost totally unaware of its roots, it heritage from its seed, and its unconscious process of Life in us. Dreams tend to tell us in dreams such as yours that you have some inner housework to do to clear up the mess inside you. Most of us have such dreams because we have such a lot from the past to clear up. You can start the work by using – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/practical-techniques-for-understanding-your-dreams/ or http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/secrets-power-dreaming/

    Blessing to you too,

    Tony

-Amanda 2013-12-11 10:46:37

I just had a dream the man with whom I currently have a love interest with started competitively swimming in a pool as I watched.

-Simone 2013-10-12 20:45:25

Hi Tony,
I had a dream that I was swimming at the local pool, doing laps and then there was a famous person who had moved to my area swimming in the pool ( Kylie minogue, who I don’t particularly like so that’s weird in it self) and once everyone new they were all standing on each side of the lane so I couldn’t swim. I complained but they had already started to remove everyone.
So I dived back in and swam the entire length in one breath and I bumped my head on the end. I continued to swim and one point had a tv at the end watching it between laps. I remember how easy it was for me to breath and when I bumped my head I could have kept swimming with that one breath. I also remember diving in a few times. But I was a very good swimmer, I could swim faster if I wanted and was almost swimming above the water at some points.
Appreciate your help in advance

-Samantha 2013-09-19 0:40:02

I was wondering if anyone could help me interpret my dream, I was swimming in a pool with heaps of other people, I swam especially well under water being able to hold my breath for huge amounts of time,but when in came to everyone being able to dive I couldn’t do it properly,still being to jump in but head first unable to stretch my arms out to break water properly,than just woke up. What does this mean?

-Chennie 2013-07-13 9:06:09

i really do not know how to swim in real life. and, i dreamed of practicing how to swim in a pool and i found out that i was learning. i have that conviction in my dream that i can swim; i saw my self walking and swimming from one side of the pool to the other side but i just noticed that the water is not clear.

-Tanya 2013-06-14 7:59:55

I dreamt last night that I was in a murky river & I was the character Neil Patrick Harris plays in the tv show “How I met your Mother” except not sleazy. I saw some bad guy jump in the water & start to swim towards me & all of a sudden I was able to swim super fast on my back as when I have my flippers on, but I didn’t have my flippers on. I was so impressed with my “flipper”skill just using my feet, I was like wow! My feet are strong! I sped so fast & far away from him & got to the shore, got out & hoped he wasn’t following me. I went and did other things, which I can’t remember clearly now.

-janita 2013-01-03 0:13:46

Had a dream I was swimming in an ocean(i dont know how to swim).I was diving to the3 bottom and there was a scavenger hunt going on.I was involved in the scavenger hunt. I had a partner but did not recognize her face. I remember paying attention the whole at the top because I didnt want to loose my direction.When I got to the top it was sunny water felt good and there people in the ocean having fun.My ex boyfriend was there floating on the water having fun(he doesnt know how to swim either). he was just floating and smiling and i was smiling at him because he was being silly just playing around with girls passing by on a raft.

    -Tony Crisp 2013-01-06 13:57:54

    Janita – Have you been practising meditation or some new exercise; because your dream shows you diving deeply into yourself –your inner self. It doesn’t matter that you can’t swim in your waking life, in your inner life you are a great diver; though you were a bit anxious about being lost.

    I feel you were looking within to see what you could find. There is a whole universe there if you know how to look. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/secrets-power-dreaming/

    Tony

-Diana 2010-07-20 19:37:06

i copied what he told me in msn by the way.

-Diana 2010-07-20 19:35:41

ummm could some one help to interpret this dream?
umm my boy friend said he had this dream:

the place is a city
beutiful one.
but, the floor is water
so tecniclly all day ur swimming
so I was swimiing all over the place
looking for something
dont know what
the u came along with a black swimsuit and asked what was i looking for?
and i said I don’t know
and u said ok I’ll help.
so we started to swim together
and at the end
u asked what were u looking for?
I siad for u. and we hugged
after that i woke up :]
ummm what does it mean??

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