Chest

Sometimes this points to a connection with your physical chest. But most often it shows what emotions, what memories and passions you are storing within you, literally in your chest. You may hide precious and loving feelings too, locked up, or shut away inside you.

This is often used in a way similar to a wooden chest – in other words a place to store emotions. So the chest signifies your emotions as a whole, but also how you are relating to them. Many dreams either include being shot in the chest or a weight on the chest holding the person down – maybe someone standing on the chest. Being shot indicates an emotional shock or hurt that, depending on the dream, can be very painful or needing attention.

The weight on the chest shows how feelings, emotions are so heavy they are holding you back from being easily active and outgoing.

Some dreams show things going into of being pulled out of the chest, and these indicate either influences enter your feelings and changing how you feel about things, or stuff that you have held within, old emotions perhaps, being drawn out.

The chest is a reasonably protected area because of the ribs, so in some dreams it indicates ones strength, defensiveness, or the ways you protect your ‘heart’ – your sensitive core of feelings. But it can also be used as an image of your pride or your positive and life giving feelings. The chest, with its inflow and outflow of air also shows your connection with others and the world through empathy, through your feeling links.

Man’s dream: Sense of social confidence and strength to meet the world – or lack of it, depending on how the dreamer feels in the dream.

If healthy: Positive sense of social recognition.

Woman’s dream: Ability to give of yourself; feelings about womanhood. See: breath.

Example: The heart pain – a pain right through my chest from front to back, or a general ache and pain in the chest – I have been suffering for some months now, I feel is tied up with this business of ‘opening up’ to my feelings.

Example: Feeling tired – exhausted – just lying drained of energy. I am conscious of people talking, saying I was ill. I thought I was just tired. Then asked what the matter was. I was told it was my heart, ‘dry and hard like a boiled egg’ they said. Found I couldn’t talk. Tried to write, wanted A. to know that I loved him, but the pen kept drying up. Finger and feet began to get cold. An icy coldness slowly spread all over my body. A liquid warmth was then all around me. I thought I was haemorrhaging. A needle was stuck in my left arm and my chest was being cut open – it didn’t hurt. There was a lot of activity. They said I had gone. I was trying desperately to let them know I was still there. Then I was in a bag and sliding off a table. The bag was tied above my head. Then from the confined darkness I was free. There was a brilliant light all around. I could still see the sack with a body still in it far behind me. I was incredibly happy and full of energy. Trish L

Often people go through a death and rebirth experience, as in the above dream. It is often a necessary thing as our old self, full of habits, emotions, thoughts and attitudes that were causing so much distress needed to be got rid of, so that a new self could emerge.

Idioms: Get it off my chest.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is my dream indicating that I have been hurt – if so what has hurt my feelings recently?

Does the chest show me being proud and strong, or does it have signs of weakness – if so what are they?

Is this about the way I link with others – if so what am I realising?

Am I anxious about the health of my heart?

Am I showing some sort of defensiveness?

Try using Easy Dream Interpretation and meeting things I fear or dislike in my dream

Comments

-Angel 2017-03-20 22:36:00

I had a dream last night that was difficult to interpret. I was lying in bed as I was in reality, with no shirt on my back. I looked to the left and someone had come in with an incense stick in hand and lit it and put it in a container on the nightstand. Another being climbed into bed next to me and put their hand or hands over my heart. I felt pressure and I felt some what scared because it felt so real and I didn’t know what was going on. I then yelled out hey which startled me to wake and find myself confused. I have felt my guides around me a lot lately and I am attempting to allow myself to awaken I just didn’t know if you could help me interpret this dream?

-stacy 2017-03-06 6:19:46

I have had several dreams were I always get shot inthe stomach by people I do not know. But yesterday I had a dream I was in high school again walking around and a guy I new from my past who didn’t like me came and shot me in my chest! I felt it in my heart . And strangely I was walking around with the bullet in my chest telling everyone I just got shot ? Walking around normal trying to get to a hospital but I could not get to one. I kept feeling the bullet and pain in my chest ? What does that mean? And my other dreams I had before were similar I was always getting shot in my stomach? By strangers I didn’t know? I had the dream of getting shot in the stomach 10 times the chest once. what does it mean?

-Ali D 2017-01-03 1:11:10

I had a dream where I saw myself in a mirror. My chest was open and heart missing. It’s stuck with me for years & I’ll never forget the feeling I had when I saw myself like that. What could this dream mean? It was disturbing.

-Dominic 2016-12-11 11:01:17

I had a dream that i was with my wifes aunt and uncle. They jumped in the truck and left, so i started to walk home. Felt like a bad area. Then 5 younger kids walked out. One of them mentioned something about not having food, so i turned and said you can have mine. He said ok toss to me. I was roughly 5 to 10 feet away and tossed it. I reached for my pocket knife to checl if i had it, i didnt. Then i started to walk away after he said thanks. One of the other kids pulled out a gun and started shooting at me. Hit my shoulder and two shota by my ribs.

-Crystal 2016-10-13 17:47:21

I had a dream last night about a load of logs falling on my chest, and I got up and my chest began to hurt and I struggled to breathe. The feeling felt so real.

-Garth 2016-10-09 23:06:52

I had a dream i was a police officer with my 2 best friends, one of my friends is an actual police officer, I served in the army, but never deployed. Anyways, in my dream we were lining up outside a house for a raid, I was the first one in and I immediately fell on my back and was staring up to the sky and I felt like I got kicked in the chest but was still breathing, I said im ok, and my friends are kneeling beside me and I was feeling my chest and I was wearing body armor but then I felt a hole right at the bottom of the armor where my rib caged ended, it felt so real like sticking your finger in your belly button, then I was trying to put pressure on the hole and then the dream ended. I wasnt in pain in the dream, just was dazed and shocked and trying to do first aid and thinking I can live.

    -Tony Crisp 2016-10-10 10:25:22

    Garth – To understanding your dream, you need to realise that the images in our dreams are just emotions, thoughts, fears. traumas, ideas and feelings projecting out of you and appearing as images, people or scenes outside you on the screen of your mind.

    So, whenever we dream its images are not like real life, because a dream is nothing like outer life where things could hurt you, but is an image like on a cinema screen, so that even if a gun is pointed at you and fired it can do no damage – except if you run in fear; so all the things that scare you are simply your own fears projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind.
    So I feel your dream is what is called a practice dream. Through dreams we may experiment with new experience or practice things we have not yet done externally. In you case you were actually experiencing what it would like to be shot, so a sort of practice run with no harm done – real virtual reality stuff. If you think about what you could have done differently, the n you have learnt a valuable lesson. It sounds like you should have entered more carefully. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/secrets-power-dreaming/

    Tony

-Stacey 2016-10-09 22:21:18

Hey, I had a dream I stabbed someone in the chest with a coat hanger I remember he was teasing me about something and I just stabbed him.

    -Tony Crisp 2016-10-10 12:20:56

    Stacey – From your dream I feel that you have been teased in the past and there was no way you could express your anger. Well, in dreams you can really let yourself express everything without any harm to yourself or anyone else’.

    Of course, don’t let it loose on anyone else, but certainly let them know what you would like to do to them.

    Tony

-Travis 2016-08-31 5:03:04

I had a dream that I had a slit in my clavicle area and I was pulling these massive muscle, tissue like clots up and out, towards my throat. They didn’t come out easy, there was blood and veins and I had to take a break. I eventually got it out and once I did, the skin sort of flapped and once it was out, I wondered if I did the right thing and got scared that I couldn’t put it back. Then I woke up. Wtf? Am I crazy? Help. Please….

-Ashley 2016-08-30 18:19:07

I had a dream I was driving on the free way then a lady was walking across the road and someone appeared and litterally kicked her off the road then the car in front of me swerved to not hit that person and hit another car and I had time to move out of the way I tried and thought I made it but the car clipped the other car and started spinning and I could see flashing lights and fire out the windows as I was spining thinking I don’t wanna die like this and I could hear screaming then it stoped and my bf pulled me out of the car, my car was completely smashed and I kept complaing my chest hurt like I was being crushed but no one would listen to me kept saying your fine then while I was still dreaming I thought this is just a dream then I woke up it was super vivid like it was really happening untill I started thinking it’s just a dream

-Alexis 2016-08-11 16:28:31

I had a dream I was walking in a school hallway past classroom doors and one door was open and I looked in to see a female teacher as I was walking by some brown liquid was coming from under the closed doors and dripping from above me and it got on my sleeve and I was taking it off when the teacher came out of her classroom and shot me in the chest. When I fell she continued to shoot me in my leg so I couldn’t get up. She then came over me and pulled the bullet from my chest. I could feel myself dying and I woke up.

-Lu 2016-07-28 21:37:02

A while back, I dreamt I was running from a little blond girl. I had an infant with me in a stroller. I ran away with the infant and hid behind a big silo. I tended to the baby before turning to peer around the corner. When I turned, a man was standing over me with a gun. He shot me in the chest but I didn’t fall or die. When I was shot, i was suddenly seeing everything from an audience like point of view. I saw myself standing there, staring with a blank look. I could see the wound in my chest but no blood came out. The man took the baby out of the stroller and left.

-FIONA 2016-06-15 19:42:40

Hi I am Fiona and I am dreaming about a man in bed with me and I am lying on his chest or I am out at a night club but it’s allways the same man.

-sophie 2016-04-07 18:29:25

I’ve twice had a dream where I’ve been murdered at exactly the same time as my boyfriend and I wondered what it might mean.. In the first dream gunmen were in our building shooting everyone, and as we knew there was no way to get out we just hugged each other tight and the bullets went into us. There was a strong sense of ‘it doesn’t really matter if we die as long as we die at exactly the same time’. I was very aware of the bullets in my heart, thinking that I must be dead, wondering how I was still thinking. The dream continued and I could walk around and do things, but we were somehow ‘ghosts’ – nothing seemed to trouble us or matter that much any more.
The second dream we were running from someone who wanted to kill us. Eventually he caught up and stabbed a long stake through, so long that it went through both our chests at once. I remember looking down and seeing the stake-hole in my chest, aching.
I wondered if there’s any significance in the dreams. My boyfriend is away at the moment so I thought maybe it was to do with that. My chest still feels strange or ‘aches’ when I think of it.

    -Anna - Tony's Assistant 2016-04-12 7:37:25

    Dear Sophie – You wrote “My chest still feels strange or ‘aches’ when I think of it” and I believe this is your starting point to explore and release what is “inside your chest”.
    A way to explore this could be to think of it and express your thoughts and focus your awareness on your chest and allow whatever arises (thoughts/feelings/memories/images/movements etc. ;
    http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/opening-to-life/
    I see both your dreams as an expression of the need to be opened up, either by bullets or by stabbing a long stake through your chest, and opening up and releasing what feels strange or “aches” will bring about an inner transformation.
    In rare cases being stabbed, shot or in any way injured in the heart may be a warning of physical heart problems.
    If you have doubts about the function of your dreams, I suggest you have a health check-up.
    See also http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/function-of-dreaming/
    Anna 🙂

-Carly 2016-03-08 16:33:00

I have had a recurring dream for about the past four years that a massive tarantula is being thrown/thrusted at my chest. It then splays out and starts crawling all over me. It is so realistic that I always wake up screaming and it wakes up everyone in my house. It takes me a while to realize it is a dream and be able to go back to bed, usually I am absolutely convinced that it is still in my bed. Is there anything to explain this? I have it very frequently, pretty much once a week and even more if I am stressed or under a lot of pressure.

-Lanah 2016-02-16 19:30:26

i had a dream of a yellow car driving infront of our car, i was in the passenger seat and i forgot who was driving. the car infront of us was driving and the passengers door was opening up slow while still driving, i was thinking what the hell is happening then i seen an arm stretch out and a body turn around to me and they shot a gun through the glass window of there car shooting towards me, it was as if it was pointning to my heart because thats where i felt what direction the bullet was aiming but immediately i woke up frightened. i wokeup that fast in a quick shock. the bullet didnt hit me or anything? it just felt scary and weird. in waking life im wandering does someone want my heart for their selfish needs? or is someone deeply madly inlove with me & im not letting my gaurds down because maybe im not ready for love… but what could it mean ?

    -Anna - Tony's Assistant 2016-02-22 9:05:01

    Dear Lanah – Your dream may reflect that someone is aiming at your heart to open it. Because being shot can also indicate penetration, it might reflect an attempt towards breaking through your barriers of old patterns of thinking and feeling, to allow something more into your life. It may be painful but growing or being enlarged is often like that.
    Your dream may also reflect that you perceive this aiming at your heart as painful, maybe because of selfish needs – http://dreamhawk.com/relationship-sex/ages-of-love-2/ –
    and maybe you are also questioning your own motivations?
    Freud felt that in projection thoughts, motivations, desires, and feelings that we tend to avoid taking responsibility for as one’s own we tend to see them – project them – onto other people. This is sometimes called transference. This is a defence we use to avoid seeing the negative side of ourselves. So instead of seeing that we ourselves have selfish needs too, we wonder “where the love of someone else is coming from”.
    It is a way we try to avoid seeing who we really are; in dreams we often create an outside person – a criminal, sexual pervert, a murderer, a down and out – who are all aspects of oneself. But these are usually not dominant parts of your nature – but even so we are all murderers because we kill or suppress parts of our self; we hold within us at the baby level a completely non moral self, for a baby has no moral judgement and is purely an instinctive being.
    To get some form of understanding “where you are coming from and where you want to go”, it will be helpful to explore “who or what is driving you”; http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/the-driving-seat/
    It does not matter that you forgot who is in the driving seat, for you can still explore him/her/the feelings while you are awake by using http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson and/or http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/dialogue-with-a-dream-character-or-object/
    Anna 🙂

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