Run Running
Running with exuberance in a dream suggest you are flowing with life energy, or strong and easy motivation.
You can run to or run away, or even run from someone or something, so it is important in some dreams to define which one it is. Also it is important to define if you are running to get somewhere, to reach a goal, or simply running as an expression of exuberance, or to get fit. See: Chased.
Running away: Avoiding something; trying to get away from something, your own emotions or sexuality for instance, so not meeting problems in a way that will resolve them. This can indicate anxiety about what you are running from. It might be old painful experiences or feelings of guilt.
Running to: Trying to reach a goal, so an energetic attempt to get somewhere. If you are running toward someone or in relationship to someone such as children, this suggests feelings of responsibility and self-giving. But in some dreams it is evident the dreamer is sometimes running toward danger.
Running to get fit: It can suggest you are taking your health seriously. It depends on why you are running though. Are you running because you have an underlying fear that in fact is making you run to avoid death? If so it is better to meet the feelings of fear of death, and when that is done you can run with good feelings. See Fear Frightened
Running something like a business: Meeting the challenges of running your own individual way of life. Or depending what the dream is maybe about your own business information. See business woman/man
Running with great pleasure: The unhindered flow of your innate self, so an expression of the person you can be if the tensions, blockages and hesitations are dropped away.
Running without knowing why: Uncertainty or lack of clarity about what you are feeling or expressing – where you are going to or from.
As if made of lead: Held back by one’s own hesitations. Or maybe, because you are a life-form, and so are created by the process of Life, and because life has a flow or current which carries you forward all the time, through babyhood, childhood, adolescence, and onwards, you could be trying to fight the current. See: Paralysis; Sleep Paralysis; Opening to Life
Idioms: Run for one’s money; run of the house; out of the running; on the run; run along; run down; run for it; run out of steam; run out on someone; run up against; run wild.
Useful questions and hints:
Does this show a sense of urgency and haste?
Am I trying to escape from an emotion or fear?
What do I feel as I am running or watching someone run?
Could it simply be a feeling of exuberance and life energy?
See Secrets of Power Dreaming – Working with associations – Makes Inner World – Allowing the Spontaneous
Comments
Hi… I often have dreams about people running straight at me. They are very fast and very determined…even supernatural. They look right at me and then as they get to me they disappear and sometimes I actually get a sense of almost electricity. The part that freaks me out is that..ever since i was very young. I have seen similar images while awake…minus the electricity feeling..lol. I’ve always felt uneasy about it. It’s always when I’m alone and usually at night or in the dark. Am I just a chicken lol Or do you think it means something else. Thanks for your help 🙂
Hi, I had a dream where I was getting my hair done by this tall dark mysterious fella who I found attractive and found out he liked me. But when he finished my hair he ran away?!? What could this mean?
I was recently dreaming of me running in a forest while someone stabbed me with a knife in my stomach I can’t remember who stabbed me or a face.
2015-4-22
Kimberley – There is not enough information to understand your dream. So ask yourself if you were trying to get away from something or if you were trying to reach a goal? What did you feel in your dream?
If we take away the images and events occurring in a dream and simply look to see what feelings or emotions are evident, the dream is often more understandable than if we try to interpret the symbols. Feelings in dreams are nearly always undistorted. We therefore do not need to interpret them, simply to recognise them and see if we can recognise where they occur in waking life.
See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/emotions-and-mood-in-dreams/
Please also read the feature about the knife:
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/knife/
You can explore your dream by using the techniques which are explained here
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/practical-techniques-for-understanding-your-dreams/
Good Luck!
Anna 🙂
Hi Tony.
I keep dreaming that I’m running. Running from people that want to kill me and I don’t exactly know where I’m going. They’re actual real landscapes-pretty settings. And then after what feels like forever time just pauses and the moment shatters to broken glass and I’m in a new place. I am usually lying down in shallow water. I have to continue running though. That happens a few times. Then I find myself in a new place, except this place is like a bowl. There are differ net coloures trees, it’s divided into 4, like the 4 seasons, and I just stand there. Then I see the people coming and this chameleon helps me hide, for a few days. A really kind chameleon. Then suddenly I’m in a lab coat, and thing is the person who owns the lab has been gone. And the trusted person had gone rogue and started this incubation center in the building and is creating this mutated dinosaur that could kill everyone. I try to stop him but it’s too late, and then all of the glass lining the wall breaks and I’m stepping on it with glass and blood all in and over my feet. Then the dream ends. I had the same dream again last night, except I stopped the person from creating this thing that could kill everyone. But then the rogue guy is trying to kill me and I smash the window to get help. Then suddenly all pf the window is being smashed again and I’m standing on it all, with blood and glass just everywhere. I don’t understand. Please help me with this.
Chantel – In general dreams recur because there are ways the dreamer habitually responds to their internal or external world. Because their attitude or response is unchanging, the dream that reflects it remains the same.
We can be pursued by fears or emotions, and can either continue to avoid them or face them, which will stop these recurring dreams about you running away.
We are, in a real sense, pursued by what we have created with our thoughts, emotions, action and inaction. What we are avoiding might be sexual feelings; responsibility; expressing what we really feel in public; our fear of death; sense of failure; guilt; emotional pain; childhood trauma; grief – but it might be our creativity; our love; our passionate response to living; our deepest wisdom and oneness with things; the ancient power of life in us. You can never escape from yourself however much you try, so such feelings may pursue you throughout your life unless you turn and meet them.
Please also read http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/personal-growth/
There are many symbols in your dream and they are merely all pointing to the same, so I feel it is enough if I interpret just a few, to give you a better understanding of what you are doing to yourself.
Lying in shallow water I see as an effect of running away from yourself, because neither your emotions nor your inner life are very deep yet.
Living in a bowl – all year long – is like living in a prison within invisible yet tangible barriers.
The chameleon is a symbol for your not living your best, for hiding for your responsibility to start dealing with your inner life.
Stepping on broken class is a symbol of being careless about your direction in life or present situation; or if it is being done without heed to injury, it represents self-inflicted pain.
To better understand your conditioned reflex or flight response it will be helpful to read these two articles too:
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/conditioned-reflexes-or-responses/
and
http://dreamhawk.com/news/avoiding-being-my-own-victim/
So dear Chantel, how about changing an old habit and stop running away? You have nothing to lose but your fear and what is bothering you.
Anna 🙂
What does it mean when you dream you ran away from home to live on the streets where you meet friends that get me into stealing and then we get searched by police under drug suspicion. I’m very confused
I had a dream i was in an another planet as astrologist saving some precious things and monster came n started chasing a small girl we saved her n run to save iur life i run too fast to a forest n hide myself under the woods bt monster was coming too close
I frequently have dreams that I am running for pleasure. The most recent one, last night, I was at some kind of conference or awards ceremony. In not sure who it was for or anything. It was in a large school/college like building with an indoor pool and an uncovered patio like section, many halls and doors and some stairs. There were a few people here and there as I was running. Every so often I would come to or run past a friend and this guy that looks me. I might stop and talk for a minute or just say hi as I ran past. On one trip around I saw my parents leaving the event and they asked what I was doing. I told them I got tired if sitting there so decided to run. They looked at me kind of strange, but said OK and went on there way. I was so happy and energized running. What does this mean? Other running dreams have these similar feelings in them, but different places.
MarriedMumOfTwo – That is what you are in the rewards place for – being a mum of two children. I say this because parenthood is like a work of art, and the canvas you work with, while not a complete blank has an incredible range of possibilities. As can been seen from studies of poor parenting, and nurturing parenting, you can raise a stunted criminal personality, or a gifted radiant person from twins that had been separated at birth. Some parts of the art need much work. It might involve some pain and struggle. But great art is never done without a full engagement of the artist. So we need to bring to our parenthood all our creative skills. You need to use your wisdom and discernment. I believe one should not let failures turn us from creating what can be a great painting.
Running in the way you describe it is an expression of being alive. One of the fundamental activities of Life is movement, and you are moving with some joy, stopping for friends and family – though you feel as if your parents see you as strange but are okay with it.
Possibly you are also adaptable and are not afraid of change – an excellent combination. See http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/lifes-little-secrets/ and http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/genius-2/
Tony
I had a dream running, hiding to someone, I was being chased by a guy and I am so scared. Everytime I escaped he always follows me but I’ve never been caught by his hands. Then suddenly random people were seen in my dreams like my highschool teacher from the past, my friend.. Before that, my dream actually started I went into a guys house then when we are about to leave, the guy shot us with a gun.. I am with someone all thru out it’s a girl but I dont know who it is. When the guy caught me one time, he dont hurt me he never, but he asked for my mobile number then i gave it. Then after that I escaped.the dream stopped when I came inside a small house then locked myselfl in, that house is so familiar to me, I’ve seen that in my other dreams before. There was a couple who helped me also as I remember.
I keep having this dream. I’m at my grandma’s house a prisoner held captive where mean come see me. I know this sounds so perverse. Its odd because my grandma’s house in the country is actually a sweet peacful place. The whole time I’m wanting to leave..it feels as if Im here forever.
So it’s raining and I have some clothes in hand…
I take off running away and it is so hard to run!.
I can’t tell if it’s the wind, the mere conditions but I feel so weak, heavy(lead like), my hips hurt so one leg isn’t working well. My bodies alignment feels as if it has everything to do with it.
I keep dropping clothes and picking them up which I know is stupid cause I know in dream should just leave them… it’s the longest road ,with forest around ,Im moving forward but so slow and I’m so scared somebody is gonna find out I’ve ran away And that I’ll be caught. But I’m pushing with everything! then I awake. No destination.
What am I running from? What does this dream mean?? Please help me understand.
Thank you,
-Marlene
Marlene – Sorry it took so long to answer.
Exactly! What are you running from? It seems as if you have a powerful feeling that your life has held you back and imprisoned you. Also you have a feeling that you should be moving forward in your life. What will happen if you are caught?
No destination! Exactly what many people find when they have been striving all their life to ‘get somewhere’. After many years of trying to reach a goal, and after getting there, I found it was an empty room with no wonder in it. It took ages to realise that I was there in the room and the only place one to get to was oneself. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/mountain-path/
Tony
I’ve been having dreams that I’m running away from people who are trying to hurt me. The last one I confronted the people; they told me because they were mad with someone else. I don’t understand it.
I just dream that me and a girl running fast in a location of a swamp like places. The start of my dream was we both cross a woody brigde to another side but the problem we have small pathway to walk on. The left side is the swamp lake look like and the other side has a wired wall. They only left small way and thats we need to walk in that time. But the problem again was there is a crocodile on the swamp that will catch us. So from that me and that girl run fast as we can on that small pathway with full of green grass and slimy rocks and trees too.. Its like an obtacle to me we keep ourself to run fast before a crocodile eat us. At the eand of that swamp like is a big old house that look like my grandparents house where I grew up. It so silence but still we went to that house and i saw my uncle and untie talked to each other near on a big window. I approached them and bless to them as show my respect. After that i awake but my heart stil pound so fast like that im running the same way on my dream.
Ismeralda – When you dream you are in a very different world than when awake. It is a world of symbols that represent something other than what you dreamt. They are like images on a cinema screen. So if a crocodile rushes at you with on open mouth on a cinema screen it cannot hurt you, but it might scare you.
So all you are meeting is your feelings of being scared – scared of what? Not a crocodile.
Your dream says that you have made a change in your life that has left you feeling very anxious. So you rush to the feelings of peace you had at your uncle and aunties house. Remember that nothing hurt you and all you felt was anxiety. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#Summing
Tony
Hi I had a dream after and argument with my boyfriend that the ground started to move and he didn’t try to help me he started running. ..running very fast as I called his name. .When I woke up I had grinded my teeth so hard it made my mouth bleed…is there a reason for this?
Hi. I had a dream last night where I was running with my friend on the trail that I always run (never with her though). The trail was really overgrown for some reason and we had to fight to get through it all until it cleared up. When it finally did we were in a bad part of town and the girl I was with was sacred. She started talking to this man and then him and his friends raped us. It was weird because I wasn’t sacred and I knew it was coming. What does this mean?
Hi. It’s actually scary that a dream is bugging You, till you look at the meaning on your site and the meaning smack you right in the face as so true.. especially running away from something..
Simone – Thanks for the encouragement, and maybe try imagining another ending to the dream. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/secrets-power-dreaming/#Different Ending
Maybe it doesn’t apply – but just in case.
Tony
My husband die of a heart attack in may 2010, I have had 3 dreams wit him running away from me can you help me understand this type of dream.
Thank You,
Jamie – This doesn’t seem to be a dream about your husband. As with most dreams, the person in the dream is not the person themselves, but is a collection of associations and feeling about him. In the world of dreams our most intimate fears and longings are given an exterior life of their own in the form of the people, objects and places of our dream.
So you should ask yourself why you see him running away. Have you been feeling his loss as a sort of desertion, which is what the dream is about – him leaving you. Which fear or feeling could have created such a dream? I feel it is about your feelings of missing him and fear that he has left you.
Tony
hi. I got these dreams and i wonder what does it mean. I often have this dream about me running. Not to anyone, not form anyone, not to something and not to everywhere.
I’m just running passionately and i’m glad that i’m enjoying it. I’m running Real fast. Sometimes i’m running in an oval but sometimes i’m running around the streets and one time, i had this dream that I’m competing to someone just in a field(i got so excited to run with others when I lost him). I have a complete runners outfit on me, everytime I dream about me running. Most of the times I’m running alone but there are people around me which I don’t know.
Is this something to do with me being a frustrated track and field player? 🙂