Posts Tagged ‘dream meanings’
Postures Movement and Body Language
Even in everyday life, the way we hold and position our body, the inclination of chest and head, the movement of hands, are a means of communication. The apparently intuitive information in some dreams, when investigated, can be traced to an unconscious insight into the language of the living body. We all have this ability to understand body language, but it seems to be something that is inherited from our ancient forebears, perhaps developed to an intense degree as a survival need prior to the growth of verbal language. It therefore remains a largely unconscious ability. In our dreams, however, it is a major factor in how the dream is structured.
If you cannot find a satisfying description below, imagine yourself making the movement or posture in the dream to see if you can define what the feeling quality is, or what you are expressing non verbally. It can often be of value to make the movement or take up the posture physically instead of in imagination. By comparing the movement/posture with another one, it can help to clarify its quality. See: body postures.
Example: ‘Marilyn was experiencing emotional pain connected with her impending divorce. She had dreamt of seeing a dinosaur standing in her path, devouring all who approached it. We explored it by having Marilyn find a body posture and movements that for her expressed the feeling of the dinosaur. In doing so Marilyn did not sense anger or aggression as she expected, but she did feel like a predator that always had to TAKE to gain her own needs. This feeling immediately reminded her of her family life as a child. She remembered when she was sent shopping as a very young child of three or four, as well as buying what she had been asked, she purchased some sweets for herself. When she arrived home she was treated as if she had done a terrible thing, and that was where she began to feel like a predator. It seemed to her as if her own needs were always gained at the expense of someone else.
With this awareness, she could now see that the dinosaur standing in her path clearly related to her present situation. Bargaining to gain a realistic share of the house and property jointly owned by her husband and herself, felt to her as if she were gaining her needs at his expense, like a predator. That made her feel so awful, she was almost ready to allow her husband to take all, leaving her without house or money to start again. Her awareness of where the feelings arose from, and the unrealistic part they played in her life, allowed her to relate to the situation with less pain and more wisdom.’ From Mind and Movement, Tony Crisp, Daniel.
crawl If you are an adult, crawling can suggest feelings of caution, feeling your way, or regression to a more childlike state. It might also be because you feel there is no room to “stand up” – or that you feel vulnerable.
carrying See: carry.
jump Jumping to: Daring; taking a risk; sometimes connected with flying. It can also connect with a change.
Jumping to avoid: Feeling of threat; anxiety; evasion tactics.
Jumping off: Getting out of a situation, or changing your situation. Children do this as a form or daring to see if they can face their fear.
Jumping down: This depends on the feelings attached to the action. If you are jumping down to something slightly lower, this may relate to something that needs a small effort to reach or get to, something that you want to do or achieve, but causes a slight hesitation and a change or slight risk, such as when you approach someone and feel anxious, or are starting a new job. If you jump from a high place and there is anxiety attached, then it suggests you are taking a risk, or are uncertain of an outcome in regard to something you are doing or facing. It is therefore helpful to ask yourself what you are doing that leads to feelings of anxiety, or what changes you are making that you are uncertain about.
Jumping over: There is a suggestion here of making an effort to avoid something or to overcome an obstacle. Or is there a feeling in the dream of wanting to reach someone or something?
Jumping at dreamer: Unexpected; irritations.
Idioms: One jump ahead; the high jump; jump at; running jump at yourself; jumping down ones throat; jumping off place; jump out of ones skin; jump the gun; jump the queue; jump to it; jump on the bandwagon; jump to conclusion.
kneel Humility; acknowledgement of dependence or co-operation; sense of awe; defeat.
prone Relaxation; letting go of activity; introversion; sex. Or: Retreat from the world; feeling injured; afraid to stand up for oneself; non involvement; negative introversion; weakness; death.
Idioms: Lie low; lie at ones door; lie in wait; take it lying down. See: squatting down and standing below.
rising Usually suggests an improvement of some sort – a change from inactivity to activity or engagement.
run/running Exuberance; flowing life energy; strong and easy motivation. One can run to or run away, 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.
Running away: Avoiding something; trying to get away from something, ones own emotions or sexuality for instance; not meeting problems in a way that will resolve them; anxiety about what you are running from; feelings of guilt.
Running to: Trying to reach a goal; energetic attempt to reach a goal; anxiety; responsibility and self-giving; sometimes running toward danger.
Running with great pleasure: The unhindered flow of your innate self; an expression of the person you can be if the blockages and hesitations are dropped away.
Running without knowing why: Uncertainty; 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 ones own hesitations. See: paralysis under body.
Example: ‘There followed a nightmare of running along streets, round corners, knowing I was being followed and trying to get away. Then I met a friend who was also running away. She took me down a narrow street full of down and outs and prostitutes.’ Pauline B.
Idioms: Run for ones 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. See: chased; second example in emotion and mood; nightmares; processing dreams question 7. See also: lucidity.
sit Ones situation at time of dream; status, depending where one is sitting; being relaxed; inactive waiting.
Sitting up: Becoming more involved.
Idioms: Sit back; sit for; sit in on something; sit on; sit out; sit something out; sit tight; sit at someone’s feet; sit in judgement; sitting target; sit on the fence.
squatting down and standing The down expresses: Sleep; rest; withdrawal; non involvement. Idioms: Feel down; down and out; do someone down; down at heel; down hearted; down with. See: prone above.
The standing position: Your involvement in the exterior world of change, opposites, and needs that require expenditure of effort; being involved or active in the world or with others; your ‘standing’ in society; what one ‘stands’ for; being active; confrontation; co-operation with others.
If you are standing on something like a ledge or a plank, this represents the things that give you support. For instance you might the confident about dealing with individuals, but anxious when dealing with a group. The feelings or attitudes underlying the confidence or insecurity are represented by what you are standing on in your dream.
Idioms: Know where one stands; left standing; make a stand against; stand alone; stand aside; stand by; stand corrected; stand down; stand firm; stand in someone’s way; stand up for; stand up to; stand ones ground; stand on ceremony or dignity.
turn A change; making a new decision.
walk Motivation and confidence. Where you are walking is what you are meeting in life, or where you are going or exploring. It also involves personal effort in trying to get somewhere. It can be about changing your relationship with things, or a period of experience you are passing through.
Walking up a lane: As above, but may be memory lane.
Idioms: Walk over somebody; walk away with; walk off with; walk on air; walk tall; walk the streets; walk out on; walk out with.
Aerobics
A possible reference to your attempts to keep healthy – lose weight – remain sexually attractive. How the dream presents the action will define whether this is a suggestion for more activity in that area, for less, for a change in attitude, etc. Occasionally this might be giving you the experience of how it feels to be really flowing and alive. If so nurture the feeling and replay it often.
Useful questions:
Do I need to take more exercise and is this dream suggesting it?
Are there aspects of the dream showing new information about health or giving health suggestions – if so do they apply to me?
As a piece of drama what is the dream depicting?
Advocate
An advocate in your dream is a part of you, or a feeling, that supports and argue for you. Often it is a demonstration of qualities you are not aware of.
If you are the advocate for someone else it suggests you are feeling strong and clear about a situation or person.
See Lawyer
Adversary
The person or group you are pitted against represent something, probably within you that you are in conflict with. Such dreams show parts of your nature you struggle with. Jung called this the Shadow, the aspects of yourself you are frightened of, or repress for one reason or another. Enemies in dreams usually refer to some facet of this. Though it may simply depict something you are struggling with, a relationship for instance, or feelings about work.
Because the enemy is usually an aspect of yourself, real change can occur by relating differently to each other. For instance if you are lucid in your dream you can become them so fully there is no problem.
Useful questions:
What is it in me that I am in conflict with?
If I imagine myself in the dream is there any way I can resolve the enmity?
What is the action in the dream and what does this show of the details of the conflict?
Adult
If you are a young person dreaming of an adult it may be indicating your potential, what you can become if you continue your present direction in life. But most frequently it is about the influence of an adult or adults.
To be an adult is not an easy task or achievement. There are two very different sides to it. Most of us achieve an adult body, but very few of us achieve emotional, sexual or spiritual adulthood. The story of this is told in all the old myths and legends – after all the greatest meaning is life and what we can achieve in it. So in becoming an adult we brave great dangers, face monsters, pass through difficult initiations. Fundamental to the whole drama of our life is the evolution of our own identity from the depths of unconsciousness in the physical process of conception, through to developing self awareness as an adult – from the great ocean of collective culture, language and society, to the emergence of ourselves as a mature individual. To do this we face death and rebirth several times when we metamorphose from baby to child; from child to adolescent; from adolescent to adult; from adult with youthful body to ageing body. It is such an incredible journey, so heroic, so impossible of achievement, so fraught with dangers and triumphs. It is the greatest story in the world.
The modern western adult is often very much out of touch with the life giving processes within them and feel isolated and often ill at ease in the world. The black figure in dreams, or the native can give us a much needed connection and balance.
Even if we feel we are an adult, there are usually still enormous potential remaining unexpressed, stil a great deal of unmet childhood or baby needs. See Beware of Love
Example: I was in a very loving relationship in which I had developed powerful emotional links with D. We communicated many times each day while apart at work, etc. But one day there was no communication. I felt tremendous anxiety and emotional pain and shock, really frightened that she had dropped me. In fact she hadn’t, but my fears were very real and difficult to deal with. A real shock.
If you are an adult facing feelings of abandonment, it may be helpful to recognise that such feelings usually connect with the realisation in childhood that if your parents died, abandoned you, or you were left and felt abandoned you would not have the skills or maturity to obtain your own needs. Although, as an adult, you might now be capable of gaining your needs, such powerful feelings of helplessness, anxiety or sense of abandonment, can be stimulated by any situation reminiscent of the childhood situation that first called them into play. Therefore, it can help to carefully look at your life situation to see what changes are producing these feelings. You also need to decide whether there is real cause for fear, or whether you are suffering anxiety due to past experience.
During adolescence we move from youth to becoming a mature adult. This means learning in some measure to be independent of the work energy, the money and time given by parents. It means making your own decisions, earning your own keep and establishing yourself in the community and world in some way. Sometimes the break from parents is made by establishing a relationship. However it is achieved the change needs a level of heroism in many ways, and if you succeed the difficulties change and deepen you.
Adult love:
This means a growing sense of recognising the needs of your partner yet not denying your own. It means the ability to be something for the partner’s sake without losing your own independence or will. It means becoming aware of the issues that colour or influence relationship, and meeting them as partners. Independence and closeness together. You become caring sexual partners through discovering each others needs and vulnerability. It is emerging from the dependence of parents and what they provided or failed to provide. That it is difficult is shown by the number or people who never manage it – never move from wanting to be handed food and money as a child does – never moves beyond being angry with others for not supplying their needs – never manage a love relationship with the opposite sex – or a love relator’s with anybody.
When we move beyond the processes of growth faced in adolescence we journey into adulthood, during which we face relationships, work, parenthood or creativity, with more independence. However, there is no age at which we can say we have arrived at adulthood. Sometimes elements of babyhood, childhood or adolescence have not been outgrown even in old age. Dreams sometimes illustrate this when we see ourselves in the dream with an adult head on a baby body. Or we have an adult body but the genitals of a child, and so on. But in general, in this period of our life we dream about the issues of relationship, of finding our own strength to deal with life creatively and satisfyingly. There is an attempt on the part of our dream process to release and deal with early traumas or situations that occurred and led to blocking or trapping our potential energy and creativity. Without this clearance much of our energy to express and achieve is tied up in the past, or in non productive habits. At this time too our dreams explore the challenges and difficulties we face in outer life.
Unfortunately meeting challenges with a reasonable amount of our potential means a real and honest self-assessment and meeting with areas of feeling that have not been healed in the past. As Freud so clearly pointed out, there is enormous resistance to this. It is much easier to explore the controlled world of lucid dreams, or see ones dreams in the light of inspiration rather than confrontation. Of course, dreams are all these things.
Useful questions:
What is the character, the strengths or weaknesses of this person and what part do they play in my life?
What is happening between this person and me, and how do I connect with that?
If I imagine myself as this person what do I feel or realise? (See Dream Visualisation for help with this.)
Adore Adoration
Anything that we adored deeply influences or penetrates us. Therefore we open ourselves to the influence of what is being adored.
If you are being adored:
Being loved is a very healing feeling. You might be experiencing this in your dream because you need it. Or perhaps you have achieved a greater ability to love and this is a result of that. There is of course a possibility you have an inflated sense of yourself.
What is it I adore, and what possible influence will it have on me?
If I am observing this in someone else, what is the object of love and how do I feel about it?
If this is an uplifting experience, can I observe this in my waking life at any time?
Worshipping:
Opening oneself to the influence of what is being worshipped – an idea, a person, an object.
Worshipped:
Inflated sense of self, unless you are meeting your own core self and feel it is holy.
Admit or Admitting
This might be showing something you have found difficult to recognise about yourself or another person, therefore it might be about arriving at new insight. Sometimes admitting something arises through a confrontation of some sort. It might be in connection with your need for someone. This might be difficult to accept because of dependence. In some dreams it shows new levels of self acceptance.
Useful questions:
What relevance does what is being admitted have on your waking life?
If there was difficulty in admitting, can you recognise what the difficulty was or is?
Can you consciously accept what was revealed?
It can help if you use Processing Dreams.
Admiration
As a child we need our parents admiration and praise in order to unfold our potential. Also, admiring qualities in others is one of the ways we shape our own direction and choices. So it is useful to take note of what is being admired in yourself or another person, and how that is reflected in your life.
Admiring someone else:
This may be a straight forward awareness of your feelings about that person or a recognition of those qualities in yourself. It might be a sign of personal success and confidence; probably indicating qualities in the person you either have yourself but may not be recognising, or else qualities you would like or need to have.
Being admired:
Feeling good about yourself; recognising things about yourself you may have overlooked; positive self-image; confidence. On the other hand it might be a compensatory dream expressing the need to be admired due to your low self esteem. If the dream stresses the situation making you a figure of great admiration, it may suggest an inflated opinion of yourself or a strong need for approval and acclaim from others. See: emotions and mood.
Idioms: Lost in admiration.
In some dreams, and in some fantasy work, a sense of enormous appreciation or admiration often arises. June Dunlap, in her book Exploring Inner Space, describes such a feeling of admiration – experienced while feeling herself to be a fly – in the following way – ‘At frequent intervals I would swoop down, alight, rub my graceful back legs together, and admire the opalescence of my delicate sunlit wings. Totally without egotism but with deep satisfaction, I stated repeatedly, ‘I’m beautiful. No one else thinks so, but I really am.’’ Such feelings of admiration and awareness of beauty about oneself are often more direct, and arise as a sense of enormous appreciation of what has been achieved or met in your life. The admiration often results in feelings of love for yourself, which is very healing.
Useful questions:
What is it that is being admired, and am I aware of those qualities in myself?
Can I allow the good feelings about myself or another person?
Am I feeling low at this time and needing appreciation?
Is this a recognition of an emerging quality, or am I compensating for not receiving enough attention?
Adjacent – Adjoining
This suggests a strong connection with the dreamer, or what is wanted or being worked toward. For instance in Japan, rocks or trees that are close together are sometimes seen as married or linked. Dreams use the same sort of symbology to suggest a more than surface connection with someone or some aspect of life. There could also be the suggestion of confrontation or discovery – being near something in this case meaning that we can no longer escape meeting it, or it is near at hand in the sense of being discovered or experienced. The example below shows adjacent as depicting difficult feelings near at hand that the dreamer meets.
Example: I had a dream in which my best friend, her 4-year-old daughter, and myself were staying in this huge old, Victorian style house. My friend put her daughter to bed in another room, and we went in the adjoining room to watch a movie. My friend fell asleep and then all of the sudden, her daughter came screaming into the room, covered in blood. I didn’t actually see what happened, but I knew instantly that a crocodile had attacked her and bitten her legs off. I tried waking up her mother and I was holding her (the child) in my arms and crying. Then I woke up. The dream was so realistic, and when I awoke I was covered in sweat and shaking really bad. The dream upset me so much that I didn’t tell anyone about it. A week later, I found out two other friends had dreams in which this little girl was also attacked by a crocodile. What could this possibly mean? A.R.E. dream.
The dream suggests a close and perhaps psychic connection with the girl and her mother.
Useful questions:
What or who am I feeling connected to or near at this time?
What is the influence of this connection?
Adhesive
See Glue