Curing Dream Boredom
Viewed from a spiritual perspective, recurring, odd and boring dreams bring messages from your soul and spirit guides.
Every morning, the same question. Is it worth straining my brain this early to remember my dream? Did anything happen that deserves to be written down?
I admit it. I can get bored with my dreams. Just last night…
I’m running late to catch a flight (again). This time I haven’t even made it to the airport. My bags are not packed. There’s no room in my suitcases for all the stuff I have (maybe a novel situation but a familiar anxiety). I’m scrambling to finish packing, but have that helpless feeling of time slipping away and never getting where going no matter how hard I try (yep, that’s familiar too).
And a different night last week…
Getting on the flight, taking the flight, and landing all go without a hitch (This is new. Maybe I’m making progress). But then I get stuck in a warehouse at the airport, not able to leave to get a car to go to my mom’s house. There are undelivered packages all around. It’s a purgatory of undelivered mail with un-arrived guests.
What the Hell?
I wake up from the vast majority of my dreams mildly dissatisfied or confused. It’s even worse to start the day with anxiety and fear. There’s often a feeling of “that sucked” or “what the hell?” after many of my dreams.
Recurring dreams further stifle my interest in interpreting them. My first thought when I wake up is, “Really? Again? Well that was boring.”
Twenty years ago when I was a wildlife biologist working with animals every day, I dreamt a lot about nature. I miss the nighttime walks with owls in the woods. That was nice. But, whether it is outdoors or in a house, with animals or humans, dream plot lines are often fraught with unresolved tension.
Where Do Dreams Come From?
Psychology posits that our dreams are simple manifestations of our subconscious. Repressed anxieties, fears, and insecurities bubble to the surface in our sleep. The theory is that listening to the messages of our dreams helps us acknowledge and resolve these denied emotions.
Dreams have more sources, more roots than that though. Dreams can come from any of these sources, and usually many of these at once:
Our subconscious mind
Our soul
Spirit guides
The environment
Loved ones who have passed (you can check out the article below for more on this type of dream)
The Meaning of Travel Dreams
The airport dreams I just described along with the cruise ship dreams I had last month, can all easily be passed over as floundering of the subconscious. Just my mind wrestling with my inability to accomplish what I’d like to in my daily life - no surprise there. Travel dreams are all about trying to “get somewhere” in our careers, personal growth, and relationships.
Flying dreams represents a desire to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time, to breeze or jet through the intermediate steps. There’s a sense of freedom in flight that breaks the constraints of the daily grind.
Cruise ship dreams symbolize “cruising” through life, and doing so in a conventional and safe way. The ocean is massive and dangerous. The cruise ship buffers us against the fear uncharted waters at the mercy of nature. Uncertainty is masked by the civilization of the floating city.
However, when I listen closer, a more nuanced narrative emerges. The more I listen, the more interesting my dreams become. Messages from my soul and spirit guides are always there when I look and wait.
Dealing with Recurring Dreams
One of the best ways to transform and/or stop recurring dreams is to analyze them.
After weeks of recalling and contemplating boring, recurring cruise ship dreams, I dreamt that the cruise ship became a space ship. It’s rockets blasted it off the ocean and took us to the moon. In a lunar house, a super tall, lanky black alien with a single red eye for a face approached. Now that was interesting. I’ve never dreamt of an alien before. That may have been my first night flight to the moon.
Back to last night…
I found a bellhop outside my hotel room door. He had the classic satin vest and hat, in a pattern of gold and red argyle. A pocket watch chain looped at his hip. He asked if I needed anything. I asked for help packing my bags. He came in, opened a suitcase, and magically found loads of extra space for the mattress pad and two boxes of tissues I just had to bring along. I got packed and he helped me wheel and carry my luggage out of the room.
The message here? Well, first of all, most dreams end without resolution. This dream was an exception in that it had at least a partial remedy. I got help, got packed, and made it out of the stuck place I was in. To have my dream resolved in some way in my sleep was comforting.
I could see this as an affirmation that I’m doing a good job of addressing my unresolved emotions. Maybe my fear of asking for and receiving help is lessening. This addresses the psychological approach to dreamwork.
And there is definitely more …
What bigger, beyond my mind, is at play?
What is my soul trying to say here?
Do my guides want me to know anything?
It feels like my soul is offering support, letting me know that help is out there. She is gifting me with the experience of a deep relief from a sense of helplessness.
My guides seem to be indicating that help is on the way, or that an important completion is near. Help can come from strangers in unexpected ways. Just like with a bellhop, ring the bell and divine helpers are at my service.
When I assume that there are greater forces at play in the most mundane, recurring, or boring of dreams, a few things happen.
The dream message deepens
My curiosity (and thus excitement) increases
I feel more connected to my intuition
The dream changes the next time I dream it
… which increases my curiosity and connection!
There are small details too. Colors matter. The gold and red satin vest of the bellhop? I’ve been studying a lot of alchemy. Both of those colors are indicative of the philosopher’s stone, the end point that cures all. There’s a hint that the unifying force is at play. The universe could very well be conspiring to help me travel home. This time I don’t need to leave all the baggage behind. I can bring that to be transmuted showing up as I am.
And that pocket watch? Who brings a mattress pad to a hotel? Me apparently! How peculiar!
Now you see how one dream easily fills numerous pages in my journal.
The fun thing with approaching dreamwork psychologically, emotionally, AND spiritually is that there are countless layers. No single interpretation is the “right” answer. There are many answers that speak to the multifaceted aspects of our being.
Any dream can bring loads of guidance and, even more importantly, sparks a living dialogue with our souls and the soul of the world.
My message for you? Remember that the most basic seemingly stupid of dreams carries divine assistance. Every night the average person has 3-5 dreams. There are plenty of opportunities to find gems of insight. All we have to do is assume magic is afoot, which isn’t a bad philosophy for life too.
EARLY BIRD RATE of $40
Dream Interpretation Workshop
May 21 & 22 at 4:30-6:00pm MDT
In this small-group workshop, find the spiritual meaning of your dreams. More than just subconscious expressions of repressed feelings, dreams carry deep insights from your soul and the soul of the world. Explore where dreams come from and why they come. Discover how to strengthen your connection with your dream-life and your intuition. Receive valuable instruction on how to remember your dreams and become experienced at dream interpretation for yourself. You don't need to have extensive and detailed dreams to participate. Spiritual Advisor Stacey Couch offers individualized suggestions on how to interpret the symbols in your dreams on an archetypal level. No prior experience required.
If you’re new here, welcome!
I’m Stacey Couch, spiritual advisor, founder of Wild Gratitude, and author of Gracious Wild: A Shamanic Journey with Hawks. Every week or two, I send out this newsletter with insights and inquiries into the spiritual path.
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