It's another in my series about dreams.
Repeat dreams are fairly common. Most often, these are thematic, such as; naked in a public place, teeth falling out, running but staying in place, post-apocalypse, tornadoes chasing you, forgetting a locker number or being late for class on a test day.
A lot of these are universally common. Some are very specific and unusual. The thing they have in common is the issue one is wrestling with. Let's look at the naked in a public place one. Should I have one where I'm naked in a public place and people recognize I'm naked and point and such, then I feel like everyone sees all my shortcomings and I'm under scrutiny. If, however, I know I'm naked but they don't, then I feel there's something others are missing about my character that if exposed would be shaming. In other words, I'm snowing them, but I'm inches away from being found out. This one is likely to happen if I feel I'm in over my head on a task and I fear that others will see the insecurities within me.
I actually do have the teeth falling out one, but only when I lose a loved one. Then, in the grieving process, I dream of my teeth falling out and I know I'm in trouble because the teeth are not deciduous and once lost, cannot be placed back. That represents the knowledge that I have had a permanent loss in my life, someone who is irreplaceable.
These themes tell us much about how feel about where we are in our lives. We choose the same theme to play out the same issue again and again. In fact, early influences can pop up. You might have a sister you don't get along with come up in a dream when you're not getting along with a coworker. Your sister now represents in your dreams anyone who does not get along with you. For me, I bring up Erica Kane, a character from "All My Children" to represent my assertive ambitious side. When I was a little kid, I looked at her character as the strongest most single-minded woman I knew.
Sometimes, we have repeat dreams until we handle them. I had the chased by intelligent tornadoes dreams for years until one dream, I got lucid and decided I wasn't going to run and hide yet again! I looked at the ground, saw a manhole cover, opened it up and climbed down. I outsmarted it and it never showed up again.
Do you have repeat dreams? I'd love to hear which ones crop up for y'all.
