Dream dream dream........

[Jacqueline]

Does anyone here know owt about the meaning of dreams? I have a recurring one which is as follows - I am on holiday or staying somewhere and it is time to go home, so I have to pack. When I open the wardrobe and drawers etc, I find I have a ridiculous amount of stuff. I seem to have brought all my possessions with me.  I only have two smallish bags and no recollection of bringing so much stuff or why. These extras are definitely mine by the way, I am not 'mistakenly' including the towels and hotel fixtures and fittings!!

Anyway, as I said, I have this dream or variations of, quite often, last night infact! I have tried to decipher it but not really come up with anything sensible. I am not a hoarder and my house is not full of clutter. Whenever I travel, I always do so light.  So what does it all mean? Perhaps nothing, but then why does it keep happening? Any answers please?

[2dancersmum]

I have the same recurring dream - sometimes its a hotel, other times a flat or house but it is always about the packing and the amount of stuff I have.  How weird!

[Jan McNulty]

I have dreams about my teeth crumbling away, usually just as I am about to ring up for my check up so that probably explains that.

 

I had a contractor colleague on my last project in work who moved down to Bath to manage the hardware and technical implementation.  For my last year, if I spoke to him briefly on the phone 3 or 4 times that was it.  Then I left work.  A year later I had a vivid dream about him trying to present me with a bouquet which I did not want so I was running away from him.  Two days later I had just got back to my car (in Liverpool) and as I was opening the door Steve walked past!  He was in Liverpool just for that day for a meeting.  Explain that away...

[Jacqueline]

I have the same recurring dream - sometimes its a hotel, other times a flat or house but it is always about the packing and the amount of stuff I have.  How weird!

Yes, that is weird! I used to have recurring dreams about moving house, back when we went through a period of moving quite regularly for various reasons. We weren't on the run!! Those dreams were largely about moving into a house that was still full of the previous owner's belongings, although this only happened once in reality. I could sort of get where those dreams were coming from.

We have been in our present abode for some years now and that dream has faded or perhaps morphed into the one about packing, which I really can't decipher. How interesting that you have a similar dream. I would love to know what it means. Even when I am dreaming, I know I have dreamed this before and it is like here we go again.

[Anjuli_Bai]

Maybe the dream means you are trying to do too much in a small space of time.  

[taxi4ballet]

Maybe you subconscious is saying you have too many responsibilities and you are struggling to find time to do everything and keep everyone happy...?

[2dancersmum]

Jacqueline - I googled it and found the following explanation for dreams about packing : Packing

 

To dream that you are packing signifies big changes ahead for you. You are putting past issues to rest or past relationships behind you. Alternatively, it represents the burdens that you carry.

 

To dream that you are packing, unpacking and packing and unpacking again represents chaos in your life. You are feeling overwhelmed with the various things you are juggling in your life. You are carrying around too many burdens and need to let go. Consider what unfinished business you have to tend to. Try to resolve these issues so they can finally be put to rest.

 

To dream that you are packing, but the more your pack, the more there is to pack implies that you are weighed down by the endless responsibilities and expectations in your life. As a result, you are stuck in your current circumstances.

[LinMM]

The problem with dream interpretation is it can get too generalised!

 

Years ago when I was doing certain courses which involved dream sharing as part of a group but in a very sensitive space that had been created the person who ran the group was always trying to get us to remember how we were feeling in dreams and the hue of light and/colour in the dream.

He preferred to know the people well before discussing in any great depth the meaning of certain dreams......as the same thing in a dream can mean different things for different people depending where you are at in your own self development etc...and if he felt something important had come up he would always say he would discuss it privately either after the group or in a later one to one etc.

I think you could have a think about the home/ hotel situation. Home is your private space and the hotel is a public space.

 

The too many items can represent "personal baggage" so to speak......perhaps you are hanging on to aspects of yourself that no longer serve you.

It could also mean that wherever you go you have to take yourself with you and maybe there are some home/ personal aspects that are weighing you down a bit just at the moment.

 

But if you can remember how you were feeling in the dream this should give you a lead.

I think recurring dreams show unresolved issues but maybe you could be coming into a movement with this.

Can you remember when you had it before how it was slightly different to the one you had yesterday?

[Jacqueline]

Thank you for all the suggestions, very interesting. I see the connection between baggage and unresolved issues. But I have been having this dream for a long time now, both in stressful times and more peaceful ones. Like most people I suppose, I have unresolved issues but at this stage in my life, they are either things I could do something about if I chose to or they are things I have just let go. I don't feel swamped or overwhelmed by problems. I am not much given to pondering over things I can do nothing about. 

I have as suggested, really thought about the dream rather than just thinking I have had the same old dream again. It doesn't really change other than location and I generally know where I am, if not the hotel/accommodation, then the place. I  look out of the window and recognize something - be it Brighton seafront, the harbour at Mousehole or wherever. I am not usually somewhere I wouldn't want to be or have never been. My possessions are all current, I am not looking at stuff I have owned down the years. I am usually on my own.

I don't remember feeling unduly stressed or anxious to leave, just  mystified how it is when I come to pack, that I have so much stuff. The two smallish bags are Iike some I bought years ago in Jersey but don't have them anymore in reality.

LinnMM, I don't want to sound thick, but what do you mean I could be 'coming into a movement'?

2Dancersmum, does the dream interpretation work for you, as you say you have the same dream?

[LinMM]

Coming into a movement usually means coming into a change....a shift...usually moving forward ......with a problem....or something you are trying to change. Sometimes when you have what seems to be an exact same dream it can be quite subtly different on occasions so remembering how you were feeling is quite important. Sometimes you can be finally coming to terms with certain events etc.

 

The fact that you may not relate to what people say is fine because that's what the person I worked with means by you can't really generalise too much with dreams. It's still very personal to you and may not mean at all what it does to someone else who has a similar dream.

Sometimes you could be having the same dream because you haven't come to terms with some event or aspect of your self or your life!! Without knowing the person it's very difficult to say!!

 

My recurring dream is about A levels.

I'm always turning up at either the wrong place or without something to write with or I'm trying to get there and I know the exam has already started......all a bit disastrous!!

A levels were very important to me of course to carry plans forward etc but I'm still not sure why I still dream about them so long after the event and none of these disasters actually or even nearly happened!!

Just a lot of residual stress and fear of failure around I suppose which is still floating around in my brain somewhere!!

Edited April 22, 2014 by LinMM

[alison]

Oh, don't worry, every now and then I get to the "it's the day of/day before/a week before/a month before my O-Levels/A-Levels/finals and I haven't started revising" dream. It's pretty horrid, but not as horrid as the guy trying to force presumably poisoned pills down my throat last night to try and kill me - I think I'd found the end of someone's little finger in a piece of pizza or something and realised that some murder had taken place. Really nasty - and I'd have thought totally illogical.

[Anjuli_Bai]

At one point in my life, before my teaching dance became full time, I ran the business aspect of a large in-pt/out-pt psychiatric practice and hospital.   I spent many a lunch hour in the diningroom with the medical staff; psychiatrists, psychologists, etc.  They sometimes discussed recurring dreams and the consensus was that such dreams really do have a message for us.  They said that if one can understand the message and change and/or face the message there is a real chance the dream will go away.  In other words change or understand the reality and the need for the message is gone.

 

I had a recurring dream of being at the beach and suddenly a giant wave would form and threaten to overwhelm me.  It never did - but the threat was there.  On thinking about it and looking at what was going on in my life, I could usually find something which I saw as a threat.  It doesn't have to be a "real" threat - but it's seems like one.  It doesn't have to be a big threat - but something that threatens "well-being."  Something that threatens the status quo.  I found when I could identify this "threat" and either deal with it or step back and see it for the non-importance it really was -the dream would go away.

 

Dreams about school - tests, not knowing which classroom to go to, losing one's class roster, not remembering the combination of the lock on the gym locker, being late to class, not being able to find one's seat - etc - are all very common dreams.  They are the result of a time of our lives when we really were under a lot of stress.  We had little control of our lives, lots of people to please, and our future plans still in a formative state.  Being late to a test really could alter one's future.

 

A dentist told me that dreams about crumbling and/or losing teeth is also very common.

 

I found that when I had dreams of being in a space that was gradually shrinking, or being in a house in which the furnishings are too large, or there were rooms and hallways which I knew were there - but had never seen - were all dreams that I was able to resolve when I found the source of the "problem."  

 

The dream of there being rooms and hallways in the house which I had never seen and was afraid of was an interesting one.  I gave it a lot of thought and finally remembered that when i was 3-6 yrs old we lived in a house with three floors.  Since only my parents and I lived there we only needed the first two floors.  To save having to heat the unused 3rd floor my parents blocked off the winding stairs leading to the 3rd floor.  Thus - I never went up those stairs and into those rooms - but I knew they were there.  After finally figuring out (just a couple of years ago) why I was having that dream - and realizing as an adult it was just an used portion of the house - nothing more  - not at all scary - the dream went away.

 

My husband had a similar experience.  He repeatively dreamt for many years of a sinister presence in his childhood home.  He finally was able to trace it back to a large black object in the coal cellar of the house.  The object was the coal heater itself: big, black, with a door that opened to a fiery inside - and of which his parents warned him to stay away from or he'd get hurt.  Upon figuring out where this dream came from he never had it again.

 

My conclusion is when I dream of the space I'm in getting smaller - something in my life is closing in on me.  A dream where I can't reach things - means something in my life seems unreachable.  A dream where I can't find my car means I can't get to where I want to go.  A dream where a road upon which I am driving disappears - means I'm not sure of the way forward.

 

The stress or fear shown in the dream doesn't have to reflect reality - but I think it does express a basic level of perceived reality by the more primitive fight/flight portion of our being.

[LinMM]

I used to have another recurring dream when I lived in London of being on a tube journey where the track just stopped!! The worst one where the tube turned into this ancient rusting metal and just had to get off as couldn't travel any further etc.

 

It was a time when I was having to make a lot of decisions not least whether to move out of London or not.....so that figures!!

 

But every so often one usually has quite an extraordinary dream which you just know is more significant and important......which is when I used to try to get some help with interpretation.

However the person I worked with would never tell you the meaning outright he would always get you to think about it with a few leads as he thought it was better you tried to work it out yourself!!......which I wasn't very good at on the whole.

[2dancersmum]

I don't think the dream interpretation works for me at all. I have had variations of the dream - location usually changes - as does my age/people around me but it does not seem to occur at times when I am stressed or anxious about anything and I have not moved house for many many years. I'm not stressed in my dream either - although there is a time limit hovering in there sometimes - just surprised that I keep finding more cupboards of things to pack.

 

Dreams can be the weirdest of things though - I've twice dreamed of disasters with giant waves and flooding days before major tsunamis and once I dreamed that I had bought lottery tickets and won. Needless to say I did not buy a ticket using those numbers and 5 out of 6 came up that week - though surprisingly popular numbers so I did not miss out on much.

[Lisa O`Brien]

The weirdest dream I ever had was when I was in Paris. I think I mentioned it on this forum before. I never used to remember my dreams at all,unless it was something really vivid. When I was dancing at the Moulin Rouge there was a male dancer there who all the female dancers loathed. He had a reputation for using women for just one thing and when we all joined we were all warned about him. I don`t think in the whole 13 months I was there I ever spoke once to him. He wasn`t my dancing partner in the big Far West number and he was someone I never really gave a second thought to. On my night off I was asleep. I suddenly woke up because I dreamed about this male dancer,Pascal,I think he was called. Realising I had been dreaming about him,and incredulous at the thought,I tutted to myself and thought,"Huh,he`s just a ***tard who uses women". No sooner had I thought this,when my feelings changed. I suddenly felt sorry for the guy. Maybe us girls misunderstand him. Maybe he isn`t a horrible sort at all,and if we got to know him as a person he might be ok. It was about 3am, or thereabouts, and I thought nothing more of it and went back to sleep. The next night I was back at work. Everyone backstage was sombre,and talking about one thing. Pascal,after finishing the show the night before was standing outside waiting for his taxi home.He suddenly collapsed to the pavement outside the Moulin Rouge but was already dead before he reached the hospital. He was only in his twenties.He would have finished the second show at about 2.30 am so me thinking of him around 3am might coincide with the time he would be waiting for his taxi to take him home. It`s just the strangest and saddest thing and i have never forgotten it.

[taxi4ballet]

What a sad tale, and the strangest coincidence.

 

My late mother used to have the weirdest recurring dream - she was on holiday, and standing on a pier or boardwalk overhanging the sea, and there were lots of people swimming and splashing about in the water. She would have a giant tin of cocoa and would spoon it into the water, whereupon all the people would be overjoyed and splash around, mixing the chocolate into the water until the sea turned completely brown... What on earth is that all about?

[Lisa O`Brien]

Ha,sounds great.I`ve just this second sat back down after making myself a cup of Cadbury`s Wispa drinking chocolate.!

[Anjuli_Bai]

The weirdest dream I ever had was when I was in Paris. I think I mentioned it on this forum before. I never used to remember my dreams at all,unless it was something really vivid. When I was dancing at the Moulin Rouge there was a male dancer there who all the female dancers loathed. He had a reputation for using women for just one thing and when we all joined we were all warned about him. I don`t think in the whole 13 months I was there I ever spoke once to him. He wasn`t my dancing partner in the big Far West number and he was someone I never really gave a second thought to. On my night off I was asleep. I suddenly woke up because I dreamed about this male dancer,Pascal,I think he was called. Realising I had been dreaming about him,and incredulous at the thought,I tutted to myself and thought,"Huh,he`s just a ***tard who uses women". No sooner had I thought this,when my feelings changed. I suddenly felt sorry for the guy. Maybe us girls misunderstand him. Maybe he isn`t a horrible sort at all,and if we got to know him as a person he might be ok. It was about 3am, or thereabouts, and I thought nothing more of it and went back to sleep. The next night I was back at work. Everyone backstage was sombre,and talking about one thing. Pascal,after finishing the show the night before was standing outside waiting for his taxi home.He suddenly collapsed to the pavement outside the Moulin Rouge but was already dead before he reached the hospital. He was only in his twenties.He would have finished the second show at about 2.30 am so me thinking of him around 3am might coincide with the time he would be waiting for his taxi to take him home. It`s just the strangest and saddest thing and i have never forgotten it.

 

 

 

 

 

I am sure there is another dimension - an ESP - dimension.  I have experienced it many times.

 

 

 

What a sad tale, and the strangest coincidence.

 

My late mother used to have the weirdest recurring dream - she was on holiday, and standing on a pier or boardwalk overhanging the sea, and there were lots of people swimming and splashing about in the water. She would have a giant tin of cocoa and would spoon it into the water, whereupon all the people would be overjoyed and splash around, mixing the chocolate into the water until the sea turned completely brown... What on earth is that all about?

 

Now - a chocolate dream is a dream indeed.

Edited April 22, 2014 by Anjuli_Bai

[Jacqueline]

There are some great dreams here. I love the one about spooning cocoa into the sea! Makes my packing dream look a bit mundane. I had my dream again last night but it has gone large, almost as though it is telling me to think harder and work it out. I woke this morning and realized it was the same theme but different set - up. I was moving this time, into a property shared with Sarah Beeny, whom I don't know and have never met, but you can spot the property link. 

I don't know whether she has a sister, but she did in the dream and she ran a pottery shop. This was being packed up as well, so there were millions of pieces of pottery to be wrapped and boxed and so on. It started to rain so I went out to get the washing in, which was hanging around a tree and too high up to reach. Maybe this is The Winter's Tale tree? Then my mother turned up with a 'few bits' I had left at her house. This turned out to be six large crates of junk which I insisted wasn't mine, but she wouldn't take no for an answer and insisted I pay her travelling expenses. There were lots of people in this dream but I only knew two of them. 

Essentially, it was about packing. I feel tired out today.

[LinMM]

Maybe we should set up a balletco dream sharing group!! I think your mum turning up in this dream with 'goods' she thinks are yours but you don't is quite interesting!!

A lot of dreams can be just mundane.

But some can have meanings on various levels and I think this dream is one of those!!

 

Sometimes just talking about dreams makes you dream more!!

[swanprincess]

When I was about 7 years old, every single night I dreamt I was at the swimming baths. In the dream, There was a strange little tunnel down some steps- above the tunnel was a sign somewhat like that on a motorway which flashes to warn of delays- and it said "Warning- Shark" . I never saw the shark, it stayed in it's little tunnel- but every night, I dreamt that a girl I knew, called Georgia, went down that tunnel and didn't come back. The shark never got me, so I didn't fear the dream exactly, it all just felt rather bizarre!!!!

[taxi4ballet]

When I was a child I used to have a recurring dream of being chased by gorillas, and the only way I could get away from them was to find a building with no windows. Ones with windows were no good as a hiding place as the gorillas would smash all the glass and eat it.

[swanprincess]

Jaqueline, I just thought, about your dream- you have so much stuff and only a few bags- so you'd have to pick out the most valuable stuff to put in the bags and leave the rest behind? I interpret that as meaning your life is rather cluttered and frantic, you need to let go of the things less valuable to you??

[hfbrew]

When ds was at White Lodge I had couple of dreams in which I was trying to convince the Principal that I was actually a bona fide student and could do class.

 

The most vivid one though was getting a contract with the Royal Ballet with principal dancer Laura Morera trying to find me a size 14 tutu...I was sooo disappointed when I woke up!

[MAB]

I have a dream similar to the O/P's and a recurring dream of turning up at an airport without a passport that stopped for many years and has come back. The other dream is about being on a train that never seems to get anywhere  or arrriving at a station and not finding the right train, sometimes I'm on a bus that gets held up or takes me away from my destination.

 

Now I am aware of the meanings of these dreams, but that knowledge doesn't prevent me from continually having them.  I would have thought that I could tell my subconscience - okay, I get it, but deams don't seem to work that way.

[LinMM]

I think it's true in other circumstances as well but being able to intellectualise something away doesn't really work at the deeper emotional/feeling level!

Sometimes one thinks one has understood something with our intellect and reason but there is still something churning on deep down.

 

This is why in some instances.....in recovery from some trauma say.......years later it can suddenly all boil up again and be quite raw still even though one had thought it had all been come to terms with.

 

Some dreams can be helpful in showing what's really going on on that deeper level

I haven't really been into dream interpretation for a while now but once I used to keep a book by my bed to record them. I wasn't much good though at writing them down immediately after I'd had them so had to mostly rely on the next morning memory of it. However sometimes one knows one has already forgotten some important details.......very annoying!!

[alison]

The other dream is about being on a train that never seems to get anywhere  or arrriving at a station and not finding the right train,

 

Well, what else can you expect with Southern?

[Anjuli_Bai]

It had been a while since I had seen my parents.  Time had not been kind to them.  They were old, ill and struggling with life.  It was time for me to travel across the country to Philadelphia to see them.   

 

I walked down the tree shaded street and  up the steps to the cement path which led  to the front door of their house.  I  was halfway down the path when I knew something was  terribly wrong.  I stopped and looked at the house.  My mother’s curtains were gone and there were no deck chairs on the patio. 

 

With a growing sense of foreboding I continued up to the front door and rang the bell. I  could hear it echo through the house.  All else was ominously silent. Though I rang the bell several more times no one answered.  I tried to open the screen door but it was locked and the main door was shut.  I could have looked in at the window, but somehow I knew that I would only see empty rooms.  My parents' home was empty.  Heartsick and chilled with dread  I turned away and moved slowly down the cement walk.  What could possibly have happened?  Then suddenly I heard the door open behind me and I quickly turned back to face the house.  Looking out at me was my mother’s dog.  Behind him the main door to the house was open and a hand reached out and opened the screen door inviting me in.  I ran back and went inside. 

 

Everything was as it should have been.  The living room was warm, the curtains hung at the window and the furniture  was all in its place.  Sitting and standing comfortably about were my mother, father, my Aunt Anna (my mother’s sister) and a child I did not recognize.  At my feet was my mother’s dog wriggling in happiness at seeing me.  We had found him years before lost in a blizzard with a scrap of rope about his neck.  My mother and I had brought him home and loved him.  I thought he had died of old age long before but apparently I was mistaken because there he was wagging his tail and greeting me.  In fact, everyone was very happy to see me. 

 

We all sat down.  The furniture, sofas, stuffed chairs - everything was as I remembered it.  It was as if I had never left and been away.  My parents asked how I was and I noticed how well they looked.  We talked of everyday things, the commonplaces that make up life.  After a short while, as if on cue, my father and mother rose from their chairs, and I knew that they meant for me to go.  It was time for me to leave. 

 

We all said loving good-byes; kissing and hugging.  Then my father put his hand on my arm and told me that it was all O.K.  He reassured me several times that everything was really all right.  He and my mother were fine, I shouldn’t be concerned about them.  I felt very relieved and flooded with peace and contentment.  They took me to the door and I went out.   But, midway along the path  I heard the door shut and lock.  I stopped, turned around and faced the house.  The curtains were gone.  I knew beyond any doubt that the house was empty again.  I was sad but also satisfied. 

 

Then suddenly my heart started to pound madly.  A flash of light splashed across my eyes and they fluttered.  I opened my eyes and gasped.  I was unable to move as realization came flooding across my mind.  I was lying in a blaze of early morning sunlight, someone breathing softly next to me.  And then I remembered that only a month before my mother had died and seven months before that my father had died.  And this visit, this dream was good-bye.   

[LinMM]

That is a very lovely dream Anjuli.

[swanprincess]

Awww Anjuli that is so beautiful <3

[Lisa O`Brien]

Wow powerful stuff.It`s like them telling you that even though they had passed on from this world,that they were OK.

[Anjuli_Bai]

Wow powerful stuff.It`s like them telling you that even though they had passed on from this world,that they were OK.

 

That's exactly how I felt about it.

[Jacqueline]

Jaqueline, I just thought, about your dream- you have so much stuff and only a few bags- so you'd have to pick out the most valuable stuff to put in the bags and leave the rest behind? I interpret that as meaning your life is rather cluttered and frantic, you need to let go of the things less valuable to you??

Sorry I didn't respond before now. Thank you for your thoughts. I have thought again about the dream and I am wondering if I have worked it out. I think it may be to do with moving after all. I really dislike where we live currently and hanker to return south, where I come from originally. It is nothing to do with being nearer family or friends or whatever. I am just a southerner at heart and I want to go back down south. No offense to the north! We have talked about moving again and I was against it at first as I felt quite settled here. But I have been back down south, mostly to London and the ballet, a few times to just visit Sussex. When I walk through Victoria Station and see all those familiar place names on the departure boards, I feel so homesick. But then I wonder if it is just rose tinted glasses and maybe it wasn't that great. I don't know. I do know property is horrendously expensive down there now and what we give up here, we couldn't afford there. It might be a mistake to go back. So, my having so much to pack might be a reflection of feeling trapped, that I would just go tomorrow if I didn't have so much stuff. Or it could be that having all that stuff acts as a kind of anchor, stopping me from rushing into a mistake. Or maybe it doesn't mean any of that and is just a recurring dream.