Photo by: Lashauna Bell
Last night I had a dream that I was lounging away at a beach with pretty white sand. The ocean water was so clear that you could see your pores in the reflection, the breeze was just cool enough to compliment the warmth of the sun; my man was fanning me with one hand and feeding me grapes with the other. It. Was. Perfect. But you know what ruined it? A shadow eclipsed the sun, and when I looked up, it was one of my professors —dressed in a suit and tie— holding my tablet and what looked like mounds of coursework. I vividly remember the wave of panic that washed over me as he dropped it all in my lap and said, “Your homework is due in my office by tomorrow morning. 10 am sharp, Miss Williams.”
Y’all. I woke up frantic. I thought that I really had homework to do along with an upcoming test or quiz or project that I somehow forgot to get started on. But after a minute or two of mentally checking off homework assignments that I already completed, I relaxed. The dream didn’t mean anything. Or, did it?
There are symbols that are commonly accepted when it comes to dreams. Like, if you see an old friend that you haven’t physically seen in ages it could mean that you miss them. But there are also parts of dreams that have deeper, hidden, meanings.
My favorite example of this are dreams in which the dreamer is being chased. We’ve all experienced that kind of dream, right? You try to run from whatever is chasing you, fear or anxiety creeps up your spine, but for some reason you feel like you just can’t run fast enough? Yeah. Those suck. But a dream like that could have an entirely different meaning than you simply being chased. Dreams like this incite the question, “What in the physical world, are you running from?” It could be anything from responsibilities to running away from scary but new opportunities.
My dream, for example, wasn’t as cut and dry as simply living it up with bae at the beach, and then casually running in to my professor. I have a nasty habit of stressing out about anything remotely school related. I stress so much about due dates, assignments, my GPA, and applying for grad school that the anxiety of it seeps into my subconscious.
Suzanne Bergmann, a professional dream and social worker of more than 16 years explained that, “Dreams are a universal language, creating often elaborate images out of emotional concepts.” So, reflecting back on the dreams that you’ve had recently, what are you dreams trying to tell you?