Anxiety Causes Recurring Dreams

Dear Nancy: I have been having this recurring dream for several years. It is not always the exact same dream but the theme is the same. Do you have any insights on it? - Jeff

I am back in high school I am late for football practice and run into the locker room in a panic. I can’t remember my locker combination and I realize I’ve forgotten my football uniform. My helmet doesn’t fit either. The team is already practicing and when I finally get out on the practice field, I can’t remember the plays. I wake up anxious and frustrated.

Dear Jeff: Anxiety dreams are probably the most common dream of all. They often take place in or around a school or university and usually involve forgetting an exam or locker number, failing tests, or not knowing which is your classroom.

These dreams often reflect our current emotional state and show us the anxiety that, at times, is deeply hidden. Do you have this dream when you are dealing with frustrating or upsetting issues in your life? Being back in school may show that you are feeling like a kid again, unable to control events and people.

Anxiety dreams usually occur when we need to address the worrisome issues in our lives. First, ask yourself what is causing the frustration and anxiety. If it is something that can be corrected, go ahead and make the appropriate changes. If the problem is one that truly cannot be changed, you may want to try to accept the circumstances and make peace with it.

Tips for readers: Who are the frightening monsters and other negative figures in our dreams? Carl Jung believed that they are our “shadow” side, the parts of ourselves we neither want to acknowledge or accept.

We all have these “dark” parts within us and the first step in becoming a whole, healthy individual is to recognize these parts of ourselves. Until we do this, we tend to “project” these negative or primitive aspects onto the people we are in relationship with, trying to believe that the negative trait belongs to someone else.

For instance, you may have a dream that your mate is having an affair. It is important to look at the dream not only as a possible real life situation but also as a clue to your own longings. Perhaps the dream is showing you your own desire to have an affair. You have “projected” your own dark side onto your mate because it is difficult to acknowledge this desire in yourself.

When we begin looking inward, rather than outward toward other people, we can recognize these projections. We then cease to believe that we are “victims” and begin to acknowledge our own responsibility in difficult situations.

By “owning” our shadow side, we bring it into the light of consciousness where it can then be suitably expressed. It then begins to be a friend, an ally, where before it was frightening and hostile.

A good example of this integration of the dark side is the novelist, Steven King. His horrifying images and evil characters have expression on the written page. He has accepted and made his shadow a friend. The popularity of his work may be due to the fact that so many people in our culture are suppressing their dark side. They get to experience it through his work.

We must also remember that our “shadow” is not necessarily a negative trait. It can also be a part of us that is positive that we have suppressed and kept hidden in the dark.

Your shadow may be an artistic ability that you’ve never expressed. It may be incredible strength and power that you deny by acting weak. It may be the part of you that needs connection with others while pretending you need no one.

Dreams are invaluable for showing us our “shadow” side. The accepting and integrating of these disowned parts of ourselves is a crucial step in the journey towards wholeness.

, DataTimes