However, I do think that sometimes our heads try to sort stuff out when we're asleep, and sometimes this can be played out in our dreams.
Anyway, for three nights now I've had dreams with the same theme, which is that I am looking after an animal which I neglect / treat horribly and then (in 2 of the dreams) at the last minute I start looking after them and they're ok. Basically.
Dream 1: I'm looking after Z's cats but one of my hamsters had escaped so I put both cats into empty hamster cages and fed them from hamster bowls. They were too cramped to be able to move, although one bent the bars so she could get her head out.
Dream 2: I'm looking after a dog, a black, curly-haired thing. I'm not a big fan of dogs but this was pretty and cute. But I kept forgetting I was looking after it, so not getting any dog food. I tried to feed it hamster food a few times but (unsurprisingly!) it wouldn't eat it. I had it in a kind of fenced off area of my house. Then one night I realised that it was really very ill because I hadn't fed it, and early the next morning, as soon as the shops opened I went out, bought it dog food and gave it lots of nice food and drinks and it went from scrawny and ill to really healthy and shiny-coated.
Dream 3: I'm looking after a rabbit and a guinea pig. I put them both into one hamster cage, which gives them room to basically lie still next to each other and not move. I forget to feed them again and again and when I finally remember I think the guinea pig is dead so I start feeding the rabbit who starts looking healthier, then the guinea pig stirs and I realise it is still alive after all so I feed it and it ends up fine too.
Ok, so does anyone have any idea what this is telling me? I figured that after 3 dreams with the same theme, there is something that my unconscious, or whatever, is really trying to get across, and until I *get* it, it will keep on and on.
I wake up feeling incredibly guilty for how awful I was to these dreamed-up animals and have to reassure myself a lot that it was a dream and I do treat animals well in my waking life!
Any ideas would be most welcome!
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7 comments:
I'm with you on thinking dreams could be a way of your subconscious heping you get to grips with things.
So, for what it's worth, I think your subconscious might be telling you that you've neglected something, but that it's ok, it'll come right, especially if you help it along. Only you can work out what that something is, but it's probably not yourself because in each of the dreams your doing someone a favour, looking after somebody else's animal.
And hamsters and/or their cages are important, so ask yourself what they mean to you - maybe something from childhood.
Good luck.
Oh yeah, and if you write your dreams down, or indeed blog them, you'll tend to have more vivid, memorable dreams in the future.
Whoops! That should have been "helping" and "you're".
That's really spooky - I thought I was the only person in the world to have recurring hamster dreams. Other animals too sometimes. My hamsters often start breeding and fighting and I almost want to just leave the lot of them but of course they're going to get hurt or killed so I feel obliged to try to contain and care for them.
To be honest, this usually happens when my health is beginning to take a plunge. When I am juggling too many balls and running myself into the ground. Your dreams make explicit reference to health so...
There are a lot of theories about what dreams are and if they mean anything. Being a psych grad with an interest in sleep and dreaming that bores most people stupid I will take this opportunity to indluge myself.
Depending on what area of psych you come from dreams can be any number of things. I quite like the cognitive (i think) model that suggests to keep your brain 'alive' while you sleep neurons fire in a random pattern. The smells, sights and sounds created by these make up our dreams, and we try to make sense of them by putting them into a story form. This is why they can be utterly nonsensical and change form one thing to another so quickly.
Anyway - I think the reason some dreams can give insights into us and what we're thinking is because the ideas/concepts/things that linger in your brain are the things you've been focusing on during that day - so they become themes of the dream.
I quite fancy dream analysis as having some useful basis - and find my dreams can shed some light on what I'm worried about etc. But then again I'll dream about teeth falling out, and scare myself crapless, as gypsy folklore says this means someone you know will die or have very bad news.
My last dream involved me unscrewing my teeth to relieve pressure in my jaw - I actually had quite a painful swollen feeling jaw for a coulpe of days before hand. No one died though.
Very long odd comment,must get back to work...
your dreams remind me of the kind first-time pregnant women get.
They're worried that they won't be good care-givers for those depending on them...
Have you been considering marriage or becoming a parent? Or do you have a parent of your own in poor health who might be dependent on you to some degree?
btw, I'm enjoying your blog.
Hi there!
I've worked with my dreams on and off for years - the more you pay attention to them, the more they can get messages to you.
If you are really happy for me to go into therapist mode right now I'll tune in...
I'm getting that in this case your body is asking for you to look after it differently.
And from the recurrence of feeding the animals incorrect foods I'd say that you need something else in your diet that you fail to realise is necessary.
And using magic I'd say its something that you are currently allergic to... oh dear... so do you have anything that you are allergic to?
And following on from last night's post, after I'd shut my machine down I remembered that your name is Pippa...
The night before I'd had a dream in which I was offering an allergy correction to a woman in a dream and she refused it. When I woke up I was trying to work out who the woman was and the nearest I could get was Pip, but I knew it wasn't the Pip I occassionally have hot chocolates with.
So I doubt you are ready to accept an allergy correction from me in either dream or blogland.
I know how odd this sounds... I was sceptical myself 7 years or so ago but also desperate... I no longer have migraines from chocolate or coffee, very little hayfever and can eat loads of things I used to have to avoid.
And I'm aware that everyone varies and in the dream I was fairly sure you needed a hands-on healing.
Try seeing a health kinsiologist:
http://www.hk4health.co.uk/
Good luck!
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