The 5 Most Common Dreams

Every night, while in the dream state, you create several major movie productions, foreign films in the language of images and symbols with a metaphoric storyline. While some dreams may seem silly, weird, or even frightening upon waking, each is a meaningful response to your internal life. The majority of night dreams represent responses to daily concerns and the events and circumstances of life that bother you, fall short of your expectations as well as those that fulfill you. Also, as responses to your behavior, thoughts, attitudes and desires, dreams offer a bit of constructive criticism, illuminating the self-defeating patterns you perpetuate that often sabotage your plans. These dreams help you examine the internal beliefs and the unhealthy attitudes you carry around, ones that hold you back from achieving your goals and aspirations. Sometimes dreams can help you identify your deepest fears by bringing them out into the open so that you can release them and dissolve the tension of the conflict they represent.

There are dream themes that are common to almost everyone. They are considered universal themes. The frequency with which they are reported demonstrates how all humans suffer from the same kinds of issues and that their subconscious will express them in much the same way.

From the list below, you may very well recognize one of these dream themes as one you have had from time to time.

Flying Dreams

The phenomenon of flying dreams in which you find yourself soaring above treetops, over houses and through neighborhoods is a common experience of dream travel. Such dreams usually signify freedom from the limitations that life imposes. They usually come at a time when the dreamer has broken through a form of limited thinking or has overcome a major psychological or life obstacle. As a response to times of great success or when you have taken an extraordinary risk, a flying dream may punctuate personal liberation and a newly found ability to touch previously untapped potentials. Flying is a particularly common experience in childhood, before the young mind conforms to the earthbound restrictions placed on it by the world. For most of us, sadly, flying dreams are infrequent occurrences because we adhere to limiting beliefs that restrict us from freely expressing our unique talents and desires. We instead become lead-footed, stuck to the ground in the concrete aspects of our world.

Dreams of Losing Your Teeth

Although you may have some concerns about your dental hygiene, dreams of your teeth falling out, crumbling, cracking, turning black or becoming decayed are usually about a communication problem you experienced the day before. Symbolically, teeth represent your personal power as it relates to what comes out of your mouth–your speech. The dream may comment that you failed to assert your opinion, were unable to clearly and concisely say what you wanted to say or silenced yourself when it was important to speak up. A blackened tooth can represent something you said that made you feel ugly. A broken front tooth can suggest a breakdown in communication in which you felt powerless to effect a change with your opinion. Loosing a slew of teeth may remark you are far too timid and as a result you are ineffective. These dreams may amplify feelings of inferiority and suggest it’s time to remove the blocks and adjust your communication style.

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Dreams of Standing Naked

An embarrassing moment in any dreamer’s life is a dream in which you look down and are aghast to see that you are naked. The dream is responding to a situation in which you felt exposed, perhaps because you disclosed too much about yourself without realizing how much it would embarrass you later. Feeling self-conscious in a social situation, such as introducing yourself to someone you want to impress, may elicit a ‘standing naked dream’ if you felt you didn’t put your best foot forward. A variation of this dream is discovering you are wearing only underwear, which represents that your persona has fallen apart and people can see right through you. Underwear symbolically represents the underlying attitudes and feelings you seldom show to others.

Being Lost in Dreams

Wandering through city streets without direction or finding yourself in unfamiliar surroundings not knowing where you are and what direction you should be moving are common anxiety dreams. Being lost represents losing your direction in life, your bearings, sense of self and purpose. Common to those who feel they are in a dead end career or those who have no idea of how to use the talents they have been given, a dream like this may remark it is time to ask for guidance. The dream may be stating simply that you need some help finding your path. It may also comment that you have lost the true meaning of life and that you may need embrace a spiritual life, one that will give you a sense of purpose.

Chased by “The Shadow” Dreams

Nightmares of being chased, stalked, or threatened in some other way by someone who you can’t see can wake you up with a jolt. An archetype referred to as ‘The Shadow’, the villain in these dreams, usually represents repressed memories and deep-seated fears, some of which were carried over from childhood. Most dreamers report they are running for their lives, trying to evade the predator by hiding or seeking help without success. The nightmare may be classified as a ‘night terror’ if the symptoms include waking up exhausted, in a cold sweat or screaming out loud in your sleep. The villain remains illusive because the fear or memory has not yet been identified. A dreamer who is finally able to turn around and confront the villain will have conquered the subconscious grip of fear surrounding the unpleasant memories.