Something strange has happened.
My dreams, they have always been an anomaly to me, and to those around me. For as long as I can remember they have been filled with mass murderers, giant spiders, evil guinea pigs, mysterious women living under my bed, and an assortment of other terrifying subjects. I do have pleasant dreams every now and then, but of course I only seem to really remember the nightmares. A few weeks ago I had a dream that involved almost every single one of my ex-boyfriends, even ones from over ten years ago! Talk about a nightmare.
For the past month or so, my dreams have changed. As I wrote a few blog posts ago, I haven’t had a night terror or even a sleepwalking episode ever since the night I mentally and verbally gave myself explicit permission to have night terrors (weird, I know). The break from the sleepwalking Olympics has been great, but the shift in my dreams is what’s really interesting to me. It’s gotten to the point where I can’t wait to go to sleep because I want to see what adventure I’ll have, they all feel so realistic and exciting.
A few weeks ago, I had a dream that I was in an airplane with a parachute strapped to my back. I had decided to go skydiving, which is a serious fear of mine. In real life, I have been curious about what skydiving would be like, but I doubt I’ll ever actually try it. In my dream, I was absolutely terrified, I could look down and see my hands shaking. Everything felt so realistic. I had a bad feeling, I was sure this dream was going to end in a nightmare– like me having a faulty parachute and free falling to my death. Instead, I took a deep breath, stepped out of the plane, and within seconds was giggling as I was falling through the clouds, I was having the time of my life. My parachute opened perfectly and as soon as my feet touched the ground, I wanted to do it again. But more importantly, I remember the feeling of accomplishment in my dream, the feeling of succeeding at something that terrified me and how wonderful that felt. Upon waking, I was pleased at how positive and satisfying my dream had been, it even made me think about going skydiving in real life.
Since then, I have been having very similar dreams- where I’m partaking in an activity, conversation, or situation that brings me anxiety or deep fear, and it ends up being an incredibly positive and life-changing experience. Most of them have oddly been extreme sports related. I know it seems weird to be surprised by so many positive dreams, but it’s not typically my MO. I’m a big believer in dreams having meanings, so I decided to look up some basic dream meanings to figure out why my sleeping psyche is different these days.
These are four of the dreams I’ve had recently that started off terrifying, but ended up being surprisingly pleasant. And yes, I did have a dream where I was sleeping. Odd, haha.
Skydiving
To dream that you are skydiving represents your high ideals. A pleasurable dream of skydiving – floating down gently in a parachute – signifies that you have protection and security during a time in which turmoil surrounds you.
Hang Gliding
To dream that you are hang gliding symbolizes freedom in your personal life. It also represents trust. You believe in destiny.
Bungee Jumping
To dream that you are bungee jumping represents your ability to bounce back from adversities and setbacks in your life. The important thing to remember is that you took the initial risk.
Sleeping
To dream that you are sleeping denotes peace of mind.
It seems very clear that I have a sudden peace of mind and confidence about my current situation, I just wish I knew what exactly changed. I’m not complaining, just curious. Maybe it is all pointing back to acceptance, being happy with my reality no matter what I’m dealing with. Man, if I knew giving my brain permission to have terrifying dreams would end them and create this sudden surge of fun, exciting, and satisfying dreams, I would have done it a long time ago.
Do you believe your dreams can give insight to your inner thoughts/feelings that you’re not necessarily aware of?
The Other Courtney 
Hmm I should try reverse psychology on my procrastination habits….! 😛
I’ve always believed in the symbolism in dreams. I even wanted to be a dream analyzer at one point. Do people do that for a living?
Oh, really? I definitely believe in their symbolism too– but I sometimes just wonder how much of it is random firings in our brain. I know for a fact some of them have deeper meanings, but what about the REALLY weird dreams? Who knows. You can do anything for a living if you market it right and gain a following, I vote you try it 🙂
that’s awesome that by giving yourself permission to have night terrors, you were able to alleviate them!! super interesting
Isn’t it wild?! I am still absolutely in shock. I even watched a psychological thriller movie last night which usually give me horrible/strange dreams (why I haven’t watched one in forever) and slept great. Before bed again, I told myself to go ahead and have crazy, weird, scary dreams…and I didn’t. My subconscious is like a child, I have to do reverse psychology on it hahaha.
Wow, this is really cool! I LOVE that your sleep is better and that you’re having such pleasant and fulfilling dreams that, who knows, might pave the way for you to have some real life adventures!
Thank you so much, it has been such a nice break from my normal sleeping habits! You never know what will happen– I actually did find myself browsing a “sky dive North Carolina” website the other day– OOPS! 😀