I’m a stronger believer in the meaning of dreams. I’ve had nightmares since a young age and I’ve always questioned them. At one point I even kept a dream journal to try and decipher the meaning of them:
http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/
(I use this dream dictionary sometimes)
I think I might finally have the answers though. So dreams stem from our subconscious- so memories, wishes, fears and anxieties are all expressed in our dreams. Having had heart surgery when I was a child, I am almost certain that the anxieties that come out in my dreams as nightmares are the suppressed experiences that I had from being in and out of hospital for more than a year. How can I have missed something like this?!
I’ve never even regarded it as a trauma as it happened so long ago- the only time I’ve ever really thought about it was when I saw my scars- a large one across my stomach and smaller ones from tubes and pipes. But it’s finally dawning on me that this was a trauma. Just because I’ve suppressed my experiences does not mean that they aren’t still there. I’m relieved that I’ve acknowledged this, and since I’ve accepted that these memories are the reason why my dreams always seem to be haunted, the nightmares have diminished!
I don’t know, I found this discovery extremely interesting. I think a lot of us suppress memories that disturb us, but I’ve come to realize that it’s important for us to acknowledge our experiences and hopefully, through this acknowledgement, come to terms with our experiences and get past the effect that they have on us.
We think that we know ourselves, but the truth is that we have so much to learn about ourselves. I think when we get faced with certain experiences, we realize how strong we are.
An Aspiring Writer 