DREAMS ABOUT SNAKES

Happy day to everyone! 

This dream was submitted by a young woman from New Hampshire.  It’s relatively simple and I think we can all relate to it.

Her dream is in blue:

I have always had recurring dreams about snakes.   In most every dream I find myself walking in a yard or woodsy environment when I suddenly spot a large snake slithering through the grass. Once I spot the first snake I then realize that I am surrounded by snakes of every size. They are everywhere. I never touch one, they never touch me. I don't normally feel afraid during the dream but I definitely feel overwhelmed by the endless amount. The more I try to get away, the more they show up.

In general, snakes can symbolized temptation (a la Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden); fear; and a combination of both elements which create intimidating situations in life. 

Millions of people would be in the same woodsy environment with this dreamer.  Part of the human condition is that we have imagination.  We not only experience life as it occurs, we anticipate the consequences of events in our lives. 

For instance, if you’re being considered for a promotion at work, your mind starts generating possible outcomes as follows:

●          Wow, I’ll be making a little more money.  I can finally get a better apartment; or a new car; or take a trip to England…

●          But wait a minute, they’ll probably give me more responsibility too, and what if I can’t do what they want, or what if I have to stay at work another hour or two…

●          And Jerry my rideshare buddy down the hall really wanted this promotion.  What if he ends up hating me and really making my job tougher.  I do need his cooperation, and right now we’re such good friends…

●          What if he decides not to rideshare with me any more.  There goes the extra money if I end up having to drive myself to work.   And if Jerry hates me, Lucinda on the third floor will probably stop talking to me too, because they’ve known each other a lot longer than she and I have…

●          Not to mention I’ll have to find new rideshare pals, and anyone living close to me is already my rideshare pal…

●          So I could actually lose all my current friends.

●          Maybe I should just tell my supervisor I’m not interested in the promotion…

●          But I’ll really be pissed if Jerry gets it instead…

And so on.

This dream is your psyche’s signal for you to calm down.  All those concerns listed above will pop up in your dream as snakes.  Any one of those snakes can grow out of proportion, swallow you whole, or bite you to bloody pieces so you can end up sabotaging any opportunity you have for actually getting the promotion. 

On the other hand, because of the little anxieties which are generated by your ever-so-fertile imagination, if you can somehow turn these snakes into something beneficial for yourself, you can come out ahead. 

As an example, take the “snake” of losing Jerry, your competitor, as a friend.  Now that you’re aware of this possibility, you can start to neutralize the possibility.  A good way to accomplish this is to have a heart-to-heart with Jerry and just tell him honestly, “Look, Jer, we’re both trying for this promotion and only one of us can get it.  I just want you to know if you get it, I’ll be disappointed, sure, but you’re good at your job and, hey, no hard feelings from me.  Okay?”

If Jerry is indeed a reasonably mature and intelligent individual, he’ll take the cue and reply, ‘Yeah, me too.  No hard feelings if you get it.”

And if you both can live up to this intention, your friendship will survive and POOF!... there goes another snake… and all the little ones related to it.

Because this dreamer says that none of the snakes ever touches her, it sounds like she’s actually not allowing her anxieties to sabotage her life.  On the other hand, she doesn’t “tame” them or “befriend” them… she tries to escape from them.

Which bring us to her second recurring dream:

Another dream I have all the time is driving in a car backwards with my foot on the gas pedal as hard as I can push it. I don't turn my head to see where I am going, but when I do try to hit the brake it doesn't work. The dream ends before I hit anything.
 

This one’s easy.  It means REGRESSION.  Given the first dream, I would ask this dreamer the following question:

“When you feel anxious or intimidated by something in your life, do you face it and try to solve it.  Or neutralize it?  Or just assume control of it?  Or do you simply escape from it by ignoring it and deciding not to act on it at all?”

Using our analogy, given this second dream, I would guess that in the situation we’ve “imagined” above, she probably would decide NOT to go for the promotion, because then she wouldn’t have to deal with all the dilemmas her imagination has created as consequential problems to her life.

I would suggest that it would be worth it for this young woman to reconsider how she handles intimidating situations.  True, she doesn't crash anything by going backwards instead of going forward, but she also can't stop the backward momentum, which means her live hasn't moved forward at all.

Escaping from problems doesn’t solve them… it merely regresses one’s personal growth and evolution as a person, and probably closes opportunities which might be quite glorious to experience.

Snoozle away your puzzlements, folks, and pay attention to your dreams!