I recently had a dream that illustrates the way in which dreams bring to our attention aspects of ourselves and by doing so give us the opportunity to recognize changes we can and should make. Here is my dream:
I have taken a day off from work and for some reason I’m thinking about whether I have the information I need in case I have to go to the office sometime in the future when it is closed, such as on a weekend. I decide to go to work to ask someone about that, even though I have the day off. In the dream I live in the small town where I grew up in physical reality, and I work at a law firm that has offices in the building that was the school I attended. I walk there and go up some stairs and see a coworker sitting at a large round table with several other employees. I go up to her and she’s surprised I’m there since I took the day off. I show her a card I have that I think has the access codes on it to enter the building when the office is closed, and I ask her if she knows whether that’s the correct information. She rolls her eyes that I would come to the office on my day off to ask about this, and she talks about something different instead of answering my question. It doesn’t seem that she is intentionally avoiding the subject; she just tends to think of things she likes to talk about. The dream ends at this point, with me waiting for her to answer my question.
This dream came to me during a period of time when I was having difficulty determining how to approach a problem. It wasn’t until a few days after having the dream that I had the thought that it might be showing me that I was being immature in how I was thinking about what I should do; that my ideas were more like those I would have had when I was much younger and before I had had more life experience and hopefully had gained some wisdom. I believe this is symbolized by the setting of the dream being the town where I lived as a child, including the house and the school building.
As I thought about this, I also realized I was responding to the problem as if in obedience to an authority figure, including being concerned that I might be reprimanded if I didn’t respond in a certain way. This immature approach was also represented by the settings of my youth. It was further emphasized in the dream by me being employed by a law firm. Law firms can symbolize following specific rules as compared to other types of work that symbolize flexibility, choice, and creativity.
The presence of my coworker in the dream is also significant. She represents the part of me who isn’t concerned about always following the rules, who by rolling her eyes makes fun of the overly responsible part of me who would come to work on my day off to find out information I could easily learn the next time I was scheduled to work. I believe her talking about topics she wanted to talk about rather than answering my question is the dream reminding me to be careful about being rigid in the choices I make.
Having this dream and contemplating its possible messages helped me to change how I approached the problem. Often after learning from a dream I wonder why I hadn’t thought of the things the dream pointed out without its assistance. I guess that shows how limited I and others can be in our thinking and also how lacking in our ability to find creative solutions to problems. This dream helped me look at the problem differently and to consider other ways of dealing with it. In addition, it showed me aspects of myself of which I need to be aware so that they don’t limit me in future situations.