“Dear Dream Momma, in my dream I am on the Stairmaster working out. I have my water bottle and drink from it. That’s it. That’s the dream. The reason I’m writing you is because this dream keeps coming back and on some nights I have it over and over again. My boyfriend says I’m very active while I’m sleeping and wake him up a lot. This annoying dream is starting to get on both our nerves and neither of us is getting much sleep these days. Can you help us?”
Yes. The key symbol in your dream is the water bottle and what you do with it. Duh! Anyway, you drink from it while the Stairmaster drains you. It’s almost as if you’re a sieve. Water goes in, sweat comes out. Nowhere in the dream do you do anything else. Your only action is drinking water or, more symbolically, trying to nourish yourself. You never get anywhere on the Stairmaster and most importantly; your thirst never gets slacked. This is not good.
Now at your age (sleeping with a boyfriend and not married so 20-30ish) you are in the grip of two huge developmental tasks. One is securing a profession and the other is finding a life partner. The question you need to ask yourself is have you made any progress in either of those vital tasks? The dream is telling you “no.” It’s telling you you are climbing but not getting anywhere and your are drinking but are still thirsty. This is not good. You need to pay attention to that like NOW.
Here’s a small therapeutic task that will help you. The next time you have that dream write it down and then write is differently. For example, write a story of you getting off the Stairmaster, finishing the water, and submersing yourself in a wonderful temperature-perfect hot tub. Write another story about you getting off the Stairmaster, drinking all the water, and meeting your boyfriend so he can give you a massage. You get the idea. Good luck and let me know what happens.
Dream Momma
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2011.