I don't understand it . When I was working at Wrongway Regional Medical Center with all its stress, plus the normal life stressors, I typically had good dreams.
Now that I've been retired a year, and my stress level is down near zero , I have bad dreams. Not nightmares- just uncomfortable dreams, like not getting something done or TCB, and having to deal with the consequences.
Last night's dream included the scenario of finding an old man in a cornfield who had been neglected and was in need of hygienic and medical care. I called 911, gave a report, and did what I could until EMS and the PD arrived, but it was a very uncomfortable dream.
National Blah Blah Blah Day is "an impulse to do get the things done which people have been nagging you to do". My dreams are nagging me to do something and I'm not sure what that something is.
Specializes in Physiology, CM, consulting, nsg edu, LNC, COB.
My most common dreams have me traveling or walking endlessly, never reaching where I planned to go. Interestingly they often incorporate aspects of familiar cities, blocks, neighborhoods, or buildings, which is entertaining.
But sometimes they speak to me directly.
When my first marriage was very shaky my husband and I took our two small ones to visit my dad for Christmas. We had been in couples therapy for about 6 months and making some good progress, but he had recently been begging off, so I went without him a few times. On Christmas Eve after we put the kids to bed, as usual there were waaaaay too many presents, which we brought upstairs and set under the tree. Then we sat around with a glass of wine, and went to bed.
That night I dreamed it was Christmas morning and I was going downstairs to the living room to get my presents. I walked and walked, down halls, through familiar rooms, turning corners to find yet another set of rooms and halls, knowing there were good things for me there, I’d seen them! but finally realizing I was never going to get there and they were never to be mine.
We separated permanently about 8 weeks later after he started being violent c me and the kids. My therapist found that dream very interesting. It’s one of the very few I’ve ever had that I remember so completely.
Sorry to disappoint, DaveyDo, working on inadequate information again, I guess.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
12 minutes ago, Curious1997 said:
Personally, I think you would be great with kids. Local school. I think kids would connect with your sense of humor and maybe you could teach them to navigate the world without electronics and gadgetry.
Thank you, Curious.
Back in my public art days, I use to go around to different elementary and junior high schools and magically transform kids into artists. One elementary school class had me laughing 'til I cried, with the students quoting lines from Animal House and The Elephant Man.
It seems that once I've done something and have gotten good results, I have no need to do it again.
It's not that I'm unhappy or in need of anything. Like The Stranger said in The Big Lebowski, "I can die with a smile on my face, feeling like The Good Lord hasn't gypped me".
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
8 minutes ago, Hannahbanana said:
Sorry to disappoint, DaveyDo
One cannot be disappointed if one does not have expectations, my dear HB.
Besides, we pessimists only expect the worst, so this is pretty dang good.
The sky is going to fall, however.
Your dreams sound like an endless journey, which can be good. As Daniel Gilbert says in Stumbling On Happiness, "Expecting an event is like getting twice the juice from one orange. We get to anticipate the event, and then we get to experience the event".
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Another part of the dream, which preceded the tiff and the old man:
The dream took place on the road which transverses the valley where I live and I decided to jog the length. Now, I have done no serious jogging in years, only walking, bicycling, or using my elliptical. But in my dreams I can jog for miles without exhaustion.
As flying in dreams is symbolic for freedom, I believe jogging is my freedom. I use to jog for miles before I tore my right ACL.
So what my subconscious is saying is freedom>family tiff>sick, stinky old man. Something else was that the EMS & PD personnel gave me recognition for my actions.
Retirement=freedom.
The tiff was superficial.
When I called 911, the dispatcher asked some questions that I had to go back and ask the old man, like his name. I couldn't understand what he said, his speech was garbled, so I asked him to spell it. Something like, A-M-M-S.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
I'm still stuck on the inanimate art project leg that turned out to be connected to a live, but neglected person. And Davey, you've already done all kinds of performance art that you are not interested in revisiting.
I can't shake the idea that somewhere there is an audience of some type waiting for you. That's what's nagging me after reading about your dream.
I have always liked the theory that everyone in our dreams represents different parts of ourselves. Although someone once told me that dreams mean whatever they mean to you, and to just settle my brain on how does the dream make me feel -- absent the distraction of confusing images and situations.
My experience is that once I left an incredibly stressful job that had me emotionally clenched for years, and had more time to relax and think, the floodgates opened and a lot of stuff I had not been processing blew up on me, which was very much not good.
But it sounds like you really enjoyed your job and your dreams reflected that. This dream to me sounds like you while you acknowledge that the world can be harmful to others, you see yourself as someone who creates art and beauty out of repairing that harm and your brain is acknowledging the discomfort of that.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
2 minutes ago, TriciaJ said:
I can't shake the idea that somewhere there is an audience of some type waiting for you. That's what's nagging me after reading about your dream.
A dream of portends, perhaps?
As soon as I submitted my last post, I saw some symbolism:
In 2020, I knew that I'd be retiring in 2021, and believed I would just ease (jog) my way to retirement. I had been fired from Wrongway due to reporting inappropriate behavior and misinterpretation of state laws and P&P, which led to my termination being on trumped up charges (tiff).
What I had believed to be a stinky situation gave me all the world and time to do my art and be with my dying little sister. The recognition from the responding emergency personnel could be symbolic of the DAISY award.
What do you think? Edgar Cayce said we are the best interpreters of our dreams. Maybe my subconscious was merely rehashing a time in my life!
Oh! The stinky sick old man could have been symbolic of my geriatric psych job!
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
18 minutes ago, Davey Do said:
The stinky sick old man could have been symbolic of my geriatric psych job!
7 minutes ago, Davey Do said:
More symbolism: The old man's right eye was a gaping hole which makes me consider Matthew 5:29, "If your right eye causes you to sin..."
"...pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell".
The old man symbolised Wrongway Regional Medical Center. I am, symbolically, the right eye that was thrown away.
Even though I wish to hold no ill will toward those I feel have wronged me, forgiveness is a cyclical process. Every time I feel ill will toward somebody who I want to forgive, I have to forgive them all over again.
Lately, I've been revisiting some ill will toward those responsible for my demise at Wrongway. My subconscious is reminding me, through symbolism, the uncomfortable feelings that I had to deal with. My subconscious is reminding me to continue to forgive.
I guess that could also mean that Wrongway is going to hell (in a handbasket) without me.
Perhaps your subconscious is telling you that you have unfinished business. Since you mentioned no more work (I don't blame you in the least), I doubt that's it. Perhaps there are other outlets in art that your mind needs to explore. Another hobby? I don't know, dear, the human mind is not my forte. I'm a heart and kidneys kinda girl.
1) In the dream you performed as would be expected.
And felt very uncomfortable.
You are working through the fact that even though your current status (retired) is not unexpected for your stage of life, and you aren't unhappy being retired (and in fact are doing many things you enjoy) you are very much in the process of accepting the larger meanings of that stage of life.
Taking stock.
Coming to terms with what life has been so far and accepting it.
Cornfields are places where you can get lost. They make mazes out of cornfields where people entertain themselves by finding their way through.
Kind of like life.
*****
Wrote this ^ earlier and wanted to think on it before posting.
I think this is congruent with it:
1 hour ago, Davey Do said:
Lately, I've been revisiting some ill will toward those responsible for my demise at Wrongway. My subconscious is reminding me, through symbolism, the uncomfortable feelings that I had to deal with. My subconscious is reminding me to continue to forgive.
Hannahbanana, BSN, MSN
1,265 Posts
My most common dreams have me traveling or walking endlessly, never reaching where I planned to go. Interestingly they often incorporate aspects of familiar cities, blocks, neighborhoods, or buildings, which is entertaining.
But sometimes they speak to me directly.
When my first marriage was very shaky my husband and I took our two small ones to visit my dad for Christmas. We had been in couples therapy for about 6 months and making some good progress, but he had recently been begging off, so I went without him a few times. On Christmas Eve after we put the kids to bed, as usual there were waaaaay too many presents, which we brought upstairs and set under the tree. Then we sat around with a glass of wine, and went to bed.
That night I dreamed it was Christmas morning and I was going downstairs to the living room to get my presents. I walked and walked, down halls, through familiar rooms, turning corners to find yet another set of rooms and halls, knowing there were good things for me there, I’d seen them! but finally realizing I was never going to get there and they were never to be mine.
We separated permanently about 8 weeks later after he started being violent c me and the kids. My therapist found that dream very interesting. It’s one of the very few I’ve ever had that I remember so completely.
Sorry to disappoint, DaveyDo, working on inadequate information again, I guess.