Dreams

Anything can happen in dreams. ANYTHING. That’s why dreams are magical, and dangerous, and wondrous, full of hope and full of terror. In dreams, the door to our unconscious is open. Wide open. And anything becomes possible.

Empaths and highly sensitive people experience life with a certain intensity because we can experience other’s emotions spilling into ours. The same is true in dreams. We find comrades or sense danger within our dream companions. Emotions are magnified and personified. Our dreams are also very vivid. They might seem fantastical, but they feel very real to us.

As a child, I had night terrors on a regular basis. I would awake bathed in sweat and too afraid to return to the dream world. I was an imaginative kid, and the line between real and dream state was just too thin.

Yet, dreams are messengers, although sometimes unwelcome ones. They tell us to look, see, discover, and process. Look what happened to you, see how you can get past it, discover the new worlds out there waiting for you, and we will process it all. If you can’t process it during the day, we will do it at night. (My shadow side used to wait for me downstairs in my dreams, and he was a pretty scary guy. Once I dealt with the big issue with help during the day, he stopped appearing.)

On the flip side, dreams offer adventure and fun. You can meet your personal heroes and hang out with them. (I have!) You can visit new places and literally go anywhere. You can have super powers like flying or being invisible. Because in dreams, boundaries melt away and the possibility of encounters is endless.

Dream life is a part of life. We may be tired with the emotion and adventure of it all, but we can also be in awe for the gift of it too.

I dream about paths, roads, bridges, and stairs. A lot. I am in motion – going somewhere or leaving somewhere. Often in haste. Sometimes alone. Sometimes with others. Usually there is some searching for someone or something involved. I often wake tired because it’s been a busy night. I’ve been traveling.

Dreams are a journey inward, so it’s no surprise that empaths and highly sensitive people would have an active dream life. We are working out the emotions of the day in full technicolor (although, sometimes I dream in black and white, too). And our dreams are vivid dreams. The setting may be surreal, but it feels very real at the moment. The people may be known or unknown, but we feel connected in some way to everyone that enters. The emotions evoked in the dream are strong. They will often stay with us in our waking lives.

So if we are traveling a lot in our dreams, what does it mean? Climbing stairs, crossing bridges, searching for the right road, finding the buried path? Add your own? A cursory search of dream meanings tells us this:

To walk through an open path in your dream signifies clarity of thought and peace of mind. It also symbolizes your progress. To see a blocked or windy path in your dream denotes that you need to give serious attention to the direction you are heading in life. (dreammoods.com)

A smooth, straight highway signifies inner peace, while a winding, bumpy road reflects emotional distress/disharmony. (dreammoods.com)

As in waking life, a bridge in dreams can be a point of connection – linking two places or things. It may also be a way to cross over an obstacle, like a river. Consider what the bridge is connecting and what it is traversing. (dreamscloud.com)

Stairs To dream that you are walking up a flight of stairs indicate that you are achieving a higher level of understanding. You are making progress into your spiritual, emotional or material journey. The dream is also analogous to material and thoughts that are coming to the surface. (dreammoods.com)

Paths, roads, bridges, and stairs in our dreams are all about connection. Connection with others, and connection with our deepest selves. We can literally explore through these symbols. Our unbridled unconscious is showing us the way. We are forever travelers.