I've been getting this dream lately

[LiberalEsto]

I keep dreaming that I'm living someplace, and I have to move out, but every time I think I've got the place cleared out, I find more and more stuff that needs to go.The deadline for being out is fast approaching. In some dreams the deadline is already past and someone else has started moving in. I keep going back, and finding important things that somehow got forgotten. And piles of junk to be thrown out. It feels like the moving out process is never going to end. And nobody else -- meaning family members -- is helping me.

Sometimes I'm moving out of an apartment, sometimes it's a dorm room (at the end of a semester), sometimes a house or even a rented vacation cottage. I've been a homeowner for almost 30 years, so I can't figure out why I'm worrying about clearing out of a dorm room or an apartment.

Any insights?

[MorningGlow]

1. Oooh symbolic/spiritual housecleaning

Way cool. Looks like you've got a lot of clearing to do, but it ain't junk in a house--it's in your spiritual life. We're all going through that at this point, to some degree--we're getting ready for the shift/next phase of life. Enjoy! :hi:

[crikkett]

2. recurring stress dream, moving, homes.

You have a stress dream! They go away when you identify and start resolving whatever triggers them. It seems that everyone has their own stress dream, and it changes when your experience changes. Apparently you don't find being naked in your elementary class so stressful (joking about a typical stress dream).

So, I think you're stuck in a frustrating problem, probably one that you had before in the past, at a time in your life when you lived in apartments. It seems that your family can't help you with your problem.

Perhaps you need to resolve a hangup from your past, forgive someone, maybe yourself? Clear out something in your head that you thought you handled before but now you're finding it again.

Homes are reflections of ourselves. If you can remember where in the home your stuff is that you keep finding, it may be a clue as to where in your daily life the problem lies. (That's my new feng shui fad talking.)

Ayesha says that her dream-homes notify her of impending change in her life. Moving certainly points to change.

Is there something about the stuff you're moving? Are you remembering specific nouns or numbers? That may clue you in to your dream's message.

My brain dreams in puns and is (unfortunately?) less mysterious than I thought it was. It's like, giving me a break because I am too thick for riddles. For example yesterday I dreamt I put down a game of 'sorry' and later in the day I found myself not wanting to apologize for something when I should have.

[elleng]

6. OH THANK YOU, crikkett,

I love it! You've explained the 'naked' somewhere dreams! Now I'll try to remember my last!

[LiberalEsto]

13. Thanks for your insights

My husband and I recently became empty-nesters. My kids are 24 and 21, and they have been bouncing in and out of our home since they graduated high school. Each has dropped out of college a few times. Now one is living temporarily in New Orleans. The other is in southwestern Virginia but coming home one weekend a month for a doctor appointment.

This is the first period of my life when our daughters are both living away. Part of me loves it, but this Easter will be the first holiday with no kids, and it seems so strange.

Maybe these moving-out dreams have something to do with confusion over "moving out" of actively parenting. I'm finding out that you never really stop being a parent in some ways. By contrast, my parents did stop being parents. My mom died when I was 23, and my father cut off all communication after marrying the Evil Stepmother a few years later. (He died 20 years ago.) So I have no experience of being parented beyond age 23 and this is uncharted territory for me.

[crikkett]

14. You may have decoded your dream LiberalEsto!

In your dream you couldn't stop finding stuff to move out, just now you said that you never stop being a parent (my mom says that too, I'm nearly 40).

In your dream you said you didn't have help from your family, just now you said that you were in uncharted territory because you lost your parents in your twenties.

You may have been moving out of apartments in your dream because you're identifying with the stage of life your daughters are in, even as you are moving on to a new stage in your life, "Empty Nest".

But you can't finish moving because well, you can't.

:hug:

[Callie McAllie]

3. I have had recurring dreams very like this one

I agree with Crickett, it's about stress. Also maybe a little about not getting any help from anyone else in the family.

Are you a full-time working mom, perchance? Children under 10?

I had this series of dreams when I was really busy with both work and home. We'd be expecting company or leaving for vacation and it was up to me to pick up everything, put it all away, pack it, for everybody, and no one would help me. And the deadline was urgent, like we're catching a plane, and I kept finding stuff that needed to be picked up or packed away.

Anyway, my son got bigger and more responsible. I nagged my husband and he got a bit better about helping. I delegated more stuff at work and said no to the things I could say no to, and the dreams stopped.

For now...

:evilgrin:

[wickfordbard]

4. Moving can indicate a change of perspective

If you're moving out of dorms - where is your college mind? How did you see life when you were moving out of the dorm? If it's another apartment, perhaps you have a place you go to in your mind when - whenever - and it's time to leave that mindset behind. But you keep finding excuses not to change your perceptions, your beliefs, your mind-space.

When you've lingered too long in an old perception of life and yourself, you might dream this.

[elleng]

5. Hi LiberalEsto!

Don't mean to be self-centered, but as your dream sounds something like my life, I wondered if you might be recalling my brief recitation of my recent 'moves,' and adopting it as yours!

[LiberalEsto]

11. Didn't read it

but after reading all these posts, I think maybe this "cleaning out the junk" dream hits a fairly universal chord in folks.

[Celebration]

7. stress dreams, etc.

This talk of dreams is so interesting. Over the years the stress dreams for me have been

the naked ones
facing an exam when I never went to a single class
on a railroad track, the train is coming, and my legs won't run

They changed to

forgetting to feed the cats at night
getting way behind on monthly reports at work, and covering it up (not sure how I got away with it).

I get house dreams so much, though. It is generally about houses that I haven't lived in, though, but are semi-identifiable as to area. These are really cool houses, with secret rooms, etc. Sometimes I end up being talked into moving to another place I don't like as much. I really haven't moved much in the last 25 years so not sure why these come up.

My favorite dreams are water and air dreams. The flying dreams I have are so cool, but I haven't had one in a long time. I am swimming breaststroke in the air and feeling free. Once in a dream I swam the entire length of the Mississippi River. That goes down as my favorite dream ever.

[SheilaT]

8. Stress dreams are always

interesting, and in my opinion generally are a not very thinly disguised representation of what's going on in the dreamer's life.

Another version is the dream of being in school and suddenly it's the end of the semester and you have to take the final and you haven't studied, maybe haven't done the homework or attended class, and of course are totally unprepared for the test. The general explanation is, of course, that there's something in you're life you're unprepared for. Which I'm sure is generally true. However, when I was in high school, I'd have that dream about math class periodically. I was in a very rigorous advanced math program at my school, and did only okay in it. Fast forward some thirty years, and I'm now taking math again for the first time since high school. And those math class dreams? They returned. So I guess for me they really are math anxiety dreams, not just general anxiety dreams.

[Callie McAllie]

9. house dreams

For a while I had these really wonderful house dreams, where I was moving into a new house, or looking at one that I might move into, and the house was always much bigger and grander than it looked on the outside, and there were these great hidden rooms with wonderful amenities like a pool table or even a pool. Or a stable in the back full of horses.

I loved waking up from these dreams. They always made me feel like I had much more going for me than I give myself credit for. Very reassuring.

[Celebration]

12. the other night I had one of these

One house had two swimming pools in the front yard. It was sort of a stress dream too because the chlorine was not balanced (my responsibility). There were so many cool rooms--this was a nice house--not a palace--but everything inside was a sort of nice surprise.

Then, when I awakened, it took me about five minutes to figure out exactly the houses where I have lived. They were still confused in my mind.

[Callie McAllie]

10. When I was a teenager

I used to have these recurring dreams about snipers. I would be in a mall or in town or something, and there'd be a sniper shooting at people from an undisclosed location. All I could do was cower and hope I wasn't hit. I couldn't run or hide. This was in the 70s, long before there were any high school shootings.

Seems pretty clear to me it was about anxiety about boys and sex. I went to a women's college, and the dreams went away.

:-)

[katty]

15. the symbolism is obvious-keeping clearing up old matters

in your life and then take a new leap!