Last week we covered how the dog, the cat and cheating in a dream are the most common symbols pointing to and trying to help you with your relationship. And as promised, this week we are going to cover three more symbols to look out for.
A boat or ship
The love boat, two ships passing in the night, relationship… dreams love to reference figures of speech and play on words, and this is why a boat or ship will so often represent your relationship. Another reason is because boats and ships travel on water. To the dreaming mind, water will often represent your current emotional state and relationships are quite the emotional journey, aren’t they?
Danielle, a client of mine, had a dream that she was in a shipwreck. It had overturned and she was swimming through the debris, trying to find survivors when she came across a very young girl, floating there, almost dead. She immediately started CPR but woke up before the girl came to. She was worried that the dream might be showing her a glimpse of the future, that she might actually wind up in a shipwreck someday! But I knew right away that this dream was more likely about a relationship that had gone terribly wrong, so I asked her what was going on in the relationship department. She revealed to me that she had cheated on her boyfriend of four years and was desperately trying to fix things.
Like the ship, her relationship was now a wreck. But the girl represented the little bit of life that was still in the relationship, it wasn’t completely dead yet. Her ship dream was telling her to keep working on it, keep administering CPR to this relationship because there’s still hope!
Rings
As in jewelry, not the ring in the tub you haven’t gotten around to cleaning! We use rings to signify that we are taken and to signify the promise of eternal devotion to the one we love. So when you dream of a ring, odds are, it is because the dream is trying to help you with a relationship you are already committed to, or are thinking about committing to.
A friend of mine, Kristen, who is recently divorced and back in the dating game had an interesting dream about a ring the night she went on a first date with a guy. She dreamed she was back in the army and came across a ring in the dirt. She picked it up and saw that it was wrapped in tin foil. She then noticed she still had her wedding ring from her 1st marriage, which was abusive.
Kristen was back in the army in her dream because she had become very disciplined about dating and about who she was willing to date. The ring she finds represents her desire to be in a committed relationship again but unfortunately, the tin foil wrapping was telling her his behavior on the date had “foiled” any possibility of this relationship going any further and to “wrap it up”, as in, it’s over. He had timed her when she went to the bathroom to freshen up!! The ring from her first marriage was a reminder of what an abusive relationship was like and this guy was showing signs… and thankfully, her dreaming mind stepped in and made the message even louder for her.
Water
We touched on water a little bit when covering ships and boats but now we’re going to go a little … ahem… “deeper” into this symbol. Water in dreams will reflect your current emotional state because, like water, emotions are ever flowing and changing. Now, every time you dream of water it does not automatically mean that it is about your relationship because other areas of our lives affect our emotions as well. But we do tend to put more emotional investment into our relationships than anything else so, if you dream of water, look at what is going on in your relationship first.
Another client of mine, Jim, was having recurring dreams of drowning in muddy water for the last couple of months. Sometimes in these dreams he could feel someone grabbing his legs and pulling him down rather than trying to save him. Instead of starting by asking him about his relationship, I asked him what part of his life was causing him to feel so depressed. Drowning dreams are a sign of depression. He said his wife was really the one that was depressed, severely depressed. But in the last couple of months she had gotten worse and was leaning on him so much for support that it was bringing him down too. Notice how that correlates with how long he had been getting the dream? His dreams were trying to show him that this was beginning to “muddy the waters” in their relationship. It didn’t feel like they were husband and wife anymore. It felt like they were patient and therapist.
Because of these dreams, Jim realized how badly his wife’s depression was affecting their marriage AND how incapable he was of lifting her up and keeping her up. She is now in therapy and last I heard, she is beginning to manage her depression without medication!
Like the dreams above, your dreams are a constant source of guidance for your relationship too, when you pay attention to them. They come from that deeper, inner part of you that knows what’s best for you and your life. And they will be brutally honest with you when your waking mind refuses to be. Have you had any dreams similar to the ones in this article? Share them in the comments below.
Until next time, sweet dreams!
