Dreams have been a mysterious topic for many of us for decades. Everyone has a different take on dreams. For some, it’s what the dream interpretation books say, and for some others, they simply don’t even mean anything.

For the famous founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud though, dreams were a hidden pathway to the subconscious mind. He believed that dreams are symbolic and they release messages from ego and reveal suppressed emotions. By carefully examining our dreams, we can have a better understanding of what are we holding back or what tendencies we need to pay attention to.

It may be a complicated process to make sense of dreams because their meanings are usually symbolic. However, when we can understand our dreams, we may actually get a chance to break the old patterns and release the stuck emotions.

Especially with recurring dreams, understanding becomes even more important. Recurring dreams usually happen for a reason, they raise our conscious awareness to call attention to a feeling, repressed need, or unresolved issue.

Recurring venting dreams

It’s believed that during sleep, the brain is actually very active. Through the different stages of sleep, the body and the mind continue to repair, restore, boost the immune system and help with the integration of emotions.

A part of the mental restoration that takes place during sleep is known as venting. We tend to suppress emotions, thoughts, and experiences as we go through life day by day. Dreams allow us to release these repressed feelings slowly and help us integrate emotions subconsciously.

Venting dreams usually happen in the early morning hours, usually right before we wake up. This is why we tend to remember them. Some venting dreams may feel like a relief and you may wake up feeling refreshed. On the contrary, sometimes you may wake up feeling sad or anxious from a venting dream. This is also normal because it points out the emotions you may have been suppressing.

If you usually have a recurring dream right before you wake up, this may be part of your venting process. Your subconscious mind may be trying to vent out a stuck emotion that has been affecting your life, or an unprocessed event.

Recurring dreams revealing stuck emotions

Often times we have recurring dreams because of an unmet need, unprocessed negative emotion, or something we are not ready to face. Either way, it may be hard for you to identify what your dream means by just trying to understand the symbolism behind.  

A good place to start is to remember when the recurring dream first started. From there, you can try to pay attention and see what changes happened in your life that may have caused dysregulation subconsciously.  

Another good area to focus on is the dominant emotion that is felt in the dream. If you pay attention to the big picture, what is the main feeling that you get from that recurring dream? After you can pinpoint that emotion, think of what other incident in your life you felt similar emotions?

Understanding the symbols of the recurring dreams

You can take a look at a dream interpretation book and read the meanings of hundreds of different symbols. However, we are all very different. We all have different beliefs, cultures, and upbringing. It’s unreasonable to expect to identify a personal subconscious symbol with one meaning that applies to all.

Each person, place, item, or even action that we have in a dream may be symbolic. Oftentimes, each of these has an additional underlying meaning for us.

For example, in your dream, you may see a dog following you, and you trying to push this dog away. If you associate the meaning of a dog with loyalty, your dream can mean something like loyalty coming your way but you somehow reject this loyalty.

In your recurring dream, what are the main characters, actions, or objects? When you think about these, what comes to your mind? What is their hidden meaning for you? Pay attention to your own associations and think about your recurring dream within your own subconscious context.