I have a recurring dream. In the dream there are random tigers that I'm afraid of and I do everything to avoid them. But no-one else is concerned about the tigers. The Tigers never hurt me or seem aggressive.

It took time and a fair amount of therapy over the years to understand what these dreams were all about. As I understand it dreams are reflections of your inner self - the good and the bad. People, animals, buildings etc. are all parts of me. The Tigers were a reflection of my anger. Unexpressed anger that I had stored up for years. Anger towards my Father, the bully at school, the teacher, my 2 wives... but ultimately anger towards my self! My dreams were symbols of the 'wild' emotions in me that I was afraid of.

Interestingly, unexpressed anger can lead to depression and anxiety. Think of the word 'de-press(ion)'. Keeping all that anger inside is toxic to the whole body and takes a lot of energy (tension) to keep it there.

As you can imagine, I wanted to purge myself of these negative emotions that had built up. There is no easy way to do this because, as I see it, I need to process the feelings, get in touch with them, in order to let them go - and it's hard! Over the years I've accumulated a whole library of books devoted to releasing unwanted feelings. I've had different forms of massage, Reiki, Tibetan breathing, Yoga, Feldenkrais, Shiatsu, etc...

I conclude that the mind-body will release old emotions when it's ready and not before. I can't force emotions out that have been stored for years partly because there was a reason they were not expressed in the first place. It was how I survived at the time.

What recurring dreams have you had and have you thought about what they might be symbolising?

Have you found helpful ways of letting go of unwanted 'old' emotions?

Be lucky,

Mark

A Moodscope member.