THE DREAM I had a dream that I was on a boat in the ocean. It was a sunny day and the waters were calm. At some point I found myself underwater, looking up at sharks. I could see their mouths and teeth very clearly, and I felt nervous, but they never did anything threatening. I don't know how but I then found myself on the boat again, there was a big, beautiful yellow fish tied down to the bow. I could see it gasping, and dying. I pulled it free from the ropes and released him. Then I must have dived off of the boat and was swimming away, but not towards any beach - just swimming. My body was so strong, I remember with each stroke the whole top half of my body would come out of the water.

THE REALITY The dreamer was at somewhat of a crossroads. She had been trying to figure out if she had made a mistake in both her job and current relationship, and whether or not she need to move on in both scenarios. She still lacks a definitive answer. She was woken by her boyfriend who was phoning her up.

DREAM INTERPRETATION Well dreams like this are probably very hard to interpret. They are by their very nature very symbolic. There are no people in the dream Generally speaking dreams involving swimming will involve you showing emotional effort. They show that you are in some way not happy about your emotions in some way. Sharks too must be a sign of troubles and of resentments emotionally.

The boat is symbolic of emotional momentum. If you are in the boat it will generally link to some emotional feelings that you are sure about. Boats can link to friends and happy times. In this case they probably symbolise sureness. Here the dreamer says that she was having doubts. The boat in the dream could represent those doubts. The boat represents sureness because if you are sure then you have a sense of confidence in your opinion. But here she jumps off the boat into the water showing that she is not sure. That she has maybe overreacted to something.

Fish in dreams tend to link to subconscious feelings forming. They symbolise emotions maybe even of others. They link to subconscious thoughts. They symbolise moments when you are trying to work out what your own views are or what other peoples emotions are.

Of course such a dream can be seen to link to the dreamers doubts about her boyfriend and job. Its difficult to tell for sure. But all these symbols link to the emotions so it has to be an obvious target. But you can never be so sure in such a symbolic dream.

The beach is probably the most telling symbol here. It symbolises where the facts(the land) meet our feelings(the sea) in dreams. So beaches then will link to situations where we have emotional clarity. But going out to sea could link to situations where we have feelings on a subject but they are just related to emotions and not to the facts. They may relate to emotional undercurrents and feelings that swim about in our subconscious. So the one clear symbol here is the beach or lack of one. The dreamer is therefore thinking through things on a purely emotional level.

Symbolic Meanings
BEACH : "think about our emotions in a practical way "
BOAT : "emotional momentum - sureness in the dreamers mind about her doubts"
FISH : "The dreamer has a strong sense of what she wants"
SHARKS : "the dreamers strong sense of resentment with her boyfriend and job"
SWIMMING STRONGLY : "Emotional effort - the dreamer is going to carry on but and will probably put her doubts to one side for now but she knows what she wants"

DREAM MEANING The dream captures the following feeling within the dreamer - "
I am unsure of my own feelings right now. I am unsure of my job and my relationship. I am wondering what my feelings are."

This was a personality dream - here are some other dreams of the same kind

• Excrement - dream analysis
• End of the world - dream analysis
• Dream interpretation - panic whilst cross bridge
• Rolling downhill dream
• Being a student and shouting dream
• Sleepover with best friend dream
• Wolf Friend dream analysis
• Throwing up bugs dream
• Swimming pool dream
• Snake chasing me dream
• Dream about a swaying skyscraper
• Pet mouse dream
• Dream interpretation - Pearl harbour
• Welcoming fire - dream analysis
• Dream about avoiding people
• Shark infested waters dream
• Ocean, cliff, boat
• Spider poses no threat dream
• Dream about being a drug addict
• Big dolphin dream
• At old house where I have no right to be there - dream interpretation
• Football poster and soldier - dream symbolism
• Shark threatening - dream interpretation
• My college ex-boyfriend
• Refitting work to be done

If you have a dream to add to our huge bank of dreams then email me at colincoupland5@gmail.com