[Dragonfly33]

Just wanted to share something quickly. Last night, I woke up at around 2 in the morning from a terrible nightmare. I dreamt of my xh and in my dream I was informed by someone or his mom ( can’t remember anymore) that my xh died from a car accident many months ago. Somehow in my dream I cried my heart out. I felt guilty, that our last talk in person didn’t end in a positive way. We were fighting, and I was so sad it was the last talk I had with him and I was so angry at him. I couldn’t say sorry or couldn’t tell him I forgave him. I felt guilty that I never contacted him and asked him how he was. How is that even possible that until now, I’m the one feeling guilty? In reality though I don’t think I have totally forgiven my xh. My goodness, the dream felt so real that I woke up with a heavy heart. It’s been a long while since I dreamt about him. Sometimes they just come in the most unexpected moment. Even though I am quite content with the trajectory of my life right now, I still feel wobbly when reminded of my xh. Like those feelings were still fresh. Luckily they don’t linger that long anymore.

[Nas]

I’m sorry, that sounds like an incredibly distressing dream. It’s interesting, there must be something going on with the universe because I too have been having wildly vivid nightmares lately. Luckily none involving my former spouse. I know there’s debate over what dreams actually are but I really do think that it’s just a manifestation of unprocessed emotions. I know some people think there’s symbolism and this and that, and I don’t necessarily agree, but I do think that it’s never a bad thing to examine a particularly salient dream and see if there is some kind of underlying unprocessed/unfinished business there. Or if the dream is reinforcing or contradicting a story we’re telling ourselves. It’s funny, I just recently re-watched the fantastic (and slightly mlc adjacent) Stories We Tell, and I come away with something different every time I watch it. And I did realize recently that one of my really explicit nightmares was connected to one of my own “stories I tell“ that I think was helpful for me to look at through a different lens. The stories we tell ourselves become the reality through which we process our lives, but sometimes those stories contain omission or outdated perspectives or retrospective interpretations that either don’t serve our current reality or are being used as unexamined protective mechanisms. I do think that kind of stuff leaks out sometimes through dreams. Just my humble thoughts…