How to Stop Recurring Nightmares

There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming. - Soren Kierkegaard 

Murder, monsters, vampires, endless falling, death, destitution, failing...all of these things, and others, can be nightly visitors while we sleep, inhibiting our knowledge of reality and plunging us into a dark sea of fear and sadness. What could be the purpose or intent of such heart-pounding dream dramas?

The majority of nightmares intend to shock us in order to get our attention—shock therapy from what I like to think of as our essential nature, the real you. For instance, I once had a dream of a lion stalking me, intent on killing and eating me, which totally terrified me in the dream. For me, that dream represented a wild cat, something instinctive, natural, powerful, and completely authentic that wanted to get me. A nightmare in this category intentionally drags us into its dark den in order to wake us up. Such dreams create valuable terror, shock and panic the True Self often uses as a last resort, trying to save our genuine life, to liberate us from self-destructive patterns or behaviors.

When we are hypercritical and judgmental of ourselves, we are likely to have recurring nightmares of running for our life, being chased by someone or something, typically wielding a weapon or knife. That tongue-like, razor-sharp knife blade or the bullet in the brain often symbolizes the many ways we kill ourselves and our creative potential with negative self-criticisms.