Inner child dreaming

[Rainydaze]

I had a dream yesterday morning where my dad was holding some kind of tool (think it was a socket wrench or something). He had a strange expression on his face and I thought, "I haven't done anything to provoke him...he wouldn't really throw that at me, would he?" but he threw it at my head and I ran as far away from him as I could. I had a complete breakdown in the dream and ended up crying my heart out hysterically to anyone who would listen, though the only one I could really remember was an old work colleague. When I woke up I felt sick to my stomach and my chest hurt, as though I really had been heaving sobs.

I think it was my former self in the dream (my inner child?) rather than me as an adult. I felt overwhelmingly sad because the child was terrified and the one person who should have been there to protect her instead physically attacked her. I think this might be my sub-conscious coming to terms with what did happen and seeing it for what it really is. The good thing is that I feel so much compassion to myself now for what I did go through. It's just hard to fathom how a parent could treat their child the way he did. 

[arpy1]

i get these too.  it's not nice to wake up from, but yes, i agree that it's inner child rather than grown up - i think they are a kind of EF in dream form. so yes, self compassion seems a good way to go when waking up.   

i think this  becos i get 'family dreams' and also a lot of what i call 'community dreams'  which are dreams about the cult and where i am trying to run away, or trying to get something done that is important for me and everything conspires to stop me and thwart me.  there's a lot of fear in my dreams, and frustration and guilt. often when i wake up i am in a EF state.

it's hard to work through that when you're still half asleep! kudos for doing just that, blues_cruise!

[Rainydaze]

It does sound like you experience similar then, arpy1. It's incredible what our brains piece together while we sleep. Not nice to wake up from but it is a reminder that some terrible stuff must have happened to make you feel that way! I'm finding that so much of it has been repressed. The more I talk about it the more a nagging part of me feels I must be over-exaggerating but after reading up on it all I see that this must be the method I created to protect myself from it.

You're right, it is hard to work through it when half asleep! It's fine when you have time to reflect on it and work through the feelings but having an emotional flashback when getting up for work really puts a downer on your day. 

[tired]

Walking through the fire.  It means I think that you are strong enough to deal with reality and your brain knows it, so it allows you to dream and remember.

[Rainydaze]

"Walking through the fire", yeah! I have come to many realisations recently about the past so I think you're right, my brain is trying to make sense of it all and come to terms with what was suppressed for so long.

[Kizzie]

Walking through the fire.  It means I think that you are strong enough to deal with reality and your brain knows it, so it allows you to dream and remember.

That's a really positive take on something scary  tired!