Healing from Nightmares

By Anna-Karin Bjorklund, M.A.

Nightmares can be terribly frightening! You feel them deep down into the bone, your heart is beating fast, and you truly feel as if you have actually just experienced what you dreamt of.  The body is unable to differentiate between what is happening to you in your “real life” and in a dream so it is no wonder you feel shocked! Your mind is going wild as you wake up, and you may even be wondering why you are being punished with something so awful and terrifying.

Everyone has experienced a nightmare at some point.  Some people though are being haunted by them on a nightly basis.  They may even dread going to bed at night, because they feel so terrified of them. It doesn’t need to be that way! Nightmares are here to help us heal. The healing path opens once we acknowledge and work with them.

Why do we have Nightmares?

A nightmare is a desperate cry for help from your higher self.  You are not getting the message, so the dream has now turned into something incredibly strong and terrifying to ensure you are listening.

Nightmares develop when we ignore an issue in our lives too long.  Our “regular” nightly dreams help us become aware of any life situations we are not giving enough attention to in our daily lives, and help us solve dilemmas and find solutions to problems. If you choose to ignore the messages, or simply don’t listen to your dream, it will come back, in stronger and scarier form, and eventually becomes so terrifying you no longer have a choice but not to ignore it. It is now felt throughout your whole body, and you may even feel so terrified you don’t even want to go back to sleep, as you feel afraid you may have it again.  You are now fully aware of your dream!  Your higher self has succeeded, the dream has made an impact on you, and you now have no choice but to listen.

If you still don’t listen, the dream will come back to you. If it keeps haunting you in the same form, you are now having a recurring dream. Our dreams don’t like being ignored! Sometimes you get different types of nightmares instead of recurring similar ones.  In those situations, the dream is attempting different ways of getting the message through to you.

I recommend working with all your dreams, because if you pay attention to your “regular’ dreams, the risk of them developing into nightmares is significantly reduced (unless of course you are still not getting the message!).  With some types of dreams and life scenarios it is recommended to seek professional help.  This applies in particular to nightmares that have developed from a real life trauma, also known as PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:

OM Times Magazine » syndicated