What Dreams About Drowning Really Mean

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This article may contain affiliate links.

Dreams have long since been considered a reflection of the mind. For centuries now, the interpretation of dreams has helped people better understand their troubles, wishes, desires, and even their futures.

Our dreams become even more tumultuous when we're facing stress or going through change, and the way that can be represented in dreams isn't always a direct parallel of our lives, instead reflecting our subconscious in an abstract manner. That allows our dreams to become very surreal while still carrying significant meaning. Keep reading to learn more!

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Dropping Down

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Dreams can be a window into the subconscious, a realm where our deepest fears, desires, and emotions play out in symbolic narratives. Aspects of our minds that we weren't even aware of come to the forefront, sending us messages about our waking lives that are important to take note of.

Some types of dreams are more common than others, suggesting they share a common meaning across populations. Among these shared dreams, dreaming of drowning is particularly evocative and relatively popular. If you've ever woken up from a drowning dream, gasping for air and feeling a lingering sense of panic, you're not alone. Let's investigate what these dreams are saying about your waking life.

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The Flow Of Water

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The first important thing to note is that the element of water often represents our emotions, their fluidity, and the way they move us. Water is kind, empathetic, and healing, but it is also deep, cold, and harbors vast expanses of the unknown.

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Drowning in waters that carry this much symbolism already tells us that these dreams not only carry heavy meanings but also carry very varied meanings, so determining the meaning of your drowning dream will take some close analysis.

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Feeling The Weight

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The first and most common meaning of drowning dreams is that you're struggling with feelings of being out of control or overwhelmed. Fighting against a force that surrounds you, that represents weighty emotions, all while fearing that there's nothing you can do about it, that all culminates in visions of drowning while you sleep.

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It's also possible that such a dream may highlight areas of your life where you're not keeping your head above water, such as in your professional life, personal relationships, or within the personal challenges you're facing.

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Keeping It Inside

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Drowning dreams can also be a measure of our unexpressed or unprocessed feelings, acting as emotional barometers. If you're experiencing a particularly stressful period or coping with emotions that have been bottled up, these dreams may be signaling a need to release and confront these feelings before they overwhelm you.

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On the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, drowning in dreams can also represent a fear of being overtaken or losing ourselves in what we feel. Both of these meanings represent an irregularity in how we process what we feel. We're either doing it too much or not enough.

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Near Or Far

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The body of water in which you're drowning can also change the meaning. While drowning in an ocean might symbolize vast, overwhelming emotions, a pool might indicate emotions that are more contained but are still troubling. The ocean versus a pool can also point towards whether this stress you're facing is 'close to home,' so to speak, or if it's distant, maybe centering another person rather than yourself.

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Maybe you're not the one drowning in this dream. If you're attempting to save someone else from drowning, it could reflect a burdensome sense of responsibility or a desire to rescue a particular relationship in your waking life.

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Thorough Analysis

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To understand the message behind your drowning dream, it's important to consider the context of your current life situation. Are you facing challenges that leave you feeling overwhelmed? Are there unresolved issues that you need to confront? What is your process for handling and working through your emotions?

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If you're unsure what part of your life these dreams are referencing, see where your mind goes as soon as you wake up from them. That immediate association could tell you exactly what troubles are rooting themselves in your subconscious.

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Expressing It All

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Once you've woken up from a drowning dream, it's beneficial to take practical steps to process the experience. This may sound silly if you've never done deep dream analysis, but sitting down to really think and meditate on these experiences is the only way to help rid yourself of these troubling dreams.

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Begin by journaling about the dream and your feelings about it as soon as you can after waking up. You want your memory to be as fresh as possible. Also, consider discussing the dream with a trusted friend or therapist who can offer a different perspective and assist you in working through the underlying issues.

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Healing The Mind

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Dreams about drowning are scary. While some may consider them simply stress dreams, others find them to be full-blown nightmares, lingering in your mind and continuing to affect you hours into your day.

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There's no surefire way to cure any type of bad dream, but what you can do is try to rid yourself of the reason you're having them. By identifying, analyzing, and thinking about what these dreams are calling attention to, we can focus on healing these pained parts of our psyche.

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