The key to your dreams is always in the details. If you often dream of flying, start paying attention to the way in which you’re flying, and what emotions accompany your experience.
Flying is one of the most exhilarating experiences we can have in our dreams, and perhaps this is why so many people ask me about it. While the majority of dreams depict difficult or negative emotions, dreams of flying seem to break through our concerns and lift us up to feelings of freedom,
empowerment and joy. In contrast, encountering difficulties while flying can be deeply unsettling, leaving us feeling powerless, detached or in
danger.
The key to understanding flying dreams is to pay attention to the way you are flying, and what emotion you’re experiencing in the dream. Then
ask yourself, “where in my life do I feel this way?”
Your flying dreams will begin to make sense when you can recognize their details as symbols for aspects of your life. Here are some examples of
how to use questions to understand your own personal dream language.
Write down your personal emotional associations with flying. For example: freedom, escape, gaining perspective, being limitless. Now have a closer look at the details of your dream:
Image: Flying close to the ground
Emotion: Fear
In the dream, do you need to work hard to stay above ground? Are there many obstacles in your way? Are you afraid you’re on a collision course
with something? Where in your life do you feel this way?
Image: Flying at high or low altitudes
Emotion: Exhilaration & Joy
In the dream, are you at a safe distance from events below? What are you flying towards or away from? Are you free to adjust your height, or
happy where you are? Are there other feelings, such as relief, personal power or determination? Is there an opportunity for you to feel like this
now in your life?
Image: Trying to take off but getting stuck
Emotion: Frustration
In the dream, what is stopping you from flying? Are you entangled in power lines (politics of power?), office buildings (work holding you back?)
or trees (need for inner work before you can fly?). Do you need help getting off the ground?
As you can see, questions are useful in connecting dream metaphors to life events. Write some of your own questions and see how dreams
communicate with you through their clever symbols.
Dream visionary, Carl Jung, felt flying dreams were expressions of our desire to break free of limitations and restrictions. Check in with yourself
next time you lift off… is this a feeling you’re craving? At this moment, do you have the potential to fly high if you make certain moves?
Your dreams are mirrors for how you truly feel, and who you really are. Why would you ignore the part of you who want to fly?
p.s. For those interested in lucid dreaming, flying can also be a marker that you have entered a lucid state. As we can’t fly while awake, finding
ourselves airborne can alert us to the fact that we’re dreaming.
