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Dear Amy,
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I have often had a recurring dream that I arrive to high school and I am missing a part of my clothing, everytime the clothing is different.  I am often missing my shoes, but I am fully dressed, or I am missing pants but have shoes and a shirt on or I am wearing a jacket, pants, and shoes but when I remove my coat, I have no shirt on.  I always have the chance to cover the nude parts, but I never do and I worry that everyone can see me, but they never look.  Can you interpret my dream?

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-SRA

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Dear SRA,
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First of all, rest assured, many elements of this dream are very common.  A general meaning of this dream is that it represents anxiety about not being fully prepared or “covered”.  High school is a very common setting for anxiety dreams.  It makes sense because high school is one of the first times in development  where you need to be responsible for many things and have a higher  level of independence.  High school is also a time where most people are looking for peer approval, so it is in this time of life that we have experienced embarrassment, concern about not being “cool” enough, etc.  Forgetting your clothing is also a very common element of a dream.  To me it suggests worry about not being prepared or having forgotten something, and being exposed for everyone to see your mistake.  It can also be connected to worrying about loss of face, people’s image of you, and other things like that which we connect with our appearance in everyday life.

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I think it is interesting that you don’t cover up whatever article of clothing is missing, and people don’t seem to notice.  I have a few thoughts about that.  As for not covering up, it could be that you are frozen for some reason and don’t even think of the option of covering up, even though it would make you feel better (ie the solution is right there and easy but you don’t see it).  Or it could be that you don’t even need to cover up because it’s not as big a deal as you worry it is, because no one even notices.  In that case, maybe it represents something in your life that feels like a big deal to you, but is not really as big a deal to others whom you perceive as possibly judging you.
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Reflection Questions:

- What was high school like for you?  What do you think it represents to you?

- How would you feel in waking life if you forgot an article of clothing and went out in public?  Sit with that feeling for a minute and see if it could be connected to an issue in your life right now.  For example, if you think you would feel embarrassed, really experience that feeling for a little while, and let yourself open up to an area where you actually might be feeling embarrassed in life recently.

- Since this is a recurring dream, you have a good opportunity to change the outcome the next time it comes up.  You can spend some time really imagining the scenario, and think about what you would like to do the next time you dream it.  For example, maybe you want to cover up, or maybe you want to take all your clothes off and parade around because you don’t care what people think!  It’s totally up to you, depending on what you feel this dream is really representing for you.  Spend some time thinking about the new scenario, and with enough practice, you can change the dream.  Once you do that, the dream may even stop recurring.

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Happy Dreaming!

Amy