Recurring Dream Fragment: Struggle to Walk at a Normal Pace

I'm having a reoccurring fragment in a dream. By fragment I mean that this happens in every dream I've remembered for the past couple months. The dreams have all varied.

In my dreams, as I am trying to walk, some force comes over me and makes it impossible for me to walk at a normal pace. Almost like my joints just won't work. Each step I take is a struggle and painstakingly slow. Sometimes this happens when I am just casually walking with someone. Sometimes it happens when I need to hurry and walk fast. Sometimes the person with me gets annoyed at my inability to walk at a normal pace even though they see I am struggling. I try to explain what I am feeling -- "It's like some force that is pushing against me and not letting me walk forward." I also find my dream self is becoming more and more frustrated about not being able to walk with each dream. Recently I have found that if I jump up and down it "wakes up" my joints and I can walk normal again. But it's short-lived. I am ever only able to get a couple of normal steps in until I struggle to take a step again.

This is very common in dreams. I used to have it worse than that - I used to have to drop to hands and knees and crawl, and even then I'd find my legs floating up in the air behind me so that I had to actually grip the ground with my hands somehow and forcibly pull myself forward that way. Wow - I just now realized how telling that image really was - crawling like a baby! Lol - how did I not see it at the time?

A psychologist would say it reflects a feeling of not being able to make any headway in life, like maybe you're not advancing the way you should. You might be living with your parents when you should be working toward getting out on your own for instance, or maybe you just need to get a job (or a better one) or take some more responsibility in some way for your own life.

I haven't dreamed like that in a long time now, and it's probably because lately I've been working hard toward bettering my life.

There are other dream themes that reflect the same or very similar ideas - for instance dreaming of being a passenger in somebody else's car, especially if it's one of your parents, and even more especially if their driving seems dangerous or drunk or somehow crazy. There's also the related dream of trying to drive a car yourself but finding that you can't control it properly. I used to dream that I was standing on the street driving a real full-sized car using a remote control, and I would do fine until the car got up around the first bend when I suddenly realized I couldn't see it anymore and then I would hear it crash. Or sometimes I would be backing the car out of the driveway and couldn't stop - no matter how hard I'd press the brakes it would slow down a little but just keep going and I couldn't clearly see what was behind me. It kept going back so far that I was sure it was about to smash through the neighbor's house across the street. Being on a bus or a train can also reflect the same idea of not being in control of your own life - it depends on what's happening in the dream.

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Originally Posted by Darkmatters

A psychologist would say it reflects a feeling of not being able to make any headway in life, like maybe you're not advancing the way you should. You might be living with your parents when you should be working toward getting out on your own for instance, or maybe you just need to get a job (or a better one) or take some more responsibility in some way for your own life.

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This makes a lot of sense. I lost my job several months ago. I felt I needed to take a break from working to get my head on straight. I couldn't afford my apartment with unemployment so I moved out of state to stay with family. Now that I am ready to move back, I am having a hard time getting a job. I can't afford to move back without a job and because of my two dogs, no one will take me in.