The reoccurrence nightmare that's plagued me since childhood.

[Ciaonat92]

Hi everyone I've been experiencing nightmares since I was a child and I now notice as a 21 year old they are always similar if not the same mainly about watching an attack generally involving lions. Tonight for example I awoke with ah feeling of terror I remember dreaming of a woman I don't know, she was living in a house in suburbia. The front room was an ornate living room with curtain drapery around the windows. In the room through the hall door , which always had it,s internal windows covered with a children's patterned curtain, was a female black lion. I seemed to be watching the dream from an out side perspective. The woman began to change the curtains on the lions windows, replacing then with the thick drop blinds from the living room, each time she removed the old curtain she ducked down in a panic state incase the lion were to see her. She went back and forth doing this a few times until somehow the lion became free of the room. She quickly ran through the hall door and shut her self in the living room, the door had no lock. Feeling scared she fled out the front door clambering a top the rooftops to get away, the lion in pursuits the entire time. I see her on the phone crying scared talking to an emergency operative and mentioning her newly born daughter. Then I wake up.

[JoannaB]

I think sometimes nightmares reoccur because an issue remains unresolved and continues to be on our minds. But at other times nightmares may reoccur I think even when the original issue is long gone, but we have learn subconsciously to expect those nightmares, and therefore they fulfill your expectations. Perhaps some days you have the subconscious fleeting thought that you have not had a lion themed nightmare in a while, and then sure enough you get another one. Of course, it would not work to try to force yourself to not think about them because avoidance may trigger dreams of what one is trying to avoid even more so. So what is a solution for such nightmares? First of all it may help to change your waking perception of those dreams, accepting them and not getting upset by them - a dream is only a nightmare if it is perceived negatively by the dreamer. Also lucid dreaming is an excellent tool for recurring nightmares because the recurrence can aid one in becoming lucid when recognizing a dream sign, such as your lions, and then one can control the dream and face the lions and for example befriend them or establish who is in charge (you are, not the lions). Without lucid dreaming though you could also try changing these dreams for the better through dream induction. After you have one of these dreams review it in your head and visualize an alternate ending in which you overcome the lions. Wishing you all the best!

[Scionox]

Indeed lucid dreaming is awesome for defeating fears and nightmares, and not only for that. If you want to learn more about it, here" the link to section with some nice tutorials: Induction Methods and Techniques *Moved to nightmares and recurring dreams*