I have a recurring dream that I know since a very long time. Back then I had this type of dream quite often, today maybe once a year if I can remember the dream. The dream is always different, but it is usually about a threat on the ground, a group of persons that want to harm me. But the dream is not scary, I’m untouchable because I can fly. The method I use to fly is always the same, I just need to flap with my elbows or arms and then I take off. With each flap I can gain a bit of altitude, but it seems I never could fly higher than 10 or 20 meters and not much longer than let’s say 10 or 20 flaps until I start to lose altitude.

I had this type of dream so often, and whenever there is a thread on the ground, it seems like I feel sorry for them in my dream, because they will see my superpower and it’ll make me untouchable because I will hover away from them. When I first started to experience these type of dreams, my 10 or 20 flaps were not enough to get away from the thread, but over the years it seems my brain learned to make use of the limited flaps in the dream. I don’t have this dream often anymore, but if there is a thread on the ground again, the 20 flaps are enough to get over a big fence, on a roof or in general out of harm’s way. I have an advantage. What I find funny is that the dream usually feels very vivid. The flying feels real, and it’s like I make decisions in this dream, for example the direction I fly.

I don’t know if you can explain dreams to draw conclusions on your real life. I often thought that would be hocus pocus like astrology, at least if strangers try to draw conclusions about your dreams, because they just don’t know you well enough. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t believe that our brain might try to process events of our life with strange dreams. So, if I try to explain the dream myself, I could imagine that my brain tried to process the fact that I suffered from anxiety disease like social anxiety for a while. It would make sense, because when my anxiety disorder was still severe in real life, I often couldn’t escape in the dream, because the 10 or 20 flaps were not enough as said, I didn’t know how to properly make use of them. At that time the dream was characterized by anxiety.

But as said, with the years I learned how to escape within the dream and with the limited flaps. And what happened in real life over the years? I learned to deal with anxiety disorder, and when I started to do this, anxiety slowly started to disappear from my life over the years. Learning to make use of my flying ability in my dreams was almost in sync with the disappearing anxiety in real life. This really makes me think that we somehow process events of our life in dreams. And as said, nowadays I have this dream maybe once a year. It’s like my brain wants to remind me that I won against anxiety, that I can look at any problems from above until I found a safe place to land. Today the flying dream is not characterized by anxiety, it is characterized by a feeling of safeness and self-confidence.

Today I had this dream again, it’s been a while since the last time. It happened during an afternoon nap, and when I woke up, I felt incredibly relaxed.