When we shelter in place, our dreams do, too

When I sleep in a new bed, my dreams tend to take place in my immediate environment. While sleeping for the first time in the loft of a friend’s country cottage, my dream drama unfolded beneath the eaves where I slept. Spending the night at a friend’s house in her son’s bedroom while he was away at a sleepover, I dreamed of the boy tumbling like an acrobat on the carpet of the room where I was tucked snugly into bed.

Once the place starts to feel more familiar, my dreams begin to roam farther afield. On an ordinary night, I dream of distant skylines, never-before-imagined hillsides and gardens, and trees and flowers in foreign languages.

But these days, when my car sits parked in my driveway for days on end, and when I spend nearly all of my time inside my house to keep myself and others safe during the Covid-19 pandemic, my dreams have been hunkering down close to home, too.

I dream I am walking down my block at 5 a.m., and see a neighbor out watering her lawn. I dream of leaving a vase of flowers on another neighbor’s stoop and glimpse her only through her kitchen window as she waits until I am a safe distance away so she can open the door and receive the gift.

I dream of the neighborhood itself, and people surveying their property boundaries—just as during the day we were becoming accustomed to marking off the 6-foot span of “safe space” between one another.

In these days defined by inordinate amounts of time spent in front of my laptop talking to clients, colleagues, friends, and family from as far away as Mexico and Malaysia, or as close as down the street or across town—my dreams perch upon my desk as well, and my nighttime narratives revolve around setting up Zoom meetings or conversing online.

As I shelter in place, I am dreaming in place, too. I remain at my familiar address, but as far as my psyche is concerned, I’m in a very strange and distant place, indeed.

© 2020 Copyright Tzivia Gover

What did you dream last night?

Are you dreaming in place? Are you escaping to distant lands in dreams even as you are confined to a close radius from home during the day? And what does it all mean?

If you want to learn more about the messages and meanings in your nighttime dreams, contact me for a dreamwork session via Skype, Facetime, or WhatsApp.