The Element Encyclopedia of 20,000 Dreams: The Ultimate A–Z to Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams. Theresa Cheung
dreams can symbolize release and self-expression. When we urinate or eliminate, we are ridding ourselves of bodily waste and when these actions occur in dreams your unconscious is referring to the removal of emotional waste, such as unhappy memories. So, if you dream of rushing to the bathroom, what are you trying to flush out of your system in the real world? Or do you wish you could purge yourself of destructive, negative emotions such as jealousy or envy? Is there something you need to let go of in your waking life? Did you find it hard to let go in your dream or did everything go smoothly. The answer will help you see how emotionally blocked or constipated you are.
Perhaps you were searching frantically for a toilet in your dream, but couldn’t find one. If this is the case, you need to find the catalyst for emotional release. Dreams about being clogged-up, or about a lack of toilets, are not so much about emotional baggage as about a lack of proper outlets for your own creativity and self-expression. They can also suggest that you are the kind of person who takes on the problems of other people, leaving no room for your own. Dreams about frustrating attempts to find a toilet could also suggest that you have over-committed yourself in waking life, and that there is no opportunity for you to express your own feelings and talents. On the other hand, you may also feel that you have been taken advantage of or dumped on by someone in waking life? Finally, such dreams may also be due simply to a physical need to pee in the night.
Other elimination dreams include using a toilet in a strange place, in front of people or in the middle of a conversation. In such dreams, the elimination represents the expression of an opinion or insight unsuitable for public consumption, or not appropriate to the situation. It could also reveal concern that you might have been too impulsive in the way you have expressed yourself, and your dreaming mind is urging you to bear in mind the possible impact of your words. If you can’t find a private toilet in your dream, perhaps you are living or working in a crowded environment and your dreaming mind is compensating for a lack of privacy and personal space in your waking life. If you dream of a bathroom and a toilet, this may suggest your need to clean up your sexual attitudes or attitude to others and yourself.
If you put anything down a toilet in your dream, take careful note of what it is, as it will symbolize what your dreaming mind considers to be the least important or unpleasant aspect of yourself or your experience. Urine suggests letting go of strained feelings or the release of sexual feelings. Feces indicate letting go of parts of yourself that you need to let go of. It can also indicate new beginnings, as excrement makes great fertilizer. Evacuation of the bowel usually highlights a need to be free of responsibility, or sometimes the need to be uninhibited. If you are eliminating over someone in your dream, this can indicate a repressed desire to belittle that person or feel superior.
Playing with excrement can represent money, so playing with it in a dream may suggest anxiety about money and fear of responsibility. If the excrement is transformed into an animal, this suggests that the dreamer is coming to terms with the fact that he or she is responsible for managing their own instincts. If you are vomiting in your dream, this indicates a discharging of unpleasant feelings, or experiencing something unpleasant. Finally, if you realize you are sweating in a dream, you are alerted to the amount of energy you may be expending handling your own emotions and fears in waking life.
LEFT AND RIGHT SIDE OF THE BODY
Typically, the left side of the body represents feelings, intuition and the irrational, whilst the right side suggests the rational and logical. The left side is also associated with maternal influence, and the right with paternal.
External Body Parts A to Z
In dreams, body parts can be interpreted in the following way1:
ABDOMEN/STOMACH/BELLY
When dreams focus on your abdomen, belly or stomach, they are referring to repressed feeling and emotions. The stomach is often seen as the center of emotions. This symbol may also have purely physiological origins if you have been experiencing constipation or indigestion. From a psychological point of view, seeing your abdomen in your dream may imply something in your real life that you ‘cannot stomach’ or have difficulties accepting, something you want to get out of your system. If your abdomen is exposed, this signifies trust and vulnerability, and in women it may indicate a desire for motherhood. If you are injured or shot in the stomach, this is about emotional hurt. Traditional folklore says that dreaming of your abdomen can foretell infidelity. A shriveled abdomen warns of lies, a swollen abdomen promises success. To see your navel in your dream represents your being and self. The dream may suggest that you need to find your center and middle ground.
ANUS
This suggests repressed emotion or an aspect of childish behavior, as the child’s first experience of control is when they gain control over bodily functions. Consider also if you or someone in your life is anal retentive and perhaps need to loosen up a bit. To see buttocks in your dream represents your instincts and urges. It can also indicate feelings of insecurity, especially if the buttocks are misshaped. If you see your pelvis in a dream, you may be dealing with issues of creativity and self-expression.
ARM/ARMPIT/ELBOW
To see your arms in your dream highlights your ability to reach out to others. Alternatively, it may represent the struggles and challenges in your life, loss of confidence and not being able to reach out or create. Consider also the pun, ‘arm yourself’, which implies that you need to protect yourself, or be more aggressive and take a firmer stance on things. So if arms appear in your dream, are you defending yourself, fighting or being held, or showing passionate commitment?
To dream that your arm has been injured or your arms are tied up signifies your inability to care for yourself, or your helplessness in reaching out to others. The right arm signifies your outgoing nature and is associated with masculine energy, while your left arm signifies your supportive or nurturing nature, and is associated with feminine qualities. Losing either arm may suggest that you are failing to recognize its respective characteristics. To dream that you rip someone else’s arms out, indicates that you are extremely upset with something that this person has done or represents, but you have not been able to fully express your anger.
If you see, notice or smell someone’s armpit in your dream, this represents the characteristics and personality that you choose to display to the public. To smell your armpit in your dream indicates that you are hoping for some kind of acceptance in waking life. If you see your elbow in your dream, perhaps you need more personal space in waking life?
BACK
To dream of your back represents parts of yourself hidden from view, secrets that you are keeping from other people or aspects of your personality you would prefer not to think about. Your dream could be pointing to some aspect of your life that is behind you, or a situation that is over. Maybe your dream contains some other play on words: is someone getting your back up? Do you feel the need for a pat on the back? Do you need to watch