IT'S STILL DARK early in the morning when Jack, a young man in his late twenties awakens with a jolt. Feelings of panic slowly subside as he realizes that the impossible predicament at work that seemed so utterly real a few seconds ago was just a dream after all. "Another anxiety dream about work," he reassures himself, noticing that his heart is still pounding from the experience.

Most people completely dismiss common, silent screams: anxiety-ridden dreams about our job, our work environment, or our chosen career. We dream about waiting tables and there are too many people to be served and we can't find the food. Or we're back working at our old job we left many years ago but the building is dark and empty. What if these unsettling dreams are actually a powerful knocking on a door shut and locked by our need to create the illusion of security, comfort, and safety within a particular job or career?

Nearly everyone has at one time or another had dreams like Jack's "anxiety" ridden dream about "work." In fact such work-related, anxiety dreams are extremely common and are nearly always dismissed as just stress or we are probably working too hard. In reflecting back on my life and reviewing my dream journals, I discovered that I too had numerous work-related anxiety dreams during the times I was in the wrong work. What really struck me was the fact that after I changed professions from business to psychology and writing, my anxiety dreams about work stopped.

My experience over many years has convinced me that such dreams are often desperately trying to tell us something about our authentic life's "work," our unlived life and our real work - the particular vocation that would free our unique potential and passion. Suppose there is indeed something terribly wrong with how we are spending our life energies. Suppose our anxiety is a result of the threat of non-being, of the tragedy of living someone else's life - suppose your authentic life is stuck fast, embedded in the anvil and stone of collective demands and expectations. In dreams, our life is the project our dreams are working on. As such, dreams are a major pathway into our own potential, and at the same time, our dreams provide us with the creative, transformative insights needed so urgently in this troubled world.

Here's an excellent example of one of those "dreams about work," that contained the key to removing an immense boulder blocking one of my client's creative ideas. Larry, a jovial, forty-something "Master Mason," had recently moved to the U.S. from London. He specialized in fine tile work, mosaics, sculpture, and custom designed floors. Larry's work was definitely creative and he believed that his work gave him a sufficient outlet for his creativity. Always rushed and feeling behind schedule, he would arrive at our sessions looking like he just climbed out of a construction site. He told me about a work-related dream that had been bugging him:

One of my competitors was cutting his prices to get business. I was really upset and wondered how he could afford to work at such cheap rates.

Larry explained that the person in the dream was actually a competitor that he knew who did tend to bid jobs too cheaply. Meanwhile, Larry had more work than he could keep up with, mostly from referrals. When we explored how Larry's "work," the actual finely crafted stone, tile, mosaic, and sculpture would feel about "cheap rates," the dream's meaning began to emerge. His work, which often involved a lot of creativity and original design ideas, said to Larry, "You don't appreciate my value, my creativity - I'm (his work) being undervalued, cheapened."

I asked Larry to tell me more about his creativity. "My work is very creative, which I love," he explained, "but I also have been wanting to get back to my paintings for a long time."

"What paintings?" I asked, surprised and curious.

"Well, I've had this idea for a series of paintings about the environment, paintings that would make a statement, wake people up to what's happening to the planet, the forests," he said. He went on to explain that he felt he was a "pretty good artist," but right now his work was the only outlet for his creative side. From his dream, he realized he had been devaluing his creative side, "cheapening" his creative spirit with the classic, societal group-think that art, particularly for a "man," Larry explained, is impractical, unrealistic, not a "real job." Now his dream inspired him to begin working on his creativity through his painting, and here's what really matters: now Larry's life will begin to take on deeper meaning and purpose as he uses his unique creativity to fully release his own potential, which will impact our world. Larry's "mundane" dream about his work had pointed him right to a major obstacle to his creative life that he was entirely unaware of.

Larry left our session inspired - a changed man! He had removed a big chunk of his authentic life from the barbed wire of self-defeating, outside influences - all from another one of those "work" dreams.

Note: Names have been changed to protect clients' confidentiality and privacy.

© John D. Goldhammer, Ph. D., 2006

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Goldhammer Ph. D., is a psychotherapist, dream researcher, and author of three books. This article is adapted from his most recent book, Radical Dreaming: Use Your Dreams to Change Your Life (Kensington Publishing / Citadel Press). He lives in Seattle, Washington.

You may visit John's website at www.radicaldreaming.com, or email him at jgoldhammer@mindspring.com.