The day before this dream the dreamer had met up with her ex and later wrote a letter to him. Try to see how the dream portrays emotions connected with this letter.

THE DREAM In a palatial indoor pool during the evening, many fun and sometimes dangerous/secretive activities occur in and around the pool. At one stage I move underwater in my swimmers, pushing off too strongly swim the length of the pool underwater without taking a breath. I make it most of the way and feel proud that I made it that far, but also disappointed I didn't make it to the far side. I'm being casually watched by someone (my son?) I wish to be proud of me.

THE REALITY The dreamer had just recently ended a relationship with her boyfriend of four years. He had put her down and often treated her son rudely. After an accidental meeting with him the day before she spent 2 hours writing him a letter clearly expressing her true feelings toward his actions. She then emailed it to him. At the last moment before emailing the letter, she removed paragraphs remarking on his parenting towards his own son, to keep the letter less flammable.

THE INTERPRETATION If something big happens the day before any dream its almost certain that the dream will be working over what has just happened. Its always worth trying to see if a dream fits the real life situation symbolically. In this case there is a very strong symbolic link between the real life events and reality.

The dream features swimming. Swimming often links to the emotions as water represents the ever changing and moving emotions within us. It also represents the emotional effort and energy involved as the dreamer wrote her email. She was searching for words and courage to bring difficult emotions out. Also when you swim you move and thus the dream represents the emotional movement within the dreamers own mind.

Dreams often will not mention the topic that has triggered the dream explicitly yet the dream will express the exact emotions that the dreamer feels in real life. In particular the dream shows key moments in her feelings. She does not make it to the other side and so represents her own decision to delete parts of her email. She literally does not go the whole way. At that moment part of her wanted to let rip and express dangerous emotions that truly end the relationship. Yet she backs out.

Also the specific act of taking one breath and swimming underwater does seem to correspond to reality. The dreamer takes a deep breath and then holds things in as she expresses her views. The swimming underwater corresponds to how she in one burst lets go of difficult emotions. The dream taps into the metaphor "I just took a deep breath and tol him what I thought of him!"

The moment that really clinches the dream is when she is being watched by someone (her son) and that she wishes this person to feel proud of her. That closely links to reality as she is expressing views that stand up for her son since he was often so rudely treated.

Symbolic Meanings
BREATH : This follows the real life metaphor "I took a deep breath and told him what I thought of him."
PROUD : In expressing her views she is standing up for her son(who was often rudely treated by her ex) and if he knew how she felt he would feel proud of her.
SECRETIVE and DANGEROUS : The dreamer is thinking and expressing dangerous thoughts that will truly inflame a situation. Normally such feelings would be kept secret.
SWIM : In the dream she is moving. In real life her feelings were "on the move"
THE WHOLE WAY : In her email the dreamer did not go the whole way. She toned down her response.

DREAM MEANING The dream captures the following feeling within the dreamer - "I saw my ex yesterday and ended up writing an email to him telling him just how I felt. I wanted to really let rip but I ended up toning things down. I felt proud of myself afterwords".

See how the Symbolic meanings weave together to form a the various emotions she felt in connection with this email the day before.