Dreams quite often put us in situations which in some way allow us to express the same emotions as we are experiencing in real life. The previous day the dreamer had had a good time with her children. See how the dream explores those same positive emotions.

THE DREAM - I was on a beach, near the rocks at the sheltered end of a big bay - with my two children. There were about 500 other people scattered along the beach.

A boat pulled in to shore near us, crewed by 3 young men. None of the sailors were wearing uniforms, and the boat was a luxury launch. Something like you would imagine to be parked at a billionaire's dock in an exclusive marina - Only everything on it was painted grey. I knew that it belonged to the military, and that the young men were navy sailors. They were offering joy rides to anyone from the beach, 6-8 people at a time. My kids wanted to go, and had already climbed onto the boat. I was speaking to the skipper (who was conveniently very attractive looking), requesting that he not go too fast with my kids as there was nothing much for them to hang on to for safety. He asked if I would like to see something else instead - I agreed with no hesitation. He pointed to a rocky island about 5kms out to sea (There were lots of islands, mostly steep rocky sided and dark - not very inviting) and said that's where we would go. He was smiling at me. He seemed pleased with himself, and confident that I would enjoy the journey. Next I was in the boat helping to steady my kids and we were tearing over the water. Next thing we were steering DOWN towards the ocean floor. I could see the sheer walls of dark rock which were the base of the island off to one side, before we docked on a sandy patch of seabed. We all had no trouble breathing, and could move as we do on land - perhaps a little more slowly. The 2 other men busied themselves carrying out some maintenance on the boat. The gorgeous skipper told us to have a look around, and sat down on a patch of sand to watch us. My kids scampered off chasing fish and trying to catch an octopus, while I made my way down the broad stepped terrace of rock which led down to a large flat area of seabed. (This whole area was huge - as big as 5 football fields) I began to notice the presence of other people here. There were a few women in pink nurses uniforms, interspersed around the area, sitting on plastic stackable chairs. There were also about 20-30 men and women wearing white pyjama-type outfits. They were most often wandering around the area separately, although a few seemed to be involved in some type of activity which had been set up on a trestle table not far from me. I must have started to talk to one of these people, as the skipper was suddenly at my elbow, warning me in a low voice not to interact with any of the people in white. He explained that they were all mentally disturbed, and should not be interrupted. We observed them for a while, before rounding up my kids and heading back to the boat.

THE REALITY This dream occurred the night after the dreamer had rearranged the furniture in her children's room. This might not sound like much of an activity, but she had in fact put a lot of energy into it. They have a small room, large & heavy furniture, and lots of toys. I had put a lot of effort into planning the layout so it would allow a balance of; space, light, order, and comfort, while still allowing them easy access to their playthings, and a private space for each if they require it. Also, a fair amount of physical effort was involved, as some of the furniture is very heavy. Part of the process was also to sort through all of the toys with her kids' help. The broken or incomplete items were binned, and the good stuff which they have either outgrown, or don't play with, was sent on to the victims of the SE Asian Tsunami.

DREAM ANALYSIS Quite often a dream can replay some incident within your mind and it will work through the good things and bad things. In this case this was a highly positive experience. Often sunny conditions symbolise how an experience was perceived by the dreamer as being good. However, the dream combined the sunny conditions with a tough and difficult trip. That probably shows that the nature of the experience was meant to be tough and challenging. We build character through struggle. This maybe shows how the dreamer believes that the challenging experience was a good thing.

Boats in trips symbolise an emotional experience - often with other people. We go on a journey through our emotions. This was a special kind of boat though. It was a military boat yet it also resembled a luxury yacht. This all helps to build up a special and detailed picture and perfectly matches the experience. It was high value experience which highly engrossed everyone - it built up a sense of involvement. The military owned the boat. That was maybe a symbol for showing how good the whole experience was in building up character. The children were given specific tasks and were constantly challenged and directed. It was a military operation in all but name. The whole experience had a subliminal message. The children acted in a team like way.

The skipper gives a smile as they embark on the tough and tricky journey. That too shows that this whole experience was meant not to be a lazy and relaxing summer day - it was an exercise in character building but in a friendly and relaxed environment.

The boat then heads downwards along the ocean floor. That possibly symbolises some of the specific incidents encountered along the way. Two of the men are carrying out maintenance on the boat - symbolic of the need to maintain the same level of involvement of the children. They needed to be involved in the tasks. During this whole experience the mother also had to stop the children being distracted - symbolised by the way that they play with the octopus in the dream.

Dreams like this are ways of monitoring how you perform in meeting your tasks. This dreamer was trying to engross her kids in a challenging task. She was trying to keep their mind of the job and also maintain her command over the situation. She was trying to maintain the sense of journey and not let the kids get distracted.

The mental patients at the bottom of the sea maybe show one other aspect of the experience. This portion could symbolise one of two things. Either it symbolises the dreamer strategy for dealing with unruly children who suddenly start to get into a temper. Maybe she would not interact with such signs. That she would try to ignore them and try to distract the children. The mental patients maybe also symbolise the dreamers own sense of frustration during this whole situation. Trying to keep children engrossed can often be very difficult and annoying and may lead you to lose your temper. So maybe those mental patients were ignored because the dreamer was trying to ignore moments of personal stress and keep the situation moving.

Overall the dream perfectly captures all the parts of the real life situation. A tough challenging but at the same time relaxing experience. Keeping kids engrossed and involved is very difficult as they are easily distracted. It is a great skill and this dream probably symbolises the need to monitor your own performance. Mothers have to constantly monitor their techniques for bringing up children - to see if strategies are working. Such dreams capture our gut feelings on our performances.

Symbolic Meanings
BOAT : "getting really involved and excited - the rearranging of the rooms is an excellent "
ISLAND : "forget the world by becoming highly engrossed in some issue"
MILITARY : "discipline and uniting behind a cause - the dreamer gets her children to really show some discipline and set about the task with great enthusiasm"
ROCK : "obstacles and problems"
SKIPPER : "a need to stay in charge and direct matters"

DREAM MEANING The dream captures the following feeling within the dreamer - "I had a good day with my children yesterday. We rearranged their rooms. I felt it was a good exercise - I managed to get them to do something that they did not really want to do and yet really enjoy it"

See how the Symbolic Meanings above weave together to form a key insight in the DREAM MEANING