6/20/11
Dream Interpretation: My Ex Proposes, My Dog Says No

photo via Flickr

Other people’s dreams are never interesting…except when they’re about sex. Each week, our dream analyst Lauri Loewenberg tells one lucky reader what their dirty dream means. This week, a reader asks Lauri:

I was with my ex-boyfriend and he said he’d be right back and he ran off, so I decided to take a walk on a boardwalk. I ran into him and he was there with flowers and a teddy bear, and he was trying to hide himself but he couldn’t. I happened to look at my Facebook on my phone and he changed his status to “married” and had an engagement ring in his hand but was trying to hide it. As soon as he was about to ask me to marry him this dog I knew kept running into me and distracting me. So I told him we had to take him back to his owner. So as we were walking away the dog ran ahead, I told him I think we were in the clear and I turned to face him and I woke up.

Lauri: How recent was the break up with this ex? From the dream, it seems like it may not be that recent and you may still be into him… or at the very least, still into some quality of his. In the beginning of the dream he runs off, which is connected to him exiting your life.  He tells you he’ll be right back because you either want him back or you want someone like him or a relationship like that back… and soon!

When you run into him, he is trying to hide, which is most likely linked to you hiding something. Are you hiding the fact that you still have a thing for him? The almost marriage proposal could be pretty cut and dry in that a part of you hoped, and perhaps still hopes, that you two would end up together forever. That is, unless you are “married” to the idea of being with someone that is like him.

But notice how the dog keeps running into you at that point. When something or someone in a dream pesters you like this, it is really you trying to get your own attention (remember, everything in a dream is all about you and is a part of you). The dog represents loyalty, companionship and friendship. This bothersome mutt is most likely the way your wiser, inner mind is saying to you, “Whoa! Not so fast.”  The part of you that wants and deserves a lasting, loyal relationship is trying to distract you from focusing on the ex. When you realize you need to take this dog to whom he belongs, he then begins to lead you away from where you were with the ex. This all because, deep down, you need to move on because you want and deserve someone you truly can “belong” to…. Someone that, as the dog represents, is also a best friend.

Got a dream you want Lauri to analyze? Click here to submit it. Anonymity guaranteed! And don’t forget: you can get access to Lauri’s Instant Dream Decoding Dictionary on her site.