From New York to the Mountains - 3 Recurring Dreams and Their Hidden Meanings

Dreams. Why do we have them, and what do they really mean?

Are they a portal to the subconscious mind, or simply a way for our busy brains to escape after a long day of thinking? Why do some people dream, while others wake up with no memory of the night, as if time passed without them?

There’s a wealth of research on dreams and their meanings, but today, I’m going to share my personal experience with three recurring dreams and explore what I think they really signify.

This might be fun for me, but I know it may not be as exciting for you. After all, no one really enjoys hearing about other people's dreams. It's one of those things you typically don't share unless you're in bed with someone.

Dreams, in simple terms, can be pretty boring for anyone outside of them, especially when we try to describe them! So much gets lost in translation between the dream world and our attempts to articulate it.

What might be more interesting, however, is how my dreams connect to my waking reality and what that reveals about me on an emotional healing level.

I’m sure I’m not alone in experiencing recurring dreams, so perhaps this will inspire you to dig into your own dreams and uncover what your unconscious mind is trying to tell you while you sleep too.

Dreams as portals to the mystery of our existence

As tempting as it is to share fascinating facts about dreams, that’s not really my style.

What I prefer to share is what happens on a human level. We’re all the same - we landed on earth after choosing to experience life in physical form. And, on some level, we’re all struggling to find peace with ourselves and the world around us.

I’ve said this many times, to my clients and to myself: Earth can be a pretty tough place to be. It’s full of emotional challenges where many of us have experienced deeply dysregulating childhoods, trauma, and ongoing pain.

It can make us question why we bothered coming here if all we’re meant to do is suffer over and over again.

And yet, amidst the chaos and the struggles that threaten to hold us down, there is a deep beauty in this life. Earth is a rare and precious gem, filled with beauty and wonder, and vibrating with mystery and magic that transcend time and space.

We are here to discover it all.

Dreams are portals, taking us to different planes of our existence. Maybe they’re real, unfolding outside of our time and dimension. Or perhaps they’re projections of our subconscious mind, communicating messages through the images and stories that flash across our sleeping selves.

Exploring the strange adventures of the sleeping mind

As someone who dreams every night without fail, a life without dreams would feel barren and desolate.

Yet each night, it’s a lucky dip as to what might unfold between the sheets.

One night, I’ll be leaping across rooftops, firing guns and wielding knives. On another, I’ll crash a plane into the sea and narrowly escape drowning. Just a few nights ago, I was repeatedly eaten by a giant hippopotamus - horrifying and exhilarating in equal measure.

I believe we’re all capable of dreaming, so why do some of us never remember them? Perhaps it’s a reluctance to connect with the subconscious mind. Maybe it’s a matter of not reaching the deep sleep needed to activate the dream response.

Or maybe dreaming simply isn’t their style. Perhaps they’re already living a life where dreams, whether as a portal for understanding, communication, or escape, aren’t necessary or even wanted.

And yet, when we’re stressed, why don’t our dreams become places of refuge? Instead, they turn into relentless loops of an almost-reality, where we’re running late for a meeting, sitting in the dentist’s chair, forgetting our lines in the school play, or taking a history exam.

There’s so many questions, and somewhere, someone has so many answers.

The cool thing is, there are incredible dream interpreters out there who can help make sense of the images and symbols that pass through our sleeping minds.

Take Aunty Flo, for example, who’s brilliant at exploring the meanings behind dream symbols. A tsunami, a white snake, or any of the other weird and wonderful things that appear in my dreams. While dream interpretations aren’t always true or entirely accurate, they encourage curiosity, sparking ideas that might just help us in waking life.

Aside from the wild, random dreams -assassinations, flying planes - I have three recurring dreams that surface at least once a month and have done for over a year.

What do they mean? Let’s find out.

New York, New York: the big apple of my eye

The scene is always the same.

I’m on a plane, flying to New York, watching the city glint beyond the Hudson. The towering skyscrapers, the yellow taxis, the hotel waiting for me - it’s all there.

In my first recurring dream, I arrive in New York. Sometimes, the plane lands, and I get to explore the city, wandering through its streets in awe. Other times, I’m stuck on a plane that never touches down, the city always in sight but just out of reach.

For context, I’ve always wanted to visit New York. In fact, I’m obsessed with America. I love everything about it. So much so that, at 19, I managed to land a university exchange to Albuquerque, where I spent an unforgettable four months at the University of New Mexico.

I look back on those months as the best of my life - they really were. I played hard, studied hard, and lived out all the American experiences I’d grown up watching in films.

Yes, I went to a frat party and drank out of red cups. Yes, I tailgated before a football game, proudly wearing the team colours. Yes, I soaked up the constant sunshine and fresh mountain air. Yes, I sat in a real diner, just like in the movies - and it was every bit as magical as I’d imagined.

And yet, I’ve never made it back to America, which makes me sad.

New York is the one place I’m desperate to visit, but it still feels like a distant dream. As an ‘80s kid (just about), America was my pop culture. I have no shame in admitting that I want to experience it for myself, for real. I want to ride the subway, observe the people, walk through Central Park, and lose myself in the endless streets.

I’m sure that this dream is showing me my desire to move forwards in my life with that sense of adventure, confidence, and freedom. It’s also showing me my ambition, deep longing, and a desire for exploration and new experiences, that I know this city can give me. It’s showing me what could be and keeping me on track.

This dream stays with me, both in my waking life and in my sleep. And I know that one day, I’ll make it there. When I do, it will be worth the wait.

Vulnerability and shame: caught on the loo

This next dream isn’t exactly whimsical, but I have a feeling I’m not alone in experiencing it.

For a long time, I had this dream on a weekly basis. Now, it only shows up every few months, but it’s still lingering, reminding me that there’s work to be done before it disappears completely.

This is a dream about going to the loo.

And I don’t just mean a quick visit, business as usual. No, in this dream, I find myself in all kinds of bizarre situations, but in every single one, I’m forced to do my business in public.

Sometimes, I think I’ve found a private space, only for the walls to collapse, revealing me in the middle of a busy street, paper just out of reach. Other times, I’m at a party or in a hotel, desperately needing the loo, but there’s a queue of people watching and waiting for me. Once, I was even in a skate park, surrounded by skaters, awkwardly trying (and failing) to go unnoticed.

A little self-reflection has shown me that this dream is all about vulnerability. After all, what could be more exposing than having to wipe your bum in public? Exactly.

From some careful research, I’ve also learned that the frequency of this dream suggests an ongoing issue in my life - something unresolved that keeps resurfacing.

It might stem from a childhood memory, being walked in on while using the cinema bathroom, the girl loudly announcing, “Dad, she’s on the loo! Come and look!” (A truly horrifying moment.)

Or perhaps it’s about fear of being seen (really seen). Not just physically, but emotionally. The fear of others witnessing my “mess”, whether that’s past mistakes, secrets, or the parts of myself I feel ashamed of (and here’s 7 powerful quotes to help you unlock shame).

Shame is such a deep, human emotion, yet we often push it down so far that we don’t even realise it’s there. But if I’m being honest, there are things I’ve thought, said, or done that still hold shame for me.

As someone with a lot of 7-7 energy in my Soul Contract, this makes complete sense. The 7 energy is all about embracing the full spectrum of who we are, even the parts we judge or reject. But that’s easier said than done.

Maybe these dreams are showing me that I haven’t fully accepted my own vulnerability yet. Maybe I’m still working on feeling safe to be myself in public, without self-judgment or fear of exposure.

Until that happens, I guess my subconscious will keep dropping me into awkward situations - pants down - until I learn to sit with my own discomfort and own every part of myself.

Chasing the mountain: a dream of unreachable joy

This last dream probably carries the deepest meaning for me.

Like my dreams of New York, it’s about longing for a place I can’t quite reach. But this one feels even closer to my heart. The dream is always the same: I’m going skiing (technically, I snowboard, but let’s not get caught up in details), yet something always stops me from reaching the crisp, white snow.

Maybe I’ve lost a boot. Maybe I only have one ski. Maybe I finally make it to the slopes, but the ski lifts are about to close, and I can’t get up the mountain. Sometimes, the obstacles are even more creative - I’m on a work trip in the mountains but can’t ski, or I oversleep and wake up at 5pm, realising the day has already slipped away.

Each time, I almost, almost make it up the mountain, to that feeling I crave: flight, freedom, speed, exhilaration, fresh mountain air, sunshine, music, movement, and pure life.

Unlike New York, which I’ve only visited through Sex and the City or Home Alone 2, I’ve actually been skiing many times. I was lucky enough to do two ski seasons in my twenties, escaping the corporate London life that so many of my friends were being caught up in.

The first season changed everything. My love for the mountains took hold, and I couldn’t get enough. Skiing wasn’t just a passion, it was my life. Every spare second, I was on the slopes, heart pounding, playlist looping, racing downhill. Whether I was trying to escape something or desperately chasing something, I don’t know.

But it was intoxicating.

The second season wasn’t quite so magical, mainly because I fractured my leg early on. I spent most of the season on crutches, stranded on dry land, watching the mountains from below, deprived of the joy I had once been soaring through.

I know this dream is about frustration, unfulfilled desires, and the barriers between me and joy. My relationship with ‘fun’ has been complicated, especially over the last decade with the huge life changes I’ve expereinced. The spontaneity of travel and adventure that once defined me now feels distant, unattainable.

Part of this comes from self-sabotage - the belief that I don’t deserve that level of joy. Another part comes from longing for something that once made me feel so alive, but now feels out of reach, both financially and emotionally.

The true meaning behind my longing and desire

And at its core, this dream reflects the deeper fear that what I want will always be just beyond my grasp.

That I’ll never quite reach where I aspire to be. It’s a manifestation of the self-imposed limitations that keep me trapped in familiar suffering - victimhood, martyrdom, the illusion that I can’t have what I truly desire.

But the truth is, we often cling to the very things we claim we want to break free from, because staying the same feels safer than change. The ego resists losing the comfort of its struggles, even when those struggles keep us stuck.

Yet if I really wanted to go skiing, couldn’t I make it happen? Absolutely. It’s a choice. And I realise now that I’ve been choosing to stay where I am.

So, let’s see if I can choose differently. Maybe next winter, I’ll finally wake up somewhere white and snowy, and this time, I’ll make it up the mountain, with both boots firmly on.

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Carry on exploring