As with the symbol of swimming in dreams, running in dreams can represent one’s way of dealing with an aspect of life: a situation, goals to be achieved, difficulties or problems.
However, it may happen that running in dreams arises as a dream of compensation and the action of “moving away from” or “going towards” is an energy that balances a lack.
Thus a particularly shy, anxious person, incapable of making decisions and acting can dream of running fast to face what his dream is presenting to him, in a symbolic attempt at balance.
For Freud, too, running in dreams has a compensatory aspect: it is a symbol of the individual’s search for pleasure, a pleasure that is refused by the conscience and finds an outlet and a subsequent balance in the libidinal energy that is released by the rush of dreams.
But in general, racing in dreams is experienced as an escape and someone’s pursuit.
Running in dreams feeling an enemy at your back, feeling an impending and dangerous presence you want to escape reflects a burden of anxiety about something you are experiencing in reality.
Dream of Flying Away From Danger – Meaning
Dreaming of flying away or running away hoping not to be caught is the most common type of this particular dream.
A similar representation has to do with the sense of oppression that the dreamer most likely lives in a certain area of his life and in this sense the person who pursues assumes a fundamental value for the correct interpretation of the dream.
The dreamer could indeed be chased by his spouse, and in this case dissatisfaction and oppression would come from his own sentimental bond, or from a leader, pointing instead to work issues that make him less ambitious and with no desire to do.
If, on the other hand, the dreamer hopes to be caught or is clearly caught, this could indicate that the subject is looking for reassurance.
This last type of dream is typical of the female sex who wants more confirmation from the partner.
Finally, if a woman runs away terrified of a man, this could indicate a certain fear of male sex and sexuality in general, on which it is necessary to wonder.
The interpretation of such a dreamlike experience seems clear enough, especially if one is able, once awake, to remember who our kidnapper was.
It is in fact very probable that the dreamer lives in his everyday life a moment of profound discomfort linked to having to be in close contact with someone who literally tears his wings.
In this perspective, being able to escape from your captor represents the release that is so much desired by the constraints that the dreamer feels on himself.
If in the dream the image is colored by dark colors and the dreamer escapes from a person who wants to kill him, most likely in real life someone particularly close (in any case we must first refer to the identity of the murderer in the dream, if remembered) wants to limit the field of action of the dreamer in an aspect of his life that is of fundamental importance for the latter.
In this type of dream the subject is in all probability terrified by the idea that another person can completely annihilate his character and his desires to overlap with other decisions that may not be shared.
If the dreamer runs away to hide from anyone, there are two possible interpretations. The first sees the act of hiding as the unconscious projection of the need not to reveal everything about oneself, of not wanting to appear fully what one is.
The second, instead, refers to a possible moment of stress and mental and physical fatigue due to which the dreamer would like to stay a little on his own, exactly as it happens when you hide and nobody knows where to come looking for us.
Scene typical of many romantic films, dreaming of escaping or fleeing a marriage indicates, for those who are already married, the desire to literally run away from misunderstandings and quarrels with their partner while for those about to do so it could indicate hesitations and fears linked to the big step.
For this last category it is necessary to investigate the possible frequency of such a dream. If it is done more than once and in a short space of time, in fact, the dreamer should seriously ask himself about his real desires.
Dream of Flying Away From Danger – Symbolism
Dreams often represent something indecipherable. They can be the reflection of the past day, of a sensation had, but also revelators of something that smolders in the subconscious.
Maybe you have a problem you’re trying to find an answer for “something” in your life that needs to be resolved.
The subconscious communicates with you to reinforce ideas, to tell you something about problems, to show you the desires and to resolve situations you have in life.
True interpretation is how you perceive it. No one will know you better than you or know what you are living in life.
Dreaming of running on rough terrain and full of obstacles – he must make the dreamer think: perhaps he has the same problems in his reality, in his move and advance in the world of work, in the family, in relationships, perhaps he perceives his life as an “obstacle race”.
Dreaming of running with difficulty – makes one think of the same hardship felt in some areas of everyday life, perhaps the dreamer is always on the alert and in tension to advance and not be overwhelmed by problems and responsibilities.
Dreaming of running away – has a different connotation than the other images of running in dreams. It connects to dreaming of being chased. You’re running away from something or someone.
The presence of the pursuer can be clear or nebulous, accompanied by a sense of threat and the desperation of not being able to escape, from the fear of being caught.
They are real nightmares that, in addition to fright, can cause an early awakening. They are linked to the disowned selves and to their symbolic chasing the awareness of the dreamer or to objective problems from which the dreamer feels “chased”, relationships from which he feels captured or from which he fears being swallowed up.
Dreaming of running uphill – it can indicate challenging moments of difficulty, of growth, of change that require an extra dose of energy and, depending on the sensations felt, fatigue or pleasure and energy, connect to similar fatigue and incapacity or to vitality, energy and resourcefulness in facing a real moment of crisis.
Dreaming of running downhill – can be considered a metaphorical image: it is going “downhill” and it is being done “in a hurry”.
The dreamer will have to think about what paths he has taken that can damage him and what fears of loss and ruin are affecting him.
Dreaming of running backwards – it has similar meanings, it is a rather rare image that can present itself as a representation of a wrong way of proceeding, of a perception of distorted reality or of the dreamer’s actions that are not aligned with the reality in which he lives.
Conclusion
Something that, even during the day, “chases” the dreamer, oppresses and scares. They can be thoughts and problems that one is not able to face and from which one “runs away”, so that the dream shows, in a figurative way, what is really happening and compares with this mode of reaction (the escape) in front of the difficulties of life.
The meaning of running in pursued dreams from an enemy, a monster or a murderer must make us reflect on unconscious disowned contents that are going back to the consciousness claiming space and attention, aspects of the personality that the dreamer does not know, with which he does not feel to his ease, which frighten him.