We tend to associate nakedness with shame. As only humans have this quirky trait, it s telling that dreaming of nakedness usually means we are feeling vulnerable about some aspect of our lives over which we feel a loss of control. Dreaming of being naked is not always about vulnerability, however. One can have erotic dreams about nakedness, or one can have dreams in which they experience a kind of Pre-fall from Grace Nakedness that speaks to our original state of innocence as envisioned in the Garden of Eden. In cultures that are not as markedly influenced by western religion, dreams of being naked can have literally thousands of different interpretations.
Let us discuss the foremost one, vulnerability. When we dream of nakedness or being under-dressed in public view, our subconscious is speaking, rather loudly, about our need for caution and control in some aspect of our lives in which we feel vulnerable. If you are about to have a major test about your job competency, or if you are to deliver a key note address to a large group, you may have a dream in which you feel, or appear naked.
You need only to think about those areas in which you feel most ill confident, to assure yourself you can be prepared in time to meet all challenges facing you. More likely than not, a few minutes of mental preparation and polish to your self image is in order. You should have no worries about the dream being prophetic, but instead, appreciate that your mind is concerned about making sure you do a good job, and you can master almost any task without fear of botching the job.
If you repeatedly have dreams in which you feel naked vulnerability, you may ask yourself if there is some aspect, or relationship in your life, in which you are frequently placing yourself into a position of unhealthy vulnerability, or if you need to address something recurring in your daily life that is demanding too much sense of embarrassment. If this is the case, meditate some time upon all those situations in which you find yourself feeling in any way shamed, or humiliated. If the feelings do not reveal themselves easily through your direct focus, free associate with another person and the sense of vulnerability that you experience will likely come to light.
In some situations, particularly of emotional abuse on the part of some one in your life, you are afraid to voice openly that you are in fact, emotionally vulnerable. Most of us, can, and do, however, recognize immediately what the source of this vulnerable sense is, and most of us can address it accordingly.
Let us do a minor thought experiment. You have not known Terry long, but Terry has been sitting with you each day for lunch for three days now. Last night you dreamed you showed up to lunch and suddenly realized when you took an apple from your lunch box, that you are stark naked. In the dream you can discern a sense of shame, shock, vulnerability, and horror at your seemingly impossible choice to forget to dress that day! Examine these feelings and then think about your relationship to Terry.
If Terry is a bossy and critical individual, perhaps you have begun to feel judged by Terry. If you are attracted to Terry, you will know from the dream emotions whether there are erotic elements to your vulnerability. Maybe you did not want to admit your attraction, because you’re fully conscious awareness knows Terry is happily married. What other clues do you sense from the dream? It may be something as simple as that you associate Terry with your boss, Larry, Cary, or Mary, and you know you are behind with your workload. Examine the setting, and the props in the dream. It may be that Terry is really just there by the sheer coincidence that has put you in the lunch room together recently. Things in dreams are clues, but feelings in dreams are even more indicative of the origin of the message the dream may be trying to convey.
The most important aspect about the common dream of being naked, or vulnerable, is that it is very common, and not in the least a sign of your loss of a grip on sanity. If you dream always of being naked, everyone in your dreams in naked, and even all world leaders are naked, you may be stepping into some serious concerns about the whole world being extremely vulnerable. Even this is not necessarily out of line with how we sense the world today, at least some of the time.
Another aspect about nakedness is our obsession especially in the western cultures, and most disturbingly in the USA, that sex is associated with nakedness. We have largely created something exceedingly natural to be associated with perversion and sin. This is unfortunate, because our hating of our own bodies and our shame about our appearance is at the root of much of our cultural bodily perception dysfunction. We are constantly told we are inadequate if we don’t look and feel like twenty year old movie stars, and this leaves our entire culture vulnerable to extreme self centeredness, over consumption, and buying to fulfill impossible standards. We often fail at nutrition because everyone else eating junk food looks like models, yet we look like fat and unhealthy failures.
Sex as a marketing tool makes nakedness that much more shameful to all of us with imperfect bodies, which is to say, ALL of us! Therefore, on a massive scale, pun intended, we need to take back our right to restore sanity to our expectations of how vulnerable we really are. The more we worry about such things as being “overweight,” the more vulnerable we are to becoming overweight. The people selling you crappy junk food want you to buy more, think about it! Oprah never found a correct body size until she quit obsessing about being “fat.”
We should worry less about outer perfection and concern ourselves much more with our inner beauty, our inner strength, and our inner sense that naked or not, we are created by life with incredible and beautiful diversity. Thank all that gives you health, strength, confidence and trust, including your dreams, for “keeping it real.” Because the only real vulnerability that costs us, is thinking we are not good enough to give and receive love and connection.
