Life follows a natural path. We grow up, mentally and emotionally, and we often outgrow the constraints that our childhoods have created for us. This growth often leads to us stepping away from life as we know it and embarking on a journey into the unknown by leaving our hometowns.
Dreaming of your hometown holds a strong relation to feelings of familiarity. It holds a close representation of your roots, where you originally came from, and what has molded you into who you currently are. It can hold a positive and nostalgic feeling, or it can hold negative feelings.
Let us delve further into the meaning of your hometown and what it means when you find yourself dreaming about it.
Leaving Your Hometown
As we grow in life, we are expected to move forward or move away from the things of the past. Many people associate this move with leaving their hometown. It is a well-known saying that if you want to succeed, you need to leave your hometown.
This is because it is assumed that your hometown holds you down to a version of yourself that may have had the potential to change if you had left. If you stay in your hometown, you keep the same reputation you always had, you are presented with limited opportunities, and it serves as a constant reminder of all your memories, both good and bad.
When you experience growth, many people find themselves moving off to college, pursuing careers that lead them far from home, going on adventures far beyond the reaches of the world they are used to, or purposefully and adamantly leaving their hometown for greener pastures or to get away from some sort of negativity. But sometimes, people are plagued with dreams of their hometown.
Why do you dream about your hometown?
Whether it is a “once in a blue moon” occurrence, or your find your night riddled with images of your hometown, there is a meaning related to dreaming about your hometown.
With dreams reflecting our reality, this dream may have been brought on by you talking about your hometown, meeting someone from your past, or even meeting someone who reminded you of your past. This dream may just be a trigger that takes you back to your familiarity.
This can create a yearning for a time when you weren’t faced with as much responsibility, a time when you were carefree and living a life that was taken care of by your family or caregivers. The familiarity of your hometown can hold a comfort that you may need to desperately cling to in times of trouble and turmoil, especially when you find yourself physically far from this comfort.
However, this familiarity is not always a good thing. There is another well-known proverb that states that familiarity breeds contempt. This means that being too close or too familiar with something or someone can lead to strong feelings of resentment and disrespect.
The same can be said of one’s hometown. Often people are encouraged to leave their hometown because their sense of welcome has long faded. Perhaps they have experienced childhood trauma, perhaps they were victims of bullying or another crime, or perhaps they have faced the traumatic loss of someone close to them, the familiarity of your hometown may stem from contempt.
In such cases, dreaming about your hometown can be set off by a negative trigger, or could be a trigger for you to face some sort of lurking emotion that you have previously tried to bury. It may be a way of leading you down a path of closure and forgiveness.
What to do if you dream about your hometown?
If you find yourself with a yearning sensation for the remnants of your past, perhaps going back to your hometown for a visit may be a fantastic way to still your heart and your mind. If you find yourself missing your family who still resides in your hometown, perhaps you can take your dream as a sign to reach out to them.
Additionally, if your hometown holds a space of negativity in your life, it may be a time to pinpoint and face the hurt and trauma and start working your way towards overcoming what has held you down or kept you negatively anchored in your hurt.
Moving away from your hometown may have led you to successes or to failures, and either may influence your inclination to return home. But rest assured that dreaming about your hometown does not mean you need to buy a ticket and go back immediately. Instead, it may the encouragement you need to get in touch with those you miss or to face your past traumas.
Conclusion
Whether your hometown is always a place you can safely return to, or it holds a sense of permanent hurt, dreaming about it can either be trauma or a trigger. Whatever it may mean to you, acknowledge the role it has played in bringing you to where you currently are and the role it has played in making you the person you are today.
After all, we are the sum total of all our experiences.