Dreams about cars, dreams about driving, dreams about having brakes that don’t work–this is a common dream motif that arises for most dreamers at one point another. It makes a lot of sense in this society and culture, where many of us spend at least 1-2 hours a day inside of our car.

Cars are the tools we use to get from point a to point b, and our internal motivation plays a similar function. Just like a car has and engine with horsepower, we have an inner engine, that runs on our willpower. When we have clarity and a good relationship with these internal energies, we are able to clearly identify our personal desires. From there, the action steps needed get there can unfold with grace and ease, revealing to us the path we need to take to arrive and achieve our goals.

Of course, a smooth sailing ride is not the typical experience we have in our dreams about cars. A lot of times, people dream of driving and realizing that the brakes don’t work, dreaming of a car that is out of control, or of being driven by someone else in our lives. Other times, we may simply be stuck in our cars, attempting to get somewhere and feeling lost or confused, driving backwards in a dream, or in a car that has stalled. 

To begin to open up to what these car dreams may be offering you, consider how these experiences could relate to your experience of your own internal sense of drive and willpower. Are the feelings you have in the car dream familiar in any way? Do you feel out of control in any area of your life, areas where you’d like to slow down or stop, but feel compelled to keep going forward?

The issue of desire is often lurking underneath these feelings and experiences. Desire can be tricky–we can often have competing or conflicting desires, and/or be confused between the desires that truly come from our hearts and those that have been ingrained in us by our upbringing or current social circles. When we don’t have full clarity about our desires, taking aligned action is impossible. This could show up as feeling stalled, unable to move forward (i.e. a car dream where the car won’t go), or simply like the circumstances of our lives are driving us rather than the other way around.

But here’s the counter-intuitive part: the path to knowing what your deepest desires are often involves releasing control and letting go of our ideas about what we think we want. Meaning, stepping into the unknown–releasing our grip on the wheel–and really making space for the deepest truth to arise. This can be signaled in dreams where you are in a car but you are not the one driving, which can bring up the question–how does it feel to allow someone/something else to take the wheel? Sometimes our more mind/ego oriented ideas about who we should be or where we should arrive to in our life can be the one driving the car, blocking our ability to access our more intuitive selves, that is in deeper connection with our heart’s desires. This might be why your driving and car dreams have such a frustrated/anxiety ridden energy about them.

If you have a dream where you are not the one driving, try this out for size: imagine that the driver (especially if it’s someone you don’t know in real life) is actually there to support you. What does it feel like to not have to have your hands on the wheel, and let something else take control?

In summary, here are some of the guiding questions to use when examining your car dreams:

>If your car dream was a metaphor for your relationship to your sense of motivation/drive in your life, what connections do you observe?

>Is your relationship to your car in the dream similar or different to your relationship to your overall sense of purpose or direction in life?

>Do you know where you are heading in your car dream? If not, do you still feel a sense of urgency in your dream? Why? If so, what obstacles/circumstances appear to be preventing you from your destination?

As always I love to hear from you dreamers! If you have any other thoughts about car dreams or want help with a specific situation you encountered in your car dream, please leave your thoughts below.