Anxiety, thy name is Tiger/Lion

(Photo clicked by my friend, Sachin Jain)

I am not afraid of Tigers and Lions. I love watching them hunt on National Geographic or Discovery and am not repulsed by the way they devour their hapless victims. I do not jump out of my skin when I see their pictures. They are the animals that I find most interesting when I visit the zoo. And while on a Safari, I keep my fingers crossed for a sighting. I am not intimidated by them provided they maintain their distance. 

People claim to have recurring dreams or nightmares. I do too. I dream a lot about Lions and Tigers. They do not attack. That could be quick and clean. Instead they stalk. The general pattern of these dreams is that there is a village or a town where these tigers or lions or sometimes both, are roaming around. I am trying to get somewhere while avoiding these predators who, by the way, seem to sense that I am trying to do just that. On my way, I take shelter in various houses and many times narrowly escape being spotted by the animals. Even though I have had these dreams a zillion times, I am yet to see one with a conclusion, either ways. But I always wake up feeling relieved that it was just a dream. 

When I recently had one of these dreams, I tried to make out the pattern behind this and discovered that whenever I am anxious about something, there are chances that I will dream of Lions and Tigers stalking me. Why would I dream of Lions and Tigers of all the things? There can be hundreds of other symbols that I am in touch with in real life that could symbolize 'anxiety'. For example, it could be my boss (Sorry Boss, if you are reading, I am just kidding ;-) ) or traffic police or anything else. Why my subconscious mind has chosen Lions and Tigers is beyond my comprehension. Probably even my subconscious wants to be politically correct all the time. :-)