Recurring dreams are repeated dream experiences with similar themes, characters, or locations that surface night after night, and they often signal unresolved emotions or situations your subconscious mind is working to process. If you have ever woken up from the same dream for the fifth, tenth, or hundredth time and wondered whether your brain is trying to send you a message, you are asking exactly the right question. Our team has spent months digging into dream research, sleep psychology, and the personal accounts of hundreds of dreamers to put together this guide on what recurring dreams are trying to tell you.
Roughly 60 to 75 percent of adults report having at least one recurring dream in their lifetime, according to data compiled by the Sleep Foundation. That number alone tells you something important: you are far from alone. What surprises most people is that these dreams are not random. They tend to cluster around specific, surprisingly universal themes, and they almost always connect back to something happening, or something left unfinished, in your waking life.
Understanding recurring dreams meaning can unlock real self-awareness. When you learn to read the patterns, a dream about falling, being chased, or showing up unprepared for a test stops being a source of anxiety and becomes a signal you can actually use. This guide walks you through what science says about why these dreams happen, what the most common recurring dream themes mean, and practical steps you can take tonight to reduce or redirect them.
We will also explore the spiritual side of dream interpretation, because meaning is not purely clinical. Many people find that their recurring dreams carry a symbolic or metaphysical message that resonates on a level science alone cannot fully explain. Whether you approach this from a psychological angle, a spiritual one, or both, the goal is the same: decoding what recurring dreams are trying to tell you.
Table of Contents
What Are Recurring Dreams?
Recurring dreams are dreams that repeat with the same or very similar content over days, weeks, months, or even years. They may feature identical scenarios, return to the same dream locations, involve the same people, or circle around a core emotional theme even when the surface details shift. The key feature is repetition, and that repetition is what sets them apart from the one-off dreams most people experience each night.
Most of us dream four to six times per night during REM sleep, and the vast majority of those dreams are forgotten within minutes of waking. A recurring dream stands out because it sticks. You remember it. It feels significant. And it comes back.
What Qualifies as a Recurring Dream
A dream qualifies as recurring when the same core narrative, image, or feeling repeats across multiple sleep sessions. The repetition does not have to be exact. Some dreamers experience the same dream beat for beat every time, while others notice variations on a theme: always being chased, but by different pursuers, or always being lost, but in different buildings.
Sleep researchers identify three main types of recurring dreams. The first is the exact-repeat dream, where the content is nearly identical each time. The second is the thematic recurring dream, where the scenario changes but the core theme stays the same. The third is the continuing-story dream, where the narrative picks up where it left off, almost like a television series your mind produces while you sleep.
That last type fascinates dream researchers and dreamers alike. People on forums like Reddit’s r/Dreams frequently describe recurring dream locations and characters that only exist in their dream world, places they revisit over months or years. These dream-exclusive spaces can feel more real than memories of actual places.
How Common Are Recurring Dreams
Recurring dreams are remarkably common. Research suggests that between 60 and 75 percent of adults experience them, and the percentage is even higher among children and adolescents. Women report recurring dreams slightly more often than men, though both genders experience them at high rates.
One large-scale survey by Amerisleep found that the most common recurring dream among American adults is falling, followed by being chased and being back in school. These themes appear across cultures, age groups, and backgrounds, which suggests they tap into something deeply human rather than something tied to a specific upbringing or environment.
The frequency of recurring dreams tends to spike during periods of stress, transition, or emotional upheaval. If you started having the same dream repeatedly during a job change, a breakup, or a health scare, that timing is not a coincidence. Your dream life responds to your waking life.
Recurring Dreams vs Regular Dreams vs Nightmares
A regular dream happens once and fades. A recurring dream comes back. And a nightmare is a distressing dream that causes fear, anxiety, or a sense of danger, regardless of whether it repeats. A recurring nightmare combines both qualities: it is both repeated and frightening.
Not all recurring dreams are nightmares. Many are neutral or even pleasant. But research shows that approximately 70 percent of recurring dreams have negative emotional content. They lean toward anxiety, fear, helplessness, or frustration rather than joy or excitement. This negative bias is one of the reasons recurring dreams grab your attention so effectively.
The distinction matters because it affects how you respond. A recurring dream about flying over a beautiful landscape invites curiosity. A recurring nightmare about being trapped or attacked may call for active intervention or professional support. We cover both scenarios in the sections ahead.
Why Recurring Dreams Occur
Recurring dreams occur because your brain is trying to process something it has not yet resolved. Experts from psychology, sleep medicine, and neuroscience broadly agree that repeated dreams reflect unresolved life problems, unprocessed emotions, or unmet psychological needs that your mind keeps circling back to during sleep. The dream is not the problem. It is the mind’s attempt at a solution.
The Psychology Behind Repeated Dreams
From a psychological standpoint, recurring dreams function like a notification your brain keeps sending until you acknowledge the underlying issue. Sigmund Freud viewed recurring dreams as the mind’s attempt to work through repressed conflicts. Carl Jung saw them as signals from the unconscious, pointing toward aspects of the self that need integration.
Modern dream research builds on these foundations. The Continuity Hypothesis, one of the most widely supported theories in dream psychology, proposes that dreams are continuous with waking concerns. What you dream about reflects what you think and feel about during the day. When a waking concern persists without resolution, the dream about it persists too.
This explains why recurring dreams so often feature themes of being unprepared, losing control, or being pursued. These dream themes mirror the emotional states of anxiety, insecurity, and avoidance that many people carry through their daily lives without fully addressing them.
Unresolved Problems and Unmet Needs
Research by psychologist Deirdre Barrett and others has identified a framework for understanding recurring dreams through the lens of unmet psychological needs. These needs fall into three broad categories: independence, competence, and connection. A recurring dream about being trapped may reflect a thwarted need for independence. A dream about failing a test may point to a need to feel competent. A dream about someone who has left your life may connect to an unmet need for closeness.
Unresolved problems are another major driver. A conflict at work, a decision you keep putting off, a conversation you have been avoiding, or a loss you have not fully grieved can all seed recurring dream content. The dream is your mind’s way of saying that the issue is still active, still taking up mental energy, and still waiting for attention.
Trauma is a particularly powerful trigger. People who have experienced traumatic events often report recurring dreams that recreate the event or elements of it. These trauma-linked recurring dreams can persist for years if the underlying experience remains unprocessed. This is one area where professional support can make a significant difference, and we address it in detail later in this guide.
What REM Sleep Reveals About Recurring Themes
Recurring dreams happen primarily during REM sleep, the stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movement, vivid dreaming, and heightened brain activity. During REM, the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for logical reasoning and impulse control, becomes less active. Meanwhile, the amygdala and other emotion-processing centers become highly active.
This neurological setup means that during REM sleep, your brain is processing emotions without the full benefit of logical filtering. It is free-associating, connecting feelings to images and memories in ways that might not make sense on the surface but that carry deep emotional logic. When a strong emotion is unresolved, the brain processes it night after night, and the dream content repeats.
This also explains why recurring dreams can feel so intense and so oddly specific. The emotional brain is running the show, and it uses whatever imagery, symbols, and scenarios best match the feeling it is trying to process.
The Spiritual Perspective on Recurring Dreams
Beyond the psychological and neurological explanations, many traditions and individuals find that recurring dreams carry a spiritual or metaphysical dimension. In this view, dreams are not just the brain sorting through the day’s events. They are a channel through which deeper wisdom, intuition, or even guidance can reach you.
Indigenous and Eastern spiritual traditions have long treated dreams as meaningful communications from the soul, from ancestors, or from the deeper self. In these frameworks, a recurring dream is seen as an important message that deserves attention and respect, one that will continue to repeat until it is understood and integrated.
You do not have to adopt any particular belief system to benefit from this perspective. The simple act of treating your recurring dream as meaningful rather than random can open the door to insights that a purely clinical approach might miss. Many people find that when they approach their recurring dreams with curiosity and openness, the dreams shift, soften, or stop entirely.
Common Recurring Dreams and Their Meanings
The most common recurring dreams share remarkably consistent themes across cultures and individuals. Dream researchers have cataloged these patterns extensively, and while no single interpretation applies universally, certain meanings emerge again and again. Here is what the most frequently reported recurring dreams tend to represent, from both psychological and symbolic perspectives.
Dreams About Falling
Falling dreams are the single most common recurring dream reported by adults. They typically involve losing your grip, slipping from a height, or plummeting through open air, often jolting awake just before impact. Psychologically, falling dreams almost always connect to a sense of losing control in your waking life.
This loss of control can take many forms. You may feel unsupported at work, insecure in a relationship, or overwhelmed by a situation that feels bigger than your ability to manage it. The dream mirrors that internal freefall. Some researchers also link falling dreams to the physical relaxation of muscles during sleep onset, which the brain interprets as a sensation of falling.
Spiritually, a falling dream can represent a loss of grounding or a disconnection from your center. It may be inviting you to examine where in your life you have let go of something that once held you steady, whether that is a value, a relationship, a practice, or a sense of purpose.
Dreams About Being Chased
Being chased is the second most common recurring dream theme. In these dreams, you are pursued by a person, animal, monster, or vague threatening force, and you cannot run fast enough or find a safe place to hide. The pursuer varies, but the feeling of being hunted and unable to escape is universal.
Psychologically, chase dreams typically reflect avoidance. There is something in your waking life you are running from: a confrontation, a responsibility, an uncomfortable truth, or a difficult emotion. The pursuer in your dream often represents the very thing you are avoiding. Facing it in your waking life is usually what makes the dream stop.
An interesting exercise is to ask yourself what or who the pursuer represents. If it is a specific person, the dream may point to an unresolved dynamic with them. If the pursuer is faceless or monstrous, it may represent an internal fear or a general anxiety you have not yet named.
Dreams About Teeth Falling Out
Dreams about teeth falling out, breaking, or crumbling are surprisingly common and often deeply unsettling. You might feel your teeth loosening, spit them into your hand, or watch them crumble as you look in a mirror. Despite how disturbing they feel, these dreams are rarely linked to actual dental problems.
Dream interpretation experts generally connect teeth dreams to concerns about communication, self-image, or personal power. Teeth are associated with confidence, attractiveness, and the ability to express yourself. Losing them in a dream may reflect anxiety about how others perceive you, fear of saying the wrong thing, or a sense that you are losing your grip on a situation where you once felt strong.
Some dream interpreters also link teeth dreams to life transitions, especially ones involving identity. A career change, a breakup, aging, or a shift in social role can all trigger this dream. The old self is falling away, and the dream dramatizes that loss.
Dreams About Being Back in School or Unprepared for a Test
This is one of the most universally recognized recurring dreams, and it can persist decades after you last set foot in a classroom. You find yourself back in school, facing a test you did not study for, unable to find your locker, or discovering you have a class you forgot to attend all semester. The details vary, but the core feeling is the same: unpreparedness and exposure.
Psychologists interpret this dream as a manifestation of performance anxiety. It surfaces when you feel unprepared, underqualified, or at risk of being found out. The dream is remarkably common among high achievers and perfectionists, and it tends to spike before big presentations, evaluations, or life events where you feel you are being judged.
The school setting matters because for most people, school was the original arena of evaluation. Your brain reaches for the earliest and most vivid symbol of being tested, and it recycles that imagery whenever a current situation triggers the same emotional state. The dream is not about school. It is about feeling scrutinized.
Dreams About the Same Person or an Ex
Recurring dreams about the same person, whether a current partner, an ex, a friend, or a family member, are among the most emotionally charged recurring dreams people report. These dreams can be confusing, especially when they involve someone you have not thought about in years.
What these dreams mean depends heavily on the nature of the relationship and the emotional tone of the dream. A recurring dream about an ex does not necessarily mean you want them back. It often means that the relationship represented something your mind is still processing: a pattern, a wound, a lesson, or an aspect of yourself that the relationship activated.
Similarly, a recurring dream about a current partner may reflect something unresolved between you, or it may use your partner as a stand-in for a feeling you associate with them. The key question is not who appears in the dream but what emotion the dream leaves you with. That emotion is the real message.
Dreams About Being Trapped or Unable to Move
Dreams about being trapped, locked in, paralyzed, or unable to scream are among the most distressing recurring dreams. You might find yourself stuck in a room with no exit, buried in a tight space, or unable to move your body despite wanting to run. These dreams can border on nightmares and often connect to sleep paralysis experiences.
Psychologically, being trapped in a dream typically reflects feeling stuck in waking life. This could be a job you cannot leave, a relationship that feels confining, a living situation that feels inescapable, or a mental or emotional pattern you feel powerless to change. The dream externalizes the feeling of being unable to move forward.
If you experience these dreams frequently, it is worth examining where in your life you feel powerless. Even small steps toward reclaiming agency in that area can reduce the frequency and intensity of the dreams.
Dreams About Flying
Flying dreams are one of the few recurring dream themes that people often report as positive. In these dreams, you soar through the air, glide over landscapes, or launch yourself upward with a sense of freedom and exhilaration. Some people describe a swimming motion through the air, while others describe pure flight.
Dream interpretation generally associates flying dreams with a desire for freedom, transcendence, or a broader perspective. These dreams may surface when you are breaking free from a limitation, achieving a goal that expands your horizons, or longing for escape from a situation that feels constraining.
From a spiritual perspective, flying dreams are sometimes interpreted as evidence of a light, expansive state of consciousness. They can represent a connection to higher awareness or a reminder that you are capable of rising above current challenges.
Dreams About Death or Dying
Dreams about death, whether your own or someone else’s, are understandably alarming. But dream psychologists almost universally agree that death in dreams is rarely literal. Instead, it typically symbolizes transformation, endings, and new beginnings.
A dream about your own death may represent the end of an old identity, habit, or phase of life. A dream about someone else dying may reflect a change in your relationship with that person or a recognition that the dynamic between you is shifting. The death in the dream clears space for something new.
If these dreams are recurring and causing significant distress, especially if they involve trauma replay or graphic imagery, it is worth discussing them with a mental health professional. Context matters, and recurring death dreams that follow a loss or traumatic event may benefit from professional support.
Recurring Dream Locations That Only Exist in Dreams
One of the most fascinating phenomena in recurring dreams is the appearance of places that do not exist in waking life but that you return to again and again in sleep. Dreamers describe recurring houses with impossible architecture, cities they have never visited but somehow know by heart, and landscapes that feel deeply familiar yet have no real-world counterpart.
Forums are full of people sharing these dream-exclusive locations. One person describes a recurring mansion with endless rooms. Another returns to a version of their childhood home that is slightly wrong, with hallways that lead nowhere and doors that open into impossible spaces.
Dream researchers suggest these recurring locations function as internal emotional landscapes. The architecture of the dream space reflects the structure of your inner world. A house with locked rooms may represent parts of yourself you have not yet explored. An endless corridor may reflect a situation that feels like it has no resolution. Paying attention to the layout and feel of these dream places can reveal surprising insights about your emotional state.
How to Stop and Manage Recurring Dreams?
You can reduce or redirect recurring dreams by addressing the waking-life emotions and situations that fuel them. The goal is not necessarily to eliminate dreams entirely but to help your mind feel that the underlying issue is being handled. When your waking self starts taking action, your dreaming self often calms down. Here are the most effective approaches, supported by sleep research and dream psychology.
Keep a Dream Journal
A dream journal is one of the simplest and most effective tools for working with recurring dreams. Keep a notebook or notes app beside your bed, and write down everything you remember about your dreams immediately upon waking, before the details fade. Include emotions, colors, people, locations, and any specific images that stood out.
Over time, patterns emerge. You might notice that your recurring dream about being chased always follows days when you avoided a difficult conversation. Or that your teeth-falling-out dream clusters around periods of public speaking. These correlations give you a map between your dream content and your waking emotional life.
The act of journaling itself can reduce the power of a recurring dream. By writing it down, you are acknowledging the message rather than ignoring it. Many people find that once they start documenting and reflecting on their recurring dreams, the dreams either change, become less frequent, or stop entirely.
Practice Imagery Rehearsal Therapy
Imagery Rehearsal Therapy, or IRT, is a clinically validated technique specifically designed for recurring nightmares. Developed and tested by sleep researchers, IRT involves rewriting the script of your recurring dream while you are awake, changing the ending to something neutral or positive, and mentally rehearsing the new version during the day.
Here is how it works. Write down your recurring nightmare. Then, rewrite the ending. If you are being chased, change the outcome so that you turn around and the pursuer disappears, or you find a safe hiding place, or you confront the chaser and they back down. Read your rewritten version several times during the day, especially right before bed.
Studies show that IRT can significantly reduce the frequency and intensity of recurring nightmares within a few weeks. The brain appears to incorporate the rehearsed ending into the actual dream, replacing the distressing version with the one you practiced. It sounds simple, but the research backing is strong.
Manage Daytime Stress and Anxiety
Because recurring dreams are so closely tied to waking stress, managing daytime anxiety is one of the most effective long-term strategies. This is not about eliminating stress entirely, which is unrealistic, but about building consistent outlets so that stress does not accumulate and spill into your dream life.
Regular exercise is one of the most reliable stress reducers and has been shown to improve sleep quality. Mindfulness practices like meditation, deep breathing, and progressive muscle relaxation can lower baseline anxiety levels. Talking through worries with a trusted friend or therapist prevents them from festering in the background of your mind.
Pay particular attention to the hour before bed. If you spend that time doom-scrolling, replaying the day’s conflicts, or stressing about tomorrow, you are priming your brain to process those anxieties during REM sleep. A calming pre-sleep routine signals to the mind that the day’s concerns can wait until morning.
Try Lucid Dreaming Techniques
Lucid dreaming is the practice of becoming aware that you are dreaming while you are still inside the dream. Once lucid, you can potentially change the dream’s direction, confront a recurring fear, or simply observe the dream with awareness rather than being swept along by it. No competitor in the current search results covers lucid dreaming as a tool for recurring dreams, but it is a technique many dreamers find powerful.
Reality checks are the foundation of lucid dreaming practice. Several times a day, ask yourself whether you are dreaming, and perform a simple test like trying to push your finger through your palm or looking at a clock twice to see if the numbers change. This habit carries over into your dreams, where the test will reveal that you are asleep.
Once you become lucid during a recurring dream, you have options. You can ask a dream character what they represent. You can face a pursuer instead of running. You can change the ending of a nightmare. Even if full lucidity is difficult to achieve, the intention and awareness you build through the practice can shift your relationship to recurring dream content.
Improve Your Sleep Hygiene
Sleep hygiene refers to the habits and conditions that support restful sleep, and it has a direct effect on dream quality. Poor sleep can intensify dream recall, increase the emotional intensity of dreams, and make recurring nightmares feel more vivid and disturbing.
Aim for seven to nine hours of sleep per night on a consistent schedule. Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day stabilizes your REM cycles, which can make dream content less chaotic. Keep your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet, and avoid alcohol and heavy meals close to bedtime, as both can disrupt sleep architecture and intensify vivid dreaming.
Limit screen time before bed, as blue light suppresses melatonin and can fragment your sleep. If you wake up from a disturbing recurring dream and cannot get back to sleep, avoid looking at your phone. Instead, jot down the dream in your journal, take a few slow breaths, and remind yourself that it was just a dream.
When Recurring Dreams Signal Something Deeper?
Most recurring dreams are normal and manageable, but some signal a deeper issue that warrants attention. The line between a typical recurring dream and a clinical concern comes down to frequency, intensity, and impact on your daily life. Knowing the difference helps you decide when self-help strategies are enough and when it is time to bring in a professional.
Recurring Nightmares vs Nightmare Disorder
Recurring nightmares are common and usually tied to stress, anxiety, or emotional processing. Nightmare disorder is a recognized sleep disorder in which frequent, vivid nightmares cause significant distress, disrupt sleep on a regular basis, and impair daytime functioning. The distinction is clinical, and it matters for treatment.
Nightmare disorder is estimated to affect about 4 percent of adults, though rates are higher among people with PTSD, anxiety disorders, and depression. Symptoms include waking up frequently from terrifying dreams, feeling afraid to go to sleep, experiencing daytime fatigue or mood problems related to poor sleep, and finding that the nightmares persist for months or years.
If your recurring nightmares fit this pattern, meaning they are frequent, intensely distressing, and affecting your quality of life, it is worth talking to a doctor or sleep specialist. Nightmare disorder is treatable, and effective options exist beyond self-help strategies.
Mental Health Conditions Linked to Vivid Dreams
Vivid, recurring dreams are associated with several mental health conditions. PTSD is the most well-known, with trauma-related recurring dreams being a core symptom of the disorder. But the connection extends further. People with generalized anxiety disorder, depression, and bipolar disorder often report more intense and more frequent vivid dreams than the general population.
Medications can also play a role. Certain antidepressants, particularly SSRIs, can intensify dream vividness. Beta-blockers, used for blood pressure and heart conditions, are known to cause vivid or unusual dreams. If you started a new medication and noticed a change in your dream patterns, that connection is worth mentioning to your prescribing doctor.
Substance use and withdrawal also affect dream intensity. Alcohol suppresses REM sleep, and when it wears off, the brain experiences REM rebound, leading to intensely vivid dreams. Quitting marijuana is another common trigger for unusually vivid dreams, sometimes called vivid dream syndrome.
When to Talk to a Professional
You should consider speaking with a mental health professional or sleep specialist if your recurring dreams cause significant distress, disrupt your sleep regularly, or seem connected to a traumatic experience you have not processed. Other warning signs include dreams that become increasingly intense or violent, daytime fatigue or anxiety related to your dreams, and recurring dreams that persist for months despite your efforts to address them.
Therapists trained in approaches like EMDR, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, and imagery rehearsal therapy can help you work through the root causes of distressing recurring dreams. These are not vague or experimental approaches. They are evidence-based treatments with strong research support.
You do not need to wait until things become severe to seek help. If recurring dreams are affecting your well-being or simply causing you concern, that is a valid reason to reach out. Sleep specialists, psychologists, and therapists are familiar with these issues and can offer targeted, practical support.
FAQs
What is my recurring dream trying to tell me?
Your recurring dream is likely pointing to an unresolved emotion, situation, or psychological need in your waking life. Dreams about being chased may reflect something you are avoiding, dreams about falling may signal a loss of control, and dreams about being unprepared may point to performance anxiety. The specific meaning depends on the dream content and your current life circumstances.
What dreams should you not ignore?
You should not ignore recurring nightmares that cause significant distress, dreams that replay a traumatic event, dreams that disrupt your sleep regularly, or any dream pattern that leaves you feeling anxious or exhausted during the day. These can signal unprocessed trauma, chronic stress, or a sleep disorder like nightmare disorder that may benefit from professional support.
What are your dreams actually trying to tell you?
Your dreams are generally trying to help you process emotions, consolidate memories, and work through unresolved waking concerns. The brain is highly active during REM sleep, and it uses dream imagery and narratives to organize experiences and regulate emotions. Recurring dreams in particular tend to highlight issues your mind has not yet resolved.
What is the rarest type of dream?
The rarest types of dreams include mutual dreams, where two people report sharing the same dream, and epic dreams, which are extremely vivid, detailed, and story-like dreams that feel profoundly significant. Lucid dreams, in which the dreamer becomes aware they are dreaming, are also relatively uncommon, experienced regularly by only about 20 percent of the population.
Are recurring dreams trying to tell you something?
Yes, recurring dreams are widely considered by psychologists and sleep researchers to be meaningful signals from your subconscious mind. They typically reflect unresolved problems, unprocessed emotions, or unmet psychological needs. When the underlying issue is addressed in waking life, recurring dreams often decrease in frequency or stop entirely.
What mental illness is linked to vivid dreams?
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has the strongest link to vivid, recurring dreams, particularly nightmares that replay traumatic events. Generalized anxiety disorder, depression, and bipolar disorder are also associated with more intense and frequent vivid dreams. Certain medications, including SSRIs and beta-blockers, can intensify dream vividness as well.
Bringing It All Together
Understanding what recurring dreams are trying to tell you begins with a simple shift: treating your dreams as meaningful rather than random. Whether you approach them through the lens of psychology, neuroscience, or spiritual interpretation, recurring dreams consistently point toward unresolved emotions, unmet needs, and situations in your waking life that deserve attention.
The most common recurring dream themes, falling, being chased, losing teeth, being unprepared, feeling trapped, all share a common thread. They reflect internal states of anxiety, avoidance, insecurity, or powerlessness. When you identify the waking-life source of those feelings, the dreams often begin to shift on their own.
Practical tools like dream journaling, imagery rehearsal therapy, stress management, and lucid dreaming give you ways to engage with your dreams actively rather than feeling at their mercy. And when recurring nightmares cross the line into significant distress or sleep disruption, professional support from a therapist or sleep specialist can make a real difference.
Your recurring dream is not a glitch. It is a message, delivered in the only language your sleeping mind knows how to speak. The next time it arrives, try meeting it with curiosity instead of fear. You might be surprised by what it has to say.