Janie R

Dear Janie
You tell me you are 54, divorced with grown-up children. You have a managerial position in a publishing firm and are currently enjoying a relationship with a lovely man. You are, you say, happy. Why, then, are you having such anxiety-ridden dreams?

Some aspect of your waking life must be producing the high levels of stress. The fact that you are dreaming about a holiday suggests you yearn for a break - yet the problems you experience in packing suggest something else: a fear that you are less well organised than you think. Packing is about putting things neatly in order. It is clear that this is something which you are very capable of. Yet you tell me that you last had the dream when you were facing a deadline at work. So perhaps you are striving harder than you should to keep some aspect of your life firmly under control.

Maybe those flights imply that it is the 'high-flying', perfectionist aspect of your own personality that you really need a holiday from. Recurring dreams are our psyche's way of alerting us to the need for change. Sometimes they occur when we are involved in an inappropriate situation or relationship. More often though, they are a message about the need to address or adjust some aspect of our own attitude or personality. In your case, I suspect the dream is simply about a tendency to expect too much of yourself. Activities like yoga or gardening would help to counteract this, as would meditation.

A more inwardly relaxed attitude will not make you any less efficient - but it will free you from the need to keep having that dream.

(Sun Taurus, Moon Scorpio)