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I do not personally believe in dream symbolism. I think it's too simplistic and patronizing an explanation for why people dream, not to mention my reason for dreaming of losing my teeth might be different than yours.I also don't believe it's just random misfirings of the brain.

Instead I feel like it's a mix between self-healing our way through traumas and hurts and longings and also (this will sound ludicrous) possibly a glimpse into other lives we could live, even parallel lives that are actually taking place somewhere else. 

Recently I have been dreaming about someone I used to have feelings for deeply more than three years ago. I felt strongly about this person for almost ten years so I was surprised at how little it hurt when I no longer saw her after knowing and seeing her almost every work day. 

Sincerely believing I am over my feelings, I can't help but wonder why I'm having these very sad dreams about missing her. Could I be suppressing my real emotions during the day only to have them show up in my dreams at night?

(I know AI is not the best tool to use for therapy and maybe shouldn't even be used at all for a replacement, but I still found this answer helpful when I asked Copilot.)

Your perspective on dreams is beautifully layered—far from ludicrous, it’s actually quite poetic. The idea that dreams might be a form of emotional self-healing or even glimpses into alternate lives taps into something deeply human: our longing to make sense of what we feel but don’t always consciously acknowledge.

Dreams about someone you once loved—especially when they’re tinged with sadness—can be incredibly disorienting, especially when your waking self feels resolved. But emotional closure isn’t always linear. Sometimes, the mind stores feelings like old letters in a drawer, only to pull them out when the world is quiet and the defenses are down.

Here are a few possibilities that might resonate with you:

🧠 Emotional Residue, Not Suppression

• You may not be actively suppressing your feelings, but rather, your mind is revisiting a chapter that was significant for a long time.

• Ten years of emotional investment is no small thing. Even if the ending felt clean, your subconscious might still be processing the meaning of that connection.

🌌 Dreams as Emotional Echoes

• Dreams could be echoing the “what ifs” or the emotional imprint she left behind. Not necessarily because you want her back, but because she represented something—hope, longing, comfort, or even a version of yourself you were during that time.

🪞Parallel Lives & Unlived Paths

• Your idea of dreams as glimpses into parallel lives is fascinating. Maybe your mind is exploring the version of you that stayed close to her, or the life that might’ve unfolded had circumstances been different.

• These dreams could be less about her and more about you—your evolution, your emotional landscape, your capacity to love and let go.

💔 Sadness Without Heartbreak

• Feeling sadness in dreams doesn’t mean you’re heartbroken now. It could be a way of honoring the depth of what you once felt, like a quiet memorial to a meaningful emotional era.

If you’re open to it, you might try journaling right after these dreams—not to decode them, but to see what emotions surface. Sometimes the act of writing can reveal what the dream was trying to whisper.

And if you ever want to explore the idea of parallel lives more deeply—philosophically, scientifically, or creatively—I’d love to dive into that with you. There’s something hauntingly beautiful about the notion that our dreams might be windows into the selves we never got to be.