By Lisa Erhart. 

Sometimes our dreams show us more clearly than waking life where stress is living in our bodies, what systems are breaking down, and what parts of ourselves are calling to be restored.

Recently, I dreamt of a little lap dog - soft, loyal, beloved - being kicked violently away by an angry man. Moments later, the dream shifted: a train, once under the command of an owner, had lost its guide. The owner was removed from power and walked away, following the path of the dog.

It stayed with me - not just as a story, but as a mirror.

The Symbols We Carry

🐾 The Little Dog - love, vulnerability, devotion.
When it’s kicked out, it feels like tenderness itself has been exiled.

😠 The Angry Man - force, control, suppression.
His violence wasn’t mine, but I still felt it. Haven’t we all watched something soft get crushed under the weight of someone else’s control?

🚂 The Train and Its Owner - systems, power, and displacement.
Trains move collectives. They’re systems of progress. Yet here was one whose leader was ousted, no longer steering the course.

Together, these symbols felt like a message: systems break down when they lose love. When tenderness, loyalty, and care are cast aside, the machinery of progress doesn’t just stall - it fractures.

Stress, Self-Care, and the Power of Dreams

We live in a culture that glorifies productivity and punishes softness. Stress builds when we suppress the very qualities - care, intuition, gentleness - that actually keep us well.

Dreams remind us that what’s dismissed by the system doesn’t disappear. It waits. It calls. It follows us until we reclaim it.

For women especially, the lap dog can symbolise our inner feminine energy, the part of us that nurtures, receives, and connects. When stress kicks it away, when corporate systems dismiss it, when partnerships don’t value it - we don’t just lose comfort. We lose balance.

Playing with ChatGPT as Dream Interpreter

Here’s where I get a little experimental: I dropped the dream into ChatGPT, asking it to interpret the symbols. What came back was surprisingly resonant - not mystical, but deeply practical:

• The dog = what you love and need to protect.

• The man = distorted power.

• The train = systems that move groups of people.

When I read it back, I realised: we don’t always need the “perfect” interpretation. Sometimes just reflecting on a dream with a tool like this helps us see what’s already rising in us. AI can act as a mirror, not a mystic, offering a lens through which we make our own meaning.

The Woowoo and the Work

So what do we do with dreams like this?

1. Pause and listen: rather than brushing it off as strange, treat it as data.

2. Ask what’s being exiled: what soft part of you is being pushed aside?

3. Bring it back into care: reclaiming the “dog” in waking life might mean rest, creativity, or nurturing relationships.

4. Notice the systems: trains don’t run without conductors. If a system in your life is breaking down, maybe it’s because love got left behind.

Final Reflection

We’re all dreamers - in sleep, in life, in business. And our dreams remind us that love, loyalty, and tenderness are not weaknesses. They’re the fuel that makes progress sustainable.

The angry man, the displaced owner, the broken train - they’re cautionary tales. But the dog? The dog is the heart. It may be kicked aside, but it is never lost.

The real work is to find it again, pick it up, and carry it forward.

Author Note

Lisa Erhart is the founder of Funding4Growth, where she helps women and diverse founders secure funding while keeping humanity at the centre. She believes strategy and soul are not opposites, but partners in building the future. For more About Us.