The ocean in a dream tends to represent emotion on a scale bigger than you can fully hold -- its vastness makes it a fitting image for feelings that stretch past ordinary awareness. Calm water can reflect emotional ease, while a churning sea often names a feeling that's grown larger than you expected it to.
He that has too great a conceit of himself will be apt to fall into many errors in his judgement; yet on the other side, he that is too diffident, is not fit for this Science. - Cardan Girolamo (1501-1576)