How to stop feeling apprehensive and uncontrollable thoughts?

**Brite** · 10-10-2016 08:35 PM

I have been Lucid Dreaming on and off for several years and recently have come across another hurdle. At first, I labeled it as fear, but then as I thought about it some more apprehension or trepidation seemed to fit better. I think this feeling surfaced when I learned exactly how important your thinking is when it comes to Lucid Dreaming. Whatever I am thinking manifests itself. Good and bad. So for some reason when a situation arises where I feel as though I'm not in control, my thoughts wander into dark places. For example, say I'm swimming on the ocean floor and it gets a bit dark (as expected). This small annoying voice in the back of my mind says "Oh sh*t, what if a giant crustacean appears and tries to snap me in half." And poof it happens. My paranoid mind always tries to picture the worst thing that happens. Even if I were to take a walk in a park, an image of a bear racing towards me from behind the trees would probably flash in my mind.

No matter how hard I try to move through these thoughts and brush them aside, they always end up manifesting. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

Because of this, this feeling that I'm not in control of my own thoughts, I've lost my original vigor to lucid dream. I used to think about it as a journey of exploring all the great places I wanted to go in my imagination, but now it's become more about avoiding bad thoughts.

**HansiElneff** · 10-10-2016 09:00 PM

But are the thoughts necessarily bad? I think the problem is that you're pre-judging your thoughts before they've shown what they really have to offer for you! So what if a shark comes after you out on the deep ocean? Imagine if it ate you whole and inside it, you found an entire village of people living in there! And man, I wish I could get to fight bears with my bare hands like that - sounds amazing!:tropicalboxer: But hey, if that sounds a bit too tough, you could always try overpowering it with magic?

What I'm trying to say is: Whatever your thoughts might decide should happen, I'm sure you'll find a way to turn it into an epic adventure!
I hope this sort of helped. Now go back in there and take on whatever challenges your unconsciousness has waiting for you!

**Brite** · 10-10-2016 09:17 PM

Originally Posted by HansiElneff

But are the thoughts necessarily bad? I think the problem is that you're pre-judging your thoughts before they've shown what they really have to offer for you! So what if a shark comes after you out on the deep ocean? Imagine if it ate you whole and inside it, you found an entire village of people living in there! And man, I wish I could get to fight bears with my bare hands like that - sounds amazing!:tropicalboxer: But hey, if that sounds a bit too tough, you could always try overpowering it with magic?

What I'm trying to say is: Whatever your thoughts might decide should happen, I'm sure you'll find a way to turn it into an epic adventure!
I hope this sort of helped. Now go back in there and take on whatever challenges your unconsciousness has waiting for you!

I'm familiar with this concept, and I've actually also tried it multiple times, but nothing ever really happens and I continue to have unwanted thoughts. There was one occasion with a dream character who I thought was going to turn into a demon. I said "You know what, maybe my unconscious is trying to tell me something etc. etc." So I opened my arms, to embrace her, and said I love you. She then proceeded to yank me forward, stab me with a rather large protrusion from her stomach, and then devour me. Unfortunately I wasn't able to experience anything else after that because I woke up. ^.^

Let me give another example, on another occasion I ate a piece of coconut cake. At first it was delicious, but then as i felt it slide down my throat into my stomach I thought "Uh oh, that didn't feel right." next thing I know an Alien is bursting out of my chest. That's just unnecessary, y'know? lol

**HansiElneff** · 10-10-2016 09:29 PM

Haha, I can see what you mean^^ But hey, at least your dreams aren't boring, right? Just be confident! If anything tries to harm you or make you have a bad lucid dream, you better fight back! And why not make that fight as cool as possible? Who says an alien coming out of your chest necessarily "kills" you? It's your dream and you decide.
Like I said in my previous post: whatever happens, I bet you can find a way to turn it into a great adventure. Good luck, and don't give in too easily

**TravisE** · 10-16-2016 06:21 PM

I'm not sure how much this will help, but I'll give it a go.

If I were personally in this situation, what I would try doing is just see if I can accept the thoughts, recognize them as what they are, and, instead of fighting them, just let them come and go while passively observing them, watching what happens, see if there are any patterns, see if I can learn anything interesting or fascinating about them I didn't realize before. They might be rather unpleasant, but in a LD it shouldn't be difficult to remember and recognize that they are only my thoughts, and I would make a plan to try to remember in the dream that I ought to be able to find a way, somehow, to control them… or failing that, just smile and see if I can't find a way to entertain myself with them (maybe find a way to admire the creativity or vividness, or something of that sort, hidden beneath the gruesome or horrifying content), armed with the knowledge that they are nothing more than something my mind is producing and that there's nothing inherently harmful or even wrong with them: It's always up to me to decide, consciously, what to do with those thoughts; that's all that really matters.

Meditation practice could also be helpful, as it trains one's ability to focus on desired thoughts more easily and to distract oneself from thoughts one doesn't want to think about, in a controlled, consciously-driven manner. This might also be something you may want to look into. It can be a valuable tool for dealing with difficult thoughts and stressful situations in waking life as well.