Thread: I cant keep my mind from wandering!! :(

I have that problem pretty often too, and it can be frustrating as all Hell.
Probably the best thing you can do is focus on your breathing. Whenever you find a thought popping into your head, just remember (inhale.....exhale...) let the stray thought just come and go. Don't say "Damnit...Damn that stray thought!!!" just let it slip by, and go right back to (inhale...exhale..) The more you focus on your breathing, the harder it will be for stray thoughts to get in. You'll also find it more relaxing.

now is it good to say breathe in breathe out or inhale exhale out loud, to yourself or not at all.

I highly suggest you try meditation... There are lots of sites on the net you can learn how to do it, and there are many ways. Basically what it does is focus your mind, clearing your mind of any annoying thoughts etc. I do medidation for a few weeks and then stop for a while, but I have recently decided to do it at least twice a day.

It really helps - the more you practice it, the better you can concentrate and the longer. I can sit there with a completley blank mind for about 6-7 minues at the moment. It's not quick and easy, but as I am starting to realise with lucid dreaming, nothing is easy.

Let me know how it goes if u try it.

Sometimes a wandering mind can be helpful if you can snap back to focus every 1 or 2 minutes. Like you will start thinking about something, and then let go of it for a bit, and then think of something else again and repeat it. One of the times you let go you might find yourself in SP still conscious and ready to successfully complete a WILD.

Originally posted by Franz Ferdinand
i just cannot keep my mind from wandering! i cannot do some of the LD techiniques b/c of my wandering mind! any advice on what i can do? please help!!!!

You can keep your mind occupied by counting backwards (tougher than 1, 2, 3...). If you choose to do this, alternate you breathing so you inhale/exhale on the even/odd numbers (whichever combination you do). This way, if you start counting too fast, or your breathing pattern changes, you will soon realize you that your breathing and counting do not match. If you are willing to keep counting down from (no more than 100) several times, to where you would have counted up 500-1000 if you started at 1, you will be completely relaxed and everything is going to be off your mind.

Don't try to keep your mind still, make it crawl at a tormentingly slow pace, so nothing else can make your mind race. If your mind starts thinking, you will temporarily stop counting and you'll know real soon.

You know, your wondering mind could help you to achieve lucidity. What some people dont realise is that it doesnt matter if your mind wonders and you dont stay on the thought of yourself breathing or having a lucid dream. As long as you keep a tiny amount of urself awake, so little amount that you dont even realise your awake or even realise what your doing. you'll find yourself at the start of a dream, lucid. its all like in order to get to the dream world from reality, you have to go through a small tunnel, and this tunnel only has room for a maximum of 10% awareness out of a possible 100% which would be fully awake and aware. If your mind wonders just stick with it, go with the flow. normal people dont even make it into this stage, which just says that your gonna go far. then when you reach the end of the tunnel to the dream world, because the 10% consciousness has just been squeesed to such a small amount its alot of pressure so it just explodes to about 80%. your now lucid.(i hope you know what i mean, lol)

Basically what im saying is that as long as you still see that your wondering away into different thoughts you still have that 10% awareness. just stay that way. you dont need to be like "oh damn my mind just wondered again, better start again." your mind wondering if anything is a sign that your successfully(spelling?) letting yourself go. just dont lose it completely, let everything happen.

I agree with sh2dak, but yeah, I meant to say it to yourself in your mind. However some of my best HI has led into dreams from stray thoughts that I let seep in. Alot of times I'll end up playing audio from movies (volume just low enough to not wake me up, but a little heavy on the bass. 8) ) and trace out scenes in my mind while listening to the Matrix or something. Clearing your mind isn't always best.
Doing this also helps prolong HI because your mind is voluntarily imagining scenes and keeping itself busy while your body falls asleep. I've had some wicked experiences with this.

Originally posted by sh2dak
You know, your wondering mind could help you to achieve lucidity. What some people dont realise is that it doesnt matter if your mind wonders and you dont stay on the thought of yourself breathing or having a lucid dream. As long as you keep a tiny amount of urself awake, so little amount that you dont even realise your awake or even realise what your doing. you'll find yourself at the start of a dream, lucid. its all like in order to get to the dream world from reality, you have to go through a small tunnel, and this tunnel only has room for a maximum of 10% awareness out of a possible 100% which would be fully awake and aware. If your mind wonders just stick with it, go with the flow. normal people dont even make it into this stage, which just says that your gonna go far. then when you reach the end of the tunnel to the dream world, because the 10% consciousness has just been squeesed to such a small amount its alot of pressure so it just explodes to about 80%. your now lucid.(i hope you know what i mean, lol)

Basically what im saying is that as long as you still see that your wondering away into different thoughts you still have that 10% awareness. just stay that way. you dont need to be like \"oh damn my mind just wondered again, better start again.\" your mind wondering if anything is a sign that your successfully(spelling?) letting yourself go. just dont lose it completely, let everything happen.

well i kinda know what ya mean about the tunnel, sometimes it feels like im, i dont know, about to float in the air or something but im awake, but at that point i can never go to sleep there, i have to wake back up and just go back to sleep like normal.
HELP PLEASE!!

A problem i have is that when im counting in my head like 1..... i am dreaming 2... i am dreaming ... i think i am so concentrated on counting that i dont se HI's. Anyone have this problem?

The same. I repeat "Tonight I will be aware that I am dreaming" for a minuter or so. But thanks to my wandering mind, the sentence chances to something else, like "my dad got red socks". I realise that I was supposed to repeat something else, but I can't remember what. So I go... "It was something about dreaming... I can dream.. no... I will... No.... Tonight I will be aware that I am dreaming" , and so on and so fourth. I am going to try WILDing instead.

EDIT:
thanks sh2dak, I'll try that ;D

YES sh2dak I was just going to say that. I think it IS BAD when people are so concentrated on lucid dreaming. You keep your mind too aware. I don't agree with alot of the methods like the counting and stuff...that's just boring to me.

I usually become lucid when I nap during the day, when I just lay down like normal and let my mind wander with no intention of lucid dreaming. And before I know it...bam I'm lucid. The mind wandering thing can certainly be a good thing.

And as for the counting...try reciting song lyrics in your head instead. And as you recite the lyrics actually kinda sing it in your mind...over and over again. Make sure its a song you actually KNOW all the lyrics to or else it might distract ya if you can't remember something. Then when you begin to enter HI you will actually HEAR the song just like it was playing on your radio. Alot of times even once I enter my lucid the song will remain as a soundtrack to my dream (I always have lucid soundtracks). It's great! It makes it more like a music video...I love it.

Originally posted by Aquanina
Alot of times even once I enter my lucid the song will remain as a soundtrack to my dream (I always have lucid soundtracks). It's great! It makes it more like a music video...I love it.

I thought getting song lyrics stuck in my head while trying to sleep was bad. They are usually there all day, and they send my mind careening out of control at night. I've had nights where I've lost 3-4 hours of sleep because I wanted to sleep, and every time I shut out thoughts, they would come right back after I stopped thinking about not thinking about the thoughts. My mind would not settle down. I was so relieved when I tried thinking of something and I was simply too tired to do so. My mind stopped as if to say "No, you're going to sleep, and now".

But I do want to hear songs in my dreams, so I'll try this technique. Should I stay with exactly one song? Because I have a problem of switching from song to song to song, and then repeating them in the same order. Then I get bored, and add new songs into the mix, et cetera.

Sure you can switch to whatevever songs you want. And the reason you couldn't sleep those other times wasn't because you got something stuck in your head. It was because you weren't tired enough and your mind wasn't ready to go to sleep. Maybe you had some caffeine, maybe you took a nap that day, maybe you were excited about something. But if you are tired and need to sleep you WILL sleep no matter where your mind has wandered to. You just have to let go of everything and everyone needs to quit tryin so damn hard.

Originally posted by Aquanina
You just have to let go of everything and everyone needs to quit tryin so damn hard.

Trying to sleep is the worst method to get some sleep., ironically. And if you can't sleep, get out of the bed, seriously, you'll only make it worse if you stay in bed.

skipping what everyone else said.....

i used to have the same problem or still do...What i did was just visualize you're self laying in a plain, flat, field, whiling looking up at the clouds. Just watch the clouds float by and if a thought comes up, just pretend that that thought going onto one of the clouds and floating away...it seemed to work for me when i was able to finally do a WILD