Thread: Motivation

There are at least several others here experiencing something similar. I had gotten used to having two or more lucids each week last year. Now I'm lucky to get two a MONTH - though when they do come, I usually have fantastic control.

I have tried to isolate variables and take notes on them, but nothing much has come of it. You might be interested in some of the things Moonbeam has tried to do, though she seems to be struggling as well.

I wear an alarm watch, RC regularly based on dreamsigns and on the hour, continue to be part of this community and concentrate on having lucids and what I want to do in them before going to sleep... exactly the things that were working so well for me before.

No answers here... but lots of questions. Perhaps we can answer some of them together with others experiencing the same thing.

Hey PenguinLord, glad to see you back. The frequency of my lucids is much less than I would like it to be too, despite trying every trick there is, including wering headphones all night and my latest, the DreamMask. I am coming up to a year of trying too, and I thought by now I would have mastered it. Unfortunately, it seems like everything works once, and then I can't use it successfully anymore. So even tho you have sort of put it aside, and I have worked like crazy, we are in about the same place. Lately I asked a new member (ivey) who is an experienced LD'er, what her method was. Luckily it wasn't WILD (I've only successfully done that 1.5 time); she said the she has spent whole days doing RC's; like every 10 minutes or so. I don't know if I can do that (today is Sunday tho....I could try today.) So maybe I am coming full circle. I am going to go back to really concentrating on RC's. So I guess that is what I would recommend to you too.

I have continued my DJ, I have good and bad days of recall. I would say that you should restart that for sure; because I know I would have not remember lucids if I hadn't been in the habit of getting up and writing the down; rarely I realize that I have had a lucid and then it all comes back to me.

As for motivation to do it--you have had them before, so you know that you can. I like trying to do the task of the month; it gives you a goal, you can get some inspiration reading other's success stories, and you get a little reward if you do it. I am setting some other ongoing goals for myself too. The times I have had conversations with DC's have been meaningful, so I have been concentrating on questions to ask when I get the chance. Maybe if you had a goal like that, something that you feel would be meaningful to do in an LD, it would help with motivation.

Well good luck! Trying to lucid dream is a strange thing; there are many things that if I was as bad at as this, I would have given up on by now, but since it's free (well unless you're stupid like me and buy things you don't need) and doesn't really take any time (I don't think even increasing my RC X 10 will really take much time out of my day), I never feel like quitting.

Yeah, the RC like crazy trick is what started getting me success, but then I burned out after a few weeks and got sick of constantly grabbing my nose, or looking at my hands during class. My Dream Recall was also suffering, so I couldn't remember any non-lucids (which inspire me to get lucid). Yay!, I just found one motivation. I'm starting my DJ again tonight.. I actually have time to RC like that as I have february vacation, and I just need to do it. I will also use the lucid task as inspiration (that brought about my last induced LD, in november, though I've had a couple random ones since). Funny how I wrote a big guide on how to do great RCs, and I'm not doing them now, but I think I am ready to lucid dream again, so starting now I am RCing like crazy.

Good Luck! I bet you'll get it back in no time!

Originally Posted by PenguinLord13

I've been around here for a while, almost a year, but I feel that lately, I have been unable to concentrate on Lucid Dreaming for myself, and only am able to give advice to other or discuss in general. I had a good streak of Lucids a while ago (maybe last mayish, i don't know), but then my recall fell, and I have been unable to achieve any good streaks and imrpovements. I know I can improve, and was almost able to get some control, but I am currently on a long dry spell, with almost no recall (haven't kept up my DJ in forever), and though I've had a few LDs in the last months, where I had better control than before, they were all about 6 seconds long. I really want to get back into LDing, but i don't know how to motivate myself to do it. Also, should I start from the ground up?, or just start RCing again and hope to have an LD?
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I am in almost the exact same situation. Only my dryspell has been going on for about ....10 months or so. I am trying to get back into it. Trying to get the DJ back up and running again. My recall has really been crap, so that is what I need to work on first and foremost.

Then I am going to try reading another book on the subject, something to re-inspire me. We will see, recall is slowly coming back. I would honestly be happy if I could just get back to the point where I was able to induce sleep paralasys again....

Good luck

Lately I asked a new member (ivey) who is an experienced LD'er, what her method was. Luckily it wasn't WILD (I've only successfully done that 1.5 time); she said the she has spent whole days doing RC's; like every 10 minutes or so. I don't know if I can do that (today is Sunday tho....I could try today.) So maybe I am coming full circle. I am going to go back to really concentrating on RC's. So I guess that is what I would recommend to you too.[/b]

that sounds like a good idea Ill try it one of these days soon.

and welcome back penguinlord! its been awhile since i saw you. Good luck

Why is everyone having these dry spells?

Because they're living out their fantasies for about 3 hours a day, everyday (on this site).
Another reason:
people are getting too cocky about their knowledge of LDing. The most important factor in lucid dreaming is that you never take someone else's advice as fact, until you experience it for yourself.

What I think most of you are doing is setting up in your mind the false notion that "LDing is easy!" (due to telling people how to do it for so long).
LDing isn't easy, in fact, until you get good at it its probably one of the hardest "mind" hobbies you can get into.


The secret you ask? Humility, start from the ground and work your way up, always thinking of yourself as a beginner (until you can LD at will, then you've mastered it)

(note: I'm speaking from experience, I'm not just making crazy ass guesses as to what the problem is )

Originally Posted by BillyBob_001

Why is everyone having these dry spells?

Because they're living out their fantasies for about 3 hours a day, everyday (on this site).
Another reason:
people are getting too cocky about their knowledge of LDing. The most important factor in lucid dreaming is that you never take someone else's advice as fact, until you experience it for yourself.

What I think most of you are doing is setting up in your mind the false notion that "LDing is easy!" (due to telling people how to do it for so long).
LDing isn't easy, in fact, until you get good at it its probably one of the hardest "mind" hobbies you can get into.
The secret you ask? Humility, start from the ground and work your way up, always thinking of yourself as a beginner (until you can LD at will, then you've mastered it)

(note: I'm speaking from experience, I'm not just making crazy ass guesses as to what the problem is )
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I don't know if I should agree with that. Ataraxis said in some post somewhere around here that a healthy attitude is to consider it easy - which I sort of agreed with because, by considering it easy, you have more confidence and confidence equals optimism which I know is good for lucid-dreaming. On the other hand though, I'm also starting to think you're right by saying "never take someone else's advice as fact, until you experience it for yourself".

Best of luck PenguinLord13! The more lucid dreams in this world, the happier it'll get!

Originally Posted by BillyBob_001

Why is everyone having these dry spells?

Because they're living out their fantasies for about 3 hours a day, everyday (on this site).
Another reason:
people are getting too cocky about their knowledge of LDing. The most important factor in lucid dreaming is that you never take someone else's advice as fact, until you experience it for yourself.

What I think most of you are doing is setting up in your mind the false notion that "LDing is easy!" (due to telling people how to do it for so long).
LDing isn't easy, in fact, until you get good at it its probably one of the hardest "mind" hobbies you can get into.
The secret you ask? Humility, start from the ground and work your way up, always thinking of yourself as a beginner (until you can LD at will, then you've mastered it)

(note: I'm speaking from experience, I'm not just making crazy ass guesses as to what the problem is )
[/b]

Hey, I limit myself to 2.5 hours max Seriously though, I am not here that much lately (hadn't posted for more than a month until last friday) except the last couple days since I have nothing to do, but you are right about a lot Billy_bob. I think that though I am pretty knowledgable I do have to accept to myself that I am a beginner and always will be until I am an expert. Know that I think about it, my dry spell beginning corresponds to when I started thinking of myself as not a "Lucid Student" anymore, and more of a "Lucid Student" who is almost a "Lucid Tutor" (I miss those titles). While I do think that if I say LDing is hard, LDing is hard, then I will never LD, taking it for granted and thinking about it as just "time to have an LD" is doing it wrong, and not following through with the necessary actions, not starting from the ground and building up, is a waste of time.

Originally Posted by freefire

that sounds like a good idea Ill try it one of these days soon.
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This (doing as many RC's as I could think of all day long, reminding myself by wearing my watch on the wrong side, which is irritating to me) worked for me last night.

My dry spell has nothing to do with arrogance. I fully know how much work it took to get the few LD's that I have had. Having a newborn child, while working night shift is what stopped me from having LD's. Too many things on my mind all day, not enough sleep.... etc.

Now that she is 1 year old and my schedule is starting to get back to normal, I can get back into it again. But I do agree that I need to start back at step 1.

Originally posted by BillyBob001
Because they're living out their fantasies for about 3 hours a day, everyday (on this site).

Huh? Why is it bad to hang around here? What does it have to do with ones' dryspells?

Penguin, you started like 5days or something after me on this forum i remember.
We both used to be super posters --> all the time :-D
How do you do this, and that?

i did the same thing as you.
Anyway, i dont really try any methoods now, sense i dont get enough sleep at all, cept RCing.
so, i hope you stay back, i think iv completily got my motivation back, it just took a few days, and two short LDs and im back.

But about dream recall, during my time off (months) I had VEry little recall, maybe one a week? prolly not. I wasnt keeping a DJ.
Anyway, just keeping a DJ and thinking about LDing it only took about 2days to get back my old recall.



BTW, i spend like 15minutes a day on forum (3 hours, wow?)

Well, I finally had another LD. The dry spell has been broken. I have been doing more reality checks lately. I have also been listening to the "Gateway Experience" tapes for the last 3 days. I don't know what exactly helped, but I did have one so it is good to know that I can still do it.

Originally Posted by ShYne123

Penguin, you started like 5days or something after me on this forum i remember.
We both used to be super posters --> all the time :-D
How do you do this, and that?

i did the same thing as you.
Anyway, i dont really try any methoods now, sense i dont get enough sleep at all, cept RCing.
so, i hope you stay back, i think iv completily got my motivation back, it just took a few days, and two short LDs and im back.

But about dream recall, during my time off (months) I had VEry little recall, maybe one a week? prolly not. I wasnt keeping a DJ.
Anyway, just keeping a DJ and thinking about LDing it only took about 2days to get back my old recall.
BTW, i spend like 15minutes a day on forum (3 hours, wow?)
[/b]

So you left for a few months? I remember your old siggy with the sleep chart (that was you right?). I was wondering if you still posted here.

Yeah, I know what you mean about recall. A couple nights ago I decided I would recall my dreams, and I recalled 2 of them (no DJ) with pretty good detail. The problem is I am still having trouble motivating myself to write them down. My problem is during school time I am too lazy to keep a DJ because I don't want to lose sleep time over it, and the sudden awakening in the morning kills any recall I would have then. I don't post here more than 15-30 minutes on a normal day either, unless I have lots of free time, and am in a "I want an LD now god(s)(or lack thereof) damit"

Ha, no the guy with the "dream chart" which was pretty cool was phillip fry, i think he still posts here..
Lol you have had that same avitar from the beggining.
Im in that same mood damnit!
I left for more then a few months, i left for like 5-6 Lol.
I didnt even remember my S/n when i came back.

Woohoo! I am happy to say that my dry spell is over I think, and I am now super-motivated to recall dreams and get lucid thanks to having 3 lucids last night! You can read them in my dream journal if you want.