Learning to ADA

I got advice that I should practice ADA or all day awareness. I'm just starting out and whenever I try this it is hard to think complex thoughts or talk to people for more than a sentence without losing my awareness. Is this normal for a beginner or am I doing it wrong? Do I need to feel through my tongue, know when I blink, feel my socks, and other minor things along with the fact that I'm eating, washing my hands, or brushing my hair? Or do I just need to be aware of what I am doing? Does anyone have any tips? Thanks!

I'm going to quote myself for once.

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Are you aware, right now, of how your leg muscles feel against the seat you're on? How about your clothing on those legs? What about the texture of the surface your hands or on? Your feet? Did you notice your lungs fill with air while you're breathing? That's just touch.

Essentially, it's trying to be aware with all five senses at once. It can be overwhelming, though.

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ADA takes practice like any other skill or technique. You can try having, "ADA sessions". These are where you block out some time and just focus on ADA. As time goes on, practice doing tasks while staying aware. You will get better in time. Just keep practicing.

Sight is the easiest one to ADA with, you need to do it with all senses (if you can, i cant, i can do it with maybe 2) look at the variety of colours and textures on what your sitting on. Look at the shadows and the shading and the letters and the colours and the shapes. then, add more senses to it, mayber hearing next as its also fairly easy.

If it's too hard to keep up all 5 senses, start with 1 or 2. Taking sessions is also a good way to get used to ADA. What i found very effective is to find a level of awareness that you can keep up pretty much all day. No problem if it's not very high. Work on raising that level. A long period of lower-level awareness is better than a minute of super-level awareness IMO. The higher your 'general awareness' gets, the more LD's you'll get.

I like to focus on sight,hearing and touch when I ADA

ADA isn't hard, unless your doing something very interesting. :/

You need to start out small when you do ADA, It's going to be overwhelming if you try it all day right when you start.
Try doing it for half an hour every day for a week, and go up from there. It should become a lot easier for you.

Meh, I'm too lazy to do any of that ADA stuff. Yet I get many lucid dreams. Don't you think that this method might be a little over exerting just to have some lucid dreams?

My advice? To start off, just try not to lose yourself into daydreams or thoughts. I don't mean try not to think, but you know when you start thinking about something, and then when you come out of it what you were doing is finished without you knowing? Yeah, try to avoid that.

Once you can do that, then do what the people here tell you- focus on your senses, try to feel all of the at once for as long as you can. Then focus on details- in things you see, hear, touch. Then try to do tasks while keeping this up.

You won't go a full day being aware of everything- unless your whole day consists of sitting in a quiet room with no interruptions.
Just build it up, every time you remember to do ADA is another step forward. But don't rely on ADA in itself.

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Originally Posted by Ellusiion

You need to start out small when you do ADA, It's going to be overwhelming if you try it all day right when you start.
Try doing it for half an hour every day for a week, and go up from there. It should become a lot easier for you.

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I wouldn't start out that slow. I started out by taking 5 minutes at least every couple hours to try to use all my senses. Honestly, though, my mind is on overdrive most of the day so I don't practice ADA as much as I should. I try to remain focused on my physical surroundings more than anything. I know I'm not going to taste or smell anything in a dream and think, "I'm dreaming" because I never have before. 90% of the dreams I have are me playing a game with someone.

Last night, it was Splinter Cell. :P

If you dream a lot about games, like me, then the thing to do is to try and build up a connection with games and being aware. So next time you dream about games.. poof, your aware in a dream. I know it's kinda hard, but next time you play a game, try to be aware of yourself when playing. I know thats hard or makes the game suck because you can't melt into it, but thats probably the best way for you.

I dream every night about 2 games, either one per night. I don't do ADA when I play them for some reason, so it hasn't worked for me yet.

Whenever I play console games or watch tv I usually get dryspells. I just kinda stopped because I decided that lucid dreams are better than playing games or watching TV.

But I think in this case having something to base a dream sign off of outweighs eliminating something that can decrease the number of lucids.

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Originally Posted by Origami

But I think in this case having something to base a dream sign off of outweighs eliminating something that can decrease the number of lucids.

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You might be right, I never tried associating games with dream signs. Well, what I'm doing now is working for me, so I'm going to continue what I'm doing. If its not broke don't fix it.

Exactly, but if anyone has such a strong recurring dream like games, then why not try to build up a habit of awareness-on-sight? If you dream about writing every night without fail, I think building up that connection every time you write is a good thing.

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Originally Posted by Origami

If you dream a lot about games, like me, then the thing to do is to try and build up a connection with games and being aware. So next time you dream about games.. poof, your aware in a dream. I know it's kinda hard, but next time you play a game, try to be aware of yourself when playing. I know thats hard or makes the game suck because you can't melt into it, but thats probably the best way for you.

I dream every night about 2 games, either one per night. I don't do ADA when I play them for some reason, so it hasn't worked for me yet.

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I know I should but I'm pretty much playing games non-stop when I'm awake. Right now I have a new MMO I'm trying minimized. OH and around October / November I'm probably getting 0 sleep at all. Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, and Skyrim all come out among tons of others. I think it's harder to realize I'm dreaming when it's about games because I'm always playing them so it doesn't seem out of the ordinary.

As for dry spells, I don't have any problems with dream recall. I think I'd kill myself with boredom if I wasn't playing games. It's way too hot to do anything around here and I've been playing games since I was around the age of 3. Gaming is my escape from the issues that are going on around me and always has been. I'm a gamer and always will be. :P

No no, this is good. BTW I'm getting BF2, Uncharted 3 and Skyrim, going to awesome. Anyway, thats good. You can easily have a lucid now. The only catch is that magical time when you are in your game, actually in it, that point you can't get into if you want to lucid.

You know when you play say mw2, and when you get really into it, where to your right in game is like your right in real life, you feel really in tune with the game? Well if you want to lucid then you have to avoid that. You have to play the game, but stay in your body, keep the feeling of the chair and the controller/keyboard with you as you play. Don't become the character, stay in your own body.
I wouldn't do this with any new games, as that would really kill the fun, try to do it with games you already beat. I'm doing that right now, but mainly to keep my game dreamsigns coming.

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Originally Posted by Origami

No no, this is good. BTW I'm getting BF2, Uncharted 3 and Skyrim, going to awesome. Anyway, thats good. You can easily have a lucid now. The only catch is that magical time when you are in your game, actually in it, that point you can't get into if you want to lucid.

You know when you play say mw2, and when you get really into it, where to your right in game is like your right in real life, you feel really in tune with the game? Well if you want to lucid then you have to avoid that. You have to play the game, but stay in your body, keep the feeling of the chair and the controller/keyboard with you as you play. Don't become the character, stay in your own body.
I wouldn't do this with any new games, as that would really kill the fun, try to do it with games you already beat. I'm doing that right now, but mainly to keep my game dreamsigns coming.

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It's not quite like that for me. When I play games, especially FPS games, I'm focused on the enemy. I'm not really so involved that it feels like I'm engulfed in the game. For me, my mind is always thinking where the enemy is at, where they are camping, what path are they taking for which objective, etc etc. Imagine a clear pool. Whenever an enemy makes a move, it's like a drop of water and my mind is examining the ripples of their action. I'm heavily focused but I don't feel as if I'm in the game myself.

Also, the games I'm playing during my dreams are usually always different so it's hard to find a way to be aware that I'm dreaming when none of the games are the same.

Yeah, that's what I meant. You don't feel like you ARE them, but you are no longer aware of what your body is doing. I bet in the middle of some games, your mouth might hang open a bit which it normally doesn't and you wouldn't notice. Games totally occupy your mind, so that you lose even the normal minimal awareness in your body. If you are ever going to make a connection between gaming and being aware, you need to not focus on what the enemy is thinking/doing, you need to just watch, play, and feel your body. If you do that, eventually you will dream about the game (not even playing it, just about it) and you will remember to be aware, thus, lucidity.

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Originally Posted by Origami

Yeah, that's what I meant. You don't feel like you ARE them, but you are no longer aware of what your body is doing. I bet in the middle of some games, your mouth might hang open a bit which it normally doesn't and you wouldn't notice. Games totally occupy your mind, so that you lose even the normal minimal awareness in your body. If you are ever going to make a connection between gaming and being aware, you need to not focus on what the enemy is thinking/doing, you need to just watch, play, and feel your body. If you do that, eventually you will dream about the game (not even playing it, just about it) and you will remember to be aware, thus, lucidity.

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I'm quite aware of what I'm doing while gaming. I just sit stock-still and focus entirely on the game. There's really nothing about my body to be aware about because I'm doing nothing other than moving my hands. It wouldn't even help me because focusing on my body while gaming only helps if in the dream, I'm playing a game through the controller. All the dreams I have about games are me as the person.

Either way, we are getting off topic here. :P

Just one more post, because I still don't think you quite understand me. You say you are quite aware of what you are doing, obviously, we all are. But just knowing you are pressing buttons or moving about a bit in your chair isn't enough. Your focus is on the game- the enemies. You need that focus to be on what you feel, what you can hear in the real world, what you can see. You know when you watch the tv, after a bit all you notice is the tv? The area around it in your vision is gone? You need to keep that vision. Basically, play the game, but don't focus on it. After a while, just thinking about gaming, that game, those characters, those weapons, maps, etc associated with awareness will carry over to dreams. It works like an R.C. where you see your hands or whatever and feel aware. With this, is better because games pop up more often than your hands in your dreams for you. If you are focused on your body while playing a game in real life, you will be focused on your body when you dream about games, thus you will become lucid, much the same way that you can become lucid by associating awareness with your hands, etc.