Rapidly losing faith, help??

[skiiddo]

HELP MEEEE! I have been trying to LD on and off since the tail-end of 2010, and I still can't do it, never - NEVER - have had a lucid dream. I have tried every technique in the freakin' book with no results. There has been one dream, which I believe is here in my DJ, where I found myself questioning reality on two seperate occasions but still didnt become lucid. I am literally practicing all day awareness as I type this, but have had no results so far. I'm going to add that I've been keeping a DJ and documenting every dream I've had since the start of 2011. What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance.

[purpleminded]

you might be trying to hard.I was in a similar situation and I kept a dj for many weeks and then stopped cuz there were no results. Then I proceeded to have 3 lucid dreams in one week.

[BeeClock]

It took me one year and a half before my first lucid dream, so it can take a while. You are practicing dream recall everyday, which is good, because consistency in practice is key to learning a skill. Keep up with practicing whichever technique you are using (which you mentioned to be ADA) and eventually you will start to become more successful.

[TruMotion]

I was starting to lose motivation a couple weeks back, when I was in the middle of a dry spell. Take a look at this guide , it helped me, maybe it'll help you.

[Arch]

Hey skiiddo, Well it's great that you have been keeping a dream journal, this improves recall but not necessarily the ability to become lucid. It sounds from your description that you don't persist on one technique too long, with everything in lucid dreaming, practice and persistence are major factors, so I would recommend you try a guide for at least 2 weeks, or several techniques at once. A few questions then to see where the problem may lie: What techniques have you tried? How long have you tried them for? What is your closest experience to a lucid? Good luck!

[Erii]

Awwww we all know this feeling maybe less or more than you have said, it's so frustrating. It seems like you're stressing yourself out, try taking a break. Don't constantly think about LDing, or attaining lucidity for 2 weeks or so. In the back of your mind, keep lucid dreaming there, but just take a break, when people do this, they usually have one.

[faceonmars]

The easiest method I know of to attain a LD is progressive muscle relaxation and mental imagery. This is akin to self-hypnosis. The key, for me anyhoo, is visualization while in a Theta brainwave state. Turn on some soft music and visualize seeing the orchestra or band playing. There are lots of tricks to visualization but some people find it the easiest way to enter non-REM dreaming lucid. Good luck to you!

[Mancon]

I'm agreeing with Erii on this one. It sounds like you're stressing out about it and trying to hard. You might have formed a mental block that you can never lucid dream. You need to be CONFIDENT about it. You will have a LD tonight! Keep sticking with ADA and you will get a lucid dream! Like Beeclock said it can take a while for different people to have their first lucid dream but if you stay consistent it will pay off. Good luck!

[Quantiq]

I know this feeling. It took me a few months before I had my first lucid after tons of reality checks, practice and all day awareness. You sound like you are stressing out about this, you need to be confident like what Mancon said. Confidence is probably your best tool for learning to have lucid dreams. If you are confident that you will have one, your chances rise significantly. Perhaps, you can transfer the same confidence that you have such as knowing how to walk or knowing that you will get up in the morning to your lucid dream. I would try and associate the two such as "If I know that I will get up in the morning I know that I can lucid dream." and see what happens, always worth a try right? Good Luck!

[Avalanche]

Took me about 4 months to have one really short lucid, in which I had little control for about 2 seconds. Very unclear and the whole dream ended after I lost it. I was getting really pissed seeing lot's of people on here join up and in literally days or weeks later would have their first lucid. I know that feel, lot's of people here know that feel bro. Losing faith is a big hit to your efforts, and I know it is hard to overcome when all the advice is "keep trying". Obviously keeping trying doesn't work does it? Frustrating. I know... that feel. If you don't believe you can do it, then you won't. So you need to motivate yourself again. Remember why you are doing this, and how it felt when you first started trying. Keep that in your mind, and keep up the pace. Incidentally, my second lucid dream, if you could call it that, happened to me a month ago, or 5 months into trying to lucid dream. I have been here for 6 months, and in total I have had about 40 seconds of lucid dreaming, spread out over 4 of them. So it does get easier, you just need to stay in the game. As you fall asleep, really think about what you want to do, and try harder. People will say to take breaks or take it easier but I think that sometimes is a backwards step. When I took a break my recall went to zero and it took me 2 weeks to get it back up- after a 2 day break. Put some real effort into this, try your absolute hardest. If you do this, then you will believe you will do it.

[quiktaco]

Warning: Testimonial I think I may take the cake here. 2004 - I started 'attempting' to lucid dream. Unsuccessful. Tried for about 6 months, but had little knowledge about it, and didn't know about this site. I was keeping a dream journal for a while, but had no success in actually lucid dreaming. Took a break for quiet a while. 2007 - Became a member here. I became a member here, and learned more about everything. I learned a couple induction techniques, but nothing major. Basically all that was really out there was reality checking. At least that I had found. Things like All day awareness/ Sporadic awareness, I didn't know about. MILDs, WILDs, DEILDs, etc were all around, but basically I felt like they were just too far above me. I just needed a simple, random DILD. I think it took me another few months after that, and I finally had my first, random DILD. I basically came because I was thinking about LD constantly, and it was at the top of my mind for a while. I think I was dreaming about it, then I just popped into being lucid. During the next year or so, I started having random ones. I'd have one randomly about once a month. By 2008, I had worked my way up to double digests - 10 lucid dreams! 2008 - Early 2008, I had my first child...a baby girl Needless to say, I wasn't sleeping much. For a good 6 months at least. So I was forced to take another long break from lucid dreaming. I stopped my dream journal, I stopped reality checking, and I stopped thinking about it. 2009 - Tried again for a bit. I tried again for a bit, but my, now one year old, was still not letting me sleep very well. It lasted for a few weeks. I wasn't successful with having any during that time. I became too busy with work and family again, so I stopped again completely. 2010 - Early 2010, I had my second child...a baby boy Same as before - no sleep for a long time...I didn't even try during this time. Thought about it occasionally, but never got back into it. 2011 - August of 2011 (just over 2 months ago) Both my son and daughter are sleeping through the nights. I remember about lucid dreaming after I find my dream journal hidden away. I sign back onto the forum, and get motivated again. Now just over the last 2 months, I've had 18 lucid dreams. I've learned how to, and been successful at DEILD 3 times, and even used that to have a 3 lucid dream chain 2 nights ago. I'm having a lucid dream every 2-5 days or so. Every once in a while, I'll have a couple in the same night. I am having superb dream recall (most nights anyways). I'll have 2 pages on an okay night, and 5 or 6 on some nights. I think I'm averaging about 3 pages of dreams - with about 3-6 separate dreams each night. I know it's hard and frustrating sometimes. And I know that I've wanted to, and have given up multiple times. But you need to stick with it, because it will come. For me, it's been a very hard skill to learn, and I'm still at the beginning stages. But I'm loving it! Every time I have a lucid dream now, I accomplish something to further my LD ability. What I would suggest, is to take a break from 'attempting' to lucid dream. Don't 'try' to have one, just go to sleep relaxed, and don't stress over it for a bit...maybe about 2 weeks. However, I do not suggest to quit your dream journal. There's no reason not to. Keep that up. Even if it's just a little bit every night. Getting dream recall back isn't easy sometimes. After this break, come back to it. You may even have a random DILD at some point through this time, because you relaxed, and stopped stressing over it. But if you don't, don't worry about it either. Come back, and try a new technique...I suggest Sporadic Awareness and random reality checking. Be very consistent with it. Do it for AT LEAST one full month. Sporadic Awareness is really something that you can work into your lifestyle, and just use along with any other technique, so there's actually no reason to stop it. When you start back up, don't attempt WILDs, or DEILD, or WBTB's. Just go to bed, and a DILD will come to you. IT WILL COME TO YOU. If you are doing the sporadic awareness, and thinking about LDing, then it will come to you. You should be dreaming about it, and you'll just randomly become lucid at some point. I know this was long, but I really think it could help you. I know where you are, and know where you're coming from. I'm on my seventh year of lucid dreaming, and have only been really successful with it in the last 2 months. If my breaks weren't for so long, I'm sure it would have come a lot sooner, but sometimes it does take quite a while. You just have to keep with it, and not stress about it. When you start to stress about it, your dream recall will start to go down, and you'll have a harder time with sleep in general. I hope this helps you. Good luck!!!

[skiiddo]

Thanks to everyone who replied I don't feel quite as bad about everything today as I did when I posted this. I felt alot better this morning since I very nearly successfully WBTB, probably would have got through it, but there came a point when each time my heart beated, it felt like my whole body shook violently, and that messed me up pretty bad, probably the closest i've had to a WILD yet. By the way, Avalanche, that made my year, I'm not even nearly joking I think you just restored my faith in humanity. @Arch, I have tried: WILD (WBTB as well as afternoon naps) ADA (only recently started) MILD (every night since january like clockwork, mantras mantras mantras) technically DILD since i've been practicing reality checks and questioning reality pretty consistently and that all works towards DILD right? Uhhm, I have been occasionally attempting to WILD for about a year now, ADA has only been maybe a week, and MILD since January. This is the relevant section from the dream I was probably closest to a lucid in, semi-lucid sections in red: In the corridor are 2 doors to the left, I go through the first door into a small room, a hobbit looking person follows me in and we are locked in by a guard (presumably to save us from the enemies). Soon after this the door opens by itself to reveal a Ringwraith standing in the doorway, I remember saying something like 'this is getting a little lord of the rings o.O' and may have noticed I was dreaming for a second or two. (some info missing here) Now I am somehow a Ringwraith, I notice I can turn invisible, I am standing just a little further down the corridor from the 2 doors, and a man (who I think may have been that dude from harry potter who can turn into a rat) runs past me (I am invisible) and I stab him in the back, he falls down with his hand on his wound, but I remember him saying some sort of joke on the way down which seemed odd, considering I had just killed him, I sort of questioned reality again.

[skiiddo]

Your post hadn't popped up when I posted the other reply, so thanks I was amazed when I got back from school today that 9 people had already replied, I wasn't expecting it! But, lets face it, everyone on DV is epic.

[Avalanche]

No problem bro

[quiktaco]

Thanks to everyone who replied I don't feel quite as bad about everything today as I did when I posted this. I felt alot better this morning since I very nearly successfully WBTB, probably would have got through it, but there came a point when each time my heart beated, it felt like my whole body shook violently, and that messed me up pretty bad, probably the closest i've had to a WILD yet. By the way, Avalanche, that made my year, I'm not even nearly joking I think you just restored my faith in humanity. @Arch, I have tried: WILD (WBTB as well as afternoon naps) ADA (only recently started) MILD (every night since january like clockwork, mantras mantras mantras) technically DILD since i've been practicing reality checks and questioning reality pretty consistently and that all works towards DILD right? Uhhm, I have been occasionally attempting to WILD for about a year now, ADA has only been maybe a week, and MILD since January. This is the relevant section from the dream I was probably closest to a lucid in, semi-lucid sections in red: I actually have a really hard time with WILDs. Afternoon, and WBTB's. I'm not doing it anymore, until I get better at everything else. It sounds like I'm at the same point with WILDs that you are. I'll get numb, and a flushing feeling, and shake sometimes. My heart starts to beat faster, and my breathing gets heavy, but then it all fades, and I don't go any further. That may happen a few times over an hour of laying perfectly still, trying to WILD. I have been more successful with DEILD, which is technically a WILD, but without all the hard parts. I think I'm going to keep with those, and maybe that will help with WILDing in the future. I'd really suggest to not WILD at this point. It's a difficult technique to learn...at least for me...and you probably are getting frustrated from it. I'd stick more with your mantras, and DEFINITELY all day awareness. I think it's All Day Awareness, and Sporadic Awareness that have given me most all of my lucids...at least the recent ones. I've been doing it for the last 2 months, and it's really working. They are all random DILD's, but those are probably the easiest ones to get first, and they are good to start practicing stabilization methods, and some basic control with. Definitely keep with these awareness techniques. 2 weeks is just the beginning to it. You should do this as an addition to every other technique. Keep with Sporadic Awareness for at least a month, and you'll probably start to see some success from it. All Day Awareness is a little tough if you've got a lot of things going on like work, and a family. It sounds like you are on the right track. Those parts of dreams that you mentioned are SUPER close to becoming lucid. I get those all the time, and kick myself because I didn't catch them. But it's often times those little awareness parts of dreams that will become a Lucid.