Difficulty setting intention

Hello everybody!

I have been trying for a good while now to figure out how to set my intention to remember things when I go to sleep. For example, I want to remember that I'm dreaming, or I want to remember to wake up after a dream and not move, or sometimes I just want to remember to wake up for my WBTB.

Unfortunately, I'm having trouble getting the message to my subconscious; it seems no matter what I do, once I lose consciousness I just forget! I have read Silverbullet's and Mastermind's posts about intention-setting, but so far I have had no success. Every time I try to feel that I am a master lucid dreamer as suggested, I am eventually distracted by something and I forget or fall asleep like normal.

I have also tried techniques like mantras and SSILD to be more aware as I fall asleep, but then one of two things happens: either I am too awake while doing this and get tired of doing it and fall asleep (no results the next morning / awakening) or I am too tired and lose focus very quickly (again no results.)

Am I approaching all this the wrong way? I feel like I have all the information, but I'm just not doing something right. It seems that my efforts when I'm awake have no effect once I lose consciousness.

Any suggestions or ideas will be greatly appreciated :)

P.S.
If it matters, I have never had a full lucid dream. The closest I have gotten was randomly noticing my awakening one time and rubbing my hands for a few seconds as my mind shifted back to the real world.

I would recommend going with the same intention for a month (3 is prime(doesn't have anything to do with the statement. I just love prime numbers :P)). I would recommend something small like the not moving, or setting a time to wake up at. I like waking after every REM since it increases dream recall, dream awareness, and gives you chances to DEILD, WILD, SSILD, and WBTB during the night. When you wake up without an alarm you have the bodies original way of waking its mind up, so you won't be as disoriented normally.

All the above is different if you don't have a regular sleep schedule or get enough sleep.

Hope this answers your question. :)

Relax your mind and body, state your intention once "I am aware that I am dreaming, I remember my dreams." or something like that.

Then focus on something on your body for 5 to 10 seconds like your feet, legs, hands, arms, upper body, neck, head.

And then start to count down from 100 to 99, take your time it's not a race, and when you reach 0 start by counting down from 30 to 0 again.

When you reach 0 again sit in the silence you created and state your intent again, then either continue to meditate or fall asleep.

This is basically a self-hypnosis, but you are not forced to do anything you don't want , you choose to be what you want, and that is to set an intention.

Here is the original source of the meditation exercise: Spirit Science 8 ~ Meditation - YouTube

And here is a little explanation of intention: http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...firmation.html

In this post I was describing how to enter the Alpha state though, which is more effective than just repeating the mantra in the Beta state.

Good luck :boggle:

Thanks for the suggestions! I've tried meditation in the past, but I can't seem to quiet my mind. I realized that even though I wasn't consciously thinking about anything, my mind was still chattering away in a sense. Is this okay? It doesn't feel much different than when say, my mind wanders in a boring class or I'm drifting to sleep.

The point is not to stop thinking completely, if you think like that you will only get upset or nervous each time you think. :P

If you are in a state of mind where your mind is still chattering, but it doesn't feel like you are doing it consciously it can be safe to assume that you are slowly entering a subconscious focus. Alpha or Theta state perhaps and either way it's definitely not the awake Beta state anymore which is good, because in that brain frequency you can state your intent.

It is a very fun state in my opinion. :)

What works for me to 'quiet my mind' is simply to repeat the alphabet mentally, at a moderately fast speed, continuously. Somehow this manages to 'block out' a great amount of my language-based thoughts, so that most of my thoughts are purely conceptual. These types of thoughts are much 'quieter', so you can fall asleep with them more easily. (and presumably this would work for meditation as well)

For example, when I first started trying repeating the alphabet mentally, and I wanted to remember what my three-step todo list was, at first I was only able to see the three parts conceptually, as icons next to each other signifying each task. To mentally voice my three-word 'mantra' would disrupt my mental alphabet repetition every time, presumably because the mental voicing of the letters took up the language processing part, so I couldn't combine them. Now I can, though, after practicing for quite a few hours.

Also, at first repeating the alphabet is difficult, but eventually it becomes very easy, almost subconscious. I've done it for many minutes, if not hours, straight, while doing other things and thinking about other things. (for instance right now--I'm testing it out as a lucid dream induction technique)

Interesting...

I'll give it another shot tonight, and I think I'll use the alphabet idea.

Thanks everyone!

Why not the alpha beta idea? <-- :imslow: hehe just kidding... X. x