Explain your ADA techniques

I have noticed that many people have ADA techniques that differentiate, and others seem to entirely be focused on self awareness as opposed to external awareness, but it has been described as the same. Anyways, do any of you guys have a specific thought process with your awareness excersizes and what success has it brought?

I'll start. I recently began ADA about two days ago and have already noticed it becoming wired in. I try to simply practice overall awareness, such as being aware of all little senses, smells sights and sounds, and be aware of the fact I am aware. If something seems slightly out of the ordinary I perform reality checks, I also try to imagine objects morphing and changing being that in a dream they will change. I will try to recall where I was awhile ago and how I got here. I am not too familiar with how self awareness produces different results or how it's entirely different because it seems like it comes with awareness in general. I haven't seem results yet in my dreams but I haven't gotten a good nights sleep either so I'm hoping to see some results pretty soon! Thanks everyone and happy LD'ing!

I have found that the easiest way for me to practice awareness is to choose two or three random targets at a time, each target for a different sense, and then make sure to perform a Reality Check the next time I notice them.
This forces me to constantly pay attention to everything around me in order to make sure I don't miss anything. :cheeky:

A few personal favourites so far are of the type "next time I see someone with a red jacket", "next time I hear music" , "next time I taste something delicious" etc, since those kinds of targets are very reliable.

I think the most important awareness training is to remember as often as possible, hopefully until it becomes ingrained, that people, places, times, feelings and and so on are different, abnormal or strange. I think this awareness or present memory is enough to become lucid and stay lucid !

You may develop your ability to notice the world around you but you also need to know the differences between dreams and reality. Unless this is firmly established you may do all awareness training, prospective memory exercises, but you will never pay attention to what really matters to lucidity :D

I choose certain times during the day to practice continuously in short blocks. For example, if you are focused on a particular thing one day such as your favorite hobby for the whole day, you might choose to practice whenever you move to do anything else. If you are at work, you may choose to practice on every break, at lunch, and while cooking dinner later (breakfast too), as well as when you are in the shower or at the store. This time can add up to hours on some days. Certain circumstances are (for me) mandatory self-awareness times, such as when talking to people.

What I do: I tell myself that I may be dreaming. I examine (check) my surroundings carefully, perhaps doing a reality check, but not always. Then I step outside of myself and observe. I ask myself where I am and how I got there. If there is an emotional connection to the place or circumstances, I ask the whats and whys about it while keeping a "flash image" of recent memory in my mind. Then I briefly recall what I have done for the last hour. Usually at this point I will describe certain aspects of my personality that are relevant to my situation. Finally I will rest in general self-awareness, that is, cycling through awareness of body, mind, situation and my place in it, and generally seeing myself from the outside, observing my awareness as well; all the while dreaming is on my mind. Then when I feel like it I start from the beginning and repeat.

At times I will just think about lucid dreaming in general or practice dream control to break up the monotony, and very often I will simply allow myself to lose awareness for a few minutes, or more than a few minutes.

I am sure much of this is superfluous (very sure in fact), but it keeps my mind from losing interest or becoming taxed because I change the focus continually. The only other thing I do is I run through a smaller version of this process every hour when not "continually" practicing, that is, all the rest of the day. It is at this point that I usually do Sageous's RRC and some general self-awareness and memory checks. All of this sounds like a lot, but it isn't; especially when compared to trying some of the more traditional continuous "ADA" practices.
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The first three months were not really difficult, but I had to make sure to be consistent then. These days I can skip days and forget sometimes, but because my interest in lucid dreaming never wanes, I never let it get out of control, and much of it has become (somewhat) automatic. Self-awareness does become a way of life, and as a result it also does in dreams.

The way I do it is to simply say to myself that i'm dreaming and convince myself that I am. Then all of a sudden I feel like my body is buzzing, I feel much more aware, of all the sounds around me, the feeling of my body paving through the air, and the feeling I'm in a dream. I feel like I'm in a dream so i do reality checks, everything i would do in a dream. It's a great feeling and a great strategy for All Day Awareness. Try it :)