The 5 Fundamental Elements of Lucid Dreaming.

I have been gone for quite a while but I plan on posting here more often.

The 5 Fundamental Elements of Lucid Dreaming.

I’ve mentioned before that when it comes to lucid dreaming I would consider myself quite advanced but attaining lucidity is still a challenge for me because I often lose focus or become bored with the usual daytime routines. With so many different methods for lucid dreaming I find myself jumping from one to another without really putting that much effort into it (a problem I have with most things in life, not just lucid dreaming).

I brought this up with Sidd, a big burly chap who wears a Native American headdress and Doc Martens who, for lack of a better explanation, lives in my head (I would say hallucination but it’s not really a word I am comfortable with or that I feel is accurate, but anyway).
We both looked at what we thought was most important when it came to lucid dreaming and together we came up with, what we believe, are the 5 fundamental elements of lucid dreaming.

1. Relaxation.

For me relaxation is vital and has a massive impact on whether I will achieve lucidity or not. If I’m stressed throughout the day and go to bed stressed my dream recall and my awareness suffer for it. I often feel stressed at the end of the day (and at the middle…and the beginning) so I find this prevents me from putting the effort in when it comes to lucid dreaming. Exercises like meditation, first thing on a morning and before going to bed, is really beneficial. The Body Scan technique, where you focus on the tension in your body and try to release it, definitely helps with relaxation and is worth doing when trying to fall asleep.

2. Positive Mind Set.

This is probably my biggest downfall. I’m naturally quite pessimistic and struggle to think positively. Suffering from depression and other mental health issues makes it quite hard to think or feel positive. However I find the nature of my dreams responds to my mind set. If I don’t believe, honestly, truly, believe I’m going to get lucid tonight then I won’t. Believing in yourself, believing in your ability to get lucid, having a positive attitude towards it and not telling yourself that you’re a failure if you don’t get lucid has a positive impact. Your beliefs go a long way. Repeating affirmations and meditating are usually quite helpful when it comes to mind set.

3. Enthusiasm

I suppose enthusiasm ties into mind set because if you aren’t enthusiastic about lucid dreaming I find it’s very hard to get lucid. Whereas mind set is more about beliefs this is about getting yourself excited for lucid dreaming. Remember the awesome things you can do in dreams. You have absolute unlimited access to anything you want to use your dreams for. Writing a list of goals and things you wish to achieve helps with getting enthusiastic.

4. Awareness

Awareness is vital in not only attaining lucidity but maintaining it. Many times I let dream signs go by unnoticed. I don’t question the odd things in my dreams because I don’t spend enough time during the day being aware of my surroundings. Awareness ties into reality checks and practicing things like All Day Awareness where you fully engage all your senses and become aware of all the things you are experiencing. Practicing awareness also helps prolong lucid dreams in my opinion because I’m constantly remembering to engage myself in the dream and not let myself slip back into a non-lucid dream.

5. Creativity.

I find creativity very important. For me I spend a lot of my days drawing things from my lucid dreams (and non-lucid dreams). Even of if you don’t feel you’re very artistic or a good writer putting your dreams down on paper helps to engage your mind. You could draw something that you want to experience in your dream tonight or write a short story about it instead if you don’t fancy drawing. Either way I find being creative improves both dream recall and the changes of getting lucid.

So there they are- Relaxation, Positive Mindset, Enthusiasm, Awareness and Creativity. Incorporating these into your daily routine will surely have a positive impact on your dreaming.

Great list, thank you for sharing it!
I really need to work on the Enthusiasm aspect of lucid dreaming a bit more, I'm going to take your advice and try writing down a list of goals that I want to achieve in dreams :content:

Aye, enthusiasm is the tough one. It's kind of strange the way that works, huh? You really want to lucid dream, but you are not so inclined to do all of the reality checks and what not that you need to do to get there.

I always figured lucid dreaming was kind of like being on a workout program. Everyone wants to have a nice bod with muscles, but who wants to put in the work?! It's so much easier to sit on the couch and eat junk food. Lucid dreaming is much the same way, everyone wants to have nice, long lucid dreams, but nobody wants to put in the work to do it.

But also, like a workout program, once you get good enough, you get more self-motivated, and you want to keep going and push yourself to the limit.

Great list! There is sometimes an obsession with the tactics of lucid dreaming (Eg. MILD, reality checks, etc) but not on the underlying fundamentals like relaxation and mindset.

I'd add also say another fundamental of lucid dreaming is discipline. Like any other skill lucid dreaming takes time and dedication. You won't get in shape by going to the gym for 2 weeks, so how can you expect to become a great lucid dreamer that quickly?

Getting good at lucid dreaming takes time and requires daily work, whether it be meditating, performing reality checks, or practicing the WILD technique.

Once again cool post!