Sensory Awareness

[Tsunami1]

How does one train sensory awareness? And for those who are adept at the practice how has it benefitted your ability to lucid dream at will?

[Zoth]

For those who aren't exactly aware of what sensory awareness is: What is sensory awareness, and why is it overlooked? (Yes, ADA is sensory awareness). You can train it performing focused mindfulness: stop whatever you're doing and focus your awareness in a particular sensory stimulus. One of DV's most famous techniques is ADA: All-day-awareness, a sensory awareness technique developed by an experienced lder that is used by many members.

[ThreeCat]

sivason's first dream yoga class has to do with focusing on sound. It's a pretty interesting exercise. But I think you have to train sensory awareness like any awareness: keeping bringing your mind back to the task.

[Tsunami1]

So is sensory awareness and mindfulness the same thing?

[Zoth]

So is sensory awareness and mindfulness the same thing? Not exactly, but they can be somewhat related. According to this study, and I quote "Ruth Baer and colleagues (Baer et al., 2006) have noted four facets of mindfulness in the general population, and the distinction of a fifth independent facet in those trained in mindfulness meditation. These facets include being non-judgmental, non-reactive, acting with awareness of present sensory experience, labeling and describing with words the internal world, and self-observation." Sensory awareness (like any kind of awareness) is not something you do, is something you possess: like explained in the link of the previous reply, some people are naturally more aware of the sensory experience that they are going on through. So how does mindfulness impact it? You can see the effects in this study. In a basic way, what mindfulness is doing is making your attention and sensory processes more efficient. As you now realize, this works for things like sensory awareness (great for ADA), or self-questioning (great for reality checks), etc. So: Mindfulness: being aware of the moment/experience sensory awareness: awareness of the sensorial input (it's not perception, looking at a candle is not sensory awareness, what it means is being aware of stimulus - the ligh of the flame, the smell of burning candle, etc, it's about the experience). You don't need mindfulness or sensory awareness to drive, but one (there's more) of the advantages of being more aware of your current moment/experience is having more sensory awareness: more aware of the surroundings stimuli.