Daily Awareness Practice

I've read all the guides and many threads on practicing awareness during the day for the purpose of increasing awareness and cultivating lucidity inside dreams. I had a thought this morning and began putting it into practice today.

The foundation is to simply be mindful/aware as often as possible, with the goal of gradual improvement. This is nothing new and the same concept embodied in all methods I've read here for increasing awareness. However when I become aware my awareness has drifted, I use that as a trigger to ask "Am I dreaming?". I then gather my awareness and do an assessment of my reality, using all available sensory input. I then do a RC. It's much like the exercise of shifting back to breath during meditation when breath is no longer evident.

At its heart is the recognition of diminished awareness, which is a quality/state of a NLD. So the mind has wandered, the subconscious has redirected my awareness away from the task at hand and into some narrative of past, future, plans, emotions, etc... Some 'Story of Me', which is really a waking dream, and is not grounded in the Here & Now. Or perhaps I am dreaming...

For me it also feels like a much more organic and less contrived way to initiate a RC. My hope is this will eventually carry over into the dream realm where I get an inkling I'm not being mindful, leading to a marshaling of awareness followed by a question and assessment of my current state and concluded with a RC to verify my state.

Any and all feedback is appreciated.

I like it alot.

If we all would RC every time our mind wander away from mindfulness we would get in many dozen RCs a day, no matter how long we have been working on it. A great trigger for RC.

I think the foundation of the idea is solid. Loosing mindfulness is very much like the state of non-lucid dreaming.

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Originally Posted by sivason

Loosing mindfulness is very much like the state of non-lucid dreaming.

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Exactly, and that's why I think I like it. It seems very natural and all the more easy to envision the possibility of being in a dream, therefore giving more meaning to the ensuing RC. It's easier to suspend disbelief and perform a sincere RC.

I also find it to be a strong reminder to being mindful throughout the day, so it actually serves two purposes and they are complimentary for the purpose of attaining/confirming lucidity in a dream.

:goodidea:

:clap:

By the way, for me the main purpose and major benefit is raising awareness. Instead of being overwhelmed and stressed trying to maintain constant awareness/mindfulness throughout the day, I put forth my best good-faith effort. When I inevitably lapse into mindlessness I view it as an opportunity to exercise reacquiring awareness. I treat it as a game. Something fun and enjoyable.

As a byproduct, every time I realize my awareness fades, I perform a sincere questioning of my reality followed by an assessment of sensory input and a RC. Much like I should do in a dream.

So it's all brought together in one seamless package and tied up with a ribbon and nice big bow.

I really like this idea! I have recently had a staggering realisation of how low my daily and dreaming awareness is and was looking for a way to increase it without having to practice mindfulness actively (like in ADA), which somehow does not appeal to me enough to actually do it consistently. I'm going to give this a try, it seems very promising!

JustASimpleGuy, please let us know your progress with your method on your LD in future too! thanks.

I have done something similar in the past, based on one of LaBerge's PM exercises: RC whenever you catch yourself daydreaming. This is much easier if you have time off of work, and therefore can devote more time to being present and focusing on LD techniques. It is very possible you will do hundreds of reality checks a day and not necessarily see immediate results (just as a caveat). But I think this concept is something we should all strive for.

This is very good. You gather the best of two realities with this !

The challenge is to keep the right amount of effort, not too loose, not too tight.
I usually go into the extreme of tightness, which can have its side efects, like muscular tension around the eyes ( kind of trying to hold visual attention ) and reduced blinking and so forth. This is how i failed at constant awareness, and now am trying to balance my attention. Just my word of caution

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Originally Posted by ThreeCat

I have done something similar in the past, based on one of LaBerge's PM exercises: RC whenever you catch yourself daydreaming. This is much easier if you have time off of work, and therefore can devote more time to being present and focusing on LD techniques. It is very possible you will do hundreds of reality checks a day and not necessarily see immediate results (just as a caveat). But I think this concept is something we should all strive for.

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I downloaded the PDF of ETWOLD but only read the first couple of chapters. I have to go back and see if I skimmed over that part. I'd like to reread/forward to and read it for additional ideas.

I also considered applying the technique whenever I catch myself engaging in some unconscious habit, gesture, quirk etc... However after two days what I'm finding is I'm becoming much more aware of all the little unconscious things I do. Considering the number of times I questioned/assessed current state and followed up with a RC based on becoming aware I'm not being mindful, I'm thinking just becoming more mindful of all the unconscious habits is enough for now.

Cool. I think I've been doing something like this as well, perhaps even without being very aware of it. I try to do RRCs frequently, especially if I discover that I seem to be in “autopilot” mode, and whenever I do an RRC, I always throw in an RC as well.

I'm also trying to improve my habit of performing RCs anytime I experience anything unexpected at all, however small, as surprises are common in my NLDs. I'm discovering today that this is remarkably difficult to remember to do. I keep realizing that I should have RCed some 10, 20, or 30 minutes ago, but I'll go ahead and do the RC as soon as I remember and try to remember to do it on the spot next time. If I could get to where this becomes second nature and have it carry over into NLDs, my DILD rate ought to skyrocket. Doing meditation/autosuggestion mantras whenever I'm falling asleep to remind me to do this in the upcoming dream seems to be helping as well—I've already had a couple of lucids induced by spontaneously remembering the intention I set while falling asleep.

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Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

I downloaded the PDF of ETWOLD but only read the first couple of chapters. I have to go back and see if I skimmed over that part. I'd like to reread/forward to and read it for additional ideas.

I also considered applying the technique whenever I catch myself engaging in some unconscious habit, gesture, quirk etc... However after two days what I'm finding is I'm becoming much more aware of all the little unconscious things I do. Considering the number of times I questioned/assessed current state and followed up with a RC based on becoming aware I'm not being mindful, I'm thinking just becoming more mindful of all the unconscious habits is enough for now.

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I think sometimes people expect mindfulness to be some deep and awesome experience. Really it's just sort of boring (in a good way). We become aware of all of the mundane qualities of life. We get to see them in high def, so to speak, but like the Zen masters say, "When I eat, I eat. When I sleep, I sleep." Not much going on otherwise.

That's just to say I think noticing unconscious anything is exactly the point of mindfulness.

Yup, and off the topic of LDs the reason I meditate is to simply be aware of experience to the extent possible. The main benefit I get out of it is peace of mind and just an easier relationship with experience. Not being on autopilot as often and enjoying more richness in mundane things.

I think I said this in another post, but the daily awareness practice for LDs is in essence what I was doing, but to a much lesser extent to compliment my sitting meditation practice. I always meant to ramp that up, and this has given me the incentive to do so.

It's really a Win-Win. :)







Something else I notice with implementing this new approach (for me) to daily awareness...

I'm becoming much more aware of all the little subconscious and mindless things I do countless times throughout the day. Scratch an itch, rub my chin, shrug my shoulders, raise an eyebrow, adjust my glasses or a piece of clothing or the way I'm sitting... The list is endless as are the opportunities to exercise awareness!

So when I catch the urge to initiate one of these things as it arises, I give pause (this can be very brief) and become aware of it and then do it with awareness of what I'm actually doing. To me this is a very practical and easily implemented aspect of being mindful.