Thread: Training lucidity...what to do during the day?

The obvious thing is reality checks. I do a RC every hour (watch beeps), everytime i look at my cell phone (the screen of my cell says "R U DREAMING?") and any specific dream signs that you have (for me, a specific girl i know who always appears in my dreams).

So choose as many things as you can that happen frequently or appear in dreams and make sure you do a RC whenever you see them.

I'm sure many other people have suggestions for things to do during the day as well. I can recall someone (not sure who sorry) talking about 'lucid living' on one of the boards. Hope this helped,

Glor

Hmm, well RCs are of course something to do but they're not a constant activity...

I'm not looking for something to do in relation to LD training while going umong my usual everyday life, I'm looking for activities that will take up my entire day devoted strictly to training lucidity and anything else that might be of help.

Perhaps meditation is a good idea? I've never studied it or attempted it much so I'm not sure about it...

Now, I know that keeping my frame of mind on the topic of lucidity 24/7 (which is what I'm doing now) should be enough but the way I see it is that active training of some sort during the day will help me keep this frame of mind.

For example, if I were to read about lucid dreaming all day...but that would require a large amount of material...
Right now I read the DV forums, "Exploring the world of lucid dreaming" and other things but perhaps reading something new everyday will have a better effect as I'll be intrigued by it...or some other actions besides reading?

Thinking further from the above I came to thinking...perhaps there's a way to keep a constant frame of mind related to RCing?

As in...a frame of mind that consists of reality checking...of being always aware of the current state (wakefullness or sleep).

Because during dreams I'll still be doing something right? I won't be walking around thinking about lucidity...or at least I doubt it.
So perhaps I should go about my everyday business (go to the store, play some video games perhaps,etc.) and at the same time train at keeping this constant frame of mind?

Anyone have any feedback on this idea?

Hmm, first time I've posted three times in the same thread consecutively but realization is a step-by-step process it seems, heh.

I think I may be on the verge (or over it) of trying too hard...
I don't even have flawless recall yet and my impatience is driving me to do everything at once (practice dream recall and use several LD induction techs at once)...

I suppose I should just take it step by step and along with training dream recall train my patience, heh. Seems I've just discovered how important self-reflection can be.

First, you could try self-hypnosis or meditation. You can give yourself suggestions (refer to HILD tutorial - Hypnosis Induced Lucid Dream) that can increase your LD ratio tremendously.
The day I implemented LD-suggestions into my SH sessions I got one of the few chances to become lucid that night. I'm still a beginner and haven't yet had an LD but the SH suggestions gave me an extremely long and vivid dream with great recall and doing an RC.

Or you can get a clear state of mind and be aware (meditation). I've read multiple times that regular meditation over a longer period of time (few weeks) does definately increase LDs.

Of course what you said is also good to do for LDs. Constant awareness. Then you could try to increase daily awareness, e.g. try to sense as much as possible, always keep your awareness up and in contact with the outer world to have the chance to immediately notice when a dreamsign occurs or anything like that.

And of course, you shouldn't try to hard. When you do self-hypnosis and implement the suggestions, don't worry whether they work or not. They're a very good support so that you should just continue with whatever you're doing. You don't need to be constantly focused on LDing. Your subconsciousness is also working on it without constant input. Be happy that you did it and expect your lucid dream.

Originally posted by Korittke

Of course what you said is also good to do for LDs. Constant awareness. Then you could try to increase daily awareness, e.g. try to sense as much as possible, always keep your awareness up and in contact with the outer world to have the chance to immediately notice when a dreamsign occurs or anything like that.

Excellent suggestion. Just combine awareness checks with your reality checks by trying to be aware of everything you are doing all day long. By being aware I mean paying attention and looking for anything unusual, different, or anything that has changed since the last time you experienced or saw it. This could be an aroma you suddenly notice, something different on the desk of someone you work next to that you've never noticed before. How you feel, do you feel energetic or do you feel tired ? When doing anything, even something as simple as turning on a light switch, be aware and think about what you are doing. Why does the light come on when you flip that switch. And when you notice something out of the ordinary or something that has changed since the last time you saw or experienced it, then do a reality check to see if you are dreaming.

Merlocks attitude of training for lucidity 24/7 is exactly what it takes to succeed at this. Good luck to you Merlock.

Thanks, iadr, I just hope my impatience will grow into patience because it's what has stopped me before in many things. But I know that this will take time and effort and I've decided firmly that I'll take that time, I won't be impatient because the result means a lot to me.

Oh, and I decided to do what I believe is the best (and most reliable) advice, from LaBerge's "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming", which I read and re-read often:

POWER OF RESOLUTION TECHNIQUE

For beginning lucid dreamers, the most relevant Tibetar technique is called “comprehending it by the power of resolution, “ which consists of “resolving to maintain unbroken continuity of consciousness” throughout both the waking and dream states. It involves both a day and a night practice.

1. Day practice
During the day, “under all conditions” think continuously that “all things are of the substance of dreams” (that is, that your experience is a construction of your mind) and resolve that you will realize their true nature.

2. Night practice
At night, when about to go to sleep, “firmly resolve” that you will comprehend the dream state—that is, realize that it is not real, but a dream.

Commentary
Because we dream of things that have concerned us recently, it is likely that if you spend enough time thinking during the day that “everything is of the substance of dreams, “ then eventually you will entertain that thought while you are dreaming. (Adapted from Evans- Wentz.)[/b]

Merlock, when I first read about LDing a couple of years ago, the first technique I read about was to look at your hand all day and say to yourself "Im dreaming" while looking at it. Do it for about 10 seconds as often as you can throughout the day. I usually look at the palm of my hand, then the other side, and then just back and forth for a few seconds. Two days later I had my first intentional LD and not only that, I was in complete control and was doing everything I had been planning to do. I had my second LD a while after that using the same method. For some reason, the hand thing just totally works for me. I'm in the dream and my hand pops up in front of me and I automatically say "I'm dreaming" and then it clicks.

I did have a dream the other night where I was explaining LDing to a friend and even telling her about my hand technique and demonstrating it for her, but it didn't go any further than that. It didn't trigger a realization when I saw my hand. But I haven't tried LDing since a couple years ago and I haven't been doing the hand training. I think the reason I even had the dream was because I was on this website reading about it before I went to bed. I'm attempting LDing again and besides RC's, this is my other method that I think will guarantee lucidity as well as control in my dreams pretty quickly.

If you have all day to devote to training, I say try this one for a couple of days. It's so easy, you just have to remember to do it. I get caught up with all the chaos at work and the whole day will go by before I even realize I haven't done any LD training. If I had your time, I would be doing it every 10 minutes.

Hope this helps.

Well, instead of doing reality or awareness checks periodically I did as stated above, during the day, “under all conditions” think continuously that “all things are of the substance of dreams” (that is, that your experience is a construction of your mind) and resolve that you will realize their true nature."

It's actually not that tough to do but takes some effort to get it as a "second layer" of thought because then it still allows one to concentrate on some tasks and at the same time have that frame of mind related to resolving the dream state.

Thus, right now I'm training on having a flawless frame of mind as the one stated above.