Thread: A cold, a dry spell, a mistake and lessons learned

Heya all,

I thought I'd share some more of my experiences with you all, in the hope you can learn something (or maybe just chuckle at ) my mistake.

A little while ago I was doing great with my lucid dream practices, until I got hit with a pretty nasty cold. As expected, the illness played havoc on my sleep and dream rhythme. My dream recall plummeted, as did my dream awareness. After the cold ended, I had a long dry spell, and despite trying really hard, couldn't get back to my previous level of awareness.

I recently realized I made a mistake, which caused the dream spell. I was focusing far too much on 'what I wasn't dreaming'. I wasn't getting lucid. My dream incubation wasn't working. I was missing vividness and fantastic themes in my dreams. And these were the things I thought about when I woke up, when I practiced during the day, before going to bed. I was focusing on the negative.

So I changed my outlook, started working with what I did recall, and build from there. Pretty swiftly my recall soared again, and my dreams got back to the way they were. I often like to compare dreaming to driving a car. I was so focused on where I wanted to go, I wasn't watching the road and the streets around me, causing me to get hopelessly lost. When I started paying attention to my surroundings, I found my way again.

So lesson learned, for me. Don't get hung up on what isn't there. Work with the dreams you have and build from there. That's my way to lucidity.

-Redrivertears-