Thread: Lucidity Breathing Method

Originally Posted by TalkingHead

I'm just wondering if this type of awareness exercise will take away too much of my (limited) consciousness that's focused on the external world. I'm very introversive but often find it useful for other reasons to try and be more externally focused. Anyhow, I will try this method (again.. I did it a while ago without much effort) and see if it smoothes out my mind for enhanced awareness.

I'll let you know the results.

You're not trying to control your breath, you're just becoming more AWARE of it. Once you consistently practice this you see that it's natural and effortless. It gets you grounded in the present moment, and allows you to observe the illusory thoughts that your mind produces rather than be constantly distracted by them.

So Cygnus.. how often and for how long do you plan on doing this during the day? Sythix's post seemed to suggest that the breath be focused on CONSTANTLY and I merely wanted to point out that this takes up a large portion of our awareness (which is a limited personal resource.) For my part, I'm going to focus on my breath whenever I'm transitioning from one activity to another, or doing a non-demanding task like driving.

I like the idea, tried it over the past few days, but it's pretty hard to be aware of it constantly. Longest time was about one hour, while riding a bus. I guess it's a start.
Are you aware constantly? How long did it take you to be aware constantly? Any advice?

Originally Posted by TalkingHead

So Cygnus.. how often and for how long do you plan on doing this during the day? Sythix's post seemed to suggest that the breath be focused on CONSTANTLY and I merely wanted to point out that this takes up a large portion of our awareness (which is a limited personal resource.) For my part, I'm going to focus on my breath whenever I'm transitioning from one activity to another, or doing a non-demanding task like driving.

Haha, yeah I know what you mean. I definitely can't be aware of my breath CONSTANTLY because as far as I know, only monks can do that. So I think if you have a decent amount of quiet time to yourself, it's possible to be more aware than when you're at work or something that requires a lot of attention. It does seem to be a skill that can develop over time, and recently whenever I commute to school I don't have any music playing and I focus all of my awareness to driving, watching my breath and keeping my mind from straying too far.
I've found that it's easier to bring this awareness to normal activities throughout the day by focusing on the pauses between in- and out-breath, and between out- and in-breath whenever I get a free moment. Then if I find myself out of touch with this, I can simply make a mental note: for example, if you reflect on the world around you as being the same as that of a dream, you can say to yourself "I've lost lucidity - I need to come back to the present moment."
This doesn't just help you with lucid dreaming but makes you appreciate your life by day and not go about everything mechanically, which we are prone to.

Oh yeah, and why are we all "Lurkers." What does that mean?

I have no idea what a 'lurker' is, but apparently it's some sort of status between a 'junior member' and a 'member'.
But it does sound a bit weird to me too.

Typical, that reply about being a lurker changed me to a member (60th post).