Thread: If you are having difficulties attaining lucidity...

If only Lucid Dreaming was as easy as playing the harmonica.

Everything is difficult in different ways. It's all about the mentality with which you approach these things. Lucid dreaming is no different.

Originally Posted by Rainman

then it is likely because you are not motivated enough. Many people would say to that, "well that's absurd, of course I want to have lucid dreams!" But that is not what I am saying. Of course all of us here want to have lucid dreams, but there is a difference between want and true motivation.

Any task of any kind (but for now we'll just say with the human mind) is achievable. Every thing you want to learn. Everything you think you cannot do can be done. Improving dream recall and having lucid dreams are within that category as well. In my inability to have lucid dreams over this past while (although I did have several), I discovered that it was because I was not truly motivated. (And incidently, DDK, I'm sorry for my recent inactivity, I've been quite busy, I'll be fully active again soon). If in your day to day life you focus all of your intent on lucid dreaming, then I promise you, you WILL have lucid dreams. It is not possible to not happen.

That is of course not to say that you aren't motivated, it just means you are not putting your motivation into action. Or perhaps it is that you are not motivated enough. Everyone experiences times when they say "I could write 'RC' on my hands to remember to RC, but I'm too lazy. And then you forget to later. And then you don't get in the habit of performing reality checks, and don't lucid dream. Then you get discouraged and start giving up. Maybe not really giving up, but passively.

The solution is to focus your INTENT to have lucid dreams ON lucid dreaming itself. It's just like anything else. If you REALLY wanted to learn how to play guitar so well that you could play in a national band, you would focus all of your intent and free time on doing so. The same applies to lucid dreaming. Many people who have trouble lucid dreaming have a certain thought process: they simply do not think about lucid dreaming during the day, and only remember to think about it at night. And by that time, for most people it's too late. You must remain focused on your intent to lucid dream DURING the day.

It doesn't matter what disorders you have, be they ADHD, depression, ADD, bipolarity, etc. If you focus all of your intent on lucid dreaming, you will have them, and you will be able to have them at will (eventually). It's just like anything else, it takes work. And if you aren't TRULY motivated to the fullest extent to have lucid dreams, maybe you need to take a rest from it for a time, until you have time to focus on it. If you sort of halfway try to have lucids, you likely won't have them and then you will doubt yourself.

Well I'm here telling you to never doubt yourself. This is always within your complete control. You are a human being with a modern mind, therefore you are capable of lucid dreaming, I don't care who you are. You can all do this, it just takes work. Different degrees of work for different people. Some are able to LD with little effort, others require full intent. Focus your daily intent on lucid dreaming throughout the day more than anything else, and I guarantee you will start having lucids in a week or two. Goodluck dreamers.

Yes I agree with U that motivation is key. I have been going all out to motivate myself to have LDs or rather to do reality checks...real reality checks that has meaning and I have gotten results from it. Because when U have motivation Ur mind is open to new ideas and the willingness to try them out no matter how absurd they are. I've even gone to the point where people around me start to notice me looking at my watch constantly...I couldn't care what they think..:p.

imj

Yes you have to be fully motivated, i was going through the worst ld drought of my life but as soon as i started focusing lucid dreams and practically nothing else and started doing lots and lots of reality checks a day they were back before i could say lucid dreaming.

I've been working at lucid dreaming for about 8 months. It's been my central focus for all that time. I kept trying different techniques, and reading different books. I never had any real success until two months ago after using a regime of nutritional supplements that Thomas Yuschak set out in his book Advanced Lucid Dreaming.

That said, I still basically agree with Rainman. I would not have found the supplement method if I had not been actively searching and motivated. And even with the supplements, I must continue to develop my own trance inducing skills to achieve a successful WILD most of the time. I think it really is useful to think of it as a skill like learning to play an instrument. It's just going to take a lot of work and practice. There's no real way around that. And initially, one is going to make a lot of mistakes.

I guess the most frustrating thing about lucid dreaming is that it can take many months before you find the way that will work best for you. Once you figure that out, you can then begin to genuinely progress at your own rate.

It can take many months, and often does, but again, that's because many times people are often not motivated to the extent that they need to be. This is really true of all things. If you focus all of your intent on learning something, you will learn it and will master it. It's something I didn't realize for a long time, because I'm so used to learning many things at once, and each of those things take forever. But if you choose one to focus on all the time, then you are way more likely to succeed.

That was a very insightful post, I've never heard it phrased as such.
I've been having trouble recently with my dream situation, but after reading that I realize that I just haven't been keeping my focus throughout the day on what I want to accomplish at night. Thank you for the motivational boost!

My pleasure. I hope it works for you.

Originally Posted by imj

Because when U have motivation Ur mind is open to new ideas and the willingness to try them out no matter how absurd they are.

Also, your mind is focused dreaming to the point where there is a sense of urgency and importance, which helps you remember to recognise dreams/do RCs and generally become lucid more often.

I haven't had a real lucid dream where I'm fully conscious since I learned about them (my join date). I think motivation is what I need. I go through each day, not thinking about lucid dreaming much, just hoping that it will happen. I think what I need to do is take a whole day off from life and make the whole day lucid dreaming related. I could put up posters that relate to dreaming, go through lucid dreaming web sites, rewatch Vanilla Sky and Waking Life, etc.