WanderBug's Workbook

Helloooo!!

I'm Mandy and about to start into my first year of college; I had a really big lucid dreaming phase in early high school when I was a regular on this forum, but I eventually stopped keeping up with everything that had to do with lucid dreaming. I really want to put effort to go back, so here I am. I want to get more involved in the community in order to motivate myself, so yay for first steps!

I'm familiar with the terminology on this website, but I need to brush up on techniques and implementing increased awareness in my day to day. I rarely had lucid dreams before, and never could seem to get lucid through DILD. The only mild successes I had were when I woke in the early morning and went back to sleep or occasionally through WBTB.

Current Status

Poor Recall
Few, if any, lucid dreams

TO-DO

I've got to get my study on. Poke around the forums and threads and read up. It all makes me really excited, thinking about the possibilities of dreaming.
Be consistent with my dream journal. Don't be lazy.
Meditate everyday.

Despite the (sad) current status, I'm looking forward to seeing progress. :-P

For Recall

When you wake up turn off noise then lay still just as you were when sleeping and try to recall for at least 5 minutes
go thru lists of stuff like vehicles, animals, people, places

Like for me I might ask was I in/on a: Car, Bus, Train, Plane, Bike, Skateboard ...
Was I at: School, Work, Beach, Mountain, Woods, River
Did I see: Siblings, Parents, Friends etc.

You were dreaming (unless you only slept like an hour+) and you must have been dreaming of something :)

That's a good tip to keep. Just this morning I had a hard time remembering a dream when it felt like it was on the tip of my mind....

Quote:

Originally Posted by WanderBug

Helloooo!!

I'm Mandy and about to start into my first year of college; I had a really big lucid dreaming phase in early high school when I was a regular on this forum, but I eventually stopped keeping up with everything that had to do with lucid dreaming. I really want to put effort to go back, so here I am. I want to get more involved in the community in order to motivate myself, so yay for first steps!

I'm familiar with the terminology on this website, but I need to brush up on techniques and implementing increased awareness in my day to day. I rarely had lucid dreams before, and never could seem to get lucid through DILD. The only mild successes I had were when I woke in the early morning and went back to sleep or occasionally through WBTB.

Current Status

Poor Recall
Few, if any, lucid dreams

TO-DO

I've got to get my study on. Poke around the forums and threads and read up. It all makes me really excited, thinking about the possibilities of dreaming.
Be consistent with my dream journal. Don't be lazy.
Meditate everyday.

Despite the (sad) current status, I'm looking forward to seeing progress. :-P

Heloooo to you, WanderBug/Mandy, we're delighted to have you here in the DVA DILD class!

On DV, you are absolutely in the right place to get involved, learn, and keep yourself motivated. DV has a goldmine of archived forum posts with tons of great information on dreaming and lucid dreaming. I've put together some key posts that I think are especially insightful and useful here: http://www.dreamviews.com/dild/15603...ive-links.html

Reading around alot on DV (I spent literally months doing this when I first started, it's a great way to get involved!) is a great thing to do. Highly recommended, you're spot on there. Especially, browse through people's dream journals, that's a wonderful way to build expectation and excitement and get ideas about how to go about dream control for doing things you're interested in.

You've already made a keen observation: WBTB helps a lot in producing lucidity. LD practice is a very personal one: there is absolutely a lot that you can learn from others, and get general guidance, but only *you* can build a practice around what works best for you and your life situation. So, patience, diligence, determination, dedication, and willingness to experiment are very important in building lucidity, in addition to all the techniques/methods. Stick with it, and your abilities will grow over time.

If you can share what you do and how much you do it during the day/night at this current point, and what else you have read (books? ETWOLD?), that can help us formulate an initial plan together.

Poor dream recall: well, here's the place to start! Have a look at the link to the list of posts above in this message, and read my Dream Recall Tips (link also in my signature). Super short summary: reach for dream recall immediately every single time your find yourself awake. The more wakings you notice during the night, the more chances you have to practice recall, and the more dreams you will recall.

For now let's focus on recall for night practice. Feel free to do anything you want (MILD, WILD, WBTB), getting experience is the way we learn, but place the major emphasis on dream recall.

It's also good and useful to start working on daytime awareness. Recalling dreams means becoming aware *of* them: realizing you do dream, and that it's important to you personally to remember them every night. If you come to realize that *any conscious moment* could actually be a dream (there's something like an 11%-12% chance based on the hours we're awake vs. asleep and dreaming), your reality checks will become genuine and won't feel "forced". There is a ton of material written on awareness/self-awareness. At its root it is simple: learn to pay attention. Pay attention to your thoughts, emotions, situation, location, activities, reactions, conversations. Try more and more to catch those "zoned out" times: each time you do, you're becoming lucid! Just like in a dream. More and more, over time (be patient, this takes time to develop), you will find yourself staying "tune in" to your conscious experience all through the waking day. Dream recall and vividness over time will build as you pay attention to the dream just as in waking life practice. And you will start to feel present in dreams -- that's when you'll start getting lucid more, when "you" are there participating in your dream experience.

How to start this? It can feel overwhelming. Don't worry about observing every tiny detail -- just your self. Learn to ask yourself questions all throughout the day, like "How odd/unusual/new/unexpected is this?" A great question is "Why do I think I'm awake?" You'll see in LDs that right at the beginning you're amazed that you're dreaming, because the dream experience "feels" just like being awake (you are, in a sense! Both dreaming and waking life are different and similar expressions of consciousness). Do not get frustrated when you notice that you've zoned out, celebrate every time you come back to lucidity! A positive attitude is extremely important.

Whew that's a lot of stuff to process, but have a read through several times, and let's get started, dreaming is to fabulous and amazing, you have a full life of amazing dreams just waiting for you!

Summary: 1) build dream recall, 2) start building awareness by paying attention, noticing "zoned out" moments, and "tuning back in".