How to control your thoughts..? (Sounds stupid right?)

I have a problem when it comes to lucid dreaming. If I tell my mind not to think about something (during a WILD or a dream), what does it do? Oh man, I can't stop thinking about it. This is always the case.

"Don't think about your physical body". I read that somewhere on the forum, ever since I can't not think about it.

(Ways to fail a WILD, talking to yourself) Can't help it. Can't. Don't say try not to, because I can't not talk to myself when I'm lying there for at least 30 mins lol.


</end rant>

So what are your thoughts? Anyone have the same problem?

Prolly give me a headache :\

I suggest old fashioned meditation and though control exercises :) to be able to focus in single thing is invaluable skill in the waking world too ;)

you can PM me if you wanna know some simple though control exercises.. or I can write them here unless lazyness overwhelms me :P

It's much easier focus your thoughts on what you want if you phrase them positively and avoid negations; think about what you want to think about instead of what you do not want to think about.

It seems impossible for the mind to process negations, like "do not think of a black cat." The phrasing almost forces you to think of a black cat before you can realize you're not supposed to be thinking about it.

So, instead of focusing on what you want to avoid, shift your focus to a positive counterpart. Instead of thinking about not your physical body, maybe you can think about the dream world, your dream body, or whatever it is you find yourself thinking about -- there are a lot of useful things you can think about.

I agree with Unelias. Also, when it comes to NOT thinking about something, try to distract yourself. Also, just give it time and experience. I'm probably responsible for you recently reading that (:doh:), but just give it time to wear off. When you are lucid focus on your dream goals, the environment, try to talk out loud and just focus on these tasks.

Ok I got myself some time to wrote something I used to train long ago, both for sake of martial arts and psionics. You can do these before you go to sleep or anytime you see fit. Time can vary from 5 minutes to 20 minutes or more if you really want to.
(These are very simplified basic things :) they are also in order that I think is easiest to do, from basic to harder. )

Thought tracing : just relax and let your thoughts run wild. Try not to hang on any thought, but rather stay indifferent, as observer. Let images, sounds or feelings flow. Just don't start actively think or cling into them. What you can do, however, once you become proficient enough, is to think WHY your mind jumps from thought A to thought B :)

Single thought training : Choose anything, I mean anything, you will focus on. It might be an apple, person, anything. You can start with thought tracing and in some point choose something your mind came up with. Then banish all other thoughts and focus to this one thought. You can let all the other thoughts flow by and not cling into them, just keep the chosen thing active in your mind. Eventually, all the other thoughts will cease to appear. Depends of course how good your focus and experience is. Other method, which is a little more aggressive, is to bash all the other thoughts away. I don't find this way very "relaxing", but I use it occasionaly ^^

Also, if you find single thought troubling you too much you can do this all in reverse order. If you have had a fight with your friend earlier that day and it keeps pestering you, you can try to banish that single thought and concentrate on other things. As long as you don't focus on that fight.

Clear mind : Lastly, which is in my opinion the culmination of all thought training is to achieve state where no thoughts will penetrate your mind. When people start meditation they usually are too eager and jump right away here. While people are different, most of the people may find it hard to start here. That's why they become frustrated and hinder their progress, or completely qive up :) so by all means if you have time and patience, start from the beginning. No instant results guaranteed ;P

I find myself doing all of these three regularly even though I can do the last one very well. I also do more variations than listed here. If someone is interested you can PM :)

While these are not by all means required, I think every lucid dreamer (especially WILDers imho) benefit from these. Can help you in real life too, I believe :)

Thanks, I read every post above and thanks for everyone's time and input. I'll be trying these over the holidays and will post an update on how I'm doing.


Happy holidays people. :cheers::dancingcow::aphiusiscrazy:

Yeah it's a proven fact that your subconcious cannot process negatives. Try telling yourself, right now, NOT to think about a pink elephant. You can't physically stop yourself. The best you could hope for would be to flood your thoughts with other random crap before it gets a chance to think about that pink elephant. In a dream, however, that would probably pose quite a threat to your lucidity.

So someone else already said this, but think in positives. Instead of thinking "don't think about my real body," think "focus only on my dream body."

What you should do, is tell yourself to not to think about something else. Problem solved ;)

I remember a dream I had a while ago, in fact, I just read my note of it here recently and basically it was this. A very clear message of "Focus on what you want, not what you don't want." - It was a very powerful message because of this realization I had: Do you realize how many things we do NOT want. How many relationships, possessions, we do NOT want? It's about 95% of things we could never afford or even want - and there's 5% left. Focus your energy on what you want - the other goes on "forever". Does this help?

Yes it helps. :)

Especially randomly telling myself "Whatever you do man, do NOT think about the pink elephant again."