The Tales of BlairBros and Dream Yoga

BlairBros Dream Yoga Workbook

Hello! I found out about Dream Yoga a few days ago and it has fascinated me. The idea that people have learned to not only expand their awareness both in wakefulness but also in sleep is fascinating, and I hope to learn as much as I can. I will post the results of the first Basic Skills Lesson soon, and we will see what I can learn from it.

I will post more on the basic lesson 1 soon but I thought this was pretty interesting. I attempted to do the Feel an Intense World Level 4/5 exercise after the Listening to a Noisy World Level 1 task because I forgot which order the tasks were in (hehe) and I thought it'd be interesting. When I tried it I could kind of shift my mind into the different parts of my body, if that makes sense. For example I would focus on my left foot, and it would start to tingle and get very relaxed, and I became really aware of how the foot itself felt. Each part of the body I did this to had the same relaxation and tingling in it, and I was wondering whether that is meant to be happening. I forgot to focus on the bedding touching the part of the body or the gravity while I was doing it, but I felt the area I was focusing on more keenly, like my entire mind was focused on how say my foot was feeling. I even sort of felt the inside of my body a bit, which sounds a bit strange but I don't really know how to describe it. It kind of feels like some kinds of hypnotism a bit, but overall it was like the part of my body I was focusing on was much more sensitive and I could feel it much more keenly and strongly. Hopefully you can decipher my ramblings and perhaps explain if this is meant to happen.

Mixing it up: Level 1
I attempted this yesterday and at first it was quite difficult. I wasn't able to focus completely on the flavour so after around 20-30 seconds it would go away and id have to kind of start sucking on it and stuff to get the flavour back. After about 5 minutes however I actually concentrated fully on what my brain was doing to stop me focusing on the flavour. I kind of observed how it worked, and then started trying to shut it off. Near the end I actually had some success. I focused all of my energy on shutting it off and I managed to keep the flavour in my mouth for more than a minute without moving/sucking on the lolly or anything. Eventually I had to swallow and that broke my concentration, but I was happy with that, since I pretty much had to stop then anyway due to the mental strain. I also noticed that when I was focusing then the actual flavour of the lolly became a lot more intense that what it was. Hopefully this will get easier as I do it more, as it was quite mentally draining.

Also this is just a shot in the dark here, but is the purpose of these exercises to try and increase my awareness about what is real and what isn't? When I do them my awareness of the world gets a lot higher, and I'm thinking that this might be useful in differentiating between being awake and asleep, kind of like ADA. Is this right? Or am I way off track. Also I'm thinking this will increase the vivdness of my dreams as it is kind of increasing the vivdiness of waking life when I do this, if that makes sense.

Here is some of my progress:
Diffuse Vision:
I tried this in the car for a while, and managed to keep it up for a smallish stretch of time. A problem I have is my eyes refocusing on what is in front of me, instead of relaxing fully. I tried to strain to counteract that, and I ended up with a bit of a strained eye and headache for the next 6 hours (doh!). I know know that straining to try to diffuse vision is definitely not the way to go, I need to try and relax a lot more to get into a deeper state.
Feel an Intense World:
I have tried level 1,2 and 4, and I am on my way to attempt the other levels when I get the time. I feel like I am making some progress with this, as I can now actually choose whether to really feel each individual part of my body or to make them tingle a bit, which I find interesting. I managed to hold in my mind 8 different sensations from different parts of my body in my mind at once before the mental strain got to me. I am improving slowly with keeping things in my mind but it is quite hard :). I'm not sure if it is a coincidence or not, but today I feel like the world was a little bit clearer and easier to grasp, if that makes sense, and I felt a bit more aware of my surroundings.
Listening to a Noisy World:
I have attempted levels 1 and 2, but I haven't really had too much success with this. I'm not sure if it is because I am not concentrating hard enough or there aren't very many noises when I do it, but I can only really hear 4 or 5 different noises when I do this. if there are more noises I'm not noticing hopefully I can improve that with practice.
Observations:
I have had a pretty big revelation I think. I find it much much easier to keep all of the different sounds and feelings from the first two versions of lesson 1 if I visualize in my head different boxes with the appropriate things in them. I kind of imagine each noise/sensation in a square, and each square is connected by little golden threads so it makes a kind of circle. I was wondering if this was a good way of doing it or if I should be doing something else, like if my way is kind of cheating or something :P.
Now for some questions!
(sorry I know this post is long)
1: Kind of a silly question, but how long should i spend on each lesson practicing the tasks? I am currently doing each one between 1 and 3 times a day each day, but should I do it more or less, and how many days for each lesson? (I'm guessing that it is pretty individual, like if I feel ready then I move on)
2: In the Mantra Awareness part of Lesson 2 I was wondering if the last part about making vowels resonate and sound powerful actually affects others rather than just yourself? I instantly though of thu'ums from Skyrim, which I'm guessing is completely off the mark, but anyway does the Mantra Awareness technique allow to say words or make sounds different ways to invoke different emotions/sound powerful like it says for other people? If so that would be really cool to be able to say things in a way to perhaps inspire people more or sound powerful or stuff.

I am really interested in Dream Yoga now, as I am slowly understanding that it can actually have some pretty cool benefits in waking life. Things like suppressing shocks and unwanted thoughts, as well as making my voice more powerful as the mantra awareness kind of indicates to me would be truly amazing.
Thank You for reading and hopefully answering my questions.

Whew I haven't been here in a while hehe. This year I've made it my goal to become more proficient at lucid dreaming and I remembered how interesting and beneficial dream yoga was back when I practiced it for a while, so I'm determined to start up my practice again. I've been trying to keep a regular meditation habit this year and recently starting doing some of the sensory awareness meditations again, I've realized that my mind has gotten sloppier at focusing and concentrating. Apart from the obvious lucid dreaming benefits I also think this improved awareness and focus ability will help me out a lot with my year 12 studies this year. Unfortunately due to that study I may not be quite as active as I'd like but, trying not to sound cheesy:cheeky:, will try as hard as I can.
I will post progress soon! (Probably < a week)

Thanks for posting again. Sorry I had not responded before. I am not sure how, but I missed your notebook altogether.

The awareness exercises have more than one purpose. They increase your daily awareness and that increases the chance of lucidity in general. They also get you to be fully aware of the subtle sensations that make up waking life. Part of the point is to realize that your brain is highly filtering the sensations you should be able to experience, due to its limited ability (which these will improve)

You are right about the mantras. In waking life you can effect people with the resonance of your voice. You can also create changes in your own brain waves and energy with that resonance.

Thanks! I have been more aware of how my brain perceives the world around me since I started these exercises, well, how my brain doesn't perceive the world hehe. I also seem to be remembering more different little details in my dreams as well, but I'm not sure if that is a coincidence with my recall improving generally or possibly from these exercises. I also tried the mudra exercise, and it seems to me that the emotions I feel from making the gestures actually comes from me consciously making the gesture. For example, when I make the fist I almost unknowingly sorta go grrr in my mind, brow furrows and feel more aggressive, but I'm feeling like that sensation is coming from the attachments my brain has made to that gesture. Am I not cray for thinking that perhaps an advanced part of that exercise is learning to separate the emotions from the gestures themselves, and thus allowing a more objective viewpoint. Perhaps making dreams less overwhelmingly emotional so your logic centres can work more? Or am I thinking in the wrong direction :)? Anyway, enjoying these exercises an discovering more about how my brain works, thanks for putting all of this up and teaching!

One of the true values of the mudra exercise is while you are lucid. Repeating the mudras you are using in real life inside the dream is a powerful way to stabilize.

Here is an odd thing. Clasp your hands together so all the fingers interlock. You will naturally do this with either the right or left thumb on top. Now switch it so he other is on top. You will feel uncomfortable at first like something is wrong with the position. Almost everyone gets this awkward feeling from that.
While meditating you will find that some gestures bring you more peace than others. They may even cause certain mental states to be easier to obtain.

Wow It has been a while haha. I've realised how all of what I have previously done regarding Dream Yoga was pretty much baby steps and as I've gotten older and (hopefully) a little wiser I have begun to understood how much the little dream yoga I did has helped me in the past. So I am resolving to pick up the practice once again, and now I understand a lot more about where I should be going with it so hopefully I can make some deep progression over time. Throughout the year I have flirted on and off with meditation but my laziness has gotten the better of me, however today I say no more and am determined to make meditation a regular part of my day. Writing here will also help to keep me on track. Well, I guess it is time to meditate now :).