Thread: Can grief put my lucid dreaming on hold?

Two years agomy wife left me (we are back now) and I stopped having LDs all together. I have had almost no bad dreams for well over a decade because I have the skills learned in this hobby. However, at that time I had terrible vivid dreams. After I was a happy person again I stopped having bad dreams and got lucid again.

Unfortunatelly, yes. After I returned from a monthlong visit with my family, I didn't have any LDs for a whole month, untill I started feeling better. I was kinda sad that I had to leave them.

I think there are many many causes that can result in our loss of lucidity, both in waking life, and in dreaming. Anything shocking, traumatic, emotionally difficult, physically difficult, etc. One of the biggest causes of losing lucidity or having a long lucid dry spell is stress. Meditation counteracts stress nicely. If you learn to meditate, and practice living in the moment and becoming more aware during your waking life (check out the All Day Awareness tutorial here), and take other steps to mitigate your stress levels, then you should be able to start lucid dreaming again. You can also try to directly initiate a lucid dream by utilizing techniques like WBTB/WILD, DEILD.

In the way that certain life events might cause us to stop lucid dreaming for awhile, there are other things, that have a high probability of getting your brain to a state where it can naturally lucid dream. I'm talking about illegal substances, so I won't say much more about that. But I never had a lucid dream in my life until I was 18, then I took a certain drug at a party, had my first lucid dream a few days later, and have been a natural LDer ever since. I don't want to suggest anyone take drugs, I'm merely pointing out that some people who have more difficulty getting lucid naturally, may be fighting a losing battle, because until those connections are opened inside the brain, then you aren't ever going to become a "natural". You can also achieve this through meditation and practice. My example, just happened to involve MDMA.