Meditation techniques

[Ryanshep11]

I always hear everyone saying that they meditated before bed and had better results and all that stuff but what exactly did they do? I would also like to start meditating and increasing awareness but I wouldn't even know what to do. What are some of your successful meditation techniques?

[MasterMind]

First of all a peaceful mind gives you peaceful dreams. So start out by letting go of worries and anxieties of the day, if you have something stressful on your mind try to let go of it by telling yourself that nothing well disturb your night's sleep. Although if it's too stressful like a test the next day you haven't studied enough for or something else, just acknowledge that and don't blame yourself if this night doesn't turn out with good recall or awareness of the dream. Secondly I think that meditation for bed is, even though you don't set the exact same intention, a kind of WILD process. And if you meditate and try to stay awake for as long as possible, ewll acutally try to sleep aware for as long as possible, well then the intention of staying aware is already set. And this will increase your chances for both recognizing your awakenings during the night and your chances of becoming aware in a dream. There are however no "successfull techniques" for lucid dreaming, meditation or anything really. Because you have to learn by doing, not reading. If I just explain how I meditate now, by saying the goal well then it looks very difficult and as you sit down to start you will notice that it isn't as easy as it sounds. However with practise this will be just as easy and peaceful as sleeping. I'll provide some links: Meditation And The Ego - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views Meditation And Proper Breathing - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views They are basically describing breath meditation. The reason to why the breath is a good practise and way to understand the purpose of meditation, is because the breath is automatic and you do it unconsciously but the moment you start to become aware of the breath you try to control it, and meditation is all about finding the balance between control and awareness. Be aware of the breath without controling it, when you learn that you can start applying that to your life as well, learn to be aware of your emotions without controling it. Another important aspect is the practise of not judging. We judge ourselves all the time, "I am not good looking enough, I am not good enough, I am not lucid dreaming often enough..." Again observe and improve don't judge! This mindset is important for most things in life, but if we are going to focus on WILDing it's useful, and my friend Fredrik is the proof he basically learned to WILD without reading about it. Here is a entry on mindset: Yoga Nidra or Conscious Sleep - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views I hope this information helps you and happy meditation Remember "the greatest effort is not concerned with result and the greatest actions doesn't confirm with the world's ways"

[Radioshift]

Lucid dreaming is like fishing. You never know if you will be successful. Meditating before bed is like using better bait. You still might not catch something, but your chances are better than if you don't.

[h1nchm4n]

What I recommend is taking the courses in the DVA forum. The teachers of these topics are very knowledgeable and give great feedback. Sivason's Dream Yoga Class is very helpful, along with ShockWave's Meditation Class. Go fiddle around in both of the topics, and see which one interests you the most. Taking both would be an interesting experience! Keep in mind though, learning these techniques take a very long time. Stay motivated! And good luck