Thread: Another failed attempt...

I preformed a WBTB at 5:00 AM last night. Went to the bathroom, did some quick math problems to get my mind awake, turned on Enya (amazing music for lucid dreaming) and got back in bed.

I was focusing on the music, hoping for a WILD, but I slowly lost grip of reality and faded into sleep. *Sigh* it just goes to show yo can't let your mind wonder for a moment.

Did you use any anchor? Like counting or mantras?

And don't take it as failure, because it's just another lesson, another experience that got you one step closer to your WILD.

Rid yourself of expectation, and you won't feel failure. Some nights the WILD clicks, and some nights it won't click at all, but you have no control over that. But like Gab said, you do have control in what you can learn from your 'failures' and you may have progressed with the last attempt without your notice due to your preoccupation with your 'failure'.

There are no failures, look back at the attempt and learn from it. For example look at what posture you were in, and pick another one for your next attempt, and you might find a one that suits you better. It's not that the sleeping posture is key for WILDing, it's just that an more uncomfortable sleeping posture sometimes can work as training wheels for the practise of mantaining awareness. Sometimes when I sit in a sitting posture whining about a little annoying itch on my leg I think to myself "Tibetan monks sleeps on thin ropes, spikematts and on their heads, what's you excuse?" ^-^

But the most important thing that we also can learn from these monks, is the point that TheObserver also made.

Don't have any expectations or hopes or .. dreams. Just be in the moment and see where it takes you just be the observer and not the judger...

So what I kind of suggested to you here to was two things, one find a sleeping posture that is harder to fall asleep in (Go extreme if you want to, but the second step gets more difficult) and two find a way to endure that posture for a long time.

When the second step is achieved you can begin by sleeping consciously and this is done by relaxing but not judging, to be without thinking, to exist without analyzing, to practise the art of doing nothing rather than something.

Namaste and sweet (conscious) sleep.

No, I didn't have any other anchor than the music. I have tried counting in the past but it keeps me to awake.

I will try sleeping in a different posture; as I was wilding in my favorite sleeping position :/

You could always fall back on the thought that even though your WILD attempt was 'unsuccessful' that there is a very strong chance of you achieving a DILD aftewards due to the WBTB. (Depending on your dream awareness, of course.)

***Post edited by gab***

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happens to us all! don't sweat it!!!

I used to have that happen to me all the time! Don't worry though, success comes with practice and with practice comes success!