Hi there,
I used to have lucid nightmares. It's a horrible feeling as you know you are dreaming, and you try to face it, but it is still frightening. In one of mine, i was always being chased with a knife. One dream, i faced my attacker and allowed her to stab me. It really hurt and was no less frightening for taking control. Well, the ultimate control would be to change the dreamscape. BUT. Our unconscious doesn't do denial....it doesn't do avoidance. My belief is that often, when we have lucid dreamed happily and freely, and suddenly we are engulfed by difficult situations (try to see it like this rather than classic nightmares) it is because we have to deal with them in able to move on. It doesn't matter (to me) where they come from. But what is important is that we have them. As frightening as it is. In Shamanic journeying, a shaman would take their dreamer to the very heart of a dreamscape and allow the dreamer to overcome the obstacle with support. There is a lot talked about in terms of 'control' in lucid dreaming....i am finding But actually in my 'knife' dreams, of course i was always in control because it was a part of me that was holding the knife, reflected by all sorts of situations from my waking life. If i was to just build a different dreamscape and move on, and i would never have dealt with the issue. But there are safety nets and tools you can work within lucidity that vivid dreams can not offer (which is why in shamanic cultures, they will take you into dreamscape through trance in order to become lucid and give duologue and take control once again.) I might say this IS your opportunity to take control. You have been 'gifted' the ability to dream with high self awareness, now the crossbar is raised in these terrifying episodes.
I am the same. I have lucid dreamed for as long as i can remember but i have a problem to change the surroundings or sometimes something feels inevitable and i have to let it happen. I wonder if this is healthy? It is is waking life! It's an age old philosophy that if we run away from our problems they will just return to haunt us in a different form....
My advice to you is to meditate for 5-10 mins a night before sleep. Don't worry if you have not done before. Just go to a a local new agey type shop and smell all the scents and see if you can find an incense or oil that makes you feel calm...something that says 'yes', just have a good sniff of everything Go home and burn it, sit quietly with it. Avoid caffine or smoking before bed if you smoke....feel and imagine the area around your frontal lobes (each side of your forehead) even put your fingers there if it helps and imagine water trickling down each side, cooling and smooth, all the way from the sides of your forehead, behind your ears, down the back of your neck each side, down your spine and collected in a beautiful warm pool at the end of your spine in the sacral region. When it get's there, just imagine it turning into a colour that is appealing to you - perhaps pink or turquoise...hmmm...what happens in this beautiful water? You imagine that, the incense will help you create this place....maybe a childhood memory, a place where you felt safe and peaceful or happy...Breath it all back in right up from the bottom of your spine..and perhaps if you can start the exercise again!
This is a strengthening exercise for the center and may help equip you for the challenges you face in dreamscape right now. Just remember that there is always a purpose, something trying to work itself out. No harm can come of you.
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