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Setting a goal for nightly lucidity by this time next year
I have been lucid dreaming for nearly four years. And for the most part really enjoyed it, but I sometimes feel as though I could be doing more to improve. I practice inconsistently, at best. But I feel as though it is time I fully commit to this. So I have decided to give myself a high goal and a lot of time to do it. So, what steps am I going to take to reach this goal?
1. Improve my recall. My dream recall is pretty good, I wake up nearly every day with SOMETHING. On the worst days, I at least have some dream fragments. And on the good days... well I can recall long and detailed dreams. Autosuggestion But I'm going to be getting on a more regular sleeping pattern to even things out. That is as such.
2. More regular sleeping pattern. Since day-to-day issues can arise, I wanted to put some flexibility into this. I am officially making a 10pm 'cut off' point as my bedtime. At 10pm I drop whatever I'm doing, brush my teeth and hit the sack. I allow myself exceptions if there is an emergency or special occasion, but unless such, I should go to bed at 10. I am always amazed at how much the clarity of my dreams shoots up when I go to bed earlier.
3. More consistent practice. In my time, I have learned that Autosuggestion is one of my most powerful tools, and I'm surprised how often I neglect to set aside ten minutes to say my mantras. Although I had some luck with reality checks in my early years, for the most part, I don't find myself becoming lucid because of them. More often than not, I find myself already lucid, or become lucid thanks to a dream character. This doesn't mean that I will stop doing them. It just means that they are not my mainsail approach.
As for WILDs. I've never had much luck with WILD. I've done it a few times by 'accident' but never been able to do it on command. The point is, I've gotten my feet wet with WILD and am itching to learn more. But WILD is more something I plan to do on the side. I'm not going to take it seriously, and simply experiment with it as a method for lucid dreaming.
4. Diet upgrade. I've decided to try and stick with the basics. Apple products. I might go into B6 supplements if I get the chance, or need a boost.
5. Revive my SILD (Symbol Induced Lucid Dream) project. Remember this?
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This was my Avatar before It was the painting of my dream self. It was part of a project to link a reality check to a symbol. (If you notice the symbol vaguely looks like the letters LD for lucid dreaming.) Ideally, I would have this symbol everywhere in waking life and teach myself to associate it with lucid dreaming. Then the symbol would appear in my dream, and I would become lucid.
It was a great idea, but I never put it into practice all that well. I would like to give this a full trial run, and if there are any other lucid dreamers out there who want to give this a go, be my guest.
Part of what inspired me to do this was when I created a spreadsheet. I entered, by month the number of lucid dreams I had recorded in my dream journal. And sure there was some variation depending upon whether I was in school or taking a break or what not. But the general trend showed that over the years, I have been improving. So I thought: why not see how far this thing can go?
I feel as though I should be a bit more clear about this goal. Nightly lucidity by this time next year. I don't care if it's just a few moments of lucidity and I wake up. So long as there is blue text in my DJ every morning, I have reached my goal.
I felt like having a goal that was fairly clear cut might actually make me more motivated. I had to make it something of a challenge, but still attainable and realistic.
But ultimately. This is Lucid Dreaming. Something that I have always done for fun. The reward for staying on task is the thrill of the lucid dreams themselves that will hopefully increase in clarity and length. I want to take this seriously, but not so seriously that I'm beating myself up every time I make a mistake. So this is like a 6/10 serious goal for me. :D
