Confused, feel like I'm going round in circles

[Habba]

I've been reading and reading for quite some time now. I really do not understand any of the awareness techniques. I see knowledgable members making informative threads about using your awareness in day to day life, but for me it feels its not really helping me. I don't know what to do, I'm really confused about how to go about performing these awareness exercises.

[Rothgar]

Dont sweat it. I dont use ADA. I think we are all different and some techniques work better than others for individuals. Do the techniques that motivate you.

[Redrivertears]

Hey there, Like Rothgar said, we all have to find what works for us. Me, I believe that while we shouldn't underestimate awareness exercises, we shouldn't expect it to translate directly to lucidity either (unless you're a natural lucid dreamer). Rather, I think awareness is important to get you in the right mindset so that other techniques have an increased effect. To make an analogy, think about sports. Then compare awareness to cardio. You'll need it whatever sport you chose to do and probably won't get very far without it, but you'll still need to learn the particular techniques and methods of your chosen sport. To me, awareness is like the cardio of your lucid dreaming. It might not get you lucid dreaming directly, but it will help you if you combine it with whatever techniques work for you. Also, I consider awareness simply taking a few moments in the day to stop your current train of thought, and take stock of where you are and what's around you. I think dreams are like a train of thought that you have when say, you're walking to work, or taking a shower. You don't really pay attention to your surroundings but instead just get caught up in thinking about whatever it is you're thinking about. Training your mind to regularly break that train of thought might train it to do the same in dreams, and thus not get sucked into dreamplots and changing dreamscenes without the chance to realize you're dreaming. Then combine that with some technique that reinforces your intention not to simply dream, but to lucid dream, and you're off to a good start, in my opinion. Just my 2 cents though, -Redrivertears-

[Habba]

Hey there, Like Rothgar said, we all have to find what works for us. Me, I believe that while we shouldn't underestimate awareness exercises, we shouldn't expect it to translate directly to lucidity either (unless you're a natural lucid dreamer). Rather, I think awareness is important to get you in the right mindset so that other techniques have an increased effect. To make an analogy, think about sports. Then compare awareness to cardio. You'll need it whatever sport you chose to do and probably won't get very far without it, but you'll still need to learn the particular techniques and methods of your chosen sport. To me, awareness is like the cardio of your lucid dreaming. It might not get you lucid dreaming directly, but it will help you if you combine it with whatever techniques work for you. Also, I consider awareness simply taking a few moments in the day to stop your current train of thought, and take stock of where you are and what's around you. I think dreams are like a train of thought that you have when say, you're walking to work, or taking a shower. You don't really pay attention to your surroundings but instead just get caught up in thinking about whatever it is you're thinking about. Training your mind to regularly break that train of thought might train it to do the same in dreams, and thus not get sucked into dreamplots and changing dreamscenes without the chance to realize you're dreaming. Then combine that with some technique that reinforces your intention not to simply dream, but to lucid dream, and you're off to a good start, in my opinion. Just my 2 cents though, -Redrivertears- Hello and thank you for your reply. I've been caught up in deciding what method suits me best, but I have no luck because I have not had any experience with no of them. So what I've decided is that I am going to try and achieve a DIlD through awareness and looking around at other objects, paying attention to what I feel, hear, and more important being aware of myself in the present, and try to actually believe I'm dreaming. Then I perform a reality check. I've done about 8 reality checks today which where done briefly every hour or longer. I will try this for a couple of weeks and see if my dream awareness kicks in.

[Redrivertears]

Good luck to you! For myself, I use a combination of awareness and reality checks during the day, and short meditation on my dream goals and dream cues before going to sleep and during any WBTB. Additionally, I'd advise you not to discount your normal dreams either. Try to remember as much as you can, become aware of the recuring elements in them, try to figure out the associations between dream elements and moods, feelings, or ideas. Basically, become familiar with your regular dreams. I believe this to help with lucid dream quite a lot as well. -Redrivertears-

[Rothgar]

Redrivertears is right on. Recall and analyze and enjoy your non-lucid dreams as well. The more you are focused on dreams the more likely to become lucid.

[Djaxup]

Redrivertears is right on. Recall and analyze and enjoy your non-lucid dreams as well. The more you are focused on dreams the more likely to become lucid. for me it was this. Just keeping my dream journal was enough to make dreaming an important matter to my mind, my non lucid dreams got a lot more frequent (I remembered more of them) and vivid, and then the lucid goodness started. Now that I stopped keeping the DJ, I rarely have LDs.