Goals for December?

Any interesting goals for December you guys want to share here?

Mine are:

1. Aim for a minimum of 2 lucid dreams per week. (Last month I had 5 lucid dreams total, so I'm going to try to increase that). I'm hoping the majority of these are WILDs, since I find my awareness is much more sharp that way, but DILDs are okay too and would be good practice anyway for increasing awareness.

2. Work on stabilization and dream length. I keep waking up prematurely whenever I get lucid. I've been practicing while awake, looking at my hands, rubbing them together, and saying, "This dream is stable. My lucidity is stable. I will remain within this dream for as long as I wish." (I've tried shouting "STABILIZE!" before and ended up in a series of very annoying false awakenings, so I'm going to give this a try and see if it's better)

3. Work on sensory exercises to enhance clarity/awareness and focus-- I've been practicing these while awake but haven't had a lucid in a week, so haven't done them in-dream yet. I intend to pay attention to my environment and pick out 2 details for each sense to commit to memory.

4. Start working towards Persistent Realms lucid experiences. I would love to "visit" the Doctor Who universe and the Dresden Files novels universe for starters. I stumbled on Hyu's journal last week and it was incredibly inspiring! I've been doing waking visualizations to "practice" but have yet to put them in action within dreamspace.

5. Seek out a dream guide.

Great goals! I have been slacking a bit lately as the stress of real life has occupied my thoughts. I have a good break coming up this month though, and during it I hope to:

1. Refocus on lucid dreaming in general.

2. Meditate before bed every night (something else I have slipped out of).

3. Attempt a WILD at least twice a week. MILD on other nights.

4. Ask some personal questions of my subconscious mind that have been bothering my conscious mind as of late.

I've set the goals. Now, can I achieve them?

1. Finish creating the "summer holidays" dreaming logbook and fill it out.

2. Raise lucid count from 7 to 9 or above.

3. Complete one TOTM and get first ever set of wings.

4. Work on my custom dream "case study".

Get back into the groove of things. Been dealing with intense insomnia for years now, but before I would LD on a nightly basis.

Really, that's my only goal, but it's a big one.

These all sound like great goals! It's not quite the end of December yet, but how'd everyone do? (Sorry I posted this and then didn't respond to anyone; it took me awhile to induce anything this month so I didn't really have anything else to share)

Courga: Meditation is a wonderful practice, and something that I've been trying to pick up again too. I do a combination of guided meditations (usually using Youtube) and "practice" visualizations for my dream goals. What sort of meditation do you do, if you don't mind me asking?

Karla: Those all sound intriguing! What sorts of things do you put in the logbook? Is it just a dream journal type thing?

Growing wings-- I've only done it once, but it was amazing. Would love to hear your experience with that when you succeed!

SinisterDezz: I hear you. Insomnia can be awful. I hope you manage to beat it and get back in the groove!

My own practice this month has been a bit hit and miss. It took me a couple weeks to have my first December lucid, but I decided to give some supplements a try and they have been working wonders. I have had lucids on 5 different nights, with 8 lucids total. Some were supplement-induced and some weren't. I haven't been able to do much work on my other goals, though, with the exception of a bit of sensory focus here and there.

Right! Time to reflect on how I have gone.

1. The log book is going great and it is up to date.

2. I have my lucid count at 10, which is one above my goal of 9.

3. Didn't complete a TOTM, was going to two nights ago in 251 B but I "ran out of time" in the dream.

4. The case study has been cancelled as it doesn't have as much use as I thought it would.

Now to answer questions:
The logbook is where I write down general details of my dreams, like a grid chart, to see if I can detect any recurring patterns; it isn't a dream journal. I have different sections for different aspects of dreams. For instance, in the "General Dreaming Log" section, I have the following columns; Date, Dream Number, Dream Guide, Improvements. Date is obviously the date I had the dream on. Dream Number is what order the dream is in my journalling sequence. In the Dream Guide column, there are three sub-columns with three dream guides listed. I tick the corresponding grid cell if they appeared in my dream. The improvements column is where I write down what I would have wished I'd have done in the dream last night.

I also have separate logs for lucid dreams and different induction techniques. I have logs for WBTB, DILD and WILD; the only log I've managed to fill in is the DILD one which has the grid columns; Date, Dream Sign/Prompt, Lucid?, Improvements. Date is the date of the dream. Sign/Prompt is what object in the dream caused me to become lucid. Lucid? is a yes or no option, did I become lucid or did I fail? Improvements is what I could have done better in the lucid dream.

Another section of the logbook I'd like to share is the "Lucid Dreaming Record Log". The columns are; Date, Dream Number (Sub-columns "ALL" and "Lucid"), Dream Guide, Improvements. Date is the date of the dream. Dream Number (ALL) is the number in the journalling sequence Eg. 100 A, 100 B, 101. Dream Number (Lucid) is what lucid dream I'm at Eg. 8, 9, 10. Dream Guide is a written summary of who I had helping me in the lucid dream. Improvements is what I could have done better in the lucid dream.

I didn't realize I was having lucids once a week at one point until I entered the details into the book! And now that I can see the recurring pattern, I'm successfully getting lucids once a week again (for now).

Did you think I literally wanted to grow wings? No that's not the case... But now that you say it, it's an interesting idea. By getting wings I mean achieving the cyber wings in real life that DreamViews gives you below your profile ID.

Hopefully you'll be able to pick up some steam if you have any goals for January.

Oh, the logbook sounds like a good idea. I do something somewhat similar on a semi-private Dreamwidth blog that I share with a few trusted friends, where I record in detail and sort of "grade" my lucid dreams based on things like clarity, control, dream length, memory, etc. and then go on to detail additional notes and things I want to improve on. I then keep a list of attempts and successes that I update daily, detailing what techniques I use, what days I skip, and linking to the longer dream log entries when I have a lucid. You're right, it's very handy for spotting patterns, recurring themes, etc.

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Did you think I literally wanted to grow wings? No that's not the case... But now that you say it, it's an interesting idea. By getting wings I mean achieving the cyber wings in real life that DreamViews gives you below your profile ID.

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Oh, I gotcha! Haha, yes, I thought you meant growing wings in a dream. That's pretty cool too, though. Best of luck in achieving that goal in the future. :)

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Hopefully you'll be able to pick up some steam if you have any goals for January.

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Thank you! I'm going to just carry over my December goals into January. I've more or less gotten into a twice-a-week induction pattern, but my dreams are still terribly short, so I haven't managed to achieve any other goals. Time to narrow focus to stabilization, I suppose.