How to regain Motivation for Lucid Dreaming

[tuanbuffalo]

Hey there People, so i am here since May 2015. i started my lucid dreaming career because i was meditating at that time and thought being aware during the night is an awesome addition to the whole being aware during waking. i started with it out of curiosity. And dont get me wrong, lucid dreams are awesome and it makes a lot of fun in general. But this year i didnt practice it nearly at all and even tho i have some random lucids here and there it got less and less and now the induction is also more difficult than it was a year ago where i just knew what to do with not to much technique... i really want to jump back on the boat and get my practice started again but i am really not a big fan of writing a DJ. and in combination with my perfectionism to write down EVERY detail i remember so my recall gets better is not very beneficial. and i am lacking big times of personal goals. its not like i always wanted to visit middle earth or build my own persistent realm or fight something i am afraid of. i enjoy being lucid and practice my skills like fireballs or teleportation or walk thru walls and stuff and what ever and i like some competition but i really dont have any longterm goals for what i do this. its not like when i finally will be good at teleportation THEN i can go to middle earth or something. and even tho it would be interesting to "meet my inner self" or to meet my dream guide or to get to a point where i can actually get some advice or something productive out of my lucid dreams these goals are too abstract or vague and i think even tho it would be nice to have a dreamguide its not an inner strong wish i have so i would invest 20 or more lucids into it until FINALLY my goal would be completed. And even tho i know this is my problem and everyone is different and has to find his own motivation i thought i would start this thread because everyone was there at a point where the motivation was lacking and some quit and some find them something to keep on going and find something that motivates them to keep up the work and get what they want from it. So maybe some long term lucid dreamers want to add some of their experiences how to overcome those motivational downs?

[Charles3]

tuanbuffalo, good question! Even if you are not motivated, you seem to be motivated to find motivation. So that's a start! I had this really intensive period of writing my dreams for hours a day for months, up until a few weeks ago when I kind of burnt out. I realized I lost all motivation to do those HOURS of writing a day (because thats literally how much I was remembering) and so I had to surrender. I couldn't white knuckle that intensity level any more. So what I did was just start kicking around the forums more, something I didn't have as much time to do when I was constantly hacking away at my note pad file the next day to write really long DJ entries. So I got to rest a little bit with that. As far as my own DJ goes, I started using a voice recorder, so it would be easier. And then only typing what I felt like. This way I have been able to keep up with it. I have a lot less LDs in the past few weeks but I don't mind. I was having 10-20 a week for a while there but I was running on overdrive, which I guess wasn't sustainable. So basically I just found a simpler routine that was a little more "easy mode" and this is helping me stay in touch with it. Part of that is going on the forums more and answering threads. I thought it was impossible to run out of motivation, since a good LD is a really powerful reward. But I guess everyone has an off season. So I am just on an "easy mode" right now until I recover from burn out. So just try not to beat yourself up for not being really driven to LD right now. Your motivation will return. Also, hows your life style? During the last few weeks I started playing some video games or watching some stuff on the computer, which I hadn't been doing at all. I was definitely living life on "hard mode/ monk mode". That stuff can probably kill our motivation to seek LDs since it hits up the dopamine receptors and gives some level of a heightened experience. But not the "real deal" like LDs. So I will probably have to let go of the gaming and watching stuff on the comp once my "Break" is up. I don't drink or drug but those things will probably also take away your motivation. When I was doing those things years ago, there was nothing that could motivate me. Reviewing my own personal favorite dreams can be fun. I converted my typed up dreams to MP3 using text to speech and listened to them. My own personal dreams were a great source of motivation because of all the energy there. So you could try reviewing your old favorite dreams and seeing if that helps. Maybe finding a new LD teacher on Youtube could help. Listen to their talks. Listen to a Charley Morley interview or Robert Waggoner or anyone you've never heard. It could put a new spin on it and give you some fresh energy. Each LD teacher has hours of stuff and they talk alot about why Ld is important in their own way. Accepting where you are at is probably the most important thing. If you had a child who didn't want to focus on LD, how would you treat that child? Not, "HEY, KID, YOU BETTER GET BACK TO LD!" You would be a good parent and just say, "Oh, the child isn't into it now. No problem. Well, what would the child like to do?" LD is all avaiable to you when you want it, so take the pressure off yourself to be perfect or enlightened. Trust yourself and trust LD to come to you in the right time space and sequence. EDIT: Also if you are around 28 maybe we could be LD buddies. I tried asking around in the LD buddy thread but no one is in my age range so far. If you're a different age range maybe you could find someone there. There were a lot of 15-22 yr old peoples.

[TravisE]

I think I've been finding myself in a remarkably similar position. I just went through the highest point of dream recall and LDing ever over the last 2–3 years, but it seems to be winding down. With the closing of this month, my monthly LD count has just hit its lowest point since July 2014. Yikes! I suspect that this is largely due to being busy with other things in waking life and somewhat lower motivation. It's still there to some degree: I've come tantalizingly close to goals I've been struggling to achieve for way too long, and I really want to keep going, but to be completely honest with myself, I think there are other things in my life right now that simply feel more important to me, like it or not. Another hindrance is indeed the fact that I don't really enjoy spending long hours dream journaling every day anymore. During my high points, I was obsessed with recording every little thing, and my DJ became absolutely huge, far bigger than I ever anticipated. That was really cool, but it came at a big sacrifice of time and effort. As time passes, I'm finding myself cutting back more and more and being more selective with what I write down. And frankly, while I don't regret the cooler stuff I went through the trouble to capture then, not all of the material seems super-interesting or impressive now. But I do try to make an effort for the really important stuff. I'm currently looking for ways to regain my energy and enthusiasm (skimming back over my more awesome LDs seems to be helping somewhat), but otherwise in the meantime, I'm trying not to worry about it. Maybe I simply need a break for a while. I went through a low point around 2011–2013 where I never completely left LDing, but it dipped to very low levels. After a while, I finally realized I wasn't getting anywhere and decided to come back to Dream Views (since first being active around 2007–8-ish) to see what I missed. I learned a lot of stuff I never knew, and that brought a lot of motivation and caused that huge peak I recently went through. Well, I'm still here, but things have dipped again a bit. Possibly going over some old, inspiration threads might help. But no matter what, I've heard this stuff tends to wax and wane, so perhaps the next “big one” is just around the corner.