Hey People...

Hey people,
I'm new to this forum and I've always been interested in lucid dreaming and had pretty regular lucid dreams like every other week for like a year now. It's not that exact of course. I kept a dream journal for awhile and can remember my dreams fairly well, at least better than before. In a normal dream after you wake up and you reflect on it you get this sense of clarity. Like when you were in a dream you were just a blind idiot. I sorta get that same feeling looking back at, for example, the last year. Like I was on auto pilot, even though it didn't seem like it at the time. It's like a sense of lucidity in waking life when you are just really aware of certain things and yourself. You look around and notice all these weird things or really think about yourself in an unfiltered way. It's a little hard to explain. For the past week or so I've felt like this a lot. Aware for lack of a better word.

I don't really believe in the hokey New Age concepts that a lot of people on this forum dig. All that stuff about entities, astral planes, shared dreams, projection, indigo children, or whatever. It can be entertaining and maybe a way to feel like you're part of something supernatural and other worldly. It's a feeling all people covet. Frankly it's a little irresponsible and unfulfilling. But you know, do whatever if you think it will make you happy.

I've been meditating a lot. Usually before bed and sometimes during the day. I rarely push 10 minutes. I don't really have a standard procedure when I meditate. I usually start off with the usual like focusing on breathing and good posture. Sometimes I listen to white noise or really focus on the ticking of a clock. I've been lucid dreaming almost every night for a week. I also had my first WILD. As I was dozing off half asleep I caught myself and just waited. I don't know exactly why. Maybe it's a strange combination of meditation, hydration, and infatuation. Hehe, I like the sound of that.

Anyways, I don't really know what to do in my lucid dreams. I'm not super into the regular stuff like flying, sex, or whatever else gets hyped about lucid dreams. What should I do? I normally just talk to people or do really weird stuff like making shoes in strange places, for example. Or like even weirder stuff. I've even made not very coherent poems while dreaming. Also what can I do to increase clarity and duration of lucidity? I always seem to lose focus and slip back into regular dreaming. Also, how will traveling and time zone changes affect my ability to lucid dream? I'm going to be living in Japan for the rest of the summer and don't want to break my lucid dream streak.

Anyhow, thanks for reading this. Feel free to answer any question or criticize me.