General Difficulties - - In a rut

I've been trying for the past month and a half. Reality checks all day, WBTBs, everything but supplements. Except I haven't been keeping a dream journal. I feel like spending 15 minutes every morning just to try to lucid dream would be a waste of time. I mean, I know that LDing is fun, but is it worth all that work?

If I kept a journal and tried extra hard for a few months until I could LD naturally, will my need to journal decrease? I feel like if I could just reach a point where I could more easily lucid dream, I won't need to focus so much on the small things. Like learning to drive a car, you focus a lot on all the small things on the dash and in the car until it becomes second nature.

If I just put in the extra effort now, will I be able to stop journaling and still LD?

There is one thing you need to do.
KEEP A DREAM JOURNAL

Keep a dream journal. There are no other options.

Yes, it is vital that you keep a dream Journal. As said above, I am afraid there is no other choice.

Without keeping a dream journal, reality checking won't do anything/barely anything at all. You won't even be able to recall LD's you have when you wake up, which is a waste.

Your need to journal your dreams will not decrease. Based on personal experience and what most other people have told me, if you do not keep a dream journal after getting "good" at LDing, your recall will just die soon after. For example, I had a good recall of 2-3 dreams per night in pretty vivid detail, then I stop writing in my journal because of lack of motivation. Soon afterwards my recall had died.

It does not matter if you do put more effort into other area's, it would be for the most part useless without a journal. If you want to LD then you need to keep a journal, I do not find writing in my journal that much of a pain. You could try getting up 15 minutes earlier, using this time to write in your journal.

If it is worth it or not is up to you. I don't think I need to list the benefits of lucid dreaming, but all that and all you need to do is keep a journal and reality check? You decide.

I am one of the few people who does not think a dream journal is mandatory. I keep one, but I seem to have just as many LDs when I haven't done an entry for a while.

I do feel like Dream Journals are necessary. Whenever I stop writing in it my dream recall dies which is annoying. And yup, writing in it can be a pain in the ass but to me, it is worth it! even if it wasn't for the LDs, with my dream Journal, I will ALWAYS remember them. If you had the coolest dream ever and don't write it down you might remember super well, but you might really simply forget it the day after or even before. i have experience with that. I forgot a Lucid Dream. But as Tsunami (cool name) said, it is all your choice. Is it worth it to go to hocky practices 4 hours a week or to go to spanish class for 4 hours a week? We all have different choices/ opinion about things. personnaly I DO NOT understand how someone could NOT like lucid dreams, or dreams, but I also DO NOT understand why so many people DO like hot dogs so much. Just 'cause of that, I have to accept people might not like getting lucid dreams. :)

I haven't been keeping my dream journal for a couple of months now, but my dream recall hasn't decreased any. The only case in which is descreases is if I have more than 2 or 3 dreams in a night.

But I also take supplements that enhance dream vividness, so that might play a role. I'm going to start keeping it again and see if my dream recall improves.

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Originally Posted by Tsunami

Yes, it is vital that you keep a dream Journal. As said above, I am afraid there is no other choice.

Without keeping a dream journal, reality checking won't do anything/barely anything at all. You won't even be able to recall LD's you have when you wake up, which is a waste.

Your need to journal your dreams will not decrease. Based on personal experience and what most other people have told me, if you do not keep a dream journal after getting "good" at LDing, your recall will just die soon after. For example, I had a good recall of 2-3 dreams per night in pretty vivid detail, then I stop writing in my journal because of lack of motivation. Soon afterwards my recall had died.

It does not matter if you do put more effort into other area's, it would be for the most part useless without a journal. If you want to LD then you need to keep a journal, I do not find writing in my journal that much of a pain. You could try getting up 15 minutes earlier, using this time to write in your journal.

If it is worth it or not is up to you. I don't think I need to list the benefits of lucid dreaming, but all that and all you need to do is keep a journal and reality check? You decide.

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That was a great response. Thank you.

But now that you mention it... what, for you, are the benefits of lucid dreaming? It appears I now need only to weigh the pros and cons, and my list of pros is not very complete.

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Originally Posted by Silence Dogood

my list of pros is not very complete.

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I always thought the idea of virtual reality in your mind would speak for itself...

But yes, dream journals do help a lot. However, I have found that once I learned to lucid dream, they came much more easily and without effort. I used to have to keep a journal, do reality checks, WBTB, mantras before I went to sleep, etc; now they just happen spontaneously, though trying to induce them will increase their frequency.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Silence Dogood

That was a great response. Thank you.

But now that you mention it... what, for you, are the benefits of lucid dreaming? It appears I now need only to weigh the pros and cons, and my list of pros is not very complete.

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Thank you. Take it from me, it is very much worth it. As already said in the post above, some benefits speak for themselves.

http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=24102 :P

Yes. :) the point is that you have your own person universe where you can do anything and everything. There are an infinitive number of things to do. However even more amazingly is even a small achievement can feel significant, particularly at the start of the "journey", for me at least

I personally quite like writing in my dream journal every morning, getting excited about the night to come the evening before. Recently my Non Lucids have become quite exciting.

I feel its a complete waste if I only recall fragments of a dream in the morning or nothing at all, which still happens if I get lazy with the journal.

If your still not convinced here are some real life benefits I have noticed over the last year and a half (off the top of my head) -

- I generally feel more aware and happier, Every time I wake up from a lucid it feels at least quite good. Which is really nice actually.
- Question, you get money in real life, but you are having a good run of LD's, not much you can't have if you get a decent LD.
- Leading from that, if you get handicapped or lose everything or something, you can still have that in a LD, ofc if you wanted to.
- Despite what some people say it is quite easy and you do not need to put all that much much time. Win Win really.
- I've learnt loads
- I have become more aware, because of doing RC's i guess?
- Before LDing I always disliked sleep. I was the person to go to sleep last and struggle to get to sleep. Now I can easily get relaxed and my quality of sleep is way good most the time when I am into LDing.


That good enough, could write lots more really. If motivation is a problem I find reading through Lucid Dream Journals on this site quite useful.