Thread: Bharmo's Workbook

Originally Posted by paigeyemps

Hi! I saw your post in the snippets thread. And yep, I believe that was a DEILD! Congratulations

Also, with DEILD, even if you move a bit or open your eyes or see something, it doesn't necessarily ruin your attempt. You can still DEILD as long as you don't focus on the movement, and keep your "im going to have a lucid" mindset. if you're still in a dreamy phase, you can definitely still DEILD. Cheers~

Thank you very much for your answer Paigeyemps! I really feel I'm progressing with the help you all are providing here!
Actually I just had another interesting lucid dream!!
Let me just do another entry in my workbook for that...

Another lucid!!! Only five days from last one! I hope I'm in my way to increasing frequency.
There's a little story behind this one:
I've been thinking about my MILD skill, that is, I'm following LaBerge's Mnemonic Induction method, which is based on visualizing a dream to get your prospective memory remind you to ask yourself if your are dreaming. Now the truth is my dream recall detail is not good, and my memory neither, so I was telling me that LaBerge's MILD is a good technique but in my case was going to take a while to be as effective as I would like.
But I've been on a trip (that didn't work out well, logistic problems made us come back earlier than planned) and Saturday while traveling I read the chapter about inducing DILDs at ETWOLD. There he says something very interesting I didn't remember, with MILD you can use "intentional effort" but with Autosuggestion that's counterproductive. Taking that into account, this weekend I decided to stop commanding myself to lucid dream in my mantras, but rather remind myself that I can easily realize when I'm dreaming, and voila!
Obviously, this could all be a placebo... But it worked!
Something that I feel helped a lot was that I was reading some of CanisLucidus oldest lucids for inspiration, and it did boost my confidence!

Regarding the lucid dream itself, this is one I particularly enjoyed, because of several reasons: It's very close to my last one so I'm increasing frequency, I achieved my first personal goal at the competition (have a lucid within the first week), had my first moments of awareness regarding my voice and the end of the dream, and I could remember more things from WL than I expected, like names and faces. Oh, and first time CanisLucidus show up in my dreams somehow

http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/drea...someone-50142/

Originally Posted by dreambh

Another lucid!!! Only five days from last one! I hope I'm in my way to increasing frequency.
There's a little story behind this one:
I've been thinking about my MILD skill, that is, I'm following LaBerge's Mnemonic Induction method, which is based on visualizing a dream to get your prospective memory remind you to ask yourself if your are dreaming. Now the truth is my dream recall detail is not good, and my memory neither, so I was telling me that LaBerge's MILD is a good technique but in my case was going to take a while to be as effective as I would like.
But I've been on a trip (that didn't work out well, logistic problems made us come back earlier than planned) and Saturday while traveling I read the chapter about inducing DILDs at ETWOLD. There he says something very interesting I didn't remember, with MILD you can use "intentional effort" but with Autosuggestion that's counterproductive. Taking that into account, this weekend I decided to stop commanding myself to lucid dream in my mantras, but rather remind myself that I can easily realize when I'm dreaming, and voila!
Obviously, this could all be a placebo... But it worked!
Something that I feel helped a lot was that I was reading some of CanisLucidus oldest lucids for inspiration, and it did boost my confidence!

Awesome, dreambh, congratulations on the lucid!! I agree, it definitely seems like your frequency is picking up nicely.

Great observation about autosuggestions. I'm really glad that you were able to pick up on that when you were reading Laberge and realize that it was something you could apply right away. Your progress is inspirational! And heh, I'm glad my old lucids came in handy, too!

Keep up the great work, man. You are just doing great. I'll check out your DJ entry as well!

The Competition is making me realize again how much I need to improve my dream recall.
I need to renew my resolve to write down my dreams whenever I wake up, even if it's only an outline, in order to recognize when I'm dreaming more easily.

Write down my dreams! Write down my dreams!

Originally Posted by dreambh

The Competition is making me realize again how much I need to improve my dream recall.
I need to renew my resolve to write down my dreams whenever I wake up, even if it's only an outline, in order to recognize when I'm dreaming more easily.

Write down my dreams! Write down my dreams!

It's funny, but even not being in the competition, I just notice things like when I have an early micro-awakening with a dream in mind but I'm too lazy to get out of bed. And by the time I do WBTB it's gone. Even though the dream itself is more important than the abstract points in a competition, it's great for driving home the fact that something has been lost.

Makes for a great learning experience, which is what this is all about!

Well, I've forgotten my workbook a little bit with all the worries about Competition #14.

So first, about Competition 14: Excellent for motivation, lots of fun, and also a big help in goal setting (I was incubating my goals in my daily RCs, which I enjoyed, and it worked twice!!)
Only bad thing about the competition was I had to leave it two days before it ended because I travelled to an isolated area. So I properly fulfilled two of my goals within the competition, get over 30pts and one LD during the first week, and then fulfilled a lot more within the competition dates but could not report them on time: a second LD in the second week, two of my 3 step tasks, and get over 45pts.

About my trip: I had two lucids in six nights. My wife, some friends and I spent those nights on "different" circumstances to say the least: We stayed with a family of native central-americans, in an isolated village, in a wooden shack, my wife and I slept on an individual wooden bed with two mats stacked as a mattress, with no sound or thermal isolation at all. We enjoyed the experience very much, and as I said, I enjoyed two very close lucids.

About the lucids: I was away from the Competition and enjoying a very interesting experience, so I just forgot about LDing (well, not totally, I still RCed on some occasions), but as I have been doing a lot of incubation, I still had a LD related to the competition, and within the competition dates! Here it is:
http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/drea...me-shop-50723/
I believe that was the very first night, and then the fourth I had another, a lucid in which I was "distracted" by a woman... There I have learned to not go to bed without lucid goals or one risks to waste a precious lucid with non interesting stuff. On the other hand a lucid is a lucid, the fact that I had it makes me happy about my progress towards regular lucid dreaming!

After this intense week and the end of the competition, I've got to think about my lucid goals.

I thin it's wonderful that you had great lucids. While it is a shame that they did not get to officially count, but you know how much you truly accomplished, and isn't that the most important? And don't forget that these competitions happen roughly every month, and next time you will not need to go away before the competition end, right?

Originally Posted by JoannaB

I thin it's wonderful that you had great lucids. While it is a shame that they did not get to officially count, but you know how much you truly accomplished, and isn't that the most important? And don't forget that these competitions happen roughly every month, and next time you will not need to go away before the competition end, right?

You're totally right! Thank you for letting me know about the competition.

Originally Posted by dreambh

About my trip: I had two lucids in six nights. My wife, some friends and I spent those nights on "different" circumstances to say the least: We stayed with a family of native central-americans, in an isolated village, in a wooden shack, my wife and I slept on an individual wooden bed with two mats stacked as a mattress, with no sound or thermal isolation at all. We enjoyed the experience very much, and as I said, I enjoyed two very close lucids.

Great job, dreambh, congratulations on the lucids! I can't imagine a cooler-sounding setting for lucid dreaming than this!

I'm also glad to hear that you did so well on your competition goals and just generally had so much success. I was noticing "phasing" on your last step of the 3-step task. That's a great skill and once you get it down, you will do it all the time. Well at least I do. Very fun one and comes in handy constantly.

I've been away on vacation myself for a bit and I'm still getting caught up. I had a fairly lucid vacation too, so high five there.

I'll check out those dj entries too...

Thank you very much, CL!
Lately I'm really busy and have several concerns in my head all the time, so I could not keep up with my workbook as I used to, well, I'm not keeping up the rhythm I used to in my lucid practices in general: My recall is keeping as it used to (one dream average) even thought I'm only journaling my (few) lucids, will see how that evolves. And I'm doing the bare minimum regarding night routine (I just do some short mantras) and regarding RC (and average of three per day, I think)
The truth is I was working very hard on lucidity, but I feel like one has to find a balance or will risk getting tired of all that hard work and quit. I imagine finding that balance is one of the harder things about LDing.
By the way, I had a lucid a couple of days ago, so looks like I'm reaching my main goal of one lucid per week.
http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/drea...-bikini-50931/

Last night was quite weird: I could do a WBTB + MILD because of a phone notification and had a lucid dream perfectly nested within a normal dream. I woke up like WTF?! Then went to the bathroom and journaled the whole combo dream. Then when going back to bed got a superficial cut in my hand with my bed comforter
So weird that I had to RC and still don't know how that happened
Oh, here's the dream: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/drea...n-dream-50953/
So another lucid (I think) really close to last one, yay!

Congratulations on the recent successes, dreambh! You're exactly right that you want to avoid physically or mentally exhausting yourself in the pursuit of LD.

It's always important to keep in mind that what we do is about fun and enjoying everything that life has to offer. This should at all times remain a fun activity that enriches our lives and can't be a source of stress.

I have to say, man, I was shocked that you got a cut on your hand from your comforter! What's that thing made of??

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

It's always important to keep in mind that what we do is about fun and enjoying everything that life has to offer. This should at all times remain a fun activity that enriches our lives and can't be a source of stress.

Very good advise! I actually took very good note of that in Podcast QA3. You made me think that indeed sometimes I take it too seriously. I think it is related to the fact that you never now if your LDing practices will give you a LD tonight or in a week, so there is always a risk of overdoing it (or not doing enough)

I have to say, man, I was shocked that you got a cut on your hand from your comforter! What's that thing made of??

It was a small cut, like 2 millimeters, but it's a feather comforter, so I don't know yet if that was a "feather root" (does that made sense in English?) that cut me or I already had an unnoticed cut and just realized as I scratched it against the comforter. But the important thing there is I RCed

Any way, thank you for the advise and encouragement.

Hi everyone! I'm back after taking a break of... wow, almost three months. Yes, a break from DV and LDing altogether
Got some circumstances that messed up with my nightly routine, and made impossible to perform WBTB. I'm also discussing some possible mental roadblocks with CanisLucidus.
So for now let me just state regarding my practice that I need to change my awareness practices, I mean I need to change how I was RCing or maybe even move to another kind of awareness practices. I'm keeping WBTB but I'm trying to decide if I go on with MILD or change it to SSILD... I've tried SSILD for a couple of nights now (didn't work), but I don't know, I felt better with MILD, it's like I know 100% how it works and trust it more.
Oh, and regarding lucids, I'm in a dryspell obviously. Well, I had just one in these months, and I just got "sidetracked" again so nothing worth mentioning here.
BTW, I'm seriously considering singing up for Competition #16, need to make my mind up ASAP!!

Welcome back! Of course you should be in the competition. What do you have to loose, and it could be just what you need to get you back in shape.

Originally Posted by JoannaB

Welcome back! Of course you should be in the competition. What do you have to loose, and it could be just what you need to get you back in shape.

Yes, you're probably right... I'm just considering if I will give it the appropriate attention before I commit... I'll probably sign up later

One of my problems (and probably most peoples') with LD is lack of feedback.
Some have compared learning LDing to learning to play an instrument. But it's not like "you cannot play a song until a few weeks of practicing the scales" which is understandable. Is more like learning to play an electric keyboard with no electricity, you just don't know what you're doing, and it can be demotivating indeed.
To increase my motivation I just signed up for Competition 16, and also have started journaling my LD practices here: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/drea...ne-cage-53384/
The first thing I'm committed 100%, the second... Let's try, and will see how it goes.

The first thing I'm committed 100%, the second... Let's try, and will see how it goes.

I believe you are on the right track. I feel like I have been slacking myself...mainly because I truly don't know my full potential. You are exactly right when you say,

Is more like learning to play an electric keyboard with no electricity, you just don't know what you're doing, and it can be demotivating indeed.

I am committed to making sure I practice some type of technique everyday...no matter what . Good luck to you!

Originally Posted by bemistaken

I believe you are on the right track. I feel like I have been slacking myself...mainly because I truly don't know my full potential. You are exactly right when you say, I am committed to making sure I practice some type of technique everyday...no matter what . Good luck to you!

Thank you for your encouragement and ideas, bemistaken!

Ok, so no lucids last night, although I tried harder: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/drea...meeting-53406/
Let's take it easy. I'm working on my awareness/critical thinking, but I guess it requires a few days before it bleeds into my dreams.

Nothing last night: http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/dreambh/nada-53438/

Last night (which was the second night of the Competition #16) I tried SSILD and I felt it was better than other times I've tried.
My problem with SSILD (the few times I've tried) is that I either lost focus completely and could not do the cycles or --usually-- I did the cycles properly but couldn't go back to sleep (no FAs, I tried RC) Then I realized that the instructions say one should do the cycles in a position that one usually does not sleep, so last night I did it right and felt that I was having that lazy state of mind in which you can do the cycles even when sometimes my mind started to wander and I brought it back to the cycles... I think I was still erring on the side of too much focus but I felt I would have a chance of falling sleep after the cycles. Then when I felt I needed to do just one last cycle my wife turn around in bed and dragged all the sheets totally waking me up Although I tried a few more cycles I was too alert and couldn't sleep in a while

I don't know, I want to give SSILD a chance, but I understand better how MILD works, so MILD will be my main technique for now, even if I try SSILD from time to time.

I've had a couple of bad nights where I went to bed tired and late, so my recall was bad and obviously didn't get lucid.
Last night was better, but I really struggle with keeping a good DJ... as always.

On the other hand, I have definitely decided to stop the kind of RCs I was doing when I started here at the DVA (not that anyone mislead me, it was my own way of doing them). They worked quite well, but I spent too much energy on each of them individually, so they were quite disrupting to my daily activities, which require a lot of attention sometimes.
I'm shuffling on different guides here (ADA, SAT, RRCs, etc) so my objective is to use maybe a simliar amount of energy but in order to be more aware during all the day, more mindful and aware in general terms, instead of what I was doing, which was something like MILDing every time I RC'ed.
(Thanks to CanisLucidus, for his advise on mindfulness, and using it to improve life in general)

Last night went to bed super motivated, did MILD, WBTB + MILD, and... nothing!
But I believe there is a lesson behind all this situation: Why three months ago I was using the same techniques and getting results (I was getting closer and closer to two LDs per week) and now nothing? It could be that my motivation is not exactly the same (difficult to measure) but what it is quite clear is that then I had been building up my awareness and critical thinking for a few months in a row, and now I'm just starting to get that back.
Is this theory correct? The only way to find out is keep steadly working to get my awareness to a similar level, although as I said in yesterday's post, I'm using a different approach.
Reviewing my DJ I see some other possibilities (longer WBTBs? more detaild DJ entries?) but awareness seems to me the most possible area to be affecting my lucidity, so I will "debug" the different possibilities little by little.
Consistent practice and patience