Francium's Workbook

Francium's Workbook

If I am not active (in general) for a few days without warning, you have my FULL permission and encouragement to send me an angry PM to get my act together. I will greatly appreciate it <3

Reality Checks:
- Breathing through nose held closed
- Pushing finger through hand
- Observing my hands

Dream Signs:
- Being in/playing a video game or video game-like environment
- Seeing/being around my brother or sister, or other family members
- Seeing current/past romantic interests
- Being in a dining hall
- Being a leader/part of leadership for something (often a trip or backpacking)
- Fighting, being in a battle/war of some sort
- Playing/watching others play basketball
- Biking on the street or on campus
- Being in a library
- Being in a dorm room

Short-Term Goals:
- Enroll in other classes
- Gaining lucidity, it's currently been awhile
- Developing and following a nightly and morning routine
- Really practicing everything on my Things To Practice list
- Recall and record 45+ dreams in July

Long-Term Goals (in the next few months or by end of the year):
- Recall and record 60+ dreams in one month
- Have 5+ lucid dreams
- Have full fledged super grounded lucidity
- Keep up my lucidity practice and stay motivated and dedicated

Goals for Next LD:
- Significantly increase awareness and groundedness in dream
- Fly into and through the sky and clouds

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
I have been recording my dreams for a few years now with on and off lucidity practicing and being focused on dreams/LD. I have had around 15 lucid dreams of varying lucidity, none with super intense and grounded absolute-control lucidity though. Even without having been too focused on it, I have been recording around 30 dreams a month, so I am very optimistic about getting that back up to 60+ (or more :D) now that I am focused.

Current Techniques:
- DILD/ADA/SAT
- MILD

Things To Practice:
Whenever possible, keep your heartbeat and breathing in awareness
Two minute awareness breaks during the day
Notice when I haven't been aware in awhile or have been lost in thought
Write out one of your dream scenes each morning in a more detailed sentence/story form
Each week analyze/categorize/tally your dreams from the week
Basic Dream Yoga

Nightly Routine:
- Set up dream journal, then read your dreams from night before (think back if none last night)
- Practice dream yoga (visual or tactile for now)
- Relax, do 61 point meditation while also focusing on breathing/heart beats
- Sitting up do dream incubation, start it off as non-lucid then slowly move into lucid
- Lay down and continue dream incubating as you fall asleep
- Perform latter part of routine whenever I wake up during the night after recording dreams

Miscellaneous Things to Remember:

Spoiler for Things that I read that really stood out or that I realized, and I want to keep where I can find easily:

Awareness awareness awareness
Two minute awareness breaks during the day
Focus on your heartbeat and breathing
Effort, Confidence, Experience
Nose plug RC works even in the dark
Be aware of the feeling of being awake
When you wake up at night, lay still for a few moments but eventually sit up and become aware
Be aware while on the computer, use your music to your advantage, notice when the song ends, what was playing? what's playing now?
It's not about hoping that you'll lucid dream, KNOW and EXPECT it to happen exactly like when awake knowing that you'll be doing something in a certain amount of time

I did my nightly routine before bed last night, and already feel happy with it. Though I do think I am lacking a part in it to set expectations/use a mantra, so I will add that in tonight.

I did not sleep at all as long as I should or want to last night which is because I went to bed so late and cannot really sleep in no matter how much I try. I went to bed so late because of my questionable decision to start reading the intro class lessons last night instead of waiting till today. I had just been looking forward to it all day, so I wanted to at least start it. Also, friends were over when I returned to my dorm room last night, so I could not necessarily go to bed immediately if I had wanted to. That is one of the challenges of the college life of not having your own room. I'll be in different living conditions soon though which will promote getting to sleep on time and practicing awareness and lucidity techniques before bed, so I look forward to that :).

I remembered two much longer and more continuous than usual dreams last night. My dreams of the past few weeks and months have been rather short and compromising of a bunch of short scenes. This is reminiscent of my dream recall of a few years ago of my last peak time. This is a good sign.

I'm not sure honestly what made this possible. Maybe it's just the sudden switch to focusing on dreams and lucidity? What's also odd is that one of the dreams occurred 3-4 hours after I went to sleep which hasn't happened in awhile. And it doesn't really make sense for it to be that I got more sleep (in contrast to the night before this) that caused this earlier and more vivid dream remembered since the amount of sleep I am getting that night hasn't been established at the point of the night if that makes sense. Maybe it has to do with the expectation that I know that I am getting a normal night of sleep. Or maybe because I didn't get as much sleep the past two nights, it's a REM rebound. Or maybe it's not anything, my recall just happened to be like this last night. Whatever it is, I am gonna keep recalling my dreams like this or better!

I have been going through finals and then moving out the past few days, so I am just getting to creating my DJ entries and I've slipped on doing my nightly routine a few times, but I am back on track now. I haven't slept as much as I need to the past few days because of the busyness, yet I've still remembered a few dreams which is good at least.

I am going on a backpacking trip starting tomorrow morning which is interesting to note because I often remember more dreams with greater vividness when I am sleeping in the wilderness. This is likely due to both getting to sleep longer than usual and also due to the lessened comfort of my sleeping arrangement which causes me to wake up nearly after every sleep cycle without fail. While unfortunate for my comfort, it's a huge plus for my dreaming, so it's worth it in the end. I look forward to the wonderful dreams to come. It'd be cool to lucid dream in the outdoors :D.

Wait, hmm, maybe I should try making my bed less comfortable...

I've been away from here a bit longer than I would have liked. After my trip a few weeks ago, I lost track of some of the habits I had been building before due to shifting into different everything for the summer. But, now that things are starting to settle down, I am finding a routine with work and this new lifestyle, and I am trying to pick up where left off.

Despite not super focusing on dreams the past few weeks since I went on my trip though, I just tallied up, I recorded 38 dreams in June :), which is even more than my 32 in May, so progress is definitely being made. The past week or two, I think I've recorded 2 dreams almost every night which really helped raise the total (a product likely of getting to sleep more than I've been able to weeks and months before that). If this continues, as I will focus on doing, July will be even more. And perhaps, there will be a lucid dream or two ;)

I don't have as much time in the mornings these days, so I probably won't be updating my DJ on here daily like I was a few weeks ago. I'll probably focus on just putting LDs and the more epic dreams that I have instead. Look out for them :D!

Edit: Actually, per my Things to Practice List, I will do my best to put at least one scene on my DJ every day!