Thread: BlueKat's Workbook (Intro Class)

Reality Checks: Finger extension, check hands, what about the last/next five minutes, more awareness of present time.

Dream signs: My husband, my sisters, water, cats in that order.

Short-term Goals: Fly around my neighborhood, Go to the beach, Heal callous on foot.

Long-term Goals: See my parents again, meet my grandparents, meditate, higher awareness (consciousness) and many more.

Lucid Dream Recall History: One very vivid when I did a reality check. Non-lucid dreams I've recorded about 160 from September, 2015 to present.

Current Techniques being practiced: MILD, WBTB, WILD.

Sleep pattern: I sleep about 9 hours per night so last night I went to bed a little early, did my meditation, then my mantra. Practiced (I'm using practiced instead of tried!) three WBTBs.

Welcome to Intro class, BlueKat!

Looking forward to reading your updates. Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

Thank you so much NyxCC. I am so excited you offer help! I have no one to talk to and it looks like DV is my outlet. Thanks again.

You're welcome. Yes, it's really awesome we have a place where we can discuss all of this with similar minded people. Great to have you here.

Today I changed my RCs after reading a lot of information on DVs. I took time out to be as aware as I can (at this point anyway) with the details around me and who/what I'm impacting and what/who is impacting me, etc. I feel like I took more time for fewer RCs but they were more meaningful. Feeling hopeful about those and will continue.

My nighttime routine (also from reading, thanks to all who have provided lots of info.) is going to be get ready for bed, meditate, then do the hands bit every night for the rest of March.

Just updating. The past two nights I've gotten only a few hours sleep due to a cold and stress at home. I have, however, still done meditation and then my hands mantra and will continue to do so. I'm so jealous and impressed of those of you who have already completed the task of the month! You go kids! I'll get there.

Hope you feel better soon!

I'm sure you'll catch up with the tasks. Looking forward to reading about those.

Hi NyxCC,

Just wondering do you want me to post in my workbook everyday even if nothing is new? I'm recording bedtime, wake time and dreams I remember but I'm not yet lucid and feel like I'd be wasting both our time but happy to do it if you think it will help. This whole past week has been strange but I've still tried to meditate and do my hand mantra every night. Due to a cold and lack of sleep, I've barely managed to recall dreams. I am determined to continue until I learn how to have LDs. Let me know about daily postings please. Thanks.

I think I had an epiphany this morning. Within my dreams, there seems to be no background which I can use for a RC. I see only the things I'm dealing with - not that I look around, but still, there doesn't seem to be anything in the periphery. I attempted a WBTB at 5:33 am and I fell asleep fast and I don't remember any HI. I attempted again at 8:08 am and lay there until 8:50 with no HI and then got up. At night, I'm doing my meditation, then my hand mantra and intending for a dream where I have two goals. I wrote down five dreams from last night; I'm not sure but they don't seem connected so I wrote them as separate dreams in my dream journal.

Friday, 3-13-2015 - 9:50 pm, said mantra while looking at my hands, then went to sleep. Up at 1:14 am, recorded a dream, back to sleep. Up at 5:20 am, recorded four dreams, attempted a WBTB at 5:33, quickly fell asleep. Up at 8:08 am, recorded one dream, attempted a WBTB at 8:15 am, nothing happened, up at 8:50 am.

Hi Bluekat! Don't forget that the workbook is your own personal workspace, so you can write in it whatever you feel is relevant and what you feel is helpful. If you feel it still helps keep your mind on dreaming and be more organized by posting often, then do post!

If you have questions in particular regarding your practices let me know. I hope you are able to recover from your cold quickly and catch up on sleep.

Thanks NyxCC, I'm hoping tonight I can get back to an earlier bedtime and I'm feeling well. I so desperately want to LD and I have so many things I want to do and I am so excited, I can hardly wait!! I'm open to any advice. This week has been lost with not enough sleep, etc. but tonight, I'll meditate for 20 minutes, then say my mantra as I look at my hands, "I see my hands and I'm aware I'm dreaming" (present tense). I've been doing several reality checks through the day, really looking at the entire environment, my hands, words, time, what I've done the past 15 minutes and what I'll do the next 15 minutes. The past several nights, I've not recorded any dreams because I haven't remembered any... I did see last night on DV about the buddy system so I will definitely sign up for that as I have NO ONE to talk to and it happens to be the ONLY thing I want to talk about! I didn't realize it was so esoteric but it is in my world unfortunately. Any thoughts? Thanks again. I appreciate your time.

Originally Posted by BlueKat

This week has been lost with not enough sleep, etc. but tonight, I'll meditate for 20 minutes, then say my mantra as I look at my hands, "I see my hands and I'm aware I'm dreaming" (present tense). I've been doing several reality checks through the day, really looking at the entire environment, my hands, words, time, what I've done the past 15 minutes and what I'll do the next 15 minutes. The past several nights, I've not recorded any dreams because I haven't remembered any... I did see last night on DV about the buddy system so I will definitely sign up for that as I have NO ONE to talk to and it happens to be the ONLY thing I want to talk about! I didn't realize it was so esoteric but it is in my world unfortunately. Any thoughts? Thanks again. I appreciate your time.

That's good. Keep up the day work! It's important to make it a habit so that you can build a strong foundation. It takes a while but sooner or later these checks and critical thinking will start showing up in dreams. You can later (after you catch up on sleep) combine the daywork with night work - wbtb and any technique of your choice for even better results. Also, you can add MILD before bed time with minimal sleep disruption - think how you will realize that you are dreaming! If you're interested for more ideas like this let me know. You can also try to come up with your own techs - experiment and see if anything makes a difference.

Visualization is a great tech also, refering to your second post.

I'm happy that I got enough sleep last night to record four dreams. I'm going to add visualization to my nightly routine. Today I practiced awareness in much more depth than ever before after reading the ADA here on DV. I should have become lucid in a dream with my (deceased) mother in one and certainly another where buildings came up from the ground! Will keep practicing.

This morning, I recalled and recorded my dreams, got up, fed cats then did a WBTB. I practiced visualization and I saw purple, increased the area of purple but didn't ever completely cover the area with purple; it was just blobs but after it went away for a while, I intentionally brought it back and was pleased with that. On the WBTB, I laid there for an hour and 10 minutes and during that time, I felt my body and limbs get heavy (SP?), then had tingling pretty much all over and then...boredom and got up. I did think about the last dream I had before I awoke this morning but I am not able to visualize well yet so just thinking about it evidently didn't do the trick.

Did you do your visualization while in bed?

Yes.

I see. Well, it seems like you were about to fall asleep towards the end. Perhaps all the focus on waiting for something to happen prevented you from doing so. Even if you are trying to wild, you still need to fall asleep. I'd say even if no wild results, if you were focused on having an ld and fall asleep after that, you may get a dild from all the work you've done.

I kind of feel like I should be having LDs by now. I'm going to continue to do awareness, RCs, my hand mantra, record dreams but I'm a little frustrated b/c I so much want to have LDs. I'd be happy with a DILD. Truly, I don't care how I get there; I just want to learn to LD (on command would be fantastic) but I'll take anything. I'm sticking to the mantra, "Tonight in my dreams when I see my hands I'll realize I'm dreaming." One thing I have to be honest about is that some nights when I wake up, I don't record my dreams; sometimes I forget to wait a couple of minutes to let them come to mind and other nights, I immediately get up to use the bathroom. I wonder if I should somehow focus on trying to not get up but I do it before I even think about it. I still record a minimum of one dream per night (except on Tuesdays after working 12 hours, I just don't have enough time I need to sleep) but otherwise, one dream and sometimes many chapters (I'm not sure if they're separate dreams or all links in a chain). Any thoughts/suggestions? Again, I am so grateful to have DV!

It's ok if you just remember fragments instead of entire blocks of events/dreams. Try not to rush out of bed so fast and see if you can remember any details. When you do, focus on them and try working backwards when events begin to unfold in your memory. That way you will recover more of your dreams. Also, if you already have a list of common dream signs, try going through them if you don't remember anything at all and ask yourself, is it possible that I dreamt about Dream sign 1? Then it might turn out that you did.

Keep up the day and night work. It may take a while for the practices to reach the subconscious mind, but eventually they will and you will find yourself lucid.

I am so happy to report I had an LD last night. I'm doing the happy LD dance!! I was walking behind two ladies through a doorway and the second one told me another group from our group was out there in the waiting room and as I asked if it was Tina, the girl's face starts to disappear and I immediately said, "Hey, we're dreaming." And if I'm dreaming I need to see Jackson Galaxy (one of my LD goals!!!). And I start to see triangles and shapes and everything just disappears before my eyes and I awoke. BUT SO HAPPY to have had a lucid dream. I'm guessing the disappearing trick was when I should have "stabilized" the dream.

When I went to bed last night I told myself I NEED to LD (because I have hopes of doing the beginner's TOTM) and I did! YAY. The power of intention is alive and well. I also recorded four dreams from last night b/c I laid there for a minute before I got up. THANK YOU for your help. I can hardly stand the excitement. :bliss

Awww! This is fantastic!!! Congrats, BlueKat, you did it!

I'm so happy for you!

I realized something interesting. When I was later describing how the people disappeared in my last LD (as if I have many ) it was like they were being erased out of the scene and then I read in someone else's post where they'd used the word "eraser". I am guessing I had the same experience and am fascinated that collectively, we have many of the same happenings.

I used the, "tonight in my dreams when I see my hands I'll realize I'm dreaming" mantra for the month of March...I never noticed my hands so do I change the mantra? I've seen suggestions where they recommend you use the same mantra for 90 days before changing it. Thoughts please.

Yes, there are many similarities and at the same time there are some things that are unique for each person. It's really amazing!

About the mantra, have you considered making it a bit shorter? It may be more effective - "when I see my hands I'll realize I'm dreaming" or even "I see my hands I realize I'm dreaming". Mine is super short actually, it depends what sounds good to you and your subcon. You can repeat it on any occasion too, throughout the day as well as before bed and wbtb.

Thanks NyxCC. I'll shorten it and use I more frequently.