Exploring Lucid Dreaming questions

Hi all - this is my first of hopefully many posts.

I've been reading Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming and been practicing in and out for about a years time. I've had some very cool lucid dreaming experiences, but I seem to be stuck in a rut.

Once I awaken in my dream state, I cannot seem to stay with it very long. One of the reasons I think this is so, is that rather than actually doing something with that power, I actually just get really excited, and I am unable to control my dream - despite being awake in it.

Perhaps I need to have a particular goal before I go to sleep... one that is simple enough, and then go on to more complex ideas and environments. Just last night, I started dreaming lucidly, and got so excited to have the power - I was in a really grungy industrial stairwell with all sorts of pipes and wires, and didn't want to be there. So I tried to put myself somewhere else AND tried to bring a bunch of other details into the dream that the dream just kind of self destructed.

As I write, I don't really remember what the place or details were that I wanted... do any of you have experience getting specific things in lucid dreams? Ex: "Get me to a beautiful bright beach with bright blue water with a beautiful woman" instead of "get me out of this ugly place and away from these stinky guys."

Comments, suggestions?

Thanks!

Welcome to DV.

Well, I think your main obstacle is that you're getting too excited.
When you're excited, your pulse goes up and adrenaline is released, this causes you to either lose lucidity, or just wake up.
The absolute first think you need to do is A) take a few deep breaths to calm yourself., then B) stabalize your dream, (here's a nice thread listing a few that work best for people http://www.dreamviews.com/f14/what-s...rk-you-108360/ )
And if you're a beginer, start with small stuff then work your way up.
I hope this helped. ^__^

"keep calm, and carry on" We're stuck in the same dilemma =). Concentrate on your breathing when you're in the dream. To increase your lucidity spin around in circles. That's what I do. Welcome to the DV community <3

you can also yell increase lucidity now or as castle said spinning is a good one...everytime i get lucid i try to keep it as long as i can with thos two techniques

Thanks for all the suggestions - the very night that I read these ideas, I had the most prolonged lucid dream that I've ever had. The yelling really seemed to trigger it well, and then controlling the breathing helped a lot as well.

I haven't tried the spinning yet, but I'm excited to try it... it sounds enthralling!

Thanks again - see you around

Explore around some before trying to alter the dream scape, and imagine where you want to be and say that place in your head or out loud instead of asking for it to change on its own. Hope that helps!

Edit: I think a better, easier understanding book that most bookstores carry is "Lucid Dreams In 30 Days" - the other book makes it harder to learn in my opinion.

-Chase

MafiosoG, All the stuff above is correct. Stabalizing should be your first goal. Pick any one of the stabalizing methods from the link OwO provided, and make it your first dream goal. As far as controlling the dream, I will share two ideas that I think are important for when you are just starting.
1) Your mind will initially rebel against anything it finds shocking. If you try to fly or walk through walls, your brain will fight you on it. Those tricks often can not be developed well for the first couple dozen LDs. However anything that could take place in real life will be much easier. A pretty girl being summoned out of thin air may be to shocking to work, but her suddenly walking around a corner would not be.
2) A great way to influence the dream is to pretend you believe something. You may have doubts that you can make something happen, but pretend you know you will get what you want. In the example of the beach vs the ugly place, this is how you could go about it. When in the ugly place, think "good thing the door over there lets out onto a nice beach!" then if you go out the door and find yourself some where other than the beach think, "I just have to go through this room first to get to the beach." Ok, so lets say it worked. You think something like " that pretty girl is just getting done with her swim, I will go meet her at the shore." What if she is not at the shore? Then think, "Oh right, she was going to meet me by the restrooms, I forgot!" Ok, now you got the beach and girl, what about the bright blue water? If it is not just right then think, "the sun is moving and will shine on the water any second, making it an awesome blue."
That is just one path you could use. Hope it helps.

As soon as you're lucid, grab the nearest wall/floor/object whatever whilst telling yourself in your head 'im dreaming, its all good im just dreaming' feel the texture, admire the detail and SECONDS after doing this you will notice the whole dream become perfect quality and will remain like that, its amazing.

Everyone has made great suggestions :D Welcome!
I'd recommend directing your focus to what you want to do now, and then shifting your focus when you feel the dream is starting to feel odd. Try and find the balance between not enough focus and too much focus. Focusing too much on a particular thing can lead to the dream collapsing (likewise for not enough focus of the dream). Good luck!