Thread: Emotional Awareness/Internal Awareness (In Testing as of Today)

In the constant search for a more efficient technique, I was thinking (usually means trouble =P ) about a few things... I'm sure this has been covered in some way or form (I'd be surprised if not), but I figured I'd post this here to renew the idea, as well as put my perspective on it out there. It may help some of you. If nothing else, it's helping ME just by consolidating and posting this idea and getting some feedback.

Introduction

I've always been a DILDer-- as dirty as that may sound. Now, the most common tools for increasing DILD's have been, and correct me if I'm wrong, Dream Signs and Awareness. Dream journal is an obvious one, IMO, regardless of technique, so I'm not counting that.

I've already been practicing ADA (All day awareness) to the best of my ability, but I find it is near impossible to sustain it throughout the day. It always seems to click randomly throughout the day, and it'll last 5-10 minutes. Now, the more I practice, the more often it clicks, but I can't seem to harness the consistency that the technique seems to demand.

Dream signs are a very intuitive method, which itself harnesses a degree of awareness. One is supposed to take notice of those things which appear frequently both in waking life and one's dreaming life. So, if you go biking all the time, and you dream about biking all the time, one should consider if one is dreaming anytime one is biking!

V_Diagram_1.jpg
(expertly drawn diagram in paint =P )

The Problem

So, here is the problem (or my problem, at least) with these two techniques.

With All-Day-Awareness, I find that my attention will only hold for so long. I can't stay in "Awareness Mode" for longer than 10-15 minutes at a time. In addition to that, the field of "awareness" encompasses A LOT of things. It can be distracting in and of itself.

I assume that ADA requires the background process of "Am I dreaming or not?" In addition to the process of taking notice of everything all the time. Constantly doing this seems to be lost on me.

Dream signs have a similar problem-- there is such a huge variety of things for me that occur in both waking life and dreaming life. It is daunting, and distracting, to constantly being on the lookout for such a wide variety of signals to whether or not one is dreaming

Problem Two with dream signs: What if you have lots of fantasy dreams? Using magic is certainly not something I do in real life, and so I don't get to practice "looking out" for this sign both in Reality and Dreaming life.

I think it is essential, for a good dream sign, to exist both in Waking life and Dreaming life-- that is to say, it is essentially that it is something that you are aware of all the time, not just in one state of mind or the other.

"So Mr. Know-it-all, what is missing from these tried-and-true techniques?"

So, in order to have a highly effective and cohesive technique, for me at least, I feel it needs to meet these two criteria:

1.) I need a specific trigger that is FUNDAMENTAL to both my Waking and Dreaming life*.

2.) It needs to, by definition, be a trigger. That is to say, something that occurs in and of itself, by itself, and consistently. Something that I can train myself to snap my attention to once it arises, instead of having to have an active focus. Something with specific distinctions.

*(As a side note, I think it is important to look at it as LIFE in both cases. In may not be as consistent or long-lasting as Real Life, but Dreaming is still life in itself!)

The Solution(?)

Emotional Awareness. It meets those two criteria quite well, I think.

Emotion is, undeniably, one of the most fundamental aspects of human existence, existing in both Waking and Dreaming life. And it's simple-- Its one single aspect to focus on. Instead of keeping up with whether or not your grandma is there, or you are driving, or you are out biking, you just keep up with the intrinsic emotional states that these activities bring about.

Secondly, Emotion arises on its own. Okay, it is dependent on an external cause, true, but you don't really have to think about it. Something happens, you have an immediate emotional response. In addition, one's emotions are one of the most profound, vivid, and pronounced experiences there is. This makes it an excellent trigger.

And finally, emotions are pretty distinct. Okay, they can get complicated, but there's some pretty basic ones that you can recognize immediately.

emotion_chart.gif

This diagram does a pretty good job of showing the most basic, and common emotions. Happiness, Anger, Guilt/Shame(Embarrassment being a common dream sign too), Sadness/Loss.

Implementation

1.) The Training- This is the trickier part. Though compared to some techniques, its still very simple. Spend a few days observing specifically emotions. Watch some different movies each day. Sad scene comes up? Notice it! Do you get angry at the antagonist? Notice that, too!

Does a super sexy chick/guy show up, scantily clad? Notice the arousal! (dream sex is very, very common according to my time spent on this board. )

My personal method is going to be Visual/Imaginative Meditation. I already meditate in the morning, but that's for a different reason altogether.

For now on, I'm going to try to meditate once more an hour or two before bed, and it will essential by a very extensive daydream. I'm going to let my imagination play out, and whenever I feel a distinct shift in emotion, I will notice it.

2.) The Actual Practice: I feel like after a week of this, it will take off on its own. Emotions inevitably arise and change throughout the day, and most of them are pretty distinct from one another, or fit into a distinct category. And when I notice them, I will observe my state of consciousness. Note the source of the emotion, and examine it briefly.

This will only take a few moments, and won't require as much mental processing, I think, as remaining constantly aware of all your surroundings, people, events, and internal dialogue. It's simple. (Just make sure you take the momentary Reality Checks seriously, lest you may start slipping and just going, "Eh, doesn't look like I'm dreaming" and you may miss a lucid!)

Whenever you feel a pronounced shift in emotional states, consider it, and whether or not you are dreaming. Considering these happen pretty often in both Waking Life and Dream Life, eventually you should start noticing your emotional states in your dreams, examine them, and become lucid!


ANYWAY. That's my current theory, and I'm stickin' to it for a while. Please tell me what you think.