 Originally Posted by Eamo24
...So from this I mean, when you’re fully self-aware, and have the intention of entering a lucid dream in mind, it can be hard to know what to do with your mind until you get there. If you don’t use a mantra, is there anything else you could actively do to stay ‘focused’ during the process, purely for something to use as a distraction from things like the need to try and ‘control’ the process? Thanks.
First, if you are fully self-aware during a WILD dive, you can be as distracted, bored, listless, or even excited about the process as you'd like, because, since you are fully self-aware, you will be lucid... that is the power of self-awareness.
That said, and assuming that self-awareness is rarely fully achieved for any amount of time, there are some other non-mantra things you can do to stay occupied; here are a few that I use:
* Think about your dream goals. This has always worked best for me. If you are good at visualizing, those "must stay focused" moments are a fine time to do some. Imagine your upcoming dream, think about where you will be, what you will be doing. There is a chance that you might get carried away and lapse into a daydream, but that's okay, because the daydream will likely form the foundation for your actual dream, so you will have set up your dream (and even if that daydream causes you to lose self-awareness, the familiarity of a dream that directly represents your goals will likely restore it). This is what I do most often, by the way.
* Practice "process avoidance" during waking life. Whenever you find yourself thinking about all the stuff they talk about in these forums, just make a conscious effort to change the subject in your head. If you can learn to automatically shove away useless thoughts in waking life, you ought to find yourself doing the same during a WILD dive.
* Create a pleasant metaphor for those distracting thoughts. For instance, imagine extra thoughts, misgivings, urges to control the process, etc, are just so much water flowing past you as you relax. Sure, they are there, but they are just passing by, and you regard them as much as you would regard an individual drop of water in a flowing river.
* Do something physical. The meditation crowd has found great success in using breath to maintain focus. You could simply listen to your breath as it flows in and out (don't try to change its natural rhythm), letting its sound (and the effort to keep hearing it) fill your mind and push out distraction.
You can also do all these things simultaneously -- on my particularly distracting dives, I find myself visualizing the dream with a stream of thoughts flowing by (sometimes that stream is a roaring torrent in my case!), all while listening to my breath... and yes, there is a mantra being repeated as well. And trust me, if you develop a knack for juggling all these mental balls and still relaxing enough to get back to sleep, distractions like excitement about the process or the noise will become distant, frustrated gnats!
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