# Lucid Dreaming > DV Academy > Current Courses > Intro Class >  >  NyxCC's workbook

## NyxCC

What a better way to get organized than starting a workbook? 

Welcome to my workbook!  :smiley: 


*Reality Checks:*
- Nose plug

*Dream Signs*:
- Past places
- Unknown places
- Classmates
- Animals
- Family and Friends

*Short-Term Goals*:*
- Get organized


*Long-Term Goals*:
- Maximize ld count 
- Achieve reliable level of dream control


*Lucid/Dream Recall History*: 
Had lds as for long as I can remember. Started with modest induction in 2012 and serious induction after joining DV in 2013. 


*Current Technique*:
- Primary technique - WBTB + mantra 
- Secondary techniques vary


*Note: will update and change short/lt goals as I go along.

----------


## NyxCC

*An honest review*

One of the reasons why I decided to start a workbook here is because I had been slacking in my practices in the last few months. It's time for me to stop finding excuses of why I am not doing the practices and commit myself to testing all the ideas I've had but never fully followed through. 

Ideally, I want to frequently put a few short term goals here and work towards their completion. I'm really excited to finally start a workbook where I can hopefully better track my performance and conduct a few experiments. That's it for now! Goals to be updated soon.  :smiley:

----------


## ~Dreamer~

This is a really great idea, Nyx!
I hope this workbook will help motivate you to achieve these goals!
I can't wait to follow your progress.  :smiley: 

PS. You have inspired me to start updating mine again! I always do better when I write down my goals and see evidence of myself improving.

----------


## NyxCC

Thanks, Dreamer!  :smiley: 





> PS. You have inspired me to start updating mine again! I always do better when I write down my goals and see evidence of myself improving.



That's awesome! Looking forward to reading your updates. Let the cross-inspiration begin!  ::D:

----------


## NyxCC

Ok, let me quickly write down the main goals for now, so that I can start working on them.  :smiley: 

*Goals 25 Nov - 31 Dec*

[~x] 15 Proper wbtbs (days)  -----> 10/15 (SR 9:10)

20 natural wake MILDs (days) -----> 1/15 (SR 0:1)

[  ] ----> Figure out most effective technique for micro-wbtb/natural wakes - pending

[~x] 10 Autosuggestion days ----> 9/10 (SR 1:10)

[x] Try out the illogical thoughts process to speed up falling asleep at bedtime and report

[  ] Be more observant with bed time process and report 

*Dream control goals*

[~x] Monitor DC interactions - be more aware of the whole process ----> can be ongoing, focus on DC control

[  ] Try out some lucid sports 

..._To add and complete more goals later_


_Updated as of 13 Jan Dec incl., see post  #16_

----------


## NyxCC

*Report 1 on using illogical thoughts to induce sleep* (26 Nov)

So, I was having some difficulty falling asleep and decided to try out the method. At first, I was trying to make random semi-meaningful sentences and phrases "They came for the food; People sitting on road, etc.", then switched to more meaningless stuff and finally went on to random generation of a set of any three words, sometimes with a slight association between the words "hobby batman train", "milk bread wall". 

One of the early effects while trying to generate these words was that I started having mini memory flashbacks of real scenes from the past. This sometimes happens to me when reaching a clear but _conscious_ state of mind and the memories are real ones rather than imaginary. 

As I continued with the exercise, a number of past dream memories, again real ones started mixing with the life flashbacks. These weren't very vivid and would last a second or so as I was fully concentrating on the word exercise. 

I was getting somewhat tired of continuously generating random words and also my awareness was beginning to slip away. At this point, I noticed the emergence of other random scene flashes, but those contained novel or rather different (not real dream or life memories). This is not new to me as I had on other occasions observed that the more towards _unconsciousness_ I would drift, the more of these different scenes I get, while when my mind is fully aware and quiet it tends to get more real memory flashbacks. No idea what this is all about.

Anyways, the interesting part was that as I was struggling to generate a new set of words, I would begin to *get a random flashback scene before each word (now a mix of true past places and some unknown random places), and my mind would actually scan the scene for an object or action and use it in the word set!* And this would go on for every word or sometimes two words would come from the same scene.  ::o:  It a was really cool realization when it happened the first time, then I let the process continue. I wasn't fully asleep at this point and took a step back towards wakefulness to review the process. Then continued a bit more with the word generation, eventually got tired and stopped and fell asleep. 

Looking forward to playing with this again!  :smiley:

----------


## blazingnyancat

Nice, you started one @NyxCC!

----------


## NyxCC

Thanks blazingnyancat!  :smiley:

----------


## blazingnyancat

@NyxCC 
Your Welcome.

----------


## ThreeCat

I am interested to see how this goes as well!  Looking forward to the updates, Nyx.

----------


## NyxCC

Quick follow up on the illogical thoughts method. 

27 Nov - Mind was quite active and it took some time to get into the rhythm. Eventually images followed by words syncronized similarly to the first try. 

30 Nov - did a few mins of the tech only, images were less vivid this time. Drifted to sleep a bit after stopping with exercise. 

Natural wake mild - had number of vivid dreams and did a brief review after each wake, but it took less than I would want, so not counting this as + 1. 

December is here: Time to get serious!  ::nono:: 

added daily autosuggestion to goals list: min 3 times to count

To sum up: 

- WBTB
- Natural wake MILD
- Autosuggestion

----------


## NyxCC

Quick update as I have been doing mental accounting on the goals and may lose track. Progress on wbtb 4/15. 

Natural wake MILD: did a number of natural wake milds but am coming to the conclusion that what I'm doing is not being very productive. With the exception of one mild at micro-wbtb that turned into a wild/deild by chance, there isn't much effect of this practice (or rather the way it is done at that time) when it comes to my mini wakes. I'm changing the goal to figure out a good use of natural wakes and will be experimenting more, rather than keeping track of attempts in terms of numbers.

Autosuggestion: I remember to do this almost every day, but not as often as I would like to. May not be a bad idea to make a checklist.

*_Goals updated_*

----------


## ThreeCat

When you say "natural wake MILD, " how long are you staying up?  How long are you practicing MILD?  Is it LaBerge's MILD,  or the DV "mantra MILD?"  How focused are you as you fall asleep?

----------


## NyxCC

I'm trying to use natural wakes/mini-wbtb as complementary to normal wbtb and days with no opportunity for longer wbtb. I usually wake up naturally, visit restroom, then go back to bed going over my previous dream or any dream that I can recall. The problem with mini-wbtbs of course is, you tend to fall asleep more quickly, so I end up with a rather lame (LaBerge/Naiya) MILD - recall dream, ok these are the dream signs, I become l-u-c-i-Zzzzzzz.  ::lol::  

My focus at that point certainly isn't at its best. I'm thinking I will try to emphasize the future aspects more and incubate a lucid scenario straight away, rather than spend time to recall the previous dream and fall asleep in the process.

----------


## NyxCC

Update 
Autosuggestion has finally kicked off now that I put down a simple checklist in writing.  ::banana::  

Wbtb 5/15 (Success rate 4:5). Overall good, but have done it less frequently than planned. With 17 days left and the holidays, meeting the target may be more challenging. Still, will give it my best.

A few natural lds, one that included animal control. 

Mini report on DC interaction (goals): Dog obeyed commands more or less correctly, with my thoughts being immediately translated in the resulting actions.

----------


## NyxCC

*End of year/December/goals review*

Recall: my recall was about average before the holidays. During the holidays recall dropped to its poorest levels of the entire year. 

Lucidity: Interestingly enough in spite of the poor recall during that time, I stepped up the wbtbs to meet my targets which resulted in a number of lds (those were harder to recall than usual, but still pretty good).

Wbtb - 10/15 wbtbs from goals, 9 wbtbs led to lucidity, one couldn't fall asleep. Also, one successful micro wbtb.

Autosuggestion: on and off about 8-9 days of autosuggestion, only one ld attributed to those (plus remembered goals without wbtb!)

19 Lds for December

Dream control - a lot of free styling, which is ok, but would like to include more tasks in the future to ensure keeping lucidity for longer in all lds. 

DC control goals: apart from the dog control, two more successful DC controls - mostly on the movements of DCs, those were incorporated with a delay of about a second from the moment of thought. In all cases the DCs were enthusiastic. (+1 more for Jan)

Goals for Jan to be added soon.

----------


## NyxCC

I just realized that by the time I post my goals for Jan, it will probably be Feb!  ::doh:: 

Here are a few intermediate ones to work on:

[ ] Improve sleep schedule

[  ] Some yoga sessions and watch for effects on dreams. (Increased yoga practice before those distracting holidays coincided with increased vividness, so I want to see if it makes a difference again). 

[  ] Autosuggestion - more!!! 

[  ] Wbtbs 

[  ] Post some lds! 

Not going to add any special dream control goals at the moment, though I expect to give some tasks a try.

----------


## ThreeCat

Great job, Nyx.  Glad to see you're keeping up with this!  Do you do autosuggestion before bed?  Also, what is stopping you from _doing_ it more?  Congrats on the LDs over break, as well!

----------


## CanisLucidus

Looking good, nyx!  I'm intrigued that you found yoga practice increased your lucidity.  I've been toying with the idea of throwing in a little yoga into my workouts somehow, so this made my ears perk up a bit.

----------


## NyxCC

@ Threecat

Thanks! I try to do this type of autosuggestion during the day, it's a little combo I vary over time. About a year and a half approximately I got really great results that could be traced to my autosuggestion practices (specific non-wbtb DILDs of my mantra coming to me in the dream), but I have been slacking with this ever since. It's a mix of looking at my hands, repeating a mantra and now I also incorporated goal review to this. Takes like a min or so, theorethically could be done anywhere. The issue, of course, is remembering to do it, much like with RCs. One thing that helps me is to have a little checklist within sight (desk, drawers, etc.). If you have any ideas how to do these more often, please do share!  ::D: 

@ CL 

Thanks!  :smiley:  It coincided with an increase in vividness, though I haven't counted the (unexpected) lds that could be influenced by it. Will certainly keep close track of those now. 

Let me know how it goes if you give it a try! Oh, by the way, talking of fitness and brains, I came accross the info that creatine helps boost brainpower. Do you use this supp and have you noticed any related benefits? I might grab one next time I'm at the store.

----------


## Tuckson

Hey NyxCC!
I like your workbook and I'm looking forward some more updates, specially the "Yoga" part, hehe. I've started not so long ago, but I'm still too new to LD for noticing any difference.

----------


## CanisLucidus

> Let me know how it goes if you give it a try! Oh, by the way, talking of fitness and brains, I came accross the info that creatine helps boost brainpower. Do you use this supp and have you noticed any related benefits? I might grab one next time I'm at the store.



Hey Nyx!  That's a great question.  I used creatine for a few years but I've actually stopped for the last several months.  I never paid any attention to whether or not this had any affect on how well my brain functioned, but I've not noticed any major differences so far...?

Maybe this has helped me establish a new baseline and I should rotate it back in to see whether it makes any difference!

If I notice anything one way or the other, I'll be sure to let you know!

----------


## NyxCC

> Hey Nyx!  That's a great question.  I used creatine for a few years but I've actually stopped for the last several months.  I never paid any attention to whether or not this had any affect on how well my brain functioned, but I've not noticed any major differences so far...?
> 
> Maybe this has helped me establish a new baseline and I should rotate it back in to see whether it makes any difference!
> 
> If I notice anything one way or the other, I'll be sure to let you know!



Cool! Maybe it will pay off even more now that you stopped taking it for a while. Here are abstracts from some studies below. The interesting part is that it may have more effect on vegetarians or people that are not as exposed regularly.





> Creatine supplementation is in widespread use to enhance sports-fitness performance, and has been trialled successfully in the treatment of neurological, neuromuscular and atherosclerotic disease. Creatine plays a pivotal role in brain energy homeostasis, being a temporal and spatial buffer for cytosolic and mitochondrial pools of the cellular energy currency, adenosine triphosphate and its regulator, adenosine diphosphate. In this work, we tested the hypothesis that oral creatine supplementation (5 g d(-1) for six weeks) *would enhance intelligence test scores and working memory performance* in 45 young adult, vegetarian subjects in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over design. *Creatine supplementation had a significant positive effect (p < 0.0001) on both working memory (backward digit span) and intelligence (Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices), both tasks that require speed of processing.* These findings underline a dynamic and significant role of brain energy capacity in influencing brain performance.







> So let's look at these papers, shall we? In both the cognition study papers, healthy college students were recruited (colleges being both a good source of research volunteers and vegetarians) and divided into creatine or placebo supplementation groups. The British study compared vegetarians and vegan young women to omnivores, the Australian study used only vegetarians and vegans, but had a crossover design (all subjects got both placebo and creatine along the way). Both studies did various measures of cognitive and memory testing (number of words you can remember from a list read to you, how many F or P words you can say in two minutes, how many numbers you can repeat backwards from a string of numbers read to you, recognizing strings of three even or odd numbers in a series of numbers read at 100 per second). The British study added a measure of reaction time (subjects had to press a button corresponding to a light as fast as they could once it was lit). The Australian study was six weeks, the British study was five days, and both used 5g creatine monohydrate as the supplement and dextrose (glucose) as the control.
> 
> Because glucose administration has been shown to (immediately) increase cognitive performance (5 (link is external)), all the cognitive testing was done fasted and on a day with no supplementation.
> 
> The results? First off, everyone, vegetarian or omnivore, on placebo or creatine in the British study did worse the second time around on the memory tests (maybe they got bored?). But compared to the placebo group, the omnivores in the British study were about the same as the creatine supplement group (omnivores have been shown to benefit from a maximum of 20 grams a day at first then maintenance 2-5 grams per day supplementing for athletic performance), suggesting that us animal flesh eaters have a physiologically appropriate amount of phophocreatine reserve in the brain for interesting tasks such as pushing buttons in response to light stimuli and complicated mental tasks that involve the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus.
> 
> *The vegetarians in the creatine group did much better than the vegetarians in the placebo group on the second battery of tests involving word recall and measures of variability of reaction times.* More simple mental tasks didn't improve in the vegetarians or the omnivores, suggesting, interestingly enough, that complicated thinking burns more energy than uncomplicated thinking (so do smart people burn more calories? I'm not aware of any research to that effect, in fact I thought there wasn't much of a difference, but we'll look into it ...). *In some of the measures, vegetarians were higher than omnivores at baseline, by the way, and in general the memory tests between the two groups did not vary at baseline—the vegetarians just seemed to benefit much more from creatine supplementation.*
> 
> In the Australian study (using only vegans and vegetarians), creatine supplementation had a significant positive effect on working memory (using backwards digit span) and intelligence measures requiring processing speed. Various cognitive tasks that were worse in the placebo vegetarians compared to creatine vegetarians are similar to those that are affected in ADHD, schizophrenia, dementia, and traumatic brain injury. In addition, people with the Apoe4 allele and therefore more vulnerable to developing Alzheimer's seem to have lower brain levels of creatine.



Anyways, to my update. I got my caps and started taking some before and after the workout. During that time I was a bit exhaused and stressed out, so no ld daywork or wbtb. Got a few unexpected random lds on _three_ nights following the workouts (also did meditation during the day prior to one of the ld nights). So not really sure if this is coincidental or related to the creatine intake. 

Still need to follow through with the rest of my ld goals.

----------


## CanisLucidus

Wow, thanks for all of that great info, Nyx!  I'm definitely going to join you on this post-workout creatine experiment!

Do you do your workouts reasonably close to bedtime, so that's when you take the creatine too?  Have your workout days correlated with lucid dreams in the past?

My one problem is that I tend to be busier on days when I strength train simply because it's hard to fit everything in.  So I'll need to make sure to be disciplined about my bedtime to reap all potential benefits!

----------


## NyxCC

Cool, looking forward to us getting fitter and smarter!  ::D: 





> Wow, thanks for all of that great info, Nyx! I'm definitely going to join you on this post-workout creatine experiment!
> 
> Do you do your workouts reasonably close to bedtime, so that's when you take the creatine too? Have your workout days correlated with lucid dreams in the past?
> 
> My one problem is that I tend to be busier on days when I strength train simply because it's hard to fit everything in. So I'll need to make sure to be disciplined about my bedtime to reap all potential benefits!



Not too close to bed time and before dinner. I can relate to your problem though, on some occasions I go to bed too late to able to wbtb. Apart from that, yes, there has been some coincidence between workouts and lds though I haven't investigated this in depth. At any rate, we know that workouts are good for the brain so they should have at least an indirect impact on lding and who knows maybe even a direct one? Have you noticed more vivid dreams on post work out nights or lucidity yourself?

Speaking of vivid dreams, my mini update: Been having very vivid dreams the last few days. The vividness culminated into a few short lucids - the colors were absolutely insane and I just hit lucidity at that point with no apparent trigger. I think this was due to some highly elevated chemical moments in my dreams. No supps pre bed on both nights, one post workout, no wbtb. Those were pretty short so this summary will do, still have other stuff in the backlog to post at some point. Busy week.

----------


## NyxCC

+ one more unexpected relatively short possibly end of REM ld. No wbtb, post workout. Got to do some wbtbs!

----------


## NyxCC

*Feb Review*

So, despite my high hopes, Feb turned out to be a challenging month from a personal perspective. The month started good but then for about two weeks all sorts of events (and all negative unfortunately) poured in so I had to deal with that plus being extra busy. All in all, most of my lucid related day practices went down the drain. 

*Positives*:

Meditation - trying to meditate as frequently as possible, even on hectic days to sit for at least couple of mins. Reading about frequent practices of other members like bemistaken has been an extra inspiration. Thanks! 

Exercise and creatine: frequent. Not quite sure if there are any transferable effects from creatine, but my ability to grasp information has been somewhat enhanced. No change in processing speed. By the way, I do some brain train tests so results were overly good.

Experience: managed 18 lds which is probably due past experience plus the two other contributing factors. Not bad, considering all the stress. 

*Neutral*:

Mindfulness: I began the month with really good mindfulness practices, but soon had to abandon those. There were some interesting effects I might mention later on when I resume the depth of my practices.

Dream yoga and related practices: Trying to be consitent again but not quite there yet, so overall not much contribution for my lds this month.

*Negatives*:

Rushing and busy

Entertainment and bright lights  ::nono:: 

Bed time sleep aids: make me overly sleepy and less like to ld. Even REM supressants make me sleep like a log after rebound time these days. 

Wbtbs: In the negative category for the month since I only did 3 wbtbs the entire month. Really hard to get up.  :Sad: 

Day time practices: mostly lack thereof - very bad. Tz tz

----------


## NyxCC

*30 Days Challenge*

I recently came across some of my old goals from a year ago and it occured to me that I still haven't done those. Not only that, but I also kept reducing my ld induction speed with endless excuses relating to waking life. 

Well, it's true that we can't be max speed all the time and that's something to consider in the long run, but I have to ask myself "Have I been using this as an excuse not to do my practices?" and "How much lower will I put the lever next". If I continue this way, I may end up where I started - having just a few lds a month. 

So, to address this problem: the 30 days challenge - max on lds, all techs allowed.  ::muffin:: 


<Moved day updates below.>

----------


## bemistaken

> Negatives:
> 
> Rushing and busy



This never helps anything...if you are rushing and busy going into meditation (like I did today)...AND you can't calm down I would not even try it. Personally, this only frustrates me even more. I don't know about everyone else, but rushing into a meditation session just for the sake of meditating does not do a body good.  There is always tomorrow and remember you are not in a race. Rushing only adds more stress, and stress only add more work.  The goal is let go and that means of everything and just let your body 'be.' Now, what does 'be' mean? I really haven't gotten a very good grasp on this but I believe 'be' means that your body will do what it is suppose to do if we all just stop interrupting the process of our body getting there.  Hope this made some kind of sense and I didn't mean to confuse you. One Love. :smiley:

----------


## ThreeCat

> This never helps anything...if you are rushing and busy going into meditation (like I did today)...AND you can't calm down I would not even try it.



I would actually take some breaths, realize that no matter how busy you are, you certainly have time for five or ten minutes of meditation, and then do that.  If your mind keeps travelling back to a certain thought, make that thought the object of meditation.  What does it really feel like to be rushed?  Experience the anxiety of being rushed.  Negative emotions are always an attempt to escape from who we are right now.  Always futile.  Always better to just be who we are right now, even if it's shit.

----------


## Dodge631

Keep up the good work NyxCC! i hadnt even realized you had posted your own workbook here till now, but i hope i can contribute some to your success as you have helped me in my workbook to help me become more successful!

btw while your reading this, how do you know your not already asleep and in a dream now?for all you know, you could be surfing DV in your dream now. better do a RC!

----------


## NyxCC

Thanks for the replies guys!  :smiley: 





> This never helps anything...if you are rushing and busy going into meditation (like I did today)...AND you can't calm down I would not even try it. Personally, this only frustrates me even more. I don't know about everyone else, but rushing into a meditation session just for the sake of meditating does not do a body good.  There is always tomorrow and remember you are not in a race. Rushing only adds more stress, and stress only add more work.  The goal is let go and that means of everything and just let your body 'be.' Now, what does 'be' mean? I really haven't gotten a very good grasp on this but I believe 'be' means that your body will do what it is suppose to do if we all just stop interrupting the process of our body getting there.  Hope this made some kind of sense and I didn't mean to confuse you. One Love.




Thank you bemistaken! I meant I felt that rushing during the day made it harder for me to do any ld practices, including RCs and mindfulness. But yes, it also is very bad to go rushing into meditation. I read your latest entry from yesterday about all the tension and agree with your observations. All this stress is very bad for the body and we can literally feel it tense up. When I think negative thoughts I often catch the muscles around my mouth tense up like hell. Got to learn to release the tension more often! 





> I would actually take some breaths, realize that no matter how busy you are, you certainly have time for five or ten minutes of meditation, and then do that. If your mind keeps travelling back to a certain thought, make that thought the object of meditation. What does it really feel like to be rushed? Experience the anxiety of being rushed. Negative emotions are always an attempt to escape from who we are right now. Always futile. *Always better to just be who we are right now, even if it's shit.*



Lol at that last part!  ::lol::  I guess there's some merit to that approach, though I would like to focus on the anxiety only for a short while and then exhale it away. Perhaps part of the problem is that, at those times, we always forget about the all the tools available to us.





> Keep up the good work NyxCC! i hadnt even realized you had posted your own workbook here till now, but i hope i can contribute some to your success as you have helped me in my workbook to help me become more successful!
> 
> btw while your reading this, how do you know your not already asleep and in a dream now?for all you know, you could be surfing DV in your dream now. better do a RC!



Thank you, Dodge! Yes, I started a workbook so that I can better organize my ld practices. 

Thanks for stopping by, that was really cool and I did an RC after reading your post!  ::D:

----------


## NyxCC

*30 Days Challenge*

*Days 1-10:*

*Day 1*: skipped wbtb, last min wild (+1) (09.03)

*Day 2*: did wbtb, average wakefulness, no sensations when falling asleep. I had a short lucid moment where I remembered the mirror task and tried to complete it again, this time unsuccessfully. Lost lucidity soon after. It was really short and I am not sure whether to count this. There was a DS recognition in a nld part of the dream - classmates from all schools were around me, I thought, so many of them, this is just like a dream, but then I know this is for real. - this is becoming a dream sign of its own. Next time, be on the lookout, if it's happening for real - it must be a dream!

*Day 3*: My alarm malfunctioned today, which is very worrying! I woke up naturally but it was too late to schedule a wbtb, so I decided to do an experiment instead. I put on my headphones and played the audio with my dream signs. It took less than a minute and I was asleep. Had a tiny bit of awareness and could also hear the audio in the beginning of the dream, but then because of it being a dream, I got distracted in the worst possble way and lost lucidity. I am not counting this as it was very short. For future experiments, I have to increase the volume a bit more.

*Day 4*: Did my wbtb, had a brief ld moment plus one short one before the wbtb. Very vivid nlds. Not too happy with my level of awareness, I think it has to do with me not having a clear goal for my next ld. 

*Day 5*: Fell asleep extremely late so no wbtb. Dreams were very vivid again. No lds. There will be guests coming over the weekend, so I probably won't be getting much sleep. Homework for rest of the day: 10 autosuggestion/RCs (done).

*Day 6*: Alarms (or rather those that are mine) don't usually disturb me so much, but some random guy knocking on the door when I'm soundly asleep. Thanks, I don't remember anything now.  :Sad:  Homework for rest of the day: 15 Autosuggestion/RCs. Sporadic ADA (partially done).

*Day 7*: As expected a very distressful night for sleep. My biggest problem was at bedtime, it took me ages to fall asleep and I felt terrible due a very heavy dinner. On the brighter side I managed to score two lds and even tried to complete one of my goals. Yay! Homework: 10 autosuggestions/RCs (partially done).

*Day 8*: Catching up on sleep. Vivid dreams and some dream signs. Been expecting a back to school dream to catch and turn to lucid but subcon surprised me by changing the scenario. If I see any classmates, it's dream! Homework for today: 10 auto/RCs.

*Day 9*: Barely dragged myself out of bed to do a wbtb. I'd say efforts were somewhat on the down side, but I played my audio for a while then tried to increase wakefulness as not to fall asleep immediately. Got a long stretch of dreaming and lucidity (1.5 - 2 hrs) - one average awareness ld, two deilds and some on and off awareness. Also, had a short lucid moment before the wbtb, so on the whole this night was very successful. (Counting as +2) There were two dream signs that I paid attention to during the non-lucid part, but discarted as real. Homework: 10 autosuggestions/RCs.

*Day 10*: Not much sleep or dreams today. Homework: 10 autosugg./RCs. (P)

----------


## NyxCC

*Days 11- 20*


*Day 11*: Catching up on sleep. Decided not to push it today. However, I am expanding my daywork a bit to start covering small tasks with ada/autosugg. + homework 15 auto/RCs. Two DS today - classmate and another person. Homework 15 autosugg./RCs (P). Mini ADA + auto sugg. sessions. (Done) Mini visualisation session. (Done)

*Day 12*: Couldn't sleep much, wbtb cancelled. One DS - lost in some unknown place. 

*Day 13*: Just enjoyed sleep. Some vivid dreams. I could feel bodily I had an ld, but can't remember.

*Day 14*: Great quality sleep and vivid dreams, sometimes that's all you need. A micro ld moment. Not much day work the past day.

*Day 15*: Woke up and did the wbtb, rather over did it, since couldn't fall asleep at all after that. 

*Day 16*: Skipped wbtb, but had natural wakes and noticed increased wakefulness. Had a few (2-3) mini ld moments. One of them was a direct entry upon falling asleep when we were going up some structure. I remembered my goals (to read something) and came across something it wasn't a book, but a label. I can't recall after that. I also tried to summon something in another part of the dream to be in the air but it kept falling on the floor.

*Day 17*: Got woken up prior to wbtb, so cancelled it. Did some later turning and tossing. Vivid interesting dreams and mini ld moment - talking to a particular person's DC, couldn't make out the reply. the DC later made some sexy suggestions, was denied. 

*Day 18*: Finally, relatively proper wbtb and a good quality ld. 

*Day 19*: Mini ld, no wbtb.

*Day 20*: got woken up, spent some time trying to fall asleep, but not much focus. I thought about having an ld and tried to will one. Success - short ld when asleep and another one later.  

------
Been quite busy the past few weeks, so appologies if I am slow respoding to anyone's posts! 

Pending Review for March

----------


## NyxCC

*March Review and Days 20-30 summary*

March 

Positives

Meditation - with the exception of the holidays done on a frequent basis

Exercise - regularly done

Neutral

Creatine - seems like those initial effects wore off so I will be doing a one month break from it. Also tried it once during wbtb but no ld effect and woke up really bad mooded.

Negatives

Wbtb - still lagging behind my normal practices for a number of reasons

Day work - same as above

Events - stuff just keeps happening that adds more or new concerns and eats my spare time. 

Lds: 18 

Quality: mostly unsatisfactory compared to my average with a tendency towards low level lucidity (which can partially be attributed to no wbtb and having no plans ahead)


*Days 20 - 30*: were in the mood of holidays so I was super distracted and it was also difficult to sleep. Fetched 4? more lds, nothing too interesting to report.

*30 Day challenge results and analysis*

On the whole, hit 18 lds during the 30 day period  (March 9th - April 8th). 

Writing down the updates made me actually wake up on several occasions and ld so this was good. I was not expecting to be that overwhelmed by stuff irl so I thought I could have done much better, especially when it comes to the quality of lds. 

One thing to consider in the future is to go back to numerical goals for wbtb - these have worked well for me.

A short break?

Unfortunately, I do feel squeezed out and lacking sleep due deadlines and other family issues so I feel I won't be able to maintain my averages for the following months. I'm going to take a mini break from active induction but will still try to do some relaxation and incubation exercises pre bed.

----------


## Patience108

Hey Ny  :smiley:  Cherry blossom -  just realised you had a work book - thanks for being so inspiring even tho things havnt gone exactly to your own plan  ::cheers::  

Happy Lucids for June and beyond  ::lol::

----------


## NyxCC

Hey Patience, thanks for dropping by and the kind words. Have a very lucid June too!   :smiley:

----------


## NyxCC

*Goals for August*

[  ] 10 day audio 

[  ] 10 bed time audio 

[  ] 10 wbtb

[  ] new supp trials

----------


## Patience108

Hi Ny - Nice to see you  :wink2:    you have deffo tickled my curiosity with your Goals  ::alien::

----------


## NyxCC

Hey Patience, good to see you! How have you been?  :smiley:

----------


## Patience108

Thanks  ::alien::  I"m good. I hav"t updated my workbook in ages but have been active on site :wink2:  - Still a WILD student hehe

I am interested in your mention of audio in your update as i love audio stuff - do work with voice-recorder and am in the process of getting an iPod so that I can try out some stuff from a dv thread using a buzzer and a recorded message - quite exited about last nights occurrence - will put it in my work book  ::chuckle:: - during a WILD attempt I suddenly opened my eyes in my bright room - ok closed them again pretty soon but still!

----------


## NyxCC

Nice! You made some really good progress, keep it up!  :smiley: 

The way I currently use my audio is by recording a 5 min track of me reading the dream signs and combining this with a mantra. I then play it during the day or before bed, even tried falling asleep while listening to it. The great thing about audio is that one can come up with all sorts of ideas. If you have a good app, then maybe you can even make the track wake you up at a certain time of the night, for instance. Hey, if you know some good apps like that, do share! 

Looking forward to reading about your experiment too!  :smiley:

----------


## NyxCC

*Goals review for Aug*

Well, if my log is correct, this is how things went in Aug. Not many of these targets were even close to being met, but the intention of having more lds was an effective tool that got me some lds despite the humble day and night work actvities. I think from now on, I will try to post some weekly targets that I get to update on a weekly basis. Hopefully, this accountablity will stimulate me to complete more of the practices.

Aug goals

Day audio 4/10

Bed time audio 3/10

Wbtb 5/10

Results: 14+ lds, mostly low lucidity or short

Dream control: zoom in, reading, music, abstract intending (make DCs bring you objects with no direct summon), tk, make DCs disappear, energy sword, walking on water, running on hands

----------


## NyxCC

*Update*

Been following a new sleep schedule, so my recall was a bit down in the last few weeks. However, I feel like I'm finally starting to adjust,  I've been writing down dreams on a frequent basis and having at least one natural wake each night. Managed a few lds too  :smiley: 

My goals for the rest of the month:

- maintain optimal sleep schedule
- pay attention to natural wakes - > These seem to be a good indicator at the moment of the quality of my sleep (i.e. lacking in sleep leads to no/less natural wakes as I plunge into deeper sleep to make up for that)
- establish an RCing routine and maintain this until it manifests in dreams
- think about setting up persistent mini-realms (this is day practice only at this stage)
- keep investigating dream control (currently focused on reading and possibly DC control)

----------


## NyxCC

Well, it looks like it's time to dust off my workbook as well as my practices.  :smiley:  Been quite busy with both studies and work so I've fallen behind with sleep and dreams. 

My goals for the following undefined period of time would be to reinstate the daily practices and make sure these are really solid. 

The first goal would be to build lucidity hotspots that remind me about dreaming during the day and help raise awareness every time I encounter these. I will try to find 5 hotspots and in the future associate further hotspots with them.  :smiley:

----------


## fogelbise

> Well, it looks like it's time to dust off my workbook as well as my practices.  Been quite busy with both studies and work so I've fallen behind with sleep and dreams. 
> 
> My goals for the following undefined period of time would be to reinstate the daily practices and make sure these are really solid. 
> 
> The first goal would be to build lucidity hotspots that remind me about dreaming during the day and help raise awareness every time I encounter these. I will try to find 5 hotspots and in the future associate further hotspots with them.



The camaraderie I found with you and CL was always a nice boost to me, so let me know if there is any way that I can help!  :smiley:  

The daily practices are always a challenge to keep fresh and avoid becoming rote. I am currently looking for a way to refresh the initial spark that helps me flow better through my chain of practices done during check-ins. I may go back and revisit a different open beta exercise as 2a (I think it was) has lost it's spark, perhaps a different way of doing it might be a key.
Edit: actually 3a: #2

Hotspots, yes! In my house, I have a door that creaks when I pass it if I leave a certain amount ajar and I use that to do an RC. On hot days I close up all the drapes on the sunny side of the house  especially making it quite dark and when I enter that room I notice the quick change and RC. Odd noises and such as well. Awoken app for android has a truly random reminder that you can customize the sound and how many times it goes off during a time bracket (8am to 10pm for example) so I change the sound once a week so I don't start ignoring it.

Cheers Nyx!  :smiley:

----------


## dreamingaze

Welcome back.  I just got back on today as well.  I'm dusting off my own workbook after much neglect due to work and school.  Happy dreaming!   :smiley:

----------


## NyxCC

@ fogelbise

Hey fogelbise, thanks for dropping by and for the kind words.  :smiley:  How have things been with you?

@ dreaming gaze

Thanks for the welcome. It is good to see you back too!  :smiley:

----------


## fogelbise

Pretty good. After a plateau in LD's-per-year in year 3 ending 1/31/16 (I added about the same number of LD's to my overall count in year 3 as I did in year 2), I decided to do something about it and I significantly ramped up lucid dreams per week for a while but have slowed down again (need the spark to do what I know I need to do to have more lucid dreams). I still expect this year, over all, to be ramped up compared to years 2 & 3. I am happy about the improvements in waking life continue as well.

----------


## bemistaken

Hi NyxCC!
I was reading my workbook and I came across some old comments that you had made. I wanted to take the time out and say  ::thanks:: . You have always been so encouraging and positive towards me and I want you to know I appreciate you.  You don't have to take the time out to read my ordinary workbook (there are so many other great adventures in the workbooks of others). I have been a member of DV for 3 years and I have always looked forward to your comments and/or advise. Keep doing what you do...it does make a difference!  ::kiss:: 

One Love.
Bemistaken

----------


## NyxCC

Goals for September:

- write here more often  :smiley: 
- re-build visualization practices - I really want to see some progress 
- ld - experiment based on visualization sessions
- find dream art

----------


## Dodge631

I hope you achieve your goals  :smiley: 

What exactly do you mean by visualization practices? I am intrigued! Is it done in waking life?

----------


## NyxCC

Thanks! 

Yes, it's done in waking state. Just find a quiet place and visualize something of your choice. It can be a simple object or an entire environment with lots of details. The goal is to keep the focus on the object of visualization for as long as possible. Ideally with time, imagining items becomes easier and one can hold the images for longer. I find it very useful for both stabilization as well as dream control and can also come in handy when wilding.  :smiley:

----------


## NyxCC

Mini goals: 

- 5 MILD evenings
- 10 beach visualization sessions
- 10 object visualization sessions

----------


## NyxCC

As it turned out it was another busy month. I did some visualization but not enough to reach my goals. Interestingly, I had a lucid that took place on one of the places I was visualizing. Not sure if that is related to my practices. 

At any rate, if I want to progress with this I will have to step back and make more place for the practices. Despite the busy schedule there are always those small moments which one can use to either do visualization or awareness exercises. 

Stop. Pay attention. Remember. My challenge for October.  :smiley:

----------


## NyxCC

I want to share one veeery long journal entry by one of members here. 

DJ#312: WOAAAHHHH BOOOOYYYY Catch up time - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

As this wonderful and lenghty entry shows - it's not difficult to journal on a daily basis. We just need to sit down and do it.  :smiley:

----------


## NyxCC

Been meaning to write here for quite a while and along with posting, resume the dreaming practices that I've, for the most part, set aside. 

I've got a few fresh ideas (as well as some recycled ones :smiley: ) that will hopefully incorporate into day life activities. 

As a reminder to myself, one thing that I have finally realized from my language studies, is that you should never fully stop with any practice. It is much better to be moving slowly and doing a bit of practice than to do none at all. It might be an obvious thing, but when things get busy, it's the things we like to do the most or that can benefit us that we tend to drop. 

So there we go again, another round begins. Lucidity begins tonight.  :smiley:

----------


## fogelbise

Hi friend! So true about keeping up at least some practices. Let me know if you would like a buddy to bounce around ideas and keep each other on track.

----------


## NyxCC

Fogelbise, good to hear from you! I surely won't mind some lucid company  :smiley: . 

My goals for the month of June - Min lucid count 5, establish the practices I've been thinking about into habits (more detail and hopefully results next posts), start working on some dream goals which must be written down tonight (at least one so that I know what to do next ld  :smiley: ).

----------


## fogelbise

That sounds good and you reminded me that I should set some goals myself. My goals tend to not be specific enough, so with that in mind I have figured out how many LDs I want to have for the remaining 23 days of June to get my average where I want it to be (same as 23 day average in year 4). If I achieve that goal, I plan to up the monthly average so I can beat the average achieved in year 4 of my adult practice. I also feel a bit of a renewed interest in my goal of completing all of the TOTYs after a bit of waning interest before.

Okay, let me know that you have written down the goals, and feel free to share them if you want to. Also looking forward to the additional habits details you mentioned. May we both be able to celebrate the smaller successes along the way to larger ones.  :smiley: 

I like going over notes surrounding times of my favorite lucid dreams and what I was doing at the time as well as just re-experiencing those favorite lucid dreams.

----------


## NyxCC

I find that having goals that are not specific enough affects my lucidity rate and dream control a lot. For example, I need to have a specific task to complete before going to bed. That alone can result in lucidity. 

If I find myself lucid and fail to recall any goals, I might also lose lucidity or even wake up as I don't feel quite sure what to do!  ::tongue::  

That being said, every once in a while, it becomes a challenge to pick just the right goal. I have been toying with some ideas that I find inspiring, yet need more skill to fully implement. I recently came across some really good surrealistic pieces of art and would very much like to use them as an inspiration and even blueprint for lds. Let me see if I can include some pics here. *unsuccessfully attempts to attach a pic*

Anyways. As I mentioned, while some of the pics I was browsing may look very cool to perform in the dream, a bit of warm up may be needed. While the general idea is to pick a few of these paintings and lucid dream them, I decided to start small first.

So, my first basic task will simply be to look up the sky. I still want to tie this to the surrealistic paintings, so hopefully the clouds will be in strange shapes or maybe something unusual will be flying around. Another task I would like to do, is look for some art in the dream. 

If anyone's interested, I recommend checking out Christian Schloe's work for dream inspiration.

----------


## fogelbise

I looked up his art and I like it!

That totally makes sense to start with something small first and if you want add a 2nd goal to pursue if you are feeling so inspired during your next lucid. I could see expecting to find one of his paintings or scenes around the next corner or in the next room with the "ah there it is, riiiiiiiiiiight…..theeeeeeeere" approach.

When I responded to you last time I was wondering about why I haven't been using concrete goals and then I remembered the next morning when I failed to have an LD when I really thought, during WBTB, that I would have one. I seem to fall victim to performance anxiety at times and seem to do better by holding my goals more loosely.

----------


## NyxCC

> When I responded to you last time I was wondering about why I haven't been using concrete goals and then I remembered the next morning when I failed to have an LD when I really thought, during WBTB, that I would have one. I seem to fall victim to performance anxiety at times and seem to do better by holding my goals more loosely.



I see. Do you keep both your dream goals as well as the monthly ld count loose then? 

If you don't have a concrete dream goal - how do you go about the moment you become lucid, is it more of a free styling dream control or you try to reach for some of your general long term goals?

To update: I've scored an ld Saturday and had some awareness moments today (but too undefined to call lucid). So far it's 1/5 in terms of target lds. My perception during the dream wasn't quite clear. I can't say I'm very surprised as I was having what feels like focus issues due being tired/overworking in general. I'll try not to overdo it the following week, despite having a few extra projects running in addition to our normal workload. 

The focus for this week should be again to work on strenghtening the daily practices and introduce minimal night practices at bed time and hopefully during natural wakes.

----------


## fogelbise

Congratulations on the LD! You know you have it in you, it just takes doing what you know you need to do, if you are anything like me.





> I see. Do you keep both your dream goals as well as the monthly ld count loose then? 
> 
> If you don't have a concrete dream goal - how do you go about the moment you become lucid, is it more of a free styling dream control or you try to reach for some of your general long term goals?



-I alternate on how loose I hold my dream goals. LD count I have almost always held more loosely. I do make adjustments though. I tend to check my LD count looking backwards rather than forwards. In other words, I look back at how I have been doing and if my average is down I can usually point to myself not doing enough during the day and I am motivated to start putting in more day time work. I typically then see my average increase nicely but still not looking forward to anything like "I need 6 more lucids this month" since that seems to give me performance anxiety.

-When I do have specific dream goals that I really want to go after, I tend to think about them during the day during simulations of becoming lucid and hold them more loosely during evening and wbtb. It seems I most commonly remember my goals during the lucid when I realize I should be doing something more with my lucidity.

----------


## NyxCC

> Congratulations on the LD! You know you have it in you, it just takes doing what you know you need to do, if you are anything like me.



Thanks! I also feel that with reinstating lucid oriented habits, dream results will follow  :smiley: . 





> I alternate on how loose I hold my dream goals. LD count I have almost always held more loosely. I do make adjustments though. I tend to check my LD count looking backwards rather than forwards. In other words, I look back at how I have been doing and if my average is down I can usually point to myself not doing enough during the day and I am motivated to start putting in more day time work. I typically then see my average increase nicely but still not looking forward to anything like "I need 6 more lucids this month" since that seems to give me performance anxiety.



That sounds like a good strategy. It totally makes sense that if you work hard to build those habits and see the increase in lucids to a certain level, when you start skipping on the daily work here and there, it will have an impact on lucidity. That's why it's so important not to drop everything and even in times of stress maintain a little practice. 

Speaking of practices, what does your daytime, nighttime routine currently include?

Update: I've had a below average start of the week practice wise and because of that I was feeling guilty.  :tongue2:  This was good in a way as it has then caused a lot ot thinking and more mindfulness afterwards.

I have been contemplating a lot about life and some decisions and of course also about lucidity. Some of my thoughts naturally went into my dreams, offering a perspective on an issue that has been on my mind. While it seems I have no solution yet, it's good to be reminded of things I had forgotten to take into consideration. 

After this dream, I would like to take a step back and reconsider things. Wait to see other alternatives show up.

Anyways, that being put aside for the moment, back to thoughts about lucidity. I mused a lot about this topic, which by itself is great, also did some mindfulness/ADA/SSILD practices at work (hopefully without looking too weird!). 

After so much thinking, I reached the conclusion that I cannot satisfactory describe the differences between the dream world and the real world. Yes, obviously, there are differences and you can RC on those, but if I were to compare my dream friend to my real life friend - would I be able to spot the differences? 

It seems that a lot of this detail is missing for my conscious mind to answer. So, ultimately, what I want to do is to try to map the dream world more precisely. I will write down some questions and after having woken up from the dream, I will see if I can answer any of these questions. This will also help pay more attention during the day and improve recall as well.

----------


## fogelbise

I like the way that you think!





> That sounds like a good strategy. It totally makes sense that if you work hard to build those habits and see the increase in lucids to a certain level, when you start skipping on the daily work here and there, it will have an impact on lucidity. That's why it's so important not to drop everything and even in times of stress maintain a little practice.



Yes, I keep going from thinking that I have somehow permanently re-wired my brain for lucidity and then being reminded that it takes regular effort. One can dream, haha.





> Speaking of practices, what does your daytime, nighttime routine currently include?



Day

My core daytime practices are what I remember as CRRCIS or C - RRC - RC - C - I - S. 

C=clear light, an idea I got from Liddybug's clear light thread that involves seeing myself from outside of myself which seems to strengthen self-awareness
RRC= a la Sageous
RC= reality check
C clear light again
I= I am he who is awareI am he who is aware of the awareness
S= Stop, really stop and look around

I periodically mix in other things to keep my practices from feeling stale, like:

The Open Beta Exercises posted on here by Chris Vondermehden (cvmehden I think is username), particularly exercises 4A and 4B.

Simulating an RC showing I am dreaming and then becoming lucid.

Release technique for instant presence and awareness which has some side exercises I have come up with (release + little, release - clear view)



Night (middle of night/WBTB)

Primarily:

WBTB and alternate some nights using MILD and some nights using SSILD
MILD is primarily visualizing my boldness dream sign 

Sometimes:

playing with what I call weirdness induction for quickly changing brain chemistry it seems, but I still stay up longish anyway

quick refocus on self-awareness using CRRCIS above

quick open beta exercise

----------


## NyxCC

Good stuff! I especially like the I, S parts of the practices. Ah, the vondermehden exercises, I recall there were quite a few good ones among them, might benefit from revisiting them. 

Clearlight -  this also sounds interesting. Do you have the link to the thread by chance?





> playing with what I call weirdness induction for quickly changing brain chemistry it seems, but I still stay up longish anyway



Is this a form of visualization exercise, how does it affect brain chemistry?

Update: 
negatives: Got a bit thrown off the board in the last few days of the week due late nights and never-ending family drama. 

Positives: Had 2 bortherline dreams, from those people like to call semi-lucid. I knew I was dreaming and engaged in purposeful dream control - challenging a DC to a kung fu fight, which took place mid-air and ended up with me running in circle up on all the walls. I am still reluctant to include it in my count as there seemed to be no clear distinction between when the lucid portion of this dream began and where it ended. It was a very smooth transition, so to speak, rather than one of those, hey it's a dream realizations. Nevertheless, it's a step in the right direction and ultimately I should have both more of these as well as those strong awareness lucids.

----------


## fogelbise

> Clearlight -  this also sounds interesting. Do you have the link to the thread by chance?



This is the post that got my attention, and then the OP and discussion above it resonated stronger with me: http://www.dreamviews.com/beyond-dre...ml#post1783290





> (re: weirdness induction)
> Is this a form of visualization exercise, how does it affect brain chemistry?



It seems to change brain chemistry (or at least function) the way that I assume WBTB does by getting certain brain processes flowing that are mostly dormant during sleep. "Seems" is the operative word since I just don't know enough about these processes. It definitely raises awareness of environment. I wouldn't call it visualization. It started with a weird sound during a WBTB that strongly heightened my awareness. My logical mind kicked in shortly after and assigned the sound some mundane explanation, but the heightened awareness of environment remained to some degree and it seemed to have a positive affect on that night's lucid. So sometimes I will do a quick head turn and enact the same feeling of being startled during my WBTBs to "wake up" more. This may not be advisable for everyone, especially those who have trouble getting back to sleep.





> Update: 
> negatives: Got a bit thrown off the board in the last few days of the week due late nights and never-ending family drama.



I can relate!





> Positives: Had 2 bortherline dreams, from those people like to call semi-lucid. I knew I was dreaming and engaged in purposeful dream control - challenging a DC to a kung fu fight, which took place mid-air and ended up with me running in circle up on all the walls. I am still reluctant to include it in my count as there seemed to be no clear distinction between when the lucid portion of this dream began and where it ended. It was a very smooth transition, so to speak, rather than one of those, hey it's a dream realizations. Nevertheless, it's a step in the right direction and ultimately I should have both more of these as well as those strong awareness lucids.



Definitely a step in the right direction!  :smiley:

----------


## NyxCC

> This is the post that got my attention, and then the OP and discussion above it resonated stronger with me: http://www.dreamviews.com/beyond-dre...ml#post1783290



Thanks for the link. Good idea on how to use perspective to increase awareness. I will definitely give it a try. Perceiving the world as a carrot is also an interesting concept. I have to say that after starting to more intensely lucid dream and meditate, I often feel way too conscienscious about chopping vegetables! 





> It seems to change brain chemistry (or at least function) the way that I assume WBTB does by getting certain brain processes flowing that are mostly dormant during sleep. "Seems" is the operative word since I just don't know enough about these processes. It definitely raises awareness of environment. I wouldn't call it visualization. It started with a weird sound during a WBTB that strongly heightened my awareness. My logical mind kicked in shortly after and assigned the sound some mundane explanation, but the heightened awareness of environment remained to some degree and it seemed to have a positive affect on that night's lucid. So sometimes I will do a quick head turn and enact the same feeling of being startled during my WBTBs to "wake up" more. This may not be advisable for everyone, especially those who have trouble getting back to sleep.



I see. Sounds like you're tapping in the deep protective wiring of the brain which has been placed to keep us out of trouble. The weirdness technique probably raises awareness by increasing neurotransmitters in expectation of something to happen. I also agree it may not be everyone's cup of tea. At any rate, increased wakefulness following wbtb remains one of the best ways to induce lds imo.

Update: I think my practices this week were below the average level I am aiming for but they were not completely forgotten. First fews days of the week I was quite absorbed by work, which was followed by a few days of trying to be mindful while working. Bedtime schedule was okayish overall. 

Towards Friday I was getting a bit worried about my stats for this month. This seemed to do the trick and Saturday and Sunday I scored 3 lds!  :smiley:  I did one of my basic tasks finally and recalled and completed another one from the previous night. The first one was to look at the sky and examine the clouds. Unfortunately, no cool effects there - just normal clouds, but still task done. The second one was to examine my dream clothes. I want to do this one again in the future - it seems quite funny to find out what my subconscious has picked for clothes.

----------


## fogelbise

> Towards Friday I was getting a bit worried about my stats for this month. This seemed to do the trick and Saturday and Sunday I scored 3 lds!  I did one of my basic tasks finally and recalled and completed another one from the previous night. The first one was to look at the sky and examine the clouds. Unfortunately, no cool effects there - just normal clouds, but still task done. The second one was to examine my dream clothes. I want to do this one again in the future - it seems quite funny to find out what my subconscious has picked for clothes.



So awesome! Way to respond to the goal! 

I think on the clouds idea, if you expect something amazing you are more likely to get something amazing. I like the clouds and the dream clothes idea.

Congratulations on the 3 lucid dreams!

----------


## NyxCC

Thanks! 

Ah, it's been a while since the last post. Things got a bit hectic last week. Anyways, here are a few summaries:

June final week and overall: Very interesting - the ld frenzy continued (that was a few days in a row), so 3 more and finishing the month with a total of 7. It's a good rate for this year taking into consideration that I am trying to work my way back to a more frequent ld schedule and maintain it. One thing I didn't quite like in the past few months is that all my lds seem to be happening towards the last few weeks of the month with me dropping the practices afterwards (sometimes for a busy reason, but more like resting on the finish line laurels). 

My goal for July is 6 lds. I am raising a bit from the 5 target and ideally I want to maintain a minimum rate of 5-6 lds on a consistent basis. More are of course always welcome, but the key point here is engaging in the practices. At this stage I think this should be my focus and I can add more things as deemed necessary. 

Practice-wise I want to experiment with detail oversaturation - really notice as many things as possible and also test how much detail I can remember. I think it's a good mental exercise that can potentially also help with dream recall.  :smiley:

----------


## fogelbise

Awesome! You blew past your goal of 5 by 40%! Keep up the progress and you will be back to before and beyond. 

I like that detail oversaturation exercise idea and would love to hear what you experience from it in waking and dreaming!

----------


## NyxCC

Yesterday I realized that half of July's already gone but my lucidity plan has been a bit vague goalish wise. 

Apart from the day element saturation (update below), the target ld count, I want to add: 

- 10 mantras at bed time (can also include wbtbs)

- reenergizing strategy (LT goal)

Update: 

*Day practice* - had a few quite interesting moments with the element oversaturation practice. One of the mornings couldn't quite recall any dreams. I continued preparing for work but kept looking at each item intently, holding it a bit longer and examining the details. One of the cool things that happened was that one object (scissors) was actually featured in a dream for that night so in this way it helped me recall the dream.  :smiley: 

This has happened before as well during mindfulness walks but it never ceases to amaze me. After this, I got pretty excited and continued the practice on my journey to work. Each time I focused on an object, left my mind blank for a while and waited for my brain to give me something, it would result in lots of associations related to the element I was focusing on. I think that if one gets into the habit of doing this frequently, one can get very close to a sort of active day dreaming. 

This reminds me of comments by several people that the dream is always there. Indeed, I think on a subconscious level we always get these associations - we just don't pay attention to them. For example, you might see a certain person and like them. What happens on subcoscious level is that you like them because they bear a resemblance to an old friend with whom you shared many happy moments. 

Every object and element holds a personal universe of associations - which most of the time give off either a pleasant or unplesant feel relating to that underlying universe.

*Night time practice/sleep*: On a less of a positive note have been my night practices. Late nights have in a way been a driver of all evil and of mediocre results. I believe there was one lucid dream from the night before, however, with poor recall of the actual scene I am not considering it worthy of celebrating as much. 

Another issue I've been having recently with ups and downs is the fatigue and lack of concetration. There seem to be a few key areas that contribute to this vicious circle:
- late bed time - obvious one, need to get into a more organized sleep schedule to allow for plenty of sleep otherwise both health and dreams will suffer

- working manner - I believe I need to be more mindful when working. I tend to focus a lot on what I do, ignoring everything else. There's totally no need to jump from one task to the next, without taking a breath, so to speak. 

- Screen time - it seems to me that the majority of my time awake is being spent in front of screens. We all know that this can have a lot of negative effects, including disrupting the sleep cycle. I also feel that there is an attention energy drain. Even after pleasant browsing, my mind feels much more tired than it would be otherwise. Limiting screen time is highly recommended  :tongue2: . 

- Nutrition - I follow an overall balanced diet, but more can be done. Reading on a few issues I decided to improve on this, starting where it all ends, namely, in the gut. This often neglected part of our bodies is where a lot of neurotransmitters are being produced and circulate in general. So, if this area is not being taken care of, other functions such as cognition and overall health will suffer as well. My aim here is a pro and prebiotic diet and more healthy and cleansing foods. It will be interesting to see if this makes a difference for my energy levels.

- Meditation - need to add more sessions in my week and weekend days even if short ones. It also will keep me away from the screen monster  ::D: 

That's pretty much it, sorry for the lond post and any typos!

----------


## fogelbise

What a great, detailed write up on your current practices! That is exactly the kind of record keeping that is great to look back on in the future to understand what works and what doesn't.

----------

