Thread: Any tips on increasing All Day Awarness???

Hi can you guys leave some tips on how to increase ADA? I heard ADA
is really important for DILD...

Slow down when you eat. Smell your food first and focus on the first bite. Pay attention to everything about the first bite. No longer eat mindlessly.

Originally Posted by sivason

Slow down when you eat. Smell your food first and focus on the first bite. Pay attention to everything about the first bite. No longer eat mindlessly.

When I remember to be mindful about eating I also relish every bite as it travels down my alimentary canal, as well as the feeling of partial satiation as it enters my stomach. Then and only then do I take the next bite. This is extraordinary for me, as I'm normally a human vacuum when it comes to eating.

Other very simple things I've started paying attention to: Itches, gestures, habits, quirks, etc... These present countless opportunities to exercise being aware. When I become aware of the urge arising I give pause, however briefly, then mindfully engage in whatever it is I'm about to do. Scratch an itch, shrug my shoulders, raise an eyebrow, adjust my posture, twiddle my thumbs, reach into my pocket to do a Captain Queeg with a couple of coins... Feel the physical actions and sensation as well as any associated emotional reactions.

Another benefit is I find there's a residual mindfulness affect that resonates for some time, making me more aware of other aspects of experience.

You should also try practicing small one handed tasks with your opposite hand. This forces you to concentrate a bit harder on what you're doing and is a brain builder.

This is going to sound extremely vague, but just pay attention to anything that you do. It sounds like a useless tip, but it is super easy and has helped me alot. All that you do is make sure you are conscious of whatever you are doing. If you do that, everything becomes easier. Hope this made sense. If not just let me know and I'll expand on it.

I have a few tips that worked extremely well for me.

> Put about 10 pennies in your right or left shoe, not both. This is a very uncomfortable feeling and acts as a constant reminder to keeping up your awareness. The only pitfall with this method is that you can easily focus on the pennies and not our ADA, so make sure you remember what the pennies are there for.

> Florescent wrist bands work really well. The kidney cancer one is my favorite as it is the brightest orange i have ever seen. Every time you see it you should remember to practice your ADA. The wrist band also doesn't lead to any strange looks as the are somewhat popular.

>Lastly a mantra helped me, Start a dialogue in your head "I am not dreaming" or "ADA" anything that will help you remember, then keep it going, ALL DAY, anytime you realize you aren't repeating it start it back up, withing 2 days its not "in the way" anymore and you can easily repeat it while you are doing other things (I have been repeating "I am not dreaming" this entire time that I have been typing this, while at work, answering phones.

Hope this helps!

Telling yourself "I am not dreaming" is probably not a very good idea if your goal is lucid dreaming.

I tend to disagree. I look at it like this, if the whole point of ADA is to be aware of your surroundings when you are awake and to easily differentiate when you are awake and dreaming then the whole purpose of "I am not dreaming" is to keep you grounded in your waking state. It makes sense to me at least :-)

I think it more likely any habit you form during waking life has a possibility to leak into your dreamscape. After all, isn't that the purpose of a lot of these exercises? So asking "Am I dreaming" is something we want to leak into our dreamscape, however "I am not dreaming" doesn't seem very helpful if it leaks into a dream.

EDIT: By the way, I do like the idea about using a wrist band or something else as a reminder to be mindful. I had the same thought a while back and even looked at one web site for silicone bracelets. I actually decided on a mini bungee chord I had as it's looser and hence much more noticeable. Besides I don't much care what anyone thinks or says about it. Not my problem.

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

I think it more likely any habit you form during waking life has a possibility to leak into your dreamscape. After all, isn't that the purpose of a lot of these exercises? So asking "Am I dreaming" is something we want to leak into our dreamscape, however "I am not dreaming" doesn't seem very helpful if it leaks into a dream.

EDIT: By the way, I do like the idea about using a wrist band or something else as a reminder to be mindful. I had the same thought a while back and even looked at one web site for silicone bracelets. I actually decided on a mini bungee chord I had as it's looser and hence much more noticeable. Besides I don't much care what anyone thinks or says about it. Not my problem.

I can see how that might mislead some. Good point. I would choose your words wisely with whatever mantra you decide on. I just know it works for me. The pennies thing isn't for the faint of heart but it definitely keeps you on track. As far as the words they are merely a means to an end I focus less on what I'm saying in my head and more on what the purpose of saying them is. For some that might not be true so maybe a "am I dreaming" approach would be more appropriate.

I thought about coins in footwear too, but not as many as you suggest. That's cool and it probably depends on how sensitive one is to stimuli.

The other thing about 'reality' and which we might be experiencing... I think it's always good to question reality and not assume one way or the other. If one is going to question reality and for the purpose of lucid dreaming, I think "Am I dreaming?" is more appropriate than "Am I awake?". To me certainty seems to be a likely enemy of lucid dreaming.