Thread: Mindfulness as a lifestyle

Awesome! Somehow it looks like a natural transition. It also happened to me as well when I first learned LDing - writing DJs, mantra, Rc, but none of them really worked. I can prove it myself because I even wrote DJs for 2 years before I actually knew about the 'LD' and I didn't have a single LD.(though my dream recall and vividness increased tiny bit...)

Then as I started being mindful, I found about meditation which is basically the same thing, noticing that this wasn't matter of 10-minutes a day thing, rather permanent lifestyle. This wasn't the end either. The more I practiced, the more valuable lessons I learned not only for LDing, but real life as well. It completely changed me over 4 years as a person.

At first our mind is total chaos without being monitored at all. Judgments, comparisons, egoistical thoughts, wham wham wham. Then we start monitoring by paying attention to those. It's hard first because there are too many mental-criminals, but over time they eventually cease. And then we offer ourselves treats - cast more positive thoughts, brings positive reality. Our consciousness becomes harmonious with everything, so do songs we hear, books/ articles we read, things we say etc will be also harmonious. Everything gets synchronized.

Still LDing is cool It's actually very practical and fast way to be 'enlightened' I should say. Life is about balance and finding your own purpose behind it. Both dreams and real life are beautiful! keep up the good work

Originally Posted by Windhover@

Awesome! Somehow it looks like a natural transition. It also happened to me as well when I first learned LDing - writing DJs, mantra, Rc, but none of them really worked. I can prove it myself because I even wrote DJs for 2 years before I actually knew about the 'LD' and I didn't have a single LD.(though my dream recall and vividness increased tiny bit...)

Then as I started being mindful, I found about meditation which is basically the same thing, noticing that this wasn't matter of 10-minutes a day thing, rather permanent lifestyle. This wasn't the end either. The more I practiced, the more valuable lessons I learned not only for LDing, but real life as well. It completely changed me over 4 years as a person.

At first our mind is total chaos without being monitored at all. Judgments, comparisons, egoistical thoughts, wham wham wham. Then we start monitoring by paying attention to those. It's hard first because there are too many mental-criminals, but over time they eventually cease. And then we offer ourselves treats - cast more positive thoughts, brings positive reality. Our consciousness becomes harmonious with everything, so do songs we hear, books/ articles we read, things we say etc will be also harmonious. Everything gets synchronized.

Still LDing is cool It's actually very practical and fast way to be 'enlightened' I should say. Life is about balance and finding your own purpose behind it. Both dreams and real life are beautiful! keep up the good work

This is really the same as how it went down with me. I tried techniques for years and had little success, so i finally came to the conclusion that looking back to how i can improve my fundamentals is the remaining choice. Tried ADA but it was too stressing to work out with me, but mindfulness is actually relaxing to do. Amongst the benefits, you get improved self-awareness. And as Sageous said: Lucid dreaming fundamentals are self-awareness, memory, and the dream state itself.

With my first day with mindfulness passed, i had a lucid dream/semi-lucid dream, with a noticable increase in vividness overall. So yeah, i'm gladly going to keep this up!

I would say I'm in the same boat as I've really been making the effort to be mindful throughout the entire day. I'm used to meditating, but now I'm really trying to bridge the practice into daily life. I've noticed huge benefits in daily life too: way more 'in the moment', patient, better performance at work... and a huge increae in lucid dreams! I've been trying to do more of the all day awareness techniques though. Darksyntax, would you say your approach is more being aware in the present moment without all the intense focus on senses like in ADA? I'd love to hear your approach. Best of luck!

Originally Posted by Oneirin

I would say I'm in the same boat as I've really been making the effort to be mindful throughout the entire day. I'm used to meditating, but now I'm really trying to bridge the practice into daily life. I've noticed huge benefits in daily life too: way more 'in the moment', patient, better performance at work... and a huge increae in lucid dreams! I've been trying to do more of the all day awareness techniques though. Darksyntax, would you say your approach is more being aware in the present moment without all the intense focus on senses like in ADA? I'd love to hear your approach. Best of luck!

Focusing on one sense or two would make better results, but just being in the moment is good enough. If i attempt to have a strong focus on my senses while being in the moment at the same time, it leaves me more tired than rested. This is the reason as to why i dislike ADA.. It's too stressful to do.

Originally Posted by DARKSYNTAX

If i attempt to have a strong focus on my senses while being in the moment at the same time, it leaves me more tired than rested.

I feel this way when I need to do things that require a lot of thought, then a chunk of time goes by and I'm think 'damn, I was supposed to be doing ADA!'. It seems like that mindfulness would be more sustainable for the most part, with periods of ADA throughout the day. I'm going to continue to try hard to expand ADA throughout the day though, and maybe just try to be mindful during more demanding tasks for now.

There's so many benefits to living in constant mindfulness in not only LDing, but also waking life as well. One huge +1 that I noticed when I was in the lucid living mindset, was that it made me lucid in almost all of my dreams every single night. And that was only a few months into practicing it, I'm positive if I would've went longer with it that I would've been lucid in all of my dreams every night for sure. As of recent I've been getting back into the lucid living mindset/lifestyle, so I'll be back at that point in no time.

I'm not big on ADA though, rather, Self Awareness is the big focus for me.

Without a doubt, Lucid Living/mindfulness is the key to frequent, constant, and extremely long lucid dreams.

Originally Posted by OneUp

There's so many benefits to living in constant mindfulness in not only LDing, but also waking life as well. One huge +1 that I noticed when I was in the lucid living mindset, was that it made me lucid in almost all of my dreams every single night. And that was only a few months into practicing it, I'm positive if I would've went longer with it that I would've been lucid in all of my dreams every night for sure. As of recent I've been getting back into the lucid living mindset/lifestyle, so I'll be back at that point in no time.

I'm not big on ADA though, rather, Self Awareness is the big focus for me.

Without a doubt, Lucid Living/mindfulness is the key to frequent, constant, and extremely long lucid dreams.

That sounds really great, as i have been longing to get a frequent rate of LDs.

Originally Posted by OneUp

I'm not big on ADA though, rather, Self Awareness is the big focus for me. Without a doubt, Lucid Living/mindfulness is the key to frequent, constant, and extremely long lucid dreams.

I completely agree - self awareness and overall mindfulness has been huge. I like the concept of ADA, but when you actually try to practice it 'correctly' for a day (especially hectic days like today) it feels a bit unmanageable. Maybe I can build up a lot of skill over time though. Congrats on all your progress! Awesome to hear people sticking to it and getting great results.

That sounds really great, as i have been longing to get a frequent rate of LDs.

Let me tell you man, if you make that mindset a part of your life permanently, not only will you get lucid in all of your dreams every night effortlessly over time, but it will change your dreams forever. I'm not sure if I said it in my previous reply, but once you get to that point it literally feels as though you're living two lives. This may sound bad to some as some may think "Oh well then you'll use LDing as an escape from waking life and waking life will bore you" and the truth is, that's not the case at all. As odd as it may sound, I value my dreams and waking life equally.

I completely agree - self awareness and overall mindfulness has been huge. I like the concept of ADA, but when you actually try to practice it 'correctly' for a day (especially hectic days like today) it feels a bit unmanageable. Maybe I can build up a lot of skill over time though. Congrats on all your progress! Awesome to hear people sticking to it and getting great results.

Much appreciated Oneirin. I don't how long you have been practicing your lucid mindset, but if you stick with it and never give up you will not regret it. The results that I got from my lucid living mindset is what kept me going. The hyper-realism of everything on the other side is just insane. You'll for sure build up a ton of skill over time. Just remember when/if you ever feel like quitting, remember why you started and realize how close you are to reaching your goal. Often people quit just before they are about to start getting lucid nightly with awareness techniques and lucid mindsets. There is so much gravity to the Lucid Living mindset, I don't think many people know how much it can change your life and your perspective on life entirely.

By the way guys, I've been really looking at the effects that self awareness has on my lucid dreams, and besides the benefits I already stated, I noticed that as long as I'm self aware in the dream, the dream won't end. I know that sounds crazy, but that's what I'm seeing. I'm still studying the effects of self awareness on lucids, and so far there's literally been no cons, and I don't think there will be any.

How exactly does one stay "mindful" throughout the day? And how would one integrate that into a daily lifestyle? Is there a resource or website somewhere where one might learn more about how to do this? Recently, I purchased Sam Harris's book Waking Up. I haven't sat down to read it just yet, but looking through the table of contents, it seems to give strategies and techniques for a meditative practice (in fact I believe mindfulness is central in the book). My hope is that his book will be helpful in this aim.

My goals are to lucid dream daily, though of course the benefits of a lifestyle of mindfulness would go beyond just that and support me tremendously in terms of mental health and quality of experience.

Originally Posted by OneUp

Let me tell you man, if you make that mindset a part of your life permanently, not only will you get lucid in all of your dreams every night effortlessly over time, but it will change your dreams forever. I'm not sure if I said it in my previous reply, but once you get to that point it literally feels as though you're living two lives. This may sound bad to some as some may think "Oh well then you'll use LDing as an escape from waking life and waking life will bore you" and the truth is, that's not the case at all. As odd as it may sound, I value my dreams and waking life equally.


Much appreciated Oneirin. I don't how long you have been practicing your lucid mindset, but if you stick with it and never give up you will not regret it. The results that I got from my lucid living mindset is what kept me going. The hyper-realism of everything on the other side is just insane. You'll for sure build up a ton of skill over time. Just remember when/if you ever feel like quitting, remember why you started and realize how close you are to reaching your goal. Often people quit just before they are about to start getting lucid nightly with awareness techniques and lucid mindsets. There is so much gravity to the Lucid Living mindset, I don't think many people know how much it can change your life and your perspective on life entirely.

Could you specify how you practice mindfulness? I believe that it's the act of directing attention to the present while quietening the inner mind but i'm worrying that i'm misunderstanding it. Is this a correct method to follow?

Originally Posted by Godhand

How exactly does one stay "mindful" throughout the day? And how would one integrate that into a daily lifestyle? Is there a resource or website somewhere where one might learn more about how to do this? Recently, I purchased Sam Harris's book Waking Up. I haven't sat down to read it just yet, but looking through the table of contents, it seems to give strategies and techniques for a meditative practice (in fact I believe mindfulness is central in the book). My hope is that his book will be helpful in this aim.

My goals are to lucid dream daily, though of course the benefits of a lifestyle of mindfulness would go beyond just that and support me tremendously in terms of mental health and quality of experience.

"Mindfulness is the practice of bringing one's attention to the internal and external experiences occurring in the present moment"

As far as i know, being mindful means that you pay attention to what's going on right now at this present moment. It's a bit hard to explain, but if i were to make an example, one would be to be mindful while eating. Being mindful while eating would mean that you will be focusing on the food and enjoying the taste of it, rather than being completely lost on your thoughts about something else which ultimately leaves your attention to the present moment very low. The same logic above can be applied to probably everything else.

Could you specify how you practice mindfulness? I believe that it's the act of directing attention to the present while quietening the inner mind but i'm worrying that i'm misunderstanding it. Is this a correct method to follow?

"Mindfulness is the practice of bringing one's attention to the internal and external experiences occurring in the present moment"

You already answered your question man haha. This states it perfectly. I don't so much as quiet my inner mind, but that seems to come automatically when you focus and practice mindfulness anyways. But the "attention to the internal and external experiences occurring in the present moment" is perfect. That is probably the best way I've heard someone sum up mindfulness up into one sentence ever.

Originally Posted by DARKSYNTAX

This is really the same as how it went down with me. I tried techniques for years and had little success, so i finally came to the conclusion that looking back to how i can improve my fundamentals is the remaining choice. Tried ADA but it was too stressing to work out with me, but mindfulness is actually relaxing to do. Amongst the benefits, you get improved self-awareness. And as Sageous said: Lucid dreaming fundamentals are self-awareness, memory, and the dream state itself.

With my first day with mindfulness passed, i had a lucid dream/semi-lucid dream, with a noticable increase in vividness overall. So yeah, i'm gladly going to keep this up!

These are some very important points! When I find I'm being properly mindful, I find I'm at peace and in a very relaxed state. In fact, there is a web personality who teaches mindfulness and proposes a fast way to enter a mindful state, by thinking/saying the word "Release...". That works very well for me. Release the tension, release the unnecessary thought chains, release the "laser, tight" focus on what I've been concentrating on, and open up your vision and attention, and become immersed in the experience of the present moment, in a relaxed and, well, "mindful" way.

Could you specify how you practice mindfulness? I believe that it's the act of directing attention to the present while quietening the inner mind but i'm worrying that i'm misunderstanding it. Is this a correct method to follow?

OneUp already responded to this, but I'll just add: just pay attention! By paying attention to your thoughts (not becoming immersed in them, but noticing them and acknowledging them) and your external experiences, your mind will become quiet as a side effect.

When I start a mindful moment I like to take a few deep breaths and release any mental/physical tension that has built up (and it always builds up, it's sneaky!). I like to tell myself "release...", and feel the tension melting away, and just open my attention up to what is going on with me, my thoughts, the external experience, and so on. Not a hard, tight, focused concentration, but rather allowing yourself to notice what's going on.

Originally Posted by OneUp

You already answered your question man haha. This states it perfectly. I don't so much as quiet my inner mind, but that seems to come automatically when you focus and practice mindfulness anyways. But the "attention to the internal and external experiences occurring in the present moment" is perfect. That is probably the best way I've heard someone sum up mindfulness up into one sentence ever.

Well that was silly! But atleast now i know that i should let the "quiet mind" part happen by itself.

Originally Posted by Oneirin

I would say I'm in the same boat as I've really been making the effort to be mindful throughout the entire day. I'm used to meditating, but now I'm really trying to bridge the practice into daily life. I've noticed huge benefits in daily life too: way more 'in the moment', patient, better performance at work... and a huge increae in lucid dreams!

Just started to do this yesterday prompted by this thread, in fact. I had an amazing night of dream recall - long and numerous - but in none of them did I go lucid despite the absurdity of the circumstances of the dreams. Causally connected? Perhaps!

It gives me great hope that if I make mindfulness more of a habit that I will obtain a higher degree of lucidity as did Oneirin, and not just a three-fold increase in non-lucid dream recall. To say nothing of the other benefits in my life. It made me realize how I was just coasting through day upon day without really "taking in" the features and occurrences and mind-state of my own life. That's a pretty hefty realization, no???

Thanks for starting this thread. I take away so much useful information from the folks on this forum!

DH

I'd like to add something if you don't mind. Although I don't wanna discredit ADA, I agree that it's quite stressful because just paying attention to everything is not the big picture, in my experience. It's a first, basic step though. But if one is willing to mindful of 'mindfulness', it's contradicting if he/she is controlled by the thought or emotion. Just being a spectator can cause 'temporary' quieted mind. If you're observing, but not 'filtering' egoistic or bad thoughts in you, it's harder to stay quiet, even in the dream. I also think this is part of the nightmare cause. Once your negative thought occurs, it manifests into the dream, and if you don't know how to filter, it may become a monster or evil guy in the dream. 'Be careful what you wish for.' So the lesson is you have to think before thinking.

Filtering is difficult at first, but practice will make it easy. When I did this, I could bring more joy into my life(we gotta admit that, most of people are negatively oriented stressed by work/ school. Most don't even know how to 'forgive' one either, and don't know that it actually brings 'miracles'. But through meditation, everyone can do it.) - my ego started shredding off, being more in 'heart consciousness'. I didn't have nightmares anymore since then, even if there was 'bad feeling archetypes', I didn't feel it was 'bad' at all in the dream. Vividness and length dramatically increased by overnight and even the dream plot was solid, props were wild and amazing. Hence I found out there are 2 different types of dreams: brain and heart dream. Brain dream has polarity, so you get what you want but also get what you don't want. 'I have to do this' 'I have to achieve it' come from polarity. I don't know how many times that kind of thinking brought more dry spells, I'm sure a lot of newbies experienced this as well.

Once you stop thinking by the brain, the polarity ceases to exist, your consciousness centers in the physical heart - where there's no polarity, only oneness and peace. You can fully experience infinite freedom of what you enjoy in the heart dream, by playing with your subconscious(lower self). Later I found out the dreamworld in the heart is truly 'discovering' rather than creating. It's so much different from typical LD, it REALLY is.

Anyway, the key to being mindfulness for me at least, is feeling 'eternity'. The eastern view about 'focusing in the present' is true as well, but I found stronger realization in the western view of 'eternity' rather than the present. Because past and future are illusion, yet where is present too? We'd say the present is just 'here'... but that was 2 seconds ago. So where's the present?
If you experienced time dilation in the dream, then you are pretty much convinced that there is actually no time in the universe, it's a human concept. 'Present' can only be present after the time concept is born. There's only eternity. I had noticed myself a lot, if I think about being mindfulness of 'now' it's always 'oh I should do this now', not permanent. When I understood 'eternity', the more my mind became peaceful and quiet, without being concerned about the practice itself at all.

Another misconception is having nothingness in the mind is really not 'nothing'. When polarity cease to exist, there's oneness - harmony. No more 'this is bad or good' leads to peace itself, so having a quiet mind, is not only having no thoughts at all, there is immense feeling of peace and calmness. After all, meditation is all about feeling. At least this is from my view..

Well, that was rather philosophizing, you don't have to agree with me. Just wanted to throw $2 here. But most of heart dream thing is true in my experience

Originally Posted by Windhover@

I'd like to add something if you don't mind. Although I don't wanna discredit ADA, I agree that it's quite stressful because just paying attention to everything is not the big picture, in my experience. It's a first, basic step though. But if one is willing to mindful of 'mindfulness', it's contradicting if he/she is controlled by the thought or emotion. Just being a spectator can cause 'temporary' quieted mind. If you're observing, but not 'filtering' egoistic or bad thoughts in you, it's harder to stay quiet, even in the dream. I also think this is part of the nightmare cause. Once your negative thought occurs, it manifests into the dream, and if you don't know how to filter, it may become a monster or evil guy in the dream. 'Be careful what you wish for.' So the lesson is you have to think before thinking.

Filtering is difficult at first, but practice will make it easy. When I did this, I could bring more joy into my life(we gotta admit that, most of people are negatively oriented stressed by work/ school. Most don't even know how to 'forgive' one either, and don't know that it actually brings 'miracles'. But through meditation, everyone can do it.) - my ego started shredding off, being more in 'heart consciousness'. I didn't have nightmares anymore since then, even if there was 'bad feeling archetypes', I didn't feel it was 'bad' at all in the dream. Vividness and length dramatically increased by overnight and even the dream plot was solid, props were wild and amazing. Hence I found out there are 2 different types of dreams: brain and heart dream. Brain dream has polarity, so you get what you want but also get what you don't want. 'I have to do this' 'I have to achieve it' come from polarity. I don't know how many times that kind of thinking brought more dry spells, I'm sure a lot of newbies experienced this as well.

Once you stop thinking by the brain, the polarity ceases to exist, your consciousness centers in the physical heart - where there's no polarity, only oneness and peace. You can fully experience infinite freedom of what you enjoy in the heart dream, by playing with your subconscious(lower self). Later I found out the dreamworld in the heart is truly 'discovering' rather than creating. It's so much different from typical LD, it REALLY is.

Anyway, the key to being mindfulness for me at least, is feeling 'eternity'. The eastern view about 'focusing in the present' is true as well, but I found stronger realization in the western view of 'eternity' rather than the present. Because past and future are illusion, yet where is present too? We'd say the present is just 'here'... but that was 2 seconds ago. So where's the present?
If you experienced time dilation in the dream, then you are pretty much convinced that there is actually no time in the universe, it's a human concept. 'Present' can only be present after the time concept is born. There's only eternity. I had noticed myself a lot, if I think about being mindfulness of 'now' it's always 'oh I should do this now', not permanent. When I understood 'eternity', the more my mind became peaceful and quiet, without being concerned about the practice itself at all.

Another misconception is having nothingness in the mind is really not 'nothing'. When polarity cease to exist, there's oneness - harmony. No more 'this is bad or good' leads to peace itself, so having a quiet mind, is not only having no thoughts at all, there is immense feeling of peace and calmness. After all, meditation is all about feeling. At least this is from my view..

Well, that was rather philosophizing, you don't have to agree with me. Just wanted to throw $2 here. But most of heart dream thing is true in my experience

Your understanding of mindfulness is interesting. When i see it as eternity, it gets easier to actually stay mindful. And like you said, past and future are mere concepts, and while there is present, it's always changing to the point where it becomes more like eternity.

Originally Posted by DARKSYNTAX

Focusing on one sense or two would make better results, but just being in the moment is good enough. If i attempt to have a strong focus on my senses while being in the moment at the same time, it leaves me more tired than rested. This is the reason as to why i dislike ADA.. It's too stressful to do.

Could i ask.what is the difference between ADA and self awareness? Thanx

Perhaps, Windhover, that's why in Mindfulness practice it's called the 'eternal now', not just a 'now' that is a given moment that fleetingly passes by.

I don't see self-awareness and ADA as being competitive concepts. Self-awareness, in its simplest description, is being aware that you exist: "I am." Not to put words in others' mouths, but I think there is an added element when it comes to LDing in that you also take responsibility for what you perceive, and you acknowledge that it, too, is part of the 'I am.'

ADA (All Day Awareness), on the other hand, is being aware of all sensory input at any given moment, ideally maintaining said awareness throughout the day.

ADA includes the concept of self-awareness, but self-awareness does not necessarily include ADA.

Self-awareness and mindfulness involve higher level concepts of self and mind. ADA focuses on immersion in lower-level sense input.

DV has threads of discussions of the approaches. I agree with Sageous that ADA is the awareness of a prey-animal like mouse: a hyper aware environmental focus without the all-important sense of self of self-awareness.

So, I promote AAD (Awareness, All Day): it should be the self-awareness/mindfulness type of awareness, IMO. You can notice your environment, of course, but don't elevate it in importance above observing your mind and thoughts/reactions, etc.

Originally Posted by Clidu

Could i ask.what is the difference between ADA and self awareness? Thanx

The others have already answered your question, but i'll try to do that myself.

ADA heavily relies on sensory awareness, such as paying a lot of attention into what you see, hear or touch. It's like how an animal is hyper-aware of its environment in fear of predators or any sort of danger.

Self-awareness is a strange thing to describe. It's like being aware of your existence or something along the lines. It gives a sense of individuality. I don't really know how to describe it further than this. Self-awareness, for some reason, is extremely important for lucid dreaming. If you were self-aware for even a moment in a dream, you would likely trigger lucidity. Evident by the fact that on my mindfulness practice, i became lucid several times after having a strange feeling in the dream, with no other trigger for lucidity at all.

And since self-awareness is a fundamental in lucid dreaming, i decided to directly work on it, in the form of mindfulness.

Other than that, here's some sort of progress post.

It's been a few days of mindfulness, and while i haven't been doing it 24/7 i'm trying to increase it with every day.
So far there have been around 3 major changes that i noticed through yesterday and today. For one, my dreams have suddenly become weirder than before with more ridiculous things happening, the other things being increased dream recall and vividness.

I have not gained lucidity yet, but i have this weird feeling that i'm at the edge of hitting lucidity.

This leaves more practice to be the solution.