Quote Originally Posted by WildWolf1 View Post
I'm not a Zen master, I can't just stop thinking and become detached from reality on command.
As Tiktaalik said above, it's not about being a Zen master; it's really more about letting go of your focus on whatever you're doing, to give room for asking those very same critical questions. I sometimes handle it not by completely stopping what I'm doing but by paying close attention to a few things, such as what I'm thinking, paying attention to what's around me, or to what has changed/hasn't changed in the last few moments, and to how/if the environment changes with my thoughts.

The point of giving room for those questions, even if you're not fully interrupting what you're doing, is to consider them in full, even for just a moment, because if you don't then you will likely struggle to override the same automatic behaviour in dreams.