Claritas' Adventures in YogaLand

I will try to take notes from the lessons and share my progress during the course.

Progress
Day 1: Sounds (30 mins), Touching (30 mins), Candy (30 mins), Location (30 mins)

1. Yoga

• it is what we may call a discipline or an art
• it isn't a religion, but many reference materials are from eastern religions and cultures
• strictly: it is any system where exercise or practice can lead to improvement in that area
• modern/deeper concept: this exercise is of a nature to help bring spiritual awareness in the practitioner

2. Dream Yoga

• any system of training that develops the skills of the yogi (you) while asleep
• for example: WILD which is a Dream Yogi Trance.
• how you master LDs or you can take it much further into self exploration and deep emotional experiences
• it should advance your self awareness, and increase your LD skills in the same way exercise improves an athlete

3. Sensory Awareness Meditation

• a meditation in which you become hyper-aware of the real physical world around you
• the meditations can vary in the methods used
• involves developing an awareness for how your brain is always limiting and filtering the sensory stimuli that actually ends up being perceived

4. Stimuli

• animals/humans process the incoming stimuli pick
• they choose what stimuli will be part of the conscious experience
• this is done all the time and on average only about 5-10% of external stimuli will be perceived
• if you think about this, it is a needed coping mechanism
• the amount of impulses at any given moment is just too huge to take in

1. Listening to a Noisy World (Level 1: first attempt)
I sit down in a sofa for 30 minutes with closed eyes. When I started I only heard 2 sounds (the gas and the clock), then when I moved around a lot of sounds appeared. I heard the cars outside, the birds, the neighbour movements who lives above me, my granny's snore from the other room, the footsteps of my puppy, the ring of the phone and which I surprised the most: my own breathing sound. I noticed that there are sounds which are appear quick then stops after a while, and I was playing with that too to focus the nearest sounds, then hear the farest, I tried changing the place where I try listening for example: kitchen, room, outside. I noticed that I can't hear much noise in the same time. The other interesting thing was that after a while I felt my head hevier and hevier. I still tried listening to noises, but it looked harder like I didn't hear noises actively. Suddenly I saw a bath, and in the water there was a piece of wood, and the water boiled in its surroundings. I didn't hear any sound of the bubbling, and I got so surprised, so I wake up myself and started focusing again. I tried pay attention on my goal: listen to any sound. I was listening to clock and anything which I could, then suddenly it was like something knocked on the carpet infront of me. I didn't see any picture now, only sound, but I wake up from the surprise again. After a little bit my phone warned me for the time.

2. Feel an Intense World (Level 1: first attempt)
I sit down in a sofa for 30 minutes with closed eyes. I stopped the counting above 30 things which I didn't notice before. I found the most interesting thing the way of the air, how I felt it from my nose, my back of my mouth, under my palate etc. It was fun on focusing on the different kind of textiles and how they contact with my different body parts. I noticed that the ichies and the painful feelings are changing place even if I change position or not. I recognised that if something is ichy if I focus on one of my different feeling, it usually gone, but I tried out to focus on the ichy part strongly, and it made gone too. With the pain feeling it was other, when I focus on it, it became a terror, the only help was when I focused on one of my different body part or moved it. I tried out that to pay attention for those feelings which I feel strongest in each seconds, and as a surprise, they changed location constantly. The other thing was that sometimes I was aware of the noises, sometimes it was like I sit in a mute room. I felt the most pain in my legs during sitting, they felt horrible multiple times, but after change my focus it stopped.

3. Mixing it up (Level 1: first attempt)
I found the hardest compared the two previous exercises. I sit down for 30 minutes too. I didn't bite the candy, I moved it only once near the end of the exercise, because in my mouth a lot of saliva appeared, but I didn't swallow during the entire time. First I only felt the hot flavor where it was, but slowly I could feel it first in the deepest part of my tongue, then in my left and right side of my tongue. Sometimes it was new that I could hear noises. For a while I didn't experience any sound, then it was like something "new" when suddenly I could hear again. It happened with my body parts too. For a while I didn't feel it, only my mouth, but when I felt my other body parts again. I was the most awake during this exercise, because when the phone rang I didn't feel that it wake me up. The other thing that this was that exercise when I felt strong necessary to open my eyes and check the phone, but I could resist it. If I compare the beginning and the end of the flavor, its strange, but I felt a little bit sweeter at the end.

4. Own: Know your Location (Level 1: first attempt)
When I am in a Lucid Dream I know it is a dream because my environment has different "feeling" with my mind compared when I am awake. I can feel the different objects and the changings of the environment during sleep. I decided to do an exercise based on the candy. I set my phone for 30 mins then I started to keep "feel" I am "awake" or not. I was walking outside and I was focusing continously on check with my mind my location. Every time when I forgot the task, I started again. I tried it without space off my attention.

Notes: I will continue to advanced levels when I catch permission to do it. :)

1. Listening to a Noisy World (Level 1)
During I was practicing it yesterday, I recognised that if the source of the sound moves, I can hear the direction of it. I tried to follow my little puppy's journey in the flat. The other thing is that during the day I noticed that I could hear sounds better, and my walking was more vivid in the streets. In the dream today I could hear all the sentences, but once it happened I tried listening to a character, and I fall off the dream. But I listened more with my ears how I practiced it when I was awake.

2. Feel an Intense World (Level 1)
This was much more better than yesterday. I didn't feel that much pain. I recognised my pulse, I hanged down my hairs and I felt the gravition of it and I felt my heart too. During the day I didn't have to skratch myself and I could deal with the cold temperature. During the night a miracle happened, I could stabilize the dream by feeling my arms, and it helped me to stay in my dream body. The other thing was that when I was about to fall out from a dream, I could grab something, and I could feel it until I didn't go back to the dream.

3. Mixing it up (Level 1)
Today I tried it out different. First I used another flavored candy. I recognised that after a while I couldn't feel its sweet taste, so I had to move it with my tongue. The other thing was that I was moving my body sometimes during the exercise, and I tried to be conscious about the candy while I did it. I could finish one dialogue which I wanted to say to a very nice Dream Guide, so I feel happy now.

4. Know your Location (Level 1)
I didn't have one conscious dream today (as usually), because I had four from them.
I feel so happy, it looks like all these things started working so quick.

1. Listening to a Noisy World (Level 1)
I noticed that in the real life I started hearing sounds more loudly.
Sometimes it spontanously happens, so I start hearing more when I do my daily routine too.

2. Feel an Intense World (Level 1)
After a few attempts, it became easy to not feel myself hurt during the exercise.
If I compare it to the first attempt, it was horrible, I can feel more comfortable now.
Today when I felt that in my dream, it will end, I tried focusing on my body for a bit.
I think I did it so short, that is why it ended after like a minute, I think I should increase the time of feel the actual area. I think I will try increase the area which I feel with my mind, because in my dreams (today and yesterday) I didn't focus on only one of my body part, so I focused on more at the same time: for example my two hands, today my legs, arms, stomach.

3. Mixing it up (Level 1)
I was reading the forum, so I tried combine it with the sounds and feelings now.
I noticed that because something happened with me yesterday, I experienced monologues during the exercise. After I recognised it, I've got that idea I want to improve my conversation skill with Dream Characters, so I tried talking during I tried paying attention on the candy.

4. Know your Location (Level 2)
I've got that idea I should see persons in a different way. I thought that Dream Characters like to take the form of other people who I know when I'm awake, so I try to feel that I'm awake or not if I contact with anybody. I hope that it will be automatically, and I will never make the mistake to see a Dream Character as somebody else.

Yesterday I had a lot of thoughts because of an event, and my focus ruined. I did the exercises, but I only had two few seconds long lucids. I think the degree of focusing for a given day and the length of lucids are in connection.

In the first one I felt instable and focused with my mind I want to be stay there, and it worked. But it ended because I waked up myself, because something not pleasant happened. It is one of my old habit, now I know that I should change it, because I can controll it based on the article, but at least I could stabilize for a while. In the second one I became so excited about see a very nice Dream Guide, and I fall out after 5 words. As a pity I remember for 3 simple dreams next to it, but I didn't became lucid. I recognised that I have to focus during the exercises, no matter what happens in a given day.

1. Listening to a Noisy World (Level 1)
Based on yesterday experience, I decided to force myself to stop my disturbing thoughts, because I felt they will kill the effect of it. I was focusing on sounds, and at the end of the exercise, the idea came to try to move my conscious into sleepy state. I haven't tried it out, so I aimed to do it. I felt how I feel myself when I am sleepy, and I continued the exercise. I've noticed today a new kind of sound: I heard something high whizz in my ears. First a little light green something appeared in a river. I tried see it, but it disappeared. Then I saw a kind of carpet pattern from plan, but it passed. After that it was like I sit in the sofa, and my feet were playing, but they were children legs, and I saw a few movements of it. The phone rang, and I stopped. I decided to try move my mind in that way in the future during the beginning of listening exercises.

3. Mixing it up (Level 1)
I put the candy into my mouth, but I had that idea what happens, if I don't just focus on the candy and make it more interesting. I focus on the top of my head, and I started arrange the energy, and focusing on fly higher. At a point I felt that urgency to only focus on the light which came, so I was thinking between the candy and the light, but finally I choose the light and the energies instead of the candy, because I thought that I should focus on one stable thing too. For a while I was thinking about that my physical head shape is different than what I feel now, because the energy was upper than my physical head ended, so I recognised that I don't use my physical head, only my physical body. I heard voices which were singing loudly repeating sentences. I didn't want headache now, so I decided to be carefully now. Slowly I stabilized into my physical head with my mind, and changed the focusing point to the candy. I decided to use my breathing to make the feeling of stabilize the different energies under my face. I went out from the transe so slowly to be sure about not catch headache.

2. Feel an Intense World (Level 1)
I started feel my different parts of my skin, and I realized that this practicing is a great way to learn how to be perfectly motionless in sitting without ichy feeling or pain. After a while I decided to feel the energies in my top of the head, and in my head. So I followed their ways, and I tried to shape them again. I heard music again. I experienced the light. At the end I stabilized my head, and I started feeling my muscles again on my face. I guess the energies are part of my body too.

I became so tired after Mixing it Up, so I didn't start the location exercises, but I practiced it spontanously during the day. I tried relaxing my mind, because in these ways the practicing was more intensive. It looks like I won't do them in this way again, because my brain was so tired to recognise dreams too. It seems those exercises are good which aren't make me tired.

I had a skip on Saturday for make a little rest. It worked, because I had a lucid dream finally.
I was practicing today. I learnt from the sounds exercise that I have to be in that position where my body can sleep without holding it when the HH images starts appear or I won't be able to get into the dream stage.

Progress
Day 1: Sounds (30 mins), Touching (30 mins), Candy (30 mins)
Day 2: Sounds (30 mins), Touching (30 mins), Candy (30 mins)
Day 3: Sounds (30 mins), Touching (30 mins), Candy (30 mins)
Day 4: Sounds (30 mins), Touching (30 mins), Candy (30 mins)
Day 5: Sounds (30 mins), Touching (30 mins), Candy (30 mins)
Day 7: Sounds (30 mins), Touching (30 mins), Candy (30 mins)

Total: 540 mins