Thread: NyxCC's workbook

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

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.

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

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.


<Moved day updates below.>

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.

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.

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!

Thanks for the replies guys!

Originally Posted by bemistaken

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!

Originally Posted by Threecat

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! 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.

Originally Posted by 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!

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!

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. 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)

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.

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

Pending Review for March

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.

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

Happy Lucids for June and beyond

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

Goals for August

[ ] 10 day audio

[ ] 10 bed time audio

[ ] 10 wbtb

[ ] new supp trials

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

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

Thanks I"m good. I hav"t updated my workbook in ages but have been active on site - 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 - during a WILD attempt I suddenly opened my eyes in my bright room - ok closed them again pretty soon but still!

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

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!

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

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

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)

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.

Originally Posted by NyxCC

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!

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!

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!

@ fogelbise

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

@ dreaming gaze

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

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.

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 . 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!

One Love.
Bemistaken