Archive for the 'Personal Development' Category
This article is Part 9 in the series Mastering the Art of Lucid Dreaming.
In my previous article, I described how reality checks can help you achieve lucid dreams, and how to use your personal dream symbols as triggers to perform a variety of reality checks. In this article, I'll cover other simple reality checking techniques to help you become lucid in your dreams.
One of the easiest reality checks involves using written or printed text to determine whether or not you are dreaming. In dreams, text nearly always shifts, wiggles, or changes as you glance at it. This makes it perfect for use in a reality check. Whenever you ask yourself, "Am I dreaming?", glance at something with text written or printed on it. Use a book, newspaper, sign, billboard, or anything else you can find that contains clear and easy-to-read text. Stare at the text for a moment. If the text remains clear and does not shift or wiggle, read the words and fix them in your mind then look away briefly. Look back again at the text and verify the words have not changed.
If the words have changed, congratulations! You are dreaming! If the words have not changed, try …Continue reading
This article is Part 8 in the series Mastering the Art of Lucid Dreaming.
In order to determine whether or not you are dreaming, it is necessary to develop a habit of performing frequent reality checks. A reality check simply involves asking yourself a question, such as "Am I dreaming?" or "Is this a dream?", and may also involve specific actions you can take to determine if you are awake or dreaming.
Because most of us are not in the habit of asking ourselves "Am I dreaming?" while in the midst of a dream, we must train ourselves to get into the habit of questioning our reality. By training yourself to regularly question your reality during waking life to determine whether or not you are dreaming, the habit will eventually carry over to your dreaming life and ultimately you will find yourself posing the question while dreaming. When that happens, you'll greatly increase the odds of realizing you are within a dream and thus increase the odds of achieving lucidity.
Asking yourself "Am I dreaming?" only whenever the thought occurs to you will not help you develop the habit. Instead, you must make a habit of remembering to perform reality checks at frequent intervals throughout the day. It may help to schedule your reality checks so they coincide with other events that typically occur multiple times during each day, such as every time you eat, every time you use the restroom, every time you walk in or out of your home, or even every time you walk through any doorway. If you make it a point to …Continue reading
This article is Part 7 in the series Mastering the Art of Lucid Dreaming.
Every person has his or her own personal dream symbols — objects, events, people, or places that appear frequently within dreams. One person may dream often of a specific animal, while another may find himself or herself frequently visiting the same location in dreams. These commonly appearing phenomena vary from person to person and are known as personal dream symbols.
Discovering your own personal dream symbols can be of great help in achieving conscious dreaming. Once you have discovered your personal dream symbols, you will be able to use those objects and events as cues for a reality check in order to trigger a conscious dreaming experience.
In order to discover your personal dream symbols, it is necessary to keep a dream journal. (Refer to the previous entry to learn the best methods for recording your dreams to encourage lucid dreaming.) Over time, you will begin to notice patterns emerging in your journal. Certain keywords will appear more often than others. You will discover …Continue reading
This article is Part 6 in the series Mastering the Art of Lucid Dreaming.
Keeping a dream journal is the single most effective method for enhancing dream recall. It also can be highly effective at helping you achieve lucid dreaming. By recording the details of each dream in your journal, you will be able to track dream patterns and discover your personal dream cues, which then can be used in other techniques to trigger conscious dreaming.
The first step is to obtain a notebook or journal in which to record your dreams. Keep the journal and a pen or pencil beside your bed at all times, with your journal left open to the next blank page. You also may want to obtain a second journal to leave in any other location in your home where you might fall asleep (such as the reclining chair in front of the television) or to take with you when you travel.
It is important to store your dream journal in an easily accessible location, preferably next to your bed. Even the slightest amount of activity can cause you to forget the details of a dream, and the small amount of activity involved in getting out of bed to locate your dream journal may …Continue reading
Meditation is one of the best ways to expand your awareness and explore various states of consciousness, but most people have the misconception that meditation requires you to "blank your mind" or eliminate all thoughts. While it's true that some forms of meditation involve quieting the mind, there are a variety of meditation techniques that don't. Meditation doesn't have to be as complicated as many people make it out to be. Something as simple as washing the dishes, gardening, or doodling a picture can become a meditation if approached in the right way. The Meditation Bible, a terrific book written by Madonna Gauding, describes dozens of easy meditation techniques and I highly recommend it for anyone who wishes to give meditation a try.
I typically prefer to listen to the Insight CD while I meditate because it relaxes the body and guides the mind into a very deep state, but every so often I enjoy a silent meditation. I usually meditate for twenty to thirty minutes at a time, but I don't like to watch the clock while I meditate, and sometimes it is difficult to gauge when twenty minutes have passed. Anyone who has practiced meditation regularly for more than a few weeks can testify to how distorted your sense of time can become during a meditation session.
A simple solution would be to use a kitchen timer, but the sound is so unpleasant and it's never fun to be jolted out of a quiet meditation session by such a grating sound. I wanted a more relaxing sound to signal the end of my meditation session, so I created a simple meditation timer, which I'm giving away for free. …Continue reading
