I work in an instalation, inside an office. I sit all day long in front of a computer, with breaks for lunch and the occasional need to go to the factory itself, since my work is a misc between theory and practice regarding industrial production.
Given this context...i do reality tests...but dont know if they are enough. Please consider my dream signs:
- changes in location
- family
-co-workers
- poor reasoning (not questioning what i see)
I do a reality test each time i:
- walk by a specific location
- glitch in my computer (rare)
- i see a co-worker.
When i get off work, i do reality tests when i see my family and when i'm on my way home (following the journey technique)
My mindset throughout the day is of constant inspection of my surroundings, doing breaks in my pc work, just to check if everything is "coherent" and consistent.
Is this enough?
I ask this due to my low rate of lucid dreams (one or 2 in 3 months, that lasted seconds).
I usually go to bed at 23:30, and i did listen Daniel saying that goind to bed early increases the chance of attaining lucidity.
In a related matter, did anyone else do the mental exercizes described in Laberge's book, to develop will, memory and mindfullness, if so did it improved your mental accuity?
Regarding journalling, does anyone mixes in the same journal your daily journal and the dream journal entries, for dreamseed's sake, and does it help maintainning a daily journal to improve clarity of thought?
I know lucid dreaming is subjective, regarding what works and does not work since that varies from person to person, and i intend to experiment with all that...right now i'm just gathering feedback.
Excuse any grammar errors. English is not my main dialect.
Hi there! I'll try to return here and add more when I can, but for now:
I was wondering how long you've been doing your lucid dreaming practices? I feel like I've seen you around the forum and streams for a while, but I can't quite place it on a timeline. Because to me, one or two lucid dreams in three months isn't a low rate at all -- that's very good! Were these your first lucid dreams? If so, this is even better. I still struggle with waking up too soon due to shock and/or excitement, so well done!
It's a little hard to judge by what you list here, and not knowing much about your circumstances, but from what you've said here, it seems to me that you're doing well.
Regarding the daytime journal: I do recall hearing Love saying that keeping a daytime journal as well is beneficial for lucid dreaming. I think it was during a stream, though I cannot for the life of me recall which one at the moment (I'll link it here later if I can think of it, though the livestreams do tend to get confused in my head). Personally, I try to identify as many dream seeds as possible, and list those in my dream journal.
Hi Alexandre,
It may be possible that the lack of lucid dreams may be attributed to a lack of awareness, which makes sense given the nature of your job. You may not realize it, but there may be long moments of time in which you are not aware of your surroundings, therefore not questioning your reality. For many people, this is problematic as they can't find any point of interest to do reality checks between those moments. The best method I found that solves this issue is the Break the Circle technique, which was shown in a video by Daniel Love.
There is a handful of helpful alterations to this technique that really just involve holding a simple gesture. The basis of this technique is that whenever you are not thinking about holding the gesture (getting distracted), your body automatically resets its position. Whenever you realize that you are no longer holding the gesture, you do a reality test, then hold the gesture again. This compensates for the lack of dream signs in your waking life by forcing awareness through a simple gesture.
If you can't use your hands to hold the gesture, you could use your toes or other body parts in a similar way, whatever is comfortable and easy to conceal.
Finally, consider how long you've been trying. I didn't have my first lucid dream until 3 months after committing. Even after that, my frequency of lucid dreams for the first 6 months was one a month. It takes a while for your mind to pick up on what you are doing, and even longer for you personally to understand what you might be doing wrong. Persistence is key. I hope what I said helps.