Advice and motivation needed for a very frustrated beginner please

[Samten]

Hi everyone I am brand new to MM but have been attempting to LD for a year or so. I am at a point where I feel I am about to give up my LD attempts as I am becoming so frustrated but I really hate to give up on a venture particularly one I am so interested in. I am kinda hoping some of you may be able to offer some advice or motivation from your own experiences that may spur me on.

Let me first give you an outline of what I have been up to. After hearing about LD  I decided to read a book on the subject and then had my first very brief lucid dream the very next morning! Brilliant I thought this would be easy. Wrong. A year later I have only had 2 more lucid dreams and only one of them has lasted over a minute where I had some level of control. I keep a regular dream journal and regularly journal two dreams a night. I have identified dream signs and I perform reality checks every time I come across anything related to the DS and I also RC when I come across anything that is dream like such as coincidences etc. Additionally I have practiced mindfulness/meditation and yoga for 7 years and feel I have a decent level of all day awareness. Each night I go to sleep mindfully and visualize myself recognizing DS and the RC and becoming lucid. Each morning I wake up amazed that I missed DS and did not become lucid. I have started to WBTB lately to try to kick start the LD but this also gives no results. I have searched the internet and forums looking for techniques but have come to the conclusion that I am doing everything right and therefore feel I am at the point were I will reluctantly admit defeat 

But recently I read an article by Ryan Hurd at dreamstudies.org that said beginners often experience burn out due to trying to many techniques all at once with little results and I feel this relates to me. Ryan suggests breaks after intense periods of attempting various tactics and strategies, and that often lucid dreams can appear during this time. I wondered if anyone had any thoughts on this? What constitutes as a break? Should I stop doing RC's in the day or try to forget all about lucid dreaming for a spell including keeping a dream journal? Part of me worries that I will undue some of the hard work I have done in increasing my dream recall due to journalling. I also wondered how long this break should be took for. Please help 

[Sunshine]

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[Samten]

Hi and thanks for your advice and sympathy Moonbeam 

I think this forum will help to keep the interest up, but to be honest I have been full on obsessed with LD for a while now. I talk (and bore) to lots of people about it regularly.

I think youre right about keeping the dream journal but think I will have a period of time off the techniques and then have a rethink about my approach when I come back to it. And yes I've considered supplements and will prob give them a  go at some time in the  future.

[Jomid59]

you can bug people here to look at your DJ. 

 

[Shellidfl]

Well met, Samten!

I agree with everything MoonBeam says.  I too, recently read Ryan talking about giving a break if you have been trying, and am considering doing just that.  I do take supplements, and don't like that I seem to rely on them every 6-7 days or so to have a great night of lucid dreams, although usually if I dream of being in a plane that's about to crash...

Keep doing what you are doing during the day, and don't try not to stress about what you will do at night.  That's my 2 cents worth - oh, I live in Canada, we cannot give 2 cents any more...

[Sunshine]

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[Samten]

Thanks guys. I am determined not to give up feel like the effort outweighs the results and somehow think my frustration is preventing me from having lucid dreams as the lucids I have had seemed to have nothing to do with techniques  . I was kinda hoping someone would say "just keep going  and in a couple of months the lucids will start coming" 

[Sunshine]

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[iadr]

I am at a point where I feel I am about to give up my LD attempts as I am becoming so frustrated but I really hate to give up on a venture particularly one I am so interested in. I am kinda hoping some of you may be able to offer some advice or motivation from your own experiences that may spur me on.

Continuing to try to do something that isn't working can be very frustrating Samten. Lucid dreaming is like building a house. You need to have a good foundation for the rest of the house to hold up. With lucid dreaming that foundation is good dream recall. So it is probably best to concentrate more on developing your dream recall rather than becoming lucid at first, and just have as many vivid dreams as you can, after which becoming lucid will become easier. With good dream recall you can often wake up right after a dream and then go right back into it and be lucid. Watch your thoughts after waking up from dreams also, as not every WILD is a mind blowing OBE type of experience, as some of them can be so subtle and quick that they can be missed if your not watching for them. Best oi luck to you.

[Samten]

Thanks Iadr. I think thats good advice as my dreams are becoming more and more vivid which I feel will aid the quest. The most successful lucid i had was a WILD that came from reentering a dream I had woke from and was very easy at the time, but that was months ago and Ive been unable to repeat it since 
Bizarely I had a vivid dream last night in which I dreamed that I had a lucid dream and in the dreamed lucid dream I had a vision of a car crash that then came true in the dream  amazingly all this didn't trigger a lucid dream. I then managed to reenter the dream after really waking up but without lucidity 

[iadr]

Thanks Iadr. I think thats good advice as my dreams are becoming more and more vivid which I feel will aid the quest.

You're welcome. The fact that your dreams are becoming more and more vivid is a good sign, and something that you can concentrate on to help maintain a positive attitude. As one of the most important things in becoming good at lucid dreaming is to have a positive attitude toward it, and believe that you can do it, concentrating on the successes you're having along the way, such as your improved recall, and more vivid dreams, will keep you from getting depressed, and help you maintain the positive attitude that you need to succeed in lucid dreaming.

[PerchanceToDream]

Hi Samten,

I too am new to LD, at least this time round. A decade or so ago and almost a year of practice later, I began to have regular LDs. When I stopped practicing, the lucidity and dream recall stopped too.

I am determined to see it through and know that it may take many months of dedication.

From a self-talk point of view, I affirm, in the present, as if it's real now, that I have regular lucid dreams, that I remember my dreams, that I become aware and awake in my dreams at will. I don't want to have LDs in the future, I have them now! Very important programming for the subconscious mind. Positive affirmations, in the now.

Due to your interest in spiritual growth, the following two books might appeal to you. The content might just be the juicy stuff your deepest self needs to get truly inspired. You should grasp the concepts easily.

- Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self by Robert Waggoner
- Dreaming Yourself Awake: Lucid Dreaming and Tibetan Dream Yoga for Insight and Transformation by B. Alan Wallace

Keep up with the dream journal and affirm your success, as if it is real now, and enjoy being lucid!

PerchanceToDream

[Shellidfl]

Samten.

I agree with PerchanceTo Dream about the first book - it reenergized my NEED to LD. 

I just finished attending a very successful online two week conference put on by the International Association for the Study of Dreams. It was amazing.

I was quite successful myself in doing some of the activities.  I am only telling you this as a year ago, I was "new again" to LD.  Give it time, keep up with it, and you too will see success!

[majic]

Donn miss the simplicity of it all, I dont meditate, do yoga, I eat red meat and will drink beer if I feel like and as much or as little as I want so a "good" life in my mind has nothing to do with lucid dreaming. Kids do it easy and have no idea or concept at all so it becomes whatever works is good.

Two key concepts, one in attempting to do a WILD you are wanting to stay awake while going to sleep and that is it, nothing more and nothing less. If you get to sleep while retaining some waking awareness then job done. When drifting back to sleep in the early hours elevate yourself a little and just simply observe yourself going to sleep. Look into the darkness and stay aware by observing but not thinking about what you see. Most times you will go to sleep and that's not so bad but one day you wont and a new world will open to you.

If you miss the entry then you will be closer to awareness during a dream and may get lucid then, it is very simple and very frustrating at the same time.
So stay awake while observing each part of you mind or body shut down or change its role and enjoy the trip

[Samten]

Thanks for the suggestions and the encouragement guys. I have actually had an eventful morning of lucid dreaming although I did use the aid of some supplements and the experience wasn't entirely pleasant  (which I am about to post in my dream journal).

Thanks for the book recommendation Perchance, I have read the Allan Wallace book and did enjoy it. I am looking forward to a similar book by Charley Morley that comes out next month. Charley is a lucid dreaming teacher who practices Tibetan Buddhism from the same lineage that I do and he has devised a mindfulness of dream and sleep program and I am hoping his approach will benefit me.

And I agree majic it is clear plenty of people successfully lucid dream without yoga and meditating. This is just something that I like to do to improve the quality of my life and those around me.  I just imagined when getting into lucid dreaming that  these skills would aid me to become lucid, but apparently not    I also very much like to drink beer too, and that doesn't seem to help either