5 Ways to Improve Self Awareness in Lucid Dreams
Self awareness is essential to every lucid dreamer. Having the ability to become self aware in a dream is what makes lucid dreams possible. You can become aware of your surroundings, your feelings and your desires enabling endless possibilities within the lucid dream.
I am going to share with you 5 methods you can use to become more self aware in both waking life and in your dreams.
Method #1: Observe Your Surroundings
When entering a lucid dream, set yourself a goal of making detailed observations. Take into consideration the colours, shapes and sizes of everything you discover, and even the different smells you observe. Taking all these things into consideration will allow for you to become more self-aware in the lucid dreams you have.
For example, if you enter a scene which seems to be unrealistic, deeply observe every detail you possibly can, from the floor color, to the smell of the air. Don’t be afraid to spend a significant amount of time making observations of the scene – it can be fun!
Method #2: Observe Yourself
As you enter a lucid dream, strange things may happen, things out of the ordinary, which would not likely happen in real life. Now, how does it feel to watch and observe those things? Feels pretty strange, correct? That is completely expected, and is very common for lucid dreamers. However, what many people don’t do is observe their own physical feelings during these moments. Take a deep breath, and for a few moments, observe how you feeling. Are you feeling numb? Is your body aching? These are the sort of things you need to ask yourself within a lucid dream.
For me, I found that when I become lucid, my body gives numbing sensations although I am freely allowed to move. It’s a strange, but pleasurable feeling that can only be understood once experienced. I can assure you that when I woke up; it was one of the first things I noticed about the dream, and allowed me to instantly differentiate the dream from reality with further lucid dream experiences.
As you observe your physical state, you should then move on to more emotional aspects of your dream. Are you feeling anxious? Scared? Stressed? As you begin to open up to these feelings, you will allow for yourself to becoming more aware of your situation which can enhance the lucid dream experience.
Method #3: Imagine Impossible Scenarios
Being lucid in a dream gives you the opportunity to do whatever you please with your mind. This means you can explore deep scenarios which may definitely make no sense in waking life. This is closely related to the process of “reality checking.”
Take any item you can think of, and imagine something impossible happening to that item. For example, a glass full of water can be used to demonstrate the impossible scenario. Throw the glass against the wall and imagine it bouncing back into your hands. As you experiment with impossible scenarios, you will create a more vivid memory than you would if an experience made logical sense. Of course, this is but one of the infinite scenarios you can come up with.
Method #4: Imagine a Dream Scene
Each night before you sleep, imagine a scene where you would love to be, and eventually you will be situated in that dream. This may sound easy in theory, but it will take time and practice for it to work. The more established a lucid dreamer you become, the easier it will be for it to happen.
One example scene which could be imagined might be bouncing on the clouds. Because of the impossibility of this ever happening in waking life, it will increase your awareness in the dream, which is the goal of this method.
To enhance this method further, as you visualise the dream scene, a good idea is to add emotion to the dream. A dream is more likely to be memorable if it contains strong emotions. That being said, negative emotions can cause conflict in the dream and may also result in recurring bad dreams, so positive strong emotions such as excitement or elation are best! For this reason, try to avoid scary or distressing movies or books before attempting this dream scene method.
Method #5: Practice Self-Awareness
Once you’re in a lucid dream, a combination of techniques can be used to reinforce the fact you are dreaming, and not awake. As soon as you become lucid, begin exploring your surroundings by looking around you and choosing a target you find interesting. This can be accomplished through doing a 360 rotation from whatever position you’re in. As you observe shapes and objects, you may find that some objects begin to either shrink or grow, which is not uncommon. As you expect to see the impossible, it will happen, which will reassure you that you are in a dream and consequently will improve your awareness.
Conclusion
You can choose from these 5 different methods to find the ones that work best for you at different times to improve your self awareness in dreams. I personally found that looking at my hands made me instantly know I was in a dream, and from then onwards by using the 5 different methods I was able to remember my dream vividly and was completely aware of my lucid dream throughout.
Bio:
Kerry McGlone is a Lucid Dreaming enthusiast, and creator of http://www.dreamlucidly.info/
As a frequent researcher, she has attained knowledge and experience on lucid dreams, resulting in an enhanced understanding and having the passion to share knowledge with others. If you’re interested in becoming a lucid dreamer, feel free to give Dream Lucidly a visit!
Image “The Body” thanks to Bear Welch and available at Fine Art America.
Very helpful. Thank you for sharing this Amy. Your new site layout is so attractive and inviting that I want to create more hours in the day to visit it!