meditation

Thanks for the link :smile:

Yeah Tai Chi works great. Especially in a LD :smile:
One remark though about meditation: its purpose is not to stop your thoughts, but to let them be (even your intention of letting it be :tongue: ). Observe them, let them arise and disappear inside your mind without getting attached to it. Very difficult, so practicing a lot is very important. Once you’re detached from your thoughts, they’ll have the tendency to disappear naturally. If you force them to vanish, it will usually have the opposite effect: you’ll be MORE attached to them instead of less so instead of make them go away they’ll just get stronger and stronger. Don’t force them but let them be. If you have lots of repetitive thoughts, don’t get distracted by them, but observe them and let them be just as they are. Everything is fine during every moment, so why force them to act otherwise. What matters is your attachment to them. And to handle that you don’t need to change your thoughts, but yourself. The rest will then take care of themselves…

Like everybody always says, mind is a muscle, or rather a complex muscle group…
meditation helps to build some of the same mind muscles( :content: heh) that LD uses and requires.
meditation helps you to control your mind, so why shouldnt it help you to control your dreams also?
I would say its a part of a well balanced lucid dreaming breakfa- ehrm…expirience up there with dream journals and reality checks.

That sounds like Transcendental Meditation. I thought you were supposed to completely let your thoughts go and only be aware of yourself and/or visualize a bright light above your head entering your body. I guess there are all types of meditations though. I think I’ll try TM next time cos I didn’t like thinking “Shhh!” or “Go away!” every time a thought popped up. :astral: I didn’t know Tai Chi was good for lding, I just thought it looked cool. :happy: I’ll have to try harder to memorize the evening run so I can do it by my bed right before I hop in.

I never did TM, but yeah there are lots of types of meditations…
I didn’t say Tai Chi was good for LDing. I don’t know… But it’s great to do it while in a LD :smile:

From that I assumed you meant Tai Chi worked great outside of a dream since you distinguish that it is also good in an LD. :wink:

'Though it wasn’t an LD, I did dream this morning of doing the horse stance (tucking in your tailbone and bringing your chin back to line up your spine) and as soon as I did that and touched the tongue to the roof of my mouth I experienced incredibly strong physical sensations in my dream!! If only it was an LD it would have been 1000 times better!!!

I completely agree!

Even if you can only practice meditation 2x a day for just 20 -30 minutes, you will notice a big improvement in your lucid dreaming. I suggest meditating once during the day and once at bedtime.

i just saw a documentary where they where talking about transcendental meditation, sounds interesting.

I recently started doing my breathing/meditation exercise again in the morning - it is a yoga exercise - you breathe in through left nostril count 2 , hold breath (close both nostrils), count 8, breathe out through right nostril, count 4, breathe in right nostril, count 2, hold breath close both nostrils, count 8, breathe out through left nostril, count 4, breathe in throug left nostril count 2, etc - do that for about 15 minutes.

I just saw a documentary on bbc world about TM and stress reducing. They said that the body has an innate relaxation response that you can call forth by repetition and focus. Most meditation techniques have that. You either focus on your breathing or counting or object.

explorations.tv/program_stress.html

No offenses, what if you have a bad allergy or cold that you can’t breath effectively through your nostrils? :tongue:

Anyways I prefer breathing deeply and slowly… depending on what my instinct says… without having to do nostrils technique. That way I can breath through my mouth if I have a cold or a bad allergy or through my nose. :smile: More flexible for me. :smile:

It’s funny you mention that. My nose is a little crooked (I don’t know how it got that way :content: ) and it’s always easier for me to breath through my right nostril than my left.
Weird eh? :tongue:

I just started to try meditating again after reading this. I’ve done it twice so far and it’s the same as before. I can feel my third eye and the rest open up to my crown chakra and then I start to feel all tingly especially in my hands. It also feels like the tempurature in my hands has gone up and they radiate. And it gives me a really hyper happy feeling like joy kinda. Not that I mind but does this happen to anyone else or am I delusional? Aren’t you supposed to see things clearer? Usually I just don’t care after. I really need to find a class.

I kinda get that feeling sometimes, like I can feel my ‘energy’ moving around or something.

Thanks! Off to it!

Haha, Dm7 (is that your favorite guitar/piano chord?) I feel you. I used to not be able to breathe through my nose at all, I’d suffocate! I got jaw surgery (check my before and after pics in The Gathering) and since they moved my jaw forward, it opened up my nasal cavity and now I can breathe through them!!! Stops the drooling at night. Anyway…

I can’t really ever feel my third eye. I try the 61-point relaxation at times but can’t move to point 2 cos I can’t focus on point 1!! :confused:

Haha, I usually just walk away from the meditation too, so I feel ya again!

Haha no… it stands for DreamMaster7.

Anyways, I usually have problems with my nose cuz of allergy or cold so I prefer being able to rely on something more reliable than Q’s technique. :smile: Hehe mm I can’t think of anything else to say so I’ll just… go. XD mm and skidzz I’ll check it out :smile:

Edited: wow… that’s a big difference! :o Amazing! :biggrin:

DM: yes, if you have a cold that makes it more difficult :razz:

For me it works because i have to focus on so many things, and it brings me into balance. I used to be annoyed when i had a cold because i couldn’t do it! lol

but funny thing is, sometimes i wake up with one of my nostrils blocked, i just do this technique, (just breathe more forcefully through the blocked one so i still get enough air) and after a while it clears.

for me it is so difficult to just pay attention to breating or focus on an object, my mind thinks too much! So with this one i have plenty of things to keep my mind on. the counting, the blocking/releasing of nostrils, and the breathing :smile:

For me, I love to picture a flower (don’t know what it’s called :razz: ) and inside there is a flame (as read in EWLD) I breathe VERY slowly and deeply, barely having my mouth open to breathe out. When I do breathe out, the flame in my mind’s eye waves as if I was softly blowing on it. I do this without thinking. Eventually I’m very relaxed and my timer beeps, and 20 minutes have gone by like that!

Oh, the dream lotus and flame technique. I’ve never really tried that one. Do you find you get lots of WILDs with it?

Lotus, that’s right! I don’t even know what one looks like (but I have an idea I think, it’s like a cup?) WILDs, eh… I haven’t seen any LD’s since meditating really. :confused: Can you WILD while meditating, is that what you mean?

Wow, it’s so pretty!!!