[right]Thank you to Sakoda, the original creator of this idea, whose colourbreathing technique has been adapted below.
Thanks also to Wakerife and x Puffycloud x for not letting the idea die, and continuing with the guide.
Their Progressive Muscle Relaxation technique has been included below.
Final thanks to Eilatan for providing me with helpful tips and edits.[/right]
Relaxation
Many people find it difficult to stay in lucid dreams because they can’t keep calm. They get over excited and find themselves losing lucidity. It is important to remember that it is not about straining your will to relax, and become lucid, but rather about letting go and gently drifting to it. By using relaxation, a person can find it easier to stay in a lucid dream. Alongside many tried and tested techniques (Spinning, rubbing your hands together, etc.), this can be quite helpful.
Generally relaxation will go hand in hand with the WILD technique, whilst also complimenting some others. This is great, but it is worth mentioning that, when WILDing you are not trying to blow up rocks into a thousand splinters. Whilst this prospect is attractive, it is not wholly beneficial in maintaining your lucidity and should be attempted at perhaps, a later time.
Basic meditation.
This is just to relax your body and compliment the techniques listed below. However this alone can be used to improve the efectiveness of the WILD technique. Once you feel relaxed, proceed to do any WILD or relaxation technique you are comfortable with.
- Find a position you are comfortable with, be that lying down or sitting up, however you prefer to be.
- Start by taking long deep breaths.
- Relax muscle tension and senses. This can be done however you please. One way is by letting go of the feeling of your body by relaxing the idea of that feeling. Another is to feel your muscles separately, and gently relax them one by one. In doing this you should aim to feel nothing but the slow rhythm of your breathing, however it is important to hold this idea lightly, not strain to achieve it
- Block out thoughts and feelings, do not struggle to achieve this, but hold it lightly in your mind. Concentrating on the steady in, out of your breathing is a good way to achieve this.
- Proceed to use whichever WILD technique you prefer.
- Note:- this is not essential in WILDing, merely a step to relaxation.
The Colour (Breathing) Technique
This is best done with a breathing exercise, and can be done in conjunction with the basic meditation outlined above. It is easy and strain free, making it accessible for those with muscle handicaps. It will also provide you with an interesting experience. 
- Begin by getting into a comfortable lying position and close your eyes. For all who keep asking this question in the chatroom, YES you DO close your eyes when doing WILD.
- Now start drawing deep breaths, ( but don’t start hyperventilating! ) Do that for about 30 seconds while having your thoughts on relaxing scenes and topics. If thirty seconds does not suffice then do so for as long as your estimation takes you.
- Now you can begin to add the colours in: Begin by imagining a quiet, relaxing, soothing colour you like. Generally Blue, Green and gentle pinks are found to be the most relaxing, but it can be whatever colour you enjoy.
- Let the colour you chose form into a mist, entering you and relaxing every part of your physical and spiritual self with every breath, until you feel totally relaxed and drowsy. Continue till HI’s appear.
- From here you can proceed with whichever WILD variation you prefer.
If this is too arcane for you, then perhaps our next technique is more for you.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
This technique relaxes the body, one step at a time, by working on different parts of the body at a time to create a final, over all relaxed effect.
- Close your eyes.
- Begin with your toes. Feel the weight in them, and slowly let them “sink” into your bed (or wherever you may be when using this technique). Feel them get heavier and heavier, until all tension is released.
- Repeat this process with your lower and upper legs, your abdomen, chest, upper and lower arms, shoulders, neck, and finally your face and jaws. Some people like to tense each part of their body before feeling it start to get heavy.
- This is helpful for sensing extra tension you may not have noticed before and helps you to relax your body further.
- However, this is not necessary. The jaw tends to have the most tension, so spend a little extra time trying to relax that part of your body.
- Mentally scan your body for any tension you may have missed. If you find any tension, repeat the second step on that part of your body.
61 Point technique
This technique is a successive practice that aims to relax through the awareness of your body.
It works on the practice of memorising each point in turn by focusing your mind and your energy on each point, like locating yourself there. Whilst 61 points seems daunting it is actually not as difficult as imagined as there is a pattern to it. I will break it down in to step by step pieces to make it easier to get to grips with.
- Start your concentration, your energy, if you will, at your forehead, then work down to your throat.
- Next to the right side of your body. From the throat go to your right shoulder, down to your right elbow, your right wrist. From there to the tip of your thumb, the tip of your index finger, the tip of your middle finger, the tip of your ring finger, the tip of your little finger.
- From there, back to your right wrist, up to your elbow, then to your shoulder, and back across to your throat again.
- From there to the left side, and repeat, left shoulder, to elbow, to wrist, to thumb, to index finger, to middle finger, to ring finger, to little finger. Back to wrist, to elbow, to shoulder, and back across to the throat.
- From your throat move down to the sternum, (the area between your breasts,) then to your right breast, back to the sternum, to the left breast, back to the sternum, down to the naval, and then to the lower abdomen.
- Now it is the right lower body. From the lower Abdomen to your right hip, then to your right knee, followed by your right ankle.
- From your right angle focus on the tip of your big toe, then onto the tips of the second, middle, fourth, and little toe’s respectively.
- From your little toe up to your right ankle, to your right knee, to your right hip, and back to your lower abdomen.
- Proceed to do the same on the left side. Lower Abdomen to Left hip, to left knee, to left ankle, to big, second, middle, fourth and little toes respectively.
- From little toe to left ankle, to left knee, to left hip, to left lower abdomen.
- From your lower abdomen, up to your naval, up to your sternum, up to your throat, and back to your forehead.
Whilst it seems like a lot, the pattern is simple to remember. Think of it as a flowing action with your mind, going centre, right, centre, left, centre and repeat lower down. In this way you can use this technique to great effect in relaxing yourself.
Autogenic progressive relaxation.
As the title suggests, this is not a conventional ‘One Hit Wonder’ relaxation technique. It’s more or a progressive idea. By using Autogenic training 2/3 times a day your body becomes more and more relaxed the more it becomes used to the process. Autogenic training works on the principle of restoring balance in the Autonomic nervous system, (thus the name.) This guide will show one type of Autogenic training you can do which functions by ‘isolating and locking,’ different parts of your body and ‘unlocking’ them. Note, it is important to have a cancel word to relax yourself. (This simply put, is a word that cancels any effects you have put on yourself, like a trigger effect.)
- Get into a comfortable meditative position.
- Close your eyes and put yourself in a relaxed state. (Using basic mediation can help achieve this.)
- Scan and feel your body with your mind, feel each part and speak as such, willing yourself to respond to the words.
- “My arms and legs are heavy”
- Repeat 3 or more times.
- “My Heartbeat is calm and regular.”
- Repeat 3 or more times.
- “My forehead is cool.”
- Repeat 3 or more times
- “My neck and Shoulders are heavy.”
- Repeat three times.
- “My core is warm.”
- Repeat 3 or more times.
- If you wish to further emphasise the effect you can say “I am relaxed” and
- Repeat this until you feel it.
- Use your cancel word to relax your entire body.
- Optionally after cancelling repeat from step three
Generally this process should be done 2/3 times a day to maximise effectiveness, once you achieve this state successfully several times it can give you an easier, more relaxed feel and more access to lucidity.
Any one of these techniques of relaxation can work, but it is very much dependent on the person using it. I hope this has provided you with an insight into relaxation in regards to dreaming and I wish you many lucid dreams