Hullo, I’ve been wondering about something:
Many people get their physical exercise not by being active throughout the day, but by spending a whole hour blitzkrieging through a workout, after which they cool down and return to a relatively sedentary lifestyle.
This sort of concentrated training has been applied to brain training. For example, some people spend an hour playing brain-training videogames or doing sudoku. Those same people may notice minor cognitive improvement even though they might not live cognitively fulfilling lives.
Now, why can’t this be applied to lucid dreaming? Around LD4all, one can find a number of simple activities that are supposed to help one get lucid, but most of the activities must be performed throughout the day in order to be effective. (e.g. recalling recent events, “lucid daydreaming,” etc.) There will always be times when one might not be able to stay focused all day long, and in such cases a “lucidity workout” is needed: A series of exercises that will work just like brain training normally does.
But what could one do for a “lucidity workout?” That’s what I’m wondering. Something simple that can be performed at any time during the day.
Mindfulness, pure and simple. You can try to stay consciously aware in the present moment, throughout the day. Much easier said than done, but it can be done at any moment. You can also do mindfulness meditation, like an intense workout. I think that it fits perfectly as an analogy, and it also works as ‘lucidity exercise’.
I think the reason you don’t see as much of this is that many of the activities such as RCing work by being habit forming. Doing something once per day, even if it is for an hour; doesn’t make for a conditioned habit as well as consistent reality checks; and certainly won’t help you get used to doing RC’s every time something strange occurs.
This isn’t saying brain training of some sort is useless or invalid; I just think that is the primary reason you don’t see it as much. As far as what you could do for it, things like focusing on concentration or general awareness would probably be helpful.
I’ve actually had a few dreams recently where I have had control over my actions, but I never quite realize that “hey, I’m dreaming, I can do whatever the heck I want”.
I just mosey on as if everything were reality.
I did manage to become “lucid” a while ago though, when I actually realized it was probably a dream and decided to try different reality checks (they didn’t work, though).