Stop Thinking and Focus!!!!

Quest for Lucidity
1

Ok… was talking to someone interesting and got into meditation for a second and I told him my tech for clearing my mind which I’ve been doing like my entire life(believe it or not -.-…).
He said it was awesome cause it was so simple… so I read up on other techs for clearing ones mind… They are multi-step processes that takes lots of practice and patience to do… Know what?! I say fuck practice and patience. Why wait when you don’t have to…

Know how your always relaxing before meditation… well… your relaxing your body… but what about your mind? Your trying to clear it… but what about relaxing it? You relaxed you body by doing breathing exercises… why not do that with your mind?
Step One: Take a mental breath and hold it.
Notice how your mind is clear and blank? Well… there ya go. Your mind is clear and free of thoughts and you didn’t have to wait forever and do long complicated steps… it’s not hard to hold this state either.

I personally don’t see any reason why one would want to get into this state… I mean you can’t do much with it… UNLESS!!! you combine it with something else. Want better memory for hearing? Well this is how I can listen to things once (in school or whatever) and not have to take notes to remember it.

Take step one and hold it. Now add one more step.
Step Two: Find your target(whatever you want to remember ex:your in class and teacher talking about notes) and listen to what she is saying.Focus on her words. Let the words poor into your mind. Don’t viualise it happening… just let it happen on its own.

This is what I call my absorbing state. I am not thinking at all. I am just sitting in desk with my head laying on my hands listening to what is being said. I hear every word in perfect clarity ignoring all other sounds. I’ve never studied a day in my life cause I’ve been doing this since second grade.

Well that’s it for now. I’m gonna go play some games .:razz:

2

Not quite sure I understand what you’re saying…

Are you suggesting just not thinking about anything at all and letting whatever you’re focusing on just pour through your senses? How does this apply to lucid dreaming? I know that just stopping all thought for a few moments can be a great way to “flush” out all the busy thoughts as you’re going to sleep, but it doesn’t seem the best way to induce lucidity…

3

It’s not technically for lucidity.
It’s to help those that do meditation. Quite alot of people into ld’ing also practice meditation so I posted this to try and help them out.

4

mental blanking imho is not a fully correct term, i believe what most refer to in meditation as this state is actually not denying that you think, but becoming passive to it.

normal state: oh wow a thought, i better think about it

‘denialistic state’: must not think! oh crap! i thought!

‘true state’: ahh look a thought. dum de dum. rollin on by, look at em go!

(percieved in a more comical sense to try to sympathise)

Another good way for people like me who are constantly thinking a billion things at once, is to try a ‘hardened induction’.

Basically there’s a rule in psychology called the ‘7 plus or minus 2 rule’. Basically this hardened induction teaches you that most people can think of 7 plus or minus 2 things at once (according to statistics in psychology)

So you pick 5 elements (breathing, temperature of the room, ambient noise, etc) then slowly cycle your thought process from one to the next. (think breathing, temperature, noise, breathing temperature noise) as -fast- as you are possibly aware of doing. Work your way up as you feel comfortable, to a total of 9 ‘active’ elements. Once you are in this state constantly cycling furiously in your mind over the states of all 9 active elements, you then suddenly think of one thought. the thought you think of is ‘jeez it’s awesome to only think of one thought!’

The difference in cycling over 9 simultaneous processes then shifting to one can make you feel relaxed because the two states (excersise/work and relaxation) are so far apart. Because of this, you can identify a state of tranquility/less thought processes and hopefully then, from that difference, you can learn to identify the smaller (and less energetically different) gap between ‘no thoughts/passive thinking’ and one thought.

sorry if that sounded garbled.

5

That’s how i am most of the time. :sigh:

The ‘hardened induction’ you were talking about sounds a great idea, It really make’s sense. You can’'t stop thoughts but you can block them :smile:

6

whispa ‘blocking’ is a negative term.
you’re on the right track, but realise the brain has extreme difficulty processing negatives.

Err, blocking would be a negative aspect of things. The hardened induction teaches you to ‘appreciate’ simplicity from a technical mindframe, through purposely making you do complex tasks and then alternating to quick ones, not a way of blocking thoughts.

but you’re on the right track :cool:

7

-n00dle

This is analogous to the relaxation technique employing tension & relaxation

8

that was meant to quote n00dle. I think i know how to quote proper now.

9

:rofl:
All you have to do is press the quote button!

As for meditaion, I’ll try some of these techniques to stay focused. I’ve been meditating for a while, but lately I’ve been having trouble on focusing on my breath.

10

Can you elaborate? This sounds interesting… but I don’t understand quite what you mean.

I’d have to say that it could be a great boon to lucidity. MILD is all about setting a dream intention beforehand, so as you say, it helps you to focus.

As for WILD, it basically is a meditation. Through the use of such techniques, you can allow yourself to fall directly into the dreamstate.

The reason it didn’t work is because there is a space between the / and quote

11

Elaborate… hmmm…how can I put this.
It’s basicly as it’s read. You take a mental breath and hold it.
That’s about as well as I can explain it. :confused:

12

Sorry, what I meant to say was, can you give a definition of a mental breath?

Is it that I imagine that I am holding it, regardless if I am physically doing so or not? Or is it something else?

13

OH, I’m sorry, but I thought everyone knew about this. Or maybe we’re just two of a kind? Oh, you’re Girbs! I didn’t recognize our icon thinger. Anyway, yeah, I’ve been able to do this for a long time. I don’t take a mental breathe though, I just -out-of focus my eyes but try to focus on clear vivid site at the same time. Actually, it’s the other way around now that I just did it a second ago. I try to focus on site, then my eyes go out of focus because I’m trying to focus on everything I can see with my peripheral not just a single point. Never thought to use it for meditation, though. Eh, it doesn’t mattaer now. It’s not like I have time for meditation anymore, what with track and track practice and homework and whatnot.

"‘true state’: ahh look a thought. dum de dum. rollin on by, look at em go! "

If I know what Girbs is talking about, then it’s not like that, or like either of the other two you put up. It’s more like:

Girbs/Chilla state:…
…
edited cause it modified all the forum layout and made the posts unreadable

Then someone smacks you in the face or something.

Hehe. :spinning:

14

You got it chilla. :happy:
Go words! Hehe… I suck at explaining things elaborately…

15

Perhaps ‘blocking’ was the wrong word. I meant replacing nagging thoughts with something better like the 5 elements you mentioned. Distraction is one of the only things that work for me when i have too much on my mind.