Stillness 6-6: The dreaminess of this midsummer month is a good time to pay attention to your dreams. The long twilight, fireflies, and fragrances of lilac, lily-of-the-valley, and honeysuckle are intoxicating. Let the magical light and fragrances drift into your dream world. This is the time of fairies, crystals, storms, tranquility, treasure, and a heightened awareness of nature and life. Because there’s so much light around (in the northern hemisphere), it’s an enchanting time to practice lucid dreaming. During a lucid dream, you’re aware that you’re dreaming. Even better, you are aware that you’re aware that you’re dreaming. When you get good at this, you’re also able to direct what happens in your dream.
Here are three ways to begin your practice:
Test your reality: Practice self-awareness often during the day by testing your reality. Ask yourself: “Am I dreaming?” then look around and confirm your “reality.” You can do this by pressing your hands against something solid or by looking in the mirror. Or by closing your mouth and holding your nose: if you’re able to go on breathing you know you’re dreaming. Choose one practice and repeat it throughout the day and then try to remember it when you’re asleep and dreaming.
State your intention: Just before you fall asleep, state to yourself that you want to be consciously aware in your dreams. If there’s an experience you want to manifest, like flying or encountering someone, state that as well. Then, when you realize you’re asleep and dreaming, remember your intention.
Keep a dream journal: Keeping a dream journal is essential to increasing lucid dreaming. I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, “but I never remember my dreams!” But once they start a dream journal, their memories increase exponentially. They may begin with a blank page, and the next day may remember just a vague feeling. By the following day a brief scene may emerge. By the end of just a week, they almost always are filling several pages of dream-descriptions.
Apart from the psychological usefulness of lucid dreaming in treating conditions like anxiety and recurring nightmares, it’s also great fun. Once you become self-aware in dreams, you can begin to guide your dreams in the direction you want them to go. Dreaming becomes an incredibly affirming, empowering, and enlightening experience.