Everyday Lucidity
May I have your attention please
One of the best ways to both actuate dream remembering and induce more lucidity in your dreams is by becoming more lucid in your waking life.
Although we may be slow — and perhaps even defiant — to admit it, most of us paddle through the steady stream of moments that make up our quotidian existence on mental autopilot, in a kind of quasi-non-lucid daze, with just enough awareness and cognizance to make all the pieces of our life move as nice and smooth as possible but with little real mindfulness.
We may take a moment here or there to literally smell a rose should one pop into our reality, but let’s face it: many of us are pretty deep down the rabbit hole of “lost in our thoughts” for the better part of our daily waking life.
Some Thoughts About Thinking About Thinking
I think this lack of being in the here-and-now throughout the day has something to do with the idea that we think we need to be thinking all the time. But when we stop to study our thoughts, when we take a good hard look at the substance of what’s actually passing by in our head on a thought-after-thought basis, we find we can label most thoughts as either a) rumination about the past (both good and bad), or b) thinking about the future (worrying, planning, scheming, projecting). Thinking thinking thinking thinking thinking, always thinking. Very little attention is paid to what’s right in front of us, in the here-and-now.
In one sense, we can hardly be blamed. For better or for worse, most of us are fully immersed in the hyper-marketing world of modernity. And so it’s not that much of a stretch to liken our mind to an ADHD child let loose in the Times Square M&M store. Every surface thing in life is all gussied up and vying for our attention. Every screen, every email, every billboard, every ad, every store shelf, every song, every food cart waft, every little everything wants just one thing from you and one thing only: your attention. And this goes doubly for people. Everyone wants a piece of you and your mind — and, more often than not, your wallet.
But honestly, do you really need to rehash the particulars and emotions of an old relationship or life incident for the millionth time? Or mull about some future event over which you have no control anyway? Sometimes, for variety, we may even take a long high flight of fancy on the wings of magical thinking, one of daydreaming’s most creative functions, and try to effect some kind of wizardly solution to a life issue or problem. Isn’t that a great way to “pass the time” when you have a few moments “to kill” waiting in line at the grocery store or sitting in traffic?
The odd-sounding truth is, we don’t need to be thinking all the time. All of this overthinking is causing us to miss out on an amazing world that is right in front of us — the realm of everyday lucidity.
Sure, if I’m sitting down to work on my novel, record a song, or present something in a meeting, I need to engage my thinking mind. I can’t be staring into my coffee cup, swirling the coffee around imagining it’s a galaxy spiraling around the cosmos. But if I’m pulling up dandelions or walking behind the lawn mower, that’s a great time to drop into mindfulness, to listen to the sound of the mower, smell the grass, take in the bright yellow of the dandelions. That’s the perfect time to flex my awareness muscle and practice some lucidity.
Hidden Dimensions
Waking life lucidity means simply this: paying deeper attention to the hidden reality — silent, disguised, mysterious — that’s right in front of you, beyond the distracted and disengaged mind, in the beautiful immediacy of the here-and-now. And every moment of life, without exception, is a portal you can access to experience the lucidity of that moment.
It’s weird that we think that mindfulness or awareness is something cultivated only on a meditation cushion. And even when we do take the time to drop into lucid awareness during the course of our day, to experience a little dewdrop of here-and-now bliss, it’s amazing how quickly we jump back onto the track of that speeding bullet of a mind that’s so immersed in, and in love with, all the minute melodramatic details of our life.
“Attention is the beginning of devotion” ~ Mary Oliver
Dream lucidity has a lot to do with the stability and quietude of your mind during your waking state. If your mind is jumping all over the place during the day — rattling your cage for more bananas, throwing poop at strangers, trying to surreptitiously hook up with some gal in the alpha male’s harem — the bulk of your dream life will consist of your unconscious mind doing repair work for the mess you’ve made in your conscious cage.
Lucidity Exercise
The word lucidity is synonymous with clarity and purity. It’s one of those words that’s best experienced instead of talked about, like a Symbolist poem or a really good piece of dark chocolate, 70% cacao content or higher.
So that’s do that right now. Let’s engage and heighten our waking state lucidity through our sensory input and experience the life right in front of us in a clear, pure, and bright manner:
As you incorporate this exercise into your daily life, in your own unique and creative way, you’ll start to notice your awareness growing stronger. That more and more you’re able to keep your mind from jetting off on its feckless meanderings. That your awareness is starting to run the show, not your unleashed mind. And all of this greatly increases your chances of achieving lucidity in your dream state.
