Blurring the lines between dreams and reality in daily practice

Recovered post

This article was recovered from my originally deleted blog.

Author: EmeraldOdin
Original date: Jan 19, 2023
Original categories: Odins Journal, Uncategorized

A few days back I had a small revelation. Work was heavy and during those times I sleep less and when I do sleep enough it’s typically a period of little dreams, and virtually no lucid dreams.

I still did my meditations, my reality checks, but it didn’t do much to get those sweet travels to vastly different worlds and lifetimes back that make me feel more free than I could ever be IRL. This is the 4th time it happened in the last 2 years, and my mind started to wonder: “why even bother?… Why not stop doing these reality checks while I’m in a busy period?”

That felt so wrong. To make room for the very thing that makes me feel this way in the first place. No, something else had to be done. And so, I took a bath, and meditated on it.

My first thought was: “Why am I doing reality checks and ADA (all-day-awareness)?”. The answer was: “To get conscious while dreaming”.

But then it hit me.

The answer to my problem was already in my own reply. The first 3 words: “To get conscious”. My mind continued to wander: Getting conscious is a win, no matter where you are. Now, when I do a reality check or simply regain my full focus as I do something simple or every day and pick up way more details than I’d do on autopilot, I already feel like a winner. I got conscious.

The practice isn’t to lucid dream, but to be lucid™.

Me, Jan 19, 2023

Think about it: Are we really more lucky if we get conscious while fighting side by side with dragons in a dream than in a train packed with people who are all looking on their phones, all wanting the same thing: to go home? If I’m the only person in that train actually looking outside and knowing where I am what I’m doing, wouldn’t that make just as much a winner?

This new perspective started to blur the line between the dream world and the real world. The practice isn’t to lucid dream, but to be lucid™.

Since we’re liberated from being so hellbent on working hard during the day to make us aware during the night, things became a lot clearer, because the blame of a lack of dreams isn’t immediately projected on the practice. We know the practice works at night, as it worked at day.

For me, that meant the lack of (lucid) dreams wasn’t because of my practice, but because my sleep quality wasn’t 100%. That’s what I had to work on.

Where to go from here

This revelation came to me a week ago, and as of last few days, I’m no longer at heavy pressure at work, so, naturally, my sleep has recovered. It will probably take a few months before I see how fruitful it really is. Maybe, by that time, my thoughts have shifted again, and we meet each other again in a new article about a revelation. Things are never perfect and we always learn.

Maybe it helps you sooner? If you do find success from this article (or not), feel free to share in the comments!