When we lucid dream, we are being conscious in the dream state.
Being able to maintain this awareness in our dream state, the level of control over our thoughts and actions can vary.
The whole idea of practicing mindfulness is to develop a person`s potential to maintain awareness of the present moment.
Its aim is to reduce the auto-pilot habits and behaviors and to increase our awareness.
Let’s be honest
even in our daily life, often we wander around in a semi-conscious state, without putting too much attention at the present moment and we frequently experience feelings and moods with a lower level of self-awareness.
One thing is without a doubt:
The connection between lucid dreaming and meditation is undeniable.
Let’s look closely at the following aspects:
- What is Meditation?
- Where is the connection between lucid dreaming and meditation?
- Why you should meditate in order to improve your lucid dream experience?
- Meditation benefits for lucid dreaming
- An easy step-by-step Meditation guide
- How to make a meditation habit?
- Meditation Tips
- Conclusion
What is Meditation?
Meditation first appeared 600 BC, through forms of ritual and religion.
Taoists in China and Buddhists in India created complex meditation practices.
Western scientists turned their focus towards meditation around the 1960s.
Since then, scientists were discovering through scientific researches the long-term effects of meditation to improve metabolism, blood pressure, brain activation, stress relief, pain relief, and other physical behaviors.
The great thing about meditation is that:
Meditation is for EVERYBODY!
Nowadays, you don’t have to become a Buddhist Monk or to spend hours in order to practice meditation.
People all around the world are meditating for different purposes – to clear their mind, to reduce the negative thoughts, to feel more mindful, to connect to their inner self, to enjoy personal enlightenment, to become better at lucid dreaming!
Where is the connection between lucid dreaming and meditation?
1. Let’s start with this: Have you ever heard of ”dream yoga”?
The first time I heard I thought “Okay, that should be something related to stretching and breathing.”
It is actually related to breathing, however, there are no stretches.
Tibetan Dream Yoga – the Yoga of the Dream State is taught in the trance between Dream and Sleep!
Dream Yoga is the original form of lucid dreaming – it is a high meditation practice which is performed by the practitioner within the so-called lucid dream state.
A quite broad but basic rule is: constantly compare your dreams to waking reality and know what it feels like to be conscious.
You will find it easier to induce lucid dreaming since your self-awareness will improve!
2. Several studies show that:
mindfulness meditation training can increase cognitive abilities, such as cognitive flexibility, visual-spatial processing, working memory, executive functioning, and meta-awareness.
In the same way, as one can develop a higher or lower degree of mindfulness during wakefulness, it is also possible to have a higher or lower
degree of lucidity in dreams, which seems to be not an ”on-off phenomenon”, but rather a continuum.
So, comparing the degree of lucidity in dreams and mindfulness in wakefulness seems probable.
3. Another connection was drawn between lucid dreams and meditation:
Meditators have been found to have very high levels of lucidity in sleep.
There seems to be a strong connection between lucidity in dreams and meditation practice.
Whether meditation in wakefulness and lucid dreaming in sleep reflects the same phenomenon and only differs in the state of consciousness it occurs, has still not been tested empirically.
Why you should meditate in order to improve your lucid dream experience?
Get this:
By improving your attention to the present moment by doing meditation, your awareness will rise, and this whole state of being conscious will increase the likelihood of experiencing lucid dreaming!
Here’s the most important part: Meditation and lucid dreaming are sharing many common features.
Both involve higher states of awareness, and both of them require high focus, self-awareness, good memory, visualization skills.
In one research, the lucid dream frequency was positively related to total dream recall frequency and, most importantly, to mindfulness:
Participants who scored higher on dispositional mindfulness tended to recall more lucid dreams, and participants who recalled more dreams overall also tended to report more lucid dreams.
Meditation Benefits for lucid dreaming
Would you be interested to have the ability to become lucid naturally?
In truth, this can be accomplished exactly by practicing mindfulness!
Some of the other outstanding benefits of meditation, that are also very closely related to lucid dreaming are:
1) Meditators sleep much better
– Practicing meditation relaxes the mind and the body, and during a meditation session, people feel completely refreshed and rejuvenated.
Due to this, meditators have shown to need fewer hours of sleep every night!
2) Meditation Boosts Melatonin
– Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland and it is a key to a good mood and restful sleep.
– Rutgers University researchers discovered that melatonin levels for meditation practitioners were boosted by an average of 98%, with many participants having increases of more than 300%!
3) Meditation Increases Focus & Memory
– There are an infinite number of ways meditation can naturally increase your memory, brain power, focus, and intellect
4) Opening Your Third Eye Chakra With Meditation
– The Third Eye Chakra is a potent source of intuitive wisdom that when amplified with meditation, it gives us a high level of consciousness in the present moment.
Meditation is the world’s most potent and effective third eye opening and awakening tool.
5) Calms down our ”monkey mind” – what is a ”monkey mind”?
Imagine this: our human mind is a room full of monkeys — jumping around, chattering endlessly.
A really great video that I watched some time ago explains perfectly the ”monkey mind” example and how meditation can calm our mind.
Feel free to check the short video here!
The whole idea is that practicing mindful meditation teaches you to pay attention to your ”chattering monkeys” (unstoppable thoughts), to figure them out, to understand how to not pay attention to them as well to know how to deal with them.
6) Connect to your inner-self
– What better way to understand your inner-self than to go deep into your mind on a daily basis.
Meditation enables you to access some places of your mind and thoughts that perhaps you didn’t even know they existed.
The benefits of meditation don’t stop there!
These are only some of them, and just to mention a few more:
• meditation helps you to work on self-discovery
• support relaxation
• reduce stress
• increase creativity
• improve memory recall
• promote positive thinking
• biological re-balancing tool
Trust me.
You’ll benefit so much is you start with it.
Simple step-by-step meditation
(mindful breathing)
The most basic way to meditate is to simply focus your attention on your breath.
If you want to try mindful breathing, you should:
1. Find a place
– you can practice it while standing, but ideally, find a place to sit with your back straight, or even lie down in a comfortable position.
If you are sitting, cross your legs in a comfortable for you position and rest your hands on your knees
2. Close your eyes
– with your eyes closed, you will be able to focus much easier, since nothing will be there to distract you.
However, you may leave your eyes open, too. (in my experience, it is always better to close my eyes, but do as you feel)
3. Relax your body
– Relax any areas of tightness or tension.
Be aware of the sensations you feel. Try to not move your body throughout the practice.
You will see why at the end of it!
( SPOILER: Your body might feel kinda weird but in a very good way! 😀 )
4. Just breathe
– Start to deeply inhale, then slowly exhale.
Feel the natural flow of your breath—in, and out.
Do not try to make them too long, or too short, but just let the natural flow. When a breath ends, the next one begins.
5.Wandering mind?
– You have thoughts, coming in and out?
Do not panic!
It is another natural aspect, that should not bother you. Acknowledge that your mind is wandering and know that the point is to NOT pay attention to the thoughts in your head.
See them as ”clouds” that are ”passing by”.
Every time you feel your mind is having the ”chattering monkeys” that we mentioned earlier, gently redirect your attention right back to your breathing.
6. Practice it for 5-10 minutes
– If it is your very first time you can give it a try even for 5 minutes.
Just remember that every time you get lost in thoughts, simply return to your breathing.
You can put an alarm on your phone (something slow and relaxing) to let you know when these 5 /or 10/ minutes passed.
You can also do it for how much you feel like it without an alarm.
7. In the end…
At the end of your practice, whether you hear the alarm or you just feel natural to finish it, start noticing your body.
Gently and slowly, start moving it – you can start from something small, such as the fingers on your hand!
Whenever you feel ready, open slowly your eyes (if they were closed).
That’s all about it!
You will feel very light, relaxed and mindful.
How to make a meditation habit?
We can all agree that sometimes we struggle when trying to create a new habit… even if we want and we know it is very good for us.
That’s why…
You can watch this FREE course, called ” Create a Perfect Morning Routine ”. It is by Jeff Finley and it has more than 13 000 students!
The course will teach you how to create a morning routine that will help you to achieve your goal – wether is meditation, lucid dreaming, reality checking, or why not all of these!
Read more about the course here!
You can get free access through the link above (and you can end the subscription any time you want).
Meditation Tips:
• Do it before going to sleep
– If you are extremely busy throughout your whole day or if you just always find excuses for practicing meditation, do it right before you go to sleep, in your bed!
It is also a super efficient, easy and amazing way to fall asleep!
• Use an app
– Recently I downloaded an app, called ”Headspace”.
It does have categories – Meditation for stress, for sleep, for pain, for anxiety, etc., and you can try the sessions for free!
But I am sure there are more good apps, so if you know some, feel free to write a comment below and let me know!
• Do it anywhere!
– Meditate – on your way to work, on the bus or the metro, on your lunch break, while you cook or while you eat!
Do it while you go out with your dog/for a walk!
If you watched the video that we mentioned above, even the Buddhist monk gave us some pretty nice and simple ideas!
• Try binaural beats
– Binaural beats are two different tones of frequencies, played at the same time, separately to each ear.
These beats stimulate and change our brain state, allowing it to enter into various states.
They can affect our dream, sleep, relaxation, creativity and more.
They are ideal for mindfulness practice since the only thing you need to do is to: relax. It does not require anything else!
• Guided meditation
– It is another great way to practice meditation.
It is a guide provided by a trained teacher and it is very easy to focus since the coach is giving you instructions and helping you to concentrate on your breath!
My favorite guided meditations:
1. This one!
If you have struggled with meditation or you haven’t yet experienced the relaxation, comfort, and peace that comes from practicing mindfulness, then this free course would be a great place to start:
It’s a simple technique that can be practiced by anyone, without having to silence your mind.
2. This one too!
There are more videos on their youtube channel, so feel free to observe it and find the guided meditation that will suit you best!
Each guided meditation video has its own ”mantra” – a positive phrase or statement with its purpose to provide motivation and encouragement!
Conclusion
All in all
Practicing meditation costs you NOTHING, it can only bring tons of benefits and positive ”side effects” such as lucidity in your dreams!
How amazing is that?
The most ”difficult” part is – acknowledging the amazing advantages that can bring and creating a meditation habit.
If with this article I was able to prove to you the benefits of meditation, how easy is to start, as well as to convince you to try it, then only one thing left – creating the meditation habit!
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