I have experienced multiple times what happens when one loses interest in the practice of lucid dreaming and then restarts the practice. Usually I observe the most lucid dreams just in this starting period when I pick up my practice again. I am highly motivated and start reading lucid dreaming books again. I think about lucid dreaming more regularly and set an intention every night. And in the morning I write my dream journal in more detail than usual.
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| Possible, in a dream. |
This got me wondering, what is different during those
re-starting periods. And I believe it is the motivation and the excitement that
have the biggest share in the increase lucid dream rate. That’s both good and
bad news. For the good part, it is an easy thing. I do not have to do any
difficult techniques. For the bad part, I can easily loose the true motivation.
Then I am back to a reduced lucid-rate without much I can do, because, as you
might know, true motivation cannot be faked.
As I am in the process of restarting a regular lucid
dreaming practice I will not rely on my natural ability to recognize the dream
state when I am highly motivated. I am going to instead start out with
practicing a proven technique: WILD. And I hope my motivation stays up until I
get some result with that technique again. Because it is a more advanced
technique it will take some time to show results.
Motivation
But how do you increase motivation for lucid dreaming if you
have never had a lucid dream? My suggestion would be to think of an event in
your life that made you really happy. Or the feeling you get when looking
forward to a great vacation. Try to replicate that feeling and the excitement
now. And then, when you can feel it, think of lucid dreaming. Set a lucid dreaming
goal (like: I want to explore my unconscious and learn more about myself) and
look forward to the adventures you will embark on in the same way and with the
same emotional background, which you just felt.
Visualization
It helps to visualize your lucid dreaming journey in as much
detail as you like. Let your phantasy play out and pay attention to things you
take for granted in waking life, but while knowing that you are dreaming. You
will be most successful when you repeat the visualization at least once.
Visualizing adds another level of stimulation which further increases your
chance of inducing a lucid dream.
Conclusion
My conclusion would be that if you have never experienced a
lucid dream but want to increase your chance of having one with a simple
method, than do the above described visualization before going to bed. This, in
combination with the anticipation of an exciting experience, should naturally
increase your motivation.