Since lucid dreaming is often connected with continuous effort during your practice, one significant question might arise at some point: Why bother lucid dreaming?
Why keep on sticking to reality checks or certain lucid dreaming techniques without one-hundred percent success after having implemented them in your daily or nightly routine? What might I get that is worth the effort? What does lucid dreaming mean to me? Why do I want to attain lucid awareness in my dreams?
In retrospect, one particular aspect of lucid dreaming has repeatedly inspired me to stay on track with my practice in the course of the past decades: The profound challenge of asking my subconscious awkward questions.
As for identifying your own personal ‘awkward questions’, I suggest you go through the following list, paying attention to which of the questions evoke feelings of deep excitement, fear, uncertainty, or unwillingness to obtain the answer:
Is there a topic you have been running from in the past? Is there an uneasy question attached to the subsequent thought, ‘What if…?’, i.e.:
What if I don’t get the ‘desirable result’? What if I have built my life on an illusory basis? What if I am mistaken about something? What if I am on the wrong track with my goals? What if I had once taken the wrong decision? What if my existence is of no importance? What if I am not designed to create a special impact on my life and on the lives of others?
This might be one moment demanding courage and openness towards the frequently unforeseen outcome. But if you never asked? Would you be happier in the state of not knowing?
In my view, it’s is always worth a try asking crucial questions about your life as the answers might turn out to be transforming, or even life-changing. You spend your entire life with yourself; why not bite the bullet and ask a tough question to get to know yourself better?
Lucid dreaming is a truly personal journey where illuminating insights might be encountered in unexpected places at any time, which is one of the most intriguing aspects about lucid dreaming for me. This unpredictability of the result after having asked an awkward question keeps me returning to lucid dreaming again and again. The thrill or nervousness before I call my question out, the preparation it takes to brace myself mentally in waking reality before pursuing a certain aim in a lucid dream is a crucial part of the process. The final resolution keeps on reverberating for a long time after awakening.
With time, I have realized that some of my questions demand they be asked at a later point in my life or require a more precise wording. In other cases, I kept on obtaining the same results after reformulating my questions until the meaning slowly dawned on me!
To me, one thing is for certain: Self-growth and healing rarely come easy. Prepare both for the patience that might be required until you get the answers to your questions and the catharsis they might bring about, both in your dreaming and waking life.
Lucid dreaming is the place where listening to your heart becomes visible, palpable reality. It is rather simple to sleepwalk through your entire life, yet much more rewarding to take the leap and see and accept yourself as you truly are, or perceive the bigger picture around your existence.
This article was released in issue from
June 2021
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