It’s very important to relax when trying to perform a lucid dream or an Out of body experience. These things require a great deal of patience, practice and willpower, so learning to control your thoughts and your body is vital.
We’re going to go through some beginner meditation techniques that will help you sleep better, have more energy during the day and be more likely to have a lucid dream at night. You don’t have to do all of these, you can just pick the one you like the sound of!
Meditation? What’s that?
Meditation is a practice that has been around for thousands of years probably longer) and involves doing two things which seem to cancel eachother out, but I assure you, they don’t.
- Focusing on something specific, and
- Making your mind ‘quiet’ and not focused
It seems like it doesn’t make sense, but it does work. You’re /aiming to develop a really high level of mental focus and clarity. Imagine it’s like trying to concentrate really hard on something, but without trying really hard. It should feel like you’re ‘letting go’ to the experience while at the same time, you’re very focused, aware, alert and awake.
Beginner meditation techniques for lucid dreams
We’ll go over some beginner meditation exercises in a moment, but first let’s make sure you’re in the right mindset to meditate. It’s probably something that’s new to you, so don’t worry if it feels a little strange!
Firstly, make sure your room is a comfortable temperature, and there are no distractions around you. Turn off all screens, and anything that could make a noise that will distract you. If you live with other people, maybe mention that you’re going to be relaxing, and they shouldn’t disturb you (or just say you’re going to have a nap if you don’t want to tell them you’re meditating!)
You can also use aromatherapy such as pillow spray or incense sticks to relax more deeply in your room. You can either lay down, or sit comfortably in a chair. Now that you’ve cleared your room of noises, lights and distractions, we can begin!
Lucid dreaming meditation methods for beginners
1: A basic breathing technique
For this technique, you’re going to sit somewhere comfortable. (You can lie down if you like also). You’re going to focus on your BREATH!
Start by counting your breaths, up to 10. When you get to 10, start again at 0. So you’d count 1 on the in-breath, then 2 on the outbreath.. Then 3 on the next in-breath, 4 on the out and so on, until you get to 10.
When you get to 10, start again at 0 and keep this pattern going until you have done it for about 10-20 minutes. If you’re NEW to this, you’ll actually find it really hard to just sit there doing nothing for more than 5 minutes. It’s a lot harder than it sounds, but then when you begin to practice more and more, it gets a LOT easier.
You might be thinking it’s too simple to do any good, but it really does work. It works in a powerful way and you’ll notice a huge different by doing this every day for a month. More lucid dreams, less stress, better focus and a lot more.
2: A focused, guided meditation technique
This is more focused on lucid dreaming. It’s a powerful visualization technique that’s included in our 30 day lucid bootcamp for a good reason: it WORKS. It’s all about your ability to guide yourself through the process of creating a dream scene.
Before you start, make sure you’re sitting or laying comfortably. Close your eyes and relax all of your muscles. You’re going to imagine yourself walking on an island. Visualise the island as vividly as you possibly can. Walk through the shallow, warm water and notice how the sun feels on your back.
Or, imagine how the spray of the ocean hits your face. What you visualize YOUR island as, will be different to mine. Make sure you just let your imagination run free and just sort of practice exploring the island without TRYING to create it. It’s a good idea to listen to some guided meditation music (we’ll give you some later) for this.
As you explore the island, focus on keeping one thought at the FRONT of your mind: ‘I’m dreaming, and I know I’m dreaming’. This will make it easier to lucid dream later on. You’re practicing the skill of exploring a world YOU’RE creating, while at the same time, staying calm and relaxed.
Keep going with this for about 10 minutes or so, and then write down your island experience in the back of your dream diary. This can be done either before bed, or any time during the day to build your awareness. You can ALSO use this to visualize a dream scene. If you want to have lucid dreams about being on an alien planet, for example, then use this technique to imagine an alien world instead of an island.
How these meditations will help you lucid dream
It’s all very well just doing these exercises and techniques, but how will they help you? Well, meditation in general has so many incredible benefits, that even if you get NO LUCID DREAMS from doing these, you’ll STILL notice the following effects:
- More energy in the day (especially mental energy)
- More focus on what you want to do
- A reduced risk of serious diseases like cancer
- Much, much less stress (almost nothing will bother you any more!)
- Less anxiety, anger, and confusion
- Better cognitive power, creativity, motivation and just about anything else
- Plus loads more. It’s like your brain, on steroids, on a really, really good day
So even if it didn’t help lucid dreams, it would still be well worth doing, every single day. However, it DOES help lucid dreaming as well! If it didn’t, we probably wouldn’t be writing about it here. It makes lucid dreaming at least 4 times more likely, and helps you to fall asleep faster as well.
Meditation is such a huge part of lucid dreaming in fact, that it’s argued that you can’t really practice one without the other. Meditation is all about being more aware, during the day mostly. the skill of being more aware and focused, however, translates DIRECTLY into lucid dreams!
What are you trying to do when you lucid dream? You’re trying to keep your mind active and aware, while at the same time, deeply relaxed (and keeping your body asleep of course!) so meditation is PERFECT for lucid dreamers. Don’t take our word for it though, practice these beginner techniques for a few weeks and you’ll notice an almost INSTANT difference in your lucid life!
Induction techniques that use meditation
There are lots of common induction techniques which actually directly involve meditation, but many people don’t realise it! There is a chance you’ve ALREADY been doing these techniques, and therefore ALREADY been meditating in some way, without even knowing it!
- The mnemonic induced lucid dreaming technique (MILD)
- The wake induced lucid dream (WILD)
- And the writing induced method (although not as much)
They all use meditation as a part of the technique, so you might already be familiar with some of these!
Meditation music for lucid dreams
There are some soundtracks that people have put together which may help you meditate more deeply, and have more lucid experiences. Consider that they’re not always the best quality though, and they’re not guaranteed to help. For better results, you’ll want to look into something like sleep acoustics.
Some of these are videos with background music to help you relax, and also people talking to guide you through an adventure. Use them for the second meditation technique shared here, the guided meditation. Let yourself relax and go with the person talking or the music, and see what you find!
And then some chillstep ones (use them in the same way, with the guided meditation technique)
Useful products to help you meditate
To better meditate, there are special soundtracks you can use known as ‘binaural beats’ or brainwave entrainment. These are sounds that make your brain more easily able to slip into a deeply relaxed state. They can be used to just relax, or to induce lucid dreams DIRECTLY. The best product makers are Ennora and the Unexplainable store.
