One of my best lucid dreams happened when I decided to pay attention to what was around me. Before it, I often got caught up in the activity I was doing, such as flying or talking to someone. I didn’t take time to step back and see all the things my wonderful mind was coming up with in my lucid dream. I just went along with it and eventually lost lucidity as the storyline developed. But this time was different.
The Lucid Dream Started Off Normal
One of the best ways for me to become lucid while dreaming has always been recognizing my inability to text or call someone.
In the dream state, trying to text or call someone is nearly impossible because your brain can’t quite make the connection that it can in real life. It can’t focus in on the numbers and maintain that routine of touching and tapping away at a computer screen. Some experts say that the part of the brain that focuses on communication and language is shut down while we sleep. Others say that the dreaming mind can’t focus long enough to maintain a still image of a phone, words, or numbers to make a call or read a text – or read anything for that matter.
In the dream, I was trying to call my husband, but I couldn’t dial the numbers properly. My fingers kept slipping and I kept hitting the wrong buttons. I reminded myself that when I wasn’t able to use the phone properly, it usually meant I was dreaming.
After that, in the dream, I assumed I woke up so I tried calling my husband again, but I was still unable to dial the number and that was when I realized that I was actually dreaming.
The thrill of that, like always, was instant.
I had no lucid dream plan in place, so I took off flying. I think flying in lucid dreams is so comforting because it’s freeing and uninhibited, which is something most of us want in life. I always love the feeling of flying in a lucid dream.
Then I Did Something I Don’t Normally Do While Having A Lucid Dream
This time though, I remembered a question I had been asking myself a few days prior. I was wondering if I really saw in color in my dreams. I couldn’t say yes or no because I never paid attention to the colors in my dreams. My main goal with dreams was to interpret them and decide what they meant about me and my waking life. Therefore, I paid attention to what was going on – the context of my dreams.
Normally in lucid dreams, I focus on the context of the dreams as well. What I was doing, who I was seeing, and what I was trying to manipulate in the dream.
But this time, while flying, I reminded myself of my question, “Do I see color in my dreams?” I flew to the top of a tree and saw that it was a beautiful green color. I was excited to pay attention to the color and not the thing.
Then I wondered if I could feel the leaves on the tree. So I reached out and touched a leaf between my fingers, and sure enough, I could feel it.
Interestingly, my thoughts went to the fact that my brain could remember what it felt to physically touch a leaf in my waking life, so it interpreted that feeling into my lucid dream.
Isn’t that cool?
I lost lucidity not long after I had that thought, but when I woke up, I was ecstatic to know that I had paid so much attention to the details in my lucid dream. It felt rewarding to me.
Our Brains Are Amazing – Awake Or Asleep
The bottom line is that our brains are just so amazing, no matter if we’re awake or asleep. This is one of the reasons I love paying attention to my dreams and lucid dreaming.
I hope you take the time to think about this idea too – how your brain remembers everything even in the dream world. But it only feeds us the information we pay attention to.
An interesting question is this: Who knows how much of what we experience is actually real and how much is just our perception of what is real?
It’s something to think about!
Have you ever experienced any lucid dreams where you had an intense connection with reality? Share your story in the comments below!
