Greetings oneironauts 👽
We all know how "All Day Awareness (ADA)" is a very broad term and is largely ineffective considering how its impossible to be continuously 'aware' for all hours of the day. In addition to this, the word 'awareness' is such a broad term. I thought it a good idea to start a post where the community can post the different methods they use to maintain their focus during the day in order to bring this same awareness into the dream world. Daniel shared a great idea a while ago on his channel discussing one way to do this (see video below if you haven't seen this yet). Another way people like to retain their focus is by identifying 'target' items throughout the day and performing subsequent reality checks (an exercise developed by Dr. Stephen LaBerge). This technique is mainly for improving your prospective memory, but is also a great way to retain your focus all day.
Simply being aware is not enough, however, since lucid dreamers also need to become critical of their environments and notice when things are not making sense. In this post, I would also like to discuss the different exercises the community uses to build their critical thinking skills.
So dreamers, how do you work on your awareness everyday (lets assume 'awareness' includes critical thinking and prospective memory and focus)? Lets specify what is meant by All Day Awareness.
Sorry for the delayed response. This is a great topic! I have tried many different things but they all seem to come back to noticing that you have been on autopilot and then really coming into the present and doing a proper reality test. It is a slow process to make it more and more frequent through the day long term.
I read an exercise a while ago on a good way to improve your critical thinking for lucid dreaming... basically, you choose an object and take a few minutes to really study every aspect of it (how you think it feels, how the shadow falls, what is behind that object, how light hits it, what material it looks like it's made out of etc.). After doing this, begin to imagine that object looking not how it should. For example, if you choose to study a tree, you could visualize the trunk floating slightly above the ground, and then you could imagine what it would look like for the trunk to be a purple color instead of brown. Keep doing this for as long as you can, visualizing that object looking any number of weird ways. This is supposed to help your brain learn to think more critically of objects in your dreams and notice when they don't look as they should.
Do you guys think this is a helpful exercise?
I'll start... Recently I had a dream where multiple sources of light did not work when I tried to turn them on. So today I thought it would help to remain extra aware of light sources and if they are working properly when I turn them on/off. This will keep me focused on one thing throughout the day and also give me an opportunity to work on my prospective memory. This is different than the exercise by LaBerge, as I don't plan on reality checking every time I use a light. My goal is to simply pay extra attention to this one aspect of my environment today. I think that setting an intention at the start of the day to be extra aware of even one 'target' (with or without reality checks) could be very helpful in developing a mindset for lucid dreaming.