Exploring the realm of how to control your dreams is not just interesting but also useful when trying to combat nightmares. The art of controlling your dreams rather than being controlled by them is not limited to just a few people.
Anyone can practice techniques on lucid dreaming to gain control over one’s dreams. In fact, at times people tend to control their dreams naturally, without even realizing it. Lucid dreaming refers to self-awareness while dreaming.
In Buddhism there are words you can say… as you say the words with rhythm the conscious tells the subconscious.
-Tina Turner
How to train yourself to control your dreams
- Maintaining a dream journal and meditating can help a great deal in practicing lucid dreaming to control dreams. Besides, there are several other benefits of conscious dreaming.
- Lucidity can aid in influencing dreams by changing their scenarios. Just go with the flow but at the same time use your imagination to control unwanted aspects of a dream.
For example, you can conjure up a wall to block attacks in a violent dream or nightmare. Similarly, you can rescue a dream character by getting access to tools as per your wish. It’s your dream, after all! - You can get a hint on how to control a dream by letting yourself stay in your dream when you feel that you are going to wake up. This usually happens in the morning when you are almost half-awake and half-dreaming; trying to catch a glimpse of few more dream adventures before returning to reality.
- If you would like to gain control over your dreams by inducing certain activities, like flying in a dream then visualize those acts by imagining them as vividly as possible.
In case you want to vanquish a nightmare, merge yourself in a soothing scenario during waking hours, especially before going to sleep. It can help reduce anxiety and improve your nightmare through improvisation.Watch these videos to understand how to control dreams using lucid dreaming techniques. - When learning how to control your dreams make effective use of dream incorporation by merging in sounds and images associated with the experiences that you would want to include in your nocturnal journeys. Thus, you can convert your dull, boring dreams into thrilling adventures or vice versa.
- Dream control and lucidity can help get answers to your questions. For this, you will have to focus on the question before falling asleep and ask your subconscious mind to guide you to the answer in your dream.
It would be somewhat easier to visualize some dream character and conversing with it to get the required advice rather than talking to thin air. - Conscious dreaming can be induced by following your hypnagogic imagery into the dream state. Simply put, hypnagogic imagery is vivid sensory imagery comprised of several colors that takes place at the onset of a dream. With practice, you can retain this self-awareness while dreaming and then subtly proceed to control your dreams.
- Another advice on achieving dream control is to practice controlling your own actions first instead of forcibly taking control from the subconscious mind.
Such efforts are more likely to cause frustration and wake you up. So, practice staying lucid in dreams by convincing your mind that you are in a dream, and it is possible for you to conduct any activity that is impossible in the real world. - Dream spinning can help control a dream by changing its setting. While carrying out this method of dream control, picture a dream of your choice with a strong intent.
Tips on how to control your dreams may seem counter-intuitive if you believe that dreams are relayed by the subconscious to the conscious mind to convey certain messages. However, if you look from a broader perspective, you will realize that this control actually assists us in using our dream energy positively.