I was thinking about All Day Awareness (ADA), the technique I value most. I find it very difficult because it it so hard to maintain. I feel that the reason for that is because ADA depends on the attention of the subject being focused on the physical environment. I find that as humans we live in our thoughts and although I have always thought that was an obstacle or a bad habit, I now feel like the opposite is true. This living in our thoughts is the advantage we have over all other organisms in the world (or so I think). Planning the future and thinking back into the past, playing scenarios in our heads, philosophizing over abstract contexts; I don't think those things are bad habits anymore and the problem is that they are incompatible with the ADA technique I use. The ADA technique requires me to focus on my environment; where I am in the present and that is huge distraction from any mental work I might be doing. If I try to do ADA 100% of my waking time, I will without fail come across a situation where I must take my attention away from being aware of what is going around me to focus on something in my head (for example, solve a mathematical equation. The answer is not in my environment, it is in my brain). In such a situation, two things may happen. Either, I lose my awareness as I focus on the mental task or I just can't do the mental task. Both are disappointing. I think my problem is that I have to change my technique for my awareness to not only be focused on physical activities but also mental activities. I don't feel this is anything new, but this was a reminder to myself and I thought, why not make it a reminder for others who have also missed on this.
My concrete goal now for my ADA is to focus my awareness on my thoughts, frequently quiz myself on my train of thoughts (think back to what thoughts brought to the next thoughts and so on, be aware that I am thinking (versus walking, dreaming, driving, etc...), just so I remain aware of my present experience (even if it is an abstract experience in the thought realm) and of the context in which I am.
My concrete goal now for my ADA is to focus my awareness on my thoughts, frequently quiz myself on my train of thoughts (think back to what thoughts brought to the next thoughts and so on, be aware that I am thinking (versus walking, dreaming, driving, etc...), just so I remain aware of my present experience (even if it is an abstract experience in the thought realm) and of the context in which I am.
via Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - Attaining Lucidity http://www.dreamviews.com/showthread.php?t=148799&goto=newpost
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