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Last night I was having particular trouble falling asleep. As soon as I started letting my thoughts drift in the liminal space between conscious and unconscious, I would have a horrendous panic attack that grabbed me out of relaxation and make my central nervous system freak out--sweating, thumping heart, shaking, ect. I've done a lot of lucid dreaming practices to try and ensure a good night's sleep, because my main concern is finding peace before sleep and staving off nightmares. One of my lucid dreaming practices involves trying to invoke guardian figures in my dreams. Does anybody else have dream guardians or tips on how to better access the people you want to in dreams? I am very good at lucid dreaming when things are going well in a dream but generally bad at controlling nightmares other than trying to coax these figures to appear in my dream to protect me.
Below is a description of what I mean when I say guardian. I am wondering if anybody else has characters like these.
I have had difficulty sleeping since I was about four or five years old. I remember being as young as five or six and staying up past midnight with my mother long after everybody else has gone to sleep and usually lay awake in bed for several hours before falling asleep, and usually experienced night terrors as a child (my sister often told me that she came into my room at night while I was screaming only to have me blurt out something with my eyes wide open and then pass out again, never remembering these episodes) and then nightmares all the way through my adult life (last night, for example). But also in my dreams, there have been certain guardian figures. It is rare that I am saved from peril in a dream, but there are a few people/figures who have interrupted my nightmares and saved me just to disappear afterward.
The first guardian I noticed was a giant wolf as a child, who has only returned once or twice after the age of ten or so. I remember entering landscapes, huge panoramas, and waiting for him to arrive, and he would come and sit with me, and whatever monsters or men came to destroy me would be run off by my wolf protector. Sometimes I would be in a nightmare and he would appear, and my dream little girl self would laugh at the men who had tried to torment me as the wolf came to my side. I even thought I saw him sometimes in real life when I was afraid as a little girl.
Since then, I have had a couple of friends/partners who have appeared as my saviors in my dreams. One always appears as a shadow, takes away the danger, and leaves. He only ever spoke to me once to tell me that I was safe before leaving. Another is an ex-boyfriend who often appears as an angel who puts me to bed (inside of my dream) and watches over me. The last is my fiance, who is the only dream character who has ever heard and responded to my screaming.
I'm so grateful that I've had these figures help me periodically throughout the years. I just wish I could make them always appear. It is a rare occurrence for me to lucid dream and make a powerful version of myself--takes a lot of concentration that risks waking from the dream. Otherwise, I would be trying to save myself instead, but these characters help me a lot.
Below is a description of what I mean when I say guardian. I am wondering if anybody else has characters like these.
I have had difficulty sleeping since I was about four or five years old. I remember being as young as five or six and staying up past midnight with my mother long after everybody else has gone to sleep and usually lay awake in bed for several hours before falling asleep, and usually experienced night terrors as a child (my sister often told me that she came into my room at night while I was screaming only to have me blurt out something with my eyes wide open and then pass out again, never remembering these episodes) and then nightmares all the way through my adult life (last night, for example). But also in my dreams, there have been certain guardian figures. It is rare that I am saved from peril in a dream, but there are a few people/figures who have interrupted my nightmares and saved me just to disappear afterward.
The first guardian I noticed was a giant wolf as a child, who has only returned once or twice after the age of ten or so. I remember entering landscapes, huge panoramas, and waiting for him to arrive, and he would come and sit with me, and whatever monsters or men came to destroy me would be run off by my wolf protector. Sometimes I would be in a nightmare and he would appear, and my dream little girl self would laugh at the men who had tried to torment me as the wolf came to my side. I even thought I saw him sometimes in real life when I was afraid as a little girl.
Since then, I have had a couple of friends/partners who have appeared as my saviors in my dreams. One always appears as a shadow, takes away the danger, and leaves. He only ever spoke to me once to tell me that I was safe before leaving. Another is an ex-boyfriend who often appears as an angel who puts me to bed (inside of my dream) and watches over me. The last is my fiance, who is the only dream character who has ever heard and responded to my screaming.
I'm so grateful that I've had these figures help me periodically throughout the years. I just wish I could make them always appear. It is a rare occurrence for me to lucid dream and make a powerful version of myself--takes a lot of concentration that risks waking from the dream. Otherwise, I would be trying to save myself instead, but these characters help me a lot.
