How I Use Lucid Dreaming to Heal My C-PTSD for Free
It’s a Scientifically Proven Method.
--
Suppose you’re suffering from Complex or non-complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In that case, there is a secret proven alternative to instantly healing crippling traumas other than money-sucking therapy. You may be thinking, “Sounds too good to be true!” or “Is this some woo-woo method that doesn’t really work?” I know it works because I’ve done it.
What Is C-PTSD?
Healthline defines it like this:
CPTSD results from repeated trauma over months or years, rather than a single event.
Mathew Tull, PhD says:
Examples include: child abuse, torture, slavery, genocide, domestic violence and childhood soldiering.
Therapy can be life-changing; I wouldn’t want to abandon my therapist Louise Waterfall. However, I’ve discovered Lucid Dreaming is an effective alternative if I quit therapy with Louise.
As a result of a rough childhood, I’ve struggled with C-PTSD for years — long before my diagnosis three years ago. C-PTSD ruled my life before I even grasped what it was. Frighteningly, I was scared to sleep because traumatic nightmares ruined my ability to safely rest.
Nightmares are a horrendous part of many C-PTSD sufferers’ lives. The terrors often seep into the rest of our days; it’s hard and sometimes impossible for us to be healthily productive.
Then Louise Waterfall sent me this video about lucid dreaming by Charlie Morley.
A lucid dream is a dream in which you’re actively aware that you’re dreaming a dream as it is happening. — Charlie Morley
Because of this supportive information, lucid dreaming became the most dependable method to heal my trauma other than Louise’s therapy.
This meant no more waiting a week for another trauma session, curing chunks of my horror story most nights.
Step One
Repetition.
I lie down when tired enough to sleep.
Before sleeping, I ensure I repeat “I will lucid dream tonight” in my mind over and over until I feel myself falling asleep. The sentence may not be grammatically correct, but I understand what it means and is short enough for me to sleepily remember.
Focusing on this phrase and bringing my attention to it when I get distracted is the key to conquering my nightmares.
I learned this from the Charlie Morley video. It legitimately works far better than any other lucid dreaming technique I tested.
Using this method, I can lucid dream nearly every night, often healing 3 or more traumatic memories in a session.
Step Two
Determination.
I have to sincerely want it. If I don’t put loads of feeling behind repeating the phrases, my subconscious brain refuses to cooperate.
Step Three
Patience.
I usually don’t lucid dream straight after falling asleep. Sometimes I can explore a lucid state during this time but not as much as later in my cycle.
Most dreams occur during REM sleep, and it is thought to play a role in learning, memory, and mood. — Jayne Leonard, Medical News Today
Studies show that lucid dreaming happens during the first 90 minutes of sleep and several other intervals throughout the precious sleep cycle. I find it easiest to lucid dream when I’ve half-woken up, near the end of my cycle as I’m in a lighter sleep.
Because of the determination to lucid dream that I journeyed to sleep with, my half-awake brain reminds me to repeat, “I will lucid dream”. The reliable magic starts soon when I realize I’m experiencing an awareness of a dream state.
How I Know I’m in the Right Dream State:
- The dream appears natural, but I can control my actions.
- I’m in a fascinating place that couldn’t exist when I’m awake — maybe the setting is murkily dark without a robust ground beneath me.
- I’m myself, either looking down on myself or seeing as I usually do.
- I can experiment with the environment, such as touching plants that appear when I reach for them.
- I can only describe it feeling like the “Huh! I must be lucid dreaming!” emotion.
Step Four
Asking for the Trauma.
As my therapist says, “Feeling is healing.” I believe that if C-PTSD sufferers refuse to feel the stuck emotions, they’re barred from healing them. But it’s definitely easier said than done.
“Scared is what you’re feeling. Brave is what you’re doing.”
Trauma is something most people want to avoid by its very nature.
Charlie Morley puts his arms out in his lucid dream and begs his mind to show him what needs healing.
So I plucked up the courage to do the same. Whilst lucid, I say in my mind, “Show me what I need to heal!” If a traumatic memory fails to appear in front of me, I repeat the assertive phrase until it shows up.
Step Five
Embracing The Trauma — Literally.
When the terrifying trauma blasts into my mind, it is either a person in a stuck place in time or a moving situational memory like an immersive short film.
At this stage, Morley suggests hugging the trauma.
I know.
If you’re anything like me, hugging your trauma is the opposite of what you want to do.
But, this whole process is about undoing avoidance and integrating trauma. Hugging is an expression of love. An antidote to pain is unconditional love.
I believe this step is the hardest. I’m face to face with a nemesis — its starkness fills me with dread.
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight. It’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
If the Trauma is a Person
- I approach them.
- I open out my arms, bracing for the hug.
- I wrap my arms around them, forcing myself to focus on what they feel like without running from it.
- It feels horrible but soon transforms into the healing that dreams are made of (literally!).
If the Trauma is a Situational Movie
- This is trickier to hug because I’m immersed in it.
- I’ve developed a technique of containing the situation in a glass-like bubble. This creates a physical structure for me to hug.
- I wrap my arms around it. I often make the Situation Bubble smaller than I am because otherwise, the trauma is un-embraceable.
- I wait with my arms around it.
- This part is also horrible but well worth it in the end.
Step Six
Instant Healing.
If you’re thinking, “But, how does hugging the trauma heal it?” I realize it might sound unbelievable. But, throughout my healing journey, I’ve practiced more healing techniques than I can correctly remember.
Nothing other than therapy with Louise Waterfall wholly stuck. That was until I found lucid dreaming.
When I hug the trauma, it transforms into something beautifully mundane. More importantly, the trauma ceases to exist.
Of course, I still have the memory, but it’s no longer traumatic. In my lucid state, I’ve turned stubborn traumas safely into awe-inspiring daisies, trees and lovely warm blobs of orange-yellow light, to name a few.
Never before had I been so happy to see a flower.
If the trauma doesn’t transform instantly, I keep my arms around it until it does. The belief that it’ll work is powerful.
Step Seven
Healing hoards of trauma.
The relief of extinguishing raging trauma this way is incredible. Moreover, once I learned to get into the groove of lucid dreaming, I was empowered by encouraging myself to heal several nuggets of toxicity in a sleep cycle.
I healed too much at several stages in my excitement, which left me feeling exhausted when I woke up. Trauma healing is work, but its goal isn’t to decimate you.
Miraculously, when I wake up, I feel less tense. A portion of deep-rooted stress that I’d grown so accustomed to shouldering has simply slipped off. It’s the most instantaneous relief from the trauma I’ve ever experienced.
No waiting for a therapy hangover to be done. No painstakingly reworking the same issue. No therapy fees.
Everything around me actually looks… easier to handle. Even my bedroom looks friendlier somehow.
Surprising Additional Benefits
Mending through lucid dreaming relieved me of powerlessness over my own healing journey, which benefits my self-esteem.
After all, I’m entirely healing myself.
Bonuses
- I’ve gained new confidence in my abilities to look after myself.
- I restored much-desired faith in my creative personality.
- I uncovered meaning in my life, feeling less lost in my disastrous C-PTSD haze.
- I fully understood how much I love plants.
- I joyfully realized that trauma can be healed, and I can regain control over my mind.
Lucid dreaming is a beautiful tool for integrating trauma and reducing C-PTSD’s grip on sufferers’ lives.
There are multiple different ways of lucid dreaming other than covered in this article. I encourage you to experiment with what works for you. I was initially skeptical of lucid dreaming but quickly discovered that it was the antidote I’d desperately searched for to my nightmares.
If you’re lucky enough to be able to lucid dream, I urge you to follow these steps to safely heal your trauma.
Please consult a professional psychologist and/or therapist to see if it is safe for you to do so. I’m not a trained professional psychologist; I speak purely from the perspective of a C-PTSD survivor with the research I’ve undertaken.
Trauma work is hard work — you might not be ready for it yet, and that’s okay.
But if you’re ready and have tried these methods out, I’m interested to hear how you got on.
