how do you stay lucid once you realize that you are dreaming?

today i realized that i was dreaming,, and as soon as i did i turned around and remembered i wanted to fly,,, i didnt get tooo excited but i was excited,, the dream became white,, i remebered to spin bu the dream never came back

I spin - doesn't always work. Sometimes the dream fades to black for me. Other times it helps to prolong the dream a bit longer & further.

The excitement & thrill from realizing may have knocked your chances for this one - but keep up the great work.
You did the realization part knowing that you were dreaming!
- keep that up & the prolonging the dreams will come natural.

Sometimes, I take short quick glances at things/objects in the dream to help stabilize the dream landscape & scenery. I find that helps to prolong too.
Also when I feel the dream slipping I relax - and try to wait until the imagery of another dream scene to appear.

How did you know that the dream ended when everything went black? Did you wake up? If not, next time, try moving around or looking around the void. You'd be surprised.

Congrats on lucid dream! :thumbup:
It's not uncommon for starters to have short lucids, but it's still progress! Keep practicing, it will definitely be better next time. :)
Also check out this tutorial, stabilization techniques can help: http://www.dreamviews.com/articles/9...-tutorial.html :peek:

Excitement is one of the hardest things about lucid dreaming. Our first intention when we become lucid is to start doing stuff before the inevatible waking. You should learn how to anchor and center yourself in the dream world, which will tether you to the dream. Stabilization techniques can help increase vividness and maintain lucidity as well. If the dream starts going black, I use as many of my five senses as I can at once and spin to try to keep myself active in the dream. I hope this helped.