So far I have been reasonably successful in inducing lucid dreams (for a beginner at least!) However, like many others, I have been struggling with dream stabilization.

I have read through the tutorials here and every night would have a 'stabilization plan' for if I became lucid. I would usually remember to do the things I'd planned, which would seem to help, but only really in the area of prolonging the dream; I would still regularly be almost blacking out.

However I then realised something. I had been thinking so much about what to do when lucid, what techniques to use and making sure I remember to do them, that in the lucid dreams I would be doing them with an almost frantic mindset. Sort of like, 'wow I'm dreaming! Okay, must stabilize. I need to do this, then this...must not wake up! Must stabilize! STABILIZE!!' Maybe that's a little exaggerated, but hopefully my point is clear. I feel I've been trying too hard to do the techniques that people say helps stabilize dreams, at the expense of cultivating the state of mind that would likely keep me grounded and possibly improve things considerably.

I'm thinking that for a little while I may just make my stabilization plan to 'be calm'. If I remember, I will still try to do techniques like looking at detail, touching things and speaking out loud, but for now I feel that trying to remember and immediately act out a list of things to do when lucid may be what is causing me to lose stability! If I can remember to be calm, chances are a lot of the usual techniques will flow naturally from being more grounded.

Does this make sense to people?
Does anyone else think that emphasizing techniques over mindset can be unhelpful?