The more effort I put in, the less I get

Hey guys, I'll start with some background about me. I've lurked around here on and off for a few years when I first discovered lucid dreaming. I never really committed to RCing or WBTBing and was satisfied with increasing dream recall from 1 a week to 2-3 dreams on the average night. I never get nightmares and most of my dreams are enjoyable. last week I had 2 lucids and it really re-inspired me to work at lucidity again.
My issue has been this: The more effort I put into LDing the less I seem to get out of it. I first noticed this with autosuggestion, the nights I would fall asleep repeating mantra I would barely even recall a dream, much less get lucid, after attempting this for several days I would be disappointed and give up, then it seems I would receive the benefits of my efforts a few days late and my recall would get even better than before. Same with WILD attempts. Before now I had been happy to accept that chilling and just enjoying my recall was the best way about it, but I want to do more, I want to do better. This week I'll be RCing alot more, and I'll see how that goes, but I'd love your input on this dillema, or to hear about your similar experiences.

cheers, pizlo

First off, you want to approach the issue with a calm mind, not a stressed out one. And knowing that what you are going through is very normal, then that should keep you very calm.

Ok, with the autosuggestion part, did you make sure you were in a very relaxed state, almost tranced out? The body and mind has to be very relaxed for that to work, so maybe you should practice meditation to get you to that level of relaxation.

Second, there is not much you can do when you are trying the DILD method, except for a positive mindset, RC, meditation and keeping a journal. So you seem to be on track with that.

So what I suggest is that you should try the WILD method, it is a method that can be improved on and mastered easily and once done, you can have a LD every night if you wish. An important part in the WILD method is keeping calm, practice that by meditation.

Well, I'd say your putting too much effort in lucid dreaming. I see a lot of people in this forum going "oh my god lucid dreaming is so impossible" or trying a bunch of different complex techniques to LD and going "I've tryed this like 1000 times but it didin't work help me!". Aparently most people forget that confidence is am important factor to get LDs.

For me just having enough confidence is enough to get some LDs.Yeah, I don't use any technique (except DEILD to continue dreams), I don't keep doing RCs during the day, I don't keep repeating "I will have a lucid dream" over and over before I sleep...just confidence.

I recommend you to take a look at this thread.
I'm not saying you should stop doing RCs or trying to WILD or anything like that. If you fell they work for you, keep using those techniques. I'm just saying that being confident is an important factor.

wow... well I just woke up, I read through that thread you linked and then spent the rest of the day telling myself I was going to LD, (I was also RCing every so often) last night I WBTB and didn't pull off a wild, but I did become lucid! And sure enough I was really confident about it before going to bed. Thanks bunch guys, dream views delivers once again. :D