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Although I have seen many very, very successful lucid dreamers count all their lucids, from my personal experience found that it made me focus on the number too much, rather than the actual dreams. I became too concerned with fulfilling my frequency for the week, and could not make any improvements on it. Then, I got rid of my LD count, and had no trouble with it since. Is it just a personal problem, or does an LD count/frequency count generate unwanted expectations?
Probably a personal problem.
But that's not to say that there aren't more people who are like you. I'm just saying that everyone is different. There are even people who find that dream journalling gets in the way of their dream recall.
By the way, I looked for F13 on my keyboard. Too bad, so sad XD
Maybe you are right, maybe I should try to not remind myself that I only have 5.5 LDs this year, and that might improve my expectations. :)
It only becomes a problem when you start thinking you HAVE to become lucid, or else. When you do that, your recall slips, you don't succeed, you get upset with yourself, and everything goes downhill.
But, if you learn to not beat yourself up after an unsuccessful night of lucid dreaming, keeping a count isn't a problem. This is where the trait of humility helps you out. If you fall down, you don't gripe about it. You relax, figure things out, get back up, and start going again.
That said, I like keeping a count. I like statistics.
Counting doesn't matter. Neither does frequency. As soon as either becomes important, you do indeed run the risk of those "unwanted expectations" blocking your LD attempts with a need to fulfill meaningless quotas.
So you're correct, PostScript9. If you have no interest in counting, or, worse, a need to meet quotas slows you down, there's no need for it. Just dream.
Why counting? I agree that this can get in the way. I write my dreams in a journal, but even that i don't do frequently. I only write the ones i would like to remember later.
Do not make counting such a huge deal. Go with the flow. Just be grateful that you can lucid dream.