Slightly confused about self-awareness

Hows it going everyone? A bit of a newbie here, only been at this since October 2014. I am nineteen years old and have kept a journal since then and am on the quest to lucidity you can say.

I am a bit confused about self-awareness. I feel like I have hit a wall with it, and don't really know where to go from here. Throughout the day I just try to be mindful of myself in my local reality, and how we both influence each other. The problem is is that I think about this influence, but it sort of stops there. Ill ask myself what I was just doing, what im doing now, how it feels, etc, but idk, idk if im doing it right because it feels like im in a cycle where ill ask questions that Ive already asked before which is counter intuitive to the whole practice of self-awareness. What are your guys self-awareness techniques, and how do you find yourself raising your own self-awareness?

What do you guys personally do when you feel like youve hit a plateau? Ive exerpienced usually that after these plateaus lies a breakthrough, so patience is akey for me right now. Thanks for taking the time to read this and sweet dreams.

I'm a firm believer in a formal practice like meditation to build a solid foundation. It's key to developing a quiet and focused mind which in turn facilitates other less formal/structured daily awareness practices.

At its heart any daily awareness practices should have the purpose of experiencing reality as directly as possible, without distraction and bias. Meditation is one path that leads to a reduction of distraction and bias.

When I am walking around, I feel as though i can do better at being aware of my environment, though its more sensory input to deal with. ill down a side walk and see a tree ahead, observe the tree. after a while it seems surreal and more 3d. i note its existence, its physical 3D space it occupies, its uniqueness to things around it. nothing is quite like it. but i dont focus to hard on it. i note in my mind as a tree, an entity in the 3d world. i hear sounds, note them. pay attention to everything, like going to a museum and having a guide, seeing all of the things for myself and hearing about them, eager to see more things rather than just dwell on one exhibit. pick one thing up, look at another. staying open to everything. switching focus. i heard an example somewhere that went along the lines of an conveyor belt in your mind. you see,hear,feel, ect, those things go on this belt, you acknowledge them, post a "sticky note" of what it is to you for example, buzzing "bee" thinking of something "thought", fire "light;hot". breathing too. you can use it as an anchor while your awareness of the world is "idling" and pay attention to your breathing. i hope this helps. my writing can seem a bit messy sometimes.

I used to be really good with self-awareness, to the point where I was becoming lucid multiple times every night. But then school came along and my golly does that get in the way completely.
I will say though, I don't think it really hurts to be asking yourself those questions alot, but it is unnecessary. I never really asked myself questions unless something strange, unusual, or out of the ordinary occurred. That worked for me extremely well and is what brought me huge success. You shouldn't be going in circles with Self Awareness, but it should be a habit to be self aware entirely. That means being aware of your existence, your influence, and all that other stuff. There comes a point where you can't be any more aware or you'll start stressing yourself out. If you put in too much work, stress will be the direct result and it will work against you.
It's just like the quote from A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming:"The wrong state of mind is like a Chinese finger trap: The more your force it, the more frustration and pressure you exert, the less likely you'll have a lucid dream. If you stay focused and relaxed, the dream will simply come to you." This goes for any practice within the entire lucid dreaming community. So essentially what I'm saying, is that maybe you are putting too much work on yourself. Going back to my experience, my entire journey will Self Awareness greatly bloomed whenever I just took it day by day. I didn't worry about when the Lucid Dreams would come or when my awareness would get better; I just knew it would as time progressed.
According to recent studies in psychology, it takes about 67 days to make something a habit. So with self awareness you want to make sure you're making the right habit. To boil it down to your situation, you need to take everything as it comes. If something odd happens during the day, make sure you realize it and do a reality check if you feel its necessary. I feel like I'm just spitting stuff out now so I'm going to stop it here. I will advise you however, to check out my thread. It's titled "My journey with Self Awareness and My Twist to It". I think it'll really help you out and clear some things up for you.

To answer the last few questions of yours, my awareness is raised the more time I spend practicing a lucid mindset. With persistence, growth just seems to come naturally. Over time you'll find yourself noticing every little detail that is off about the waking world and yourself in general. The only times I feel like I've hit a plateau is when stress comes in and my mind starts telling me, "You have to do your best or you won't make it". I've learned to stop that and take it at my own pace. You don't have to be at any certain point in your progress at any specific time.

I hope this made sense, but if I left something rather unclear or a bit confusing just let me know and I'll clarify.
Wish you the best man.

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