How do you go about doing your reality checks?

Hi, I would like to know how all of you go about doing your reality checks. Take me through your process, it's very nice to see other views and perspectives.

Personally, when I do a reality check I ask myself the question and take a look around at the environment, then plug my nose for a few seconds to test breathing, then straight to trying to push my fingers through my palm.

I used to have a different process, in which I would simply push my fingers through my palm and assure myself that I am not dreaming after my fingers did not go through. I figured out this is counter-productive, as I had a dream the other night that could have most definitely been lucid except I mocked in my dream exactly how I did my reality check in waking reality.

"In the dream, I see my cat that passed away a few years ago and begin to pet his head. He meows at me and I think to myself: "It's so weird that you came back." I decide that this is a very dreamy situation and do a reality check, I stick my fingers into my palm and either I did not notice my fingers go through my palm or they just didn't go through, I then reassure myself that I am not dreaming and go on with my dream, completely non-lucid."

After that dream, I awakened very... upset that I missed such an easy chance to be lucid haha. But I also realized that this was a message, that the way I was doing my reality checks were counter-productive.

I only do a reality check if I'm not sure whether I'm dreaming or not. I've gone back to the nose plug lately but other one's I'll use is flying, attempting to jump underground into a void, and trying to see through my closed eyelids.

Pick a reliable method of dream control for you and use that as a reality check. If the dream control you use is reliable, it won't fail as much.

Well…

If I was going to use RC’s I would often do them in “sessions” about 3 or 4 random times throughout the day for about 5 minutes each. I do whatever RC’s are convenient at the time but try to include always the most effective ones. I mix them up a bit and take advantage of the environment to come up with new ways to check reality so it doesn’t get boring. Plus I would only do this if I was interested and it didn’t feel too taxing (stressing out over doing RC’s or having them feel like a chore will just prevent lucidity).

The only thing I would be asking myself when doing reality checks is “is this a dream?”. I’ve heard before that with RC’s you should really ask if you’re in reality, but for some reason I find it easier and more effective to ask if it’s a dream instead. I try to be completely aware and accurately test my state…I mean I do them to the same standard I would like to in a dream, in case I have the problem of falsely concluding it’s reality (also, it is the awareness you put into RC’s that bleeds into the dream, which is why it’s important to be thorough and really question your state).

In a dream, then, I’ve had them work in 2 different ways… either to confirm lucidity and amplify it after I’ve already slightly suspected I might be dreaming, or needed to do the check to know I was dreaming, meaning if I didn’t I would not have known even though I had a good level of awareness in the dream (this is why I think it’s important to include very effective ones like the nose pinch, counting fingers etc.)