In dream

Another important thing is to keep that relaxation even in your dreams. Many of your probably already heard about dream stabilization. One way of doing that is touching everything around to convince your mind that it's "real". Another one is to start breathing slowly and relax. Focus on making your heart beat slow and smooth, keep your mind under control. Like in meditation, drop every unneeded thought, send it away and just be, feel the flow of the dream that is not around you, it's within you! It's really important not to get carried away or controlled by your own thoughts and desires that might ruin the dream state. Just try to observe your surroundings first and what's more important, your own mind!

The point is to remember the state of your mind in dream. Pay an attention to your thoughts, how are they different from when you are awake? Do you feel your body the same way as you do during a day? When you get the feeling of the dream state, of your mind in dream, you will be able to recognize it next time without any RCs and stuff like that. I use RCs just to make sure that I am not mistaken and it's really a dream. There are many stuff you might notice when examining your mind in dream. For example I sometimes feel a strange pressure or voidness in the back of my head. Like as something in my head is away, turned off maybe? Just try to find something like that. Then when you're going to bed try to imagine that things. Feel it like when you're in dream and you can say: "When I feel like this, I know it is a dream!". Your lucid dreaming will become more natural and smooth this way. Just remember, the point is not to concentrate too much on the techniques and stuff like that. Try to feel it somewhere down in your mind and stay relaxed at the same time.