Hey, lend a hand to a noob?

Long story short, I lost my motivation for LD's about a year ago and now I'm back and I want to try again. I've been keeping a dream journal and have quite a good recall, but otherwise I really need some reality check tips, like what I should do and when I should do it. Furthermore, If anybody can give me any other tips they would be greatly appreciated. I have become lucid about 4 times but never managed to take a good amount of control, so that problem is going to come up when I finally achieve lucidity again. Thanks for taking you time :)

I have found the dream journal and just thinking about lucidity to be much more effective than RCs. I have had about a dozen LDs since I started looking into it and none have involved a reality check. Personally I find that as long as I remember to think "Am I dreaming?" just the question itself is enough to become lucid; I don't need to hold my nose or poke my palm to prove it.

But that's probably the true intent of the RC. It's not the act itself, but merely stopping often during your day to think about dreaming. The same way a test you think about can pop up in a dream, or a video game you've been playing during the day, spending your waking hours thinking about lucidity will increase your chances of thinking about it while dreaming.

As for control, it depends on what you want to do. The first few times I lost the dream as soon as I achieved lucidity. The next few I had to repeatedly touch surfaces and rub my hands to keep things in focus. On my last couple LDs I was able to bring the dream back two-three times after it started to fade by rubbing objects, or once by moving my hand back and forth and imagining the sounds of the shower curtain opening and closing (I was stepping into a shower when the dream faded).

When it comes to manipulating things in the dream, I find the smaller steps to be easy. So far I can't just snap my fingers and change a hallway to a grassy field, but I can manipulate things inside the dream, cause people to be behind certain doors, and so on. To me at least, it seems the best way to increase your control is to start out with small steps, and not fight against the current narrative of the dream. I can't fly yet, but in my last lucid I was able to move a barrel back and forth across the floor with " my mind" by waving my hand. It was a small thing, but my first proper use of a "magical" power, so to speak.

So in my own case I try to think about LDing a lot during the day, and when I do achieve lucidity I try to maintain the story of the dream and work on my control is small ways, at least until I get good enough that I can do whole reboots of place, narrative, people, etc.

try writing RC with a magic pen on your wrist. it works!!! makes you do RC 50+ times a day. when doing a reality cheack ask yourself a number of questions like '' where am i'' '' how did i get here'' '' is this real''. stopping for just 30seconds to do this is better than just doing a reality check, just to do it! thats what i used to do, look at my hands and thats it.

when you become lucid the most important thing is to BE CALM!, i know its harder done than said but close your eyes and breath slowly, look around at it beauty, small touch, use all your senses.

i was at your situation one time but by following these ive managed to stay lucid much longer, im still struggling with control, as in full control of dreams, but we all are learning everyday, no one, even here at dreamview can know everything about dreams and this is what makes lucid dreaming unique and personal :)

hope this helps, and should really get into it, its worth it :)

I like doing a RC everytime I walk under a door. This is something I tend to do a lot both in dreaming and in waking life. It's hard to remember at first, so usually I will do a short mantra each day, "I will remember to RC when I walk through a door." I also do RC's everytime I think about dreaming. My typical one is the nose-pinch, followed up by biting my tongue or my finger. I also ask myself if I can remember what I was doing 5 minutes ago, putting on my clothes this morning, why am I where I am right now, do I know this place?

That kind of thing.

Also, there's a great reality check tutorial for more great ideas!

well, I feel myself getting closer since I got involved on this site again, for example last night in my dream I was thinking about what I would write in my dream journal and remembering every event (which is technically a fail since I was dreaming and thinking about my dream journal - damn -.-) but it shows the topic is surfacing in my dreams, I'm gonna practice a lot with RC's now and see where this goes, thanks for all your help people :)