Howdy

Hi my name is Mark, I'm 21, I've only recently come to terms with lucid dreaming and I think subconsciously it was triggered by watching Inception when it was in cinemas.
Basically I watched that film, enjoyed the concept of being able to create a reality that you could control or play out, and I thought about it a lot as I wanted to try it out but I never actually read into it, but with luck I had a lucid dream shortly after watching the film.
I used to have 2 cats, a tabby cat which ran away, and 1 which died 2009 Christmas time, the one that died was a Persian Blue, and in a dream I had, the Persian Blue (which was called 'Pom Pom') appeared, but unlike any other dream I usually have, I had a heightened awareness for what was real and what wasn't, so immediately I said to myself in my dream that I must be dreaming. Usually I would have dreams which would defy reality, but I would never be able to differentiate a dream from real life until I woke up and analyzed from happened in my dream.
So from being aware that I was in my dream with my dead cat, I was completely overwhelmed with the sense that I was in a dream that I wanted to do something to make sure I was dreaming, so in my dream I started running really fast to a speed that I thought was fast enough for take off LoL, and then I started flying.

Since then I've been reading up on many techniques on how to induce lucidity in dreams, and watching things based on lucid dreams, and just been so curious in how to enter that state again. I have to say though that my attempts haven't worked. I think I'm overcompensating by trying too hard, by continuously thinking about it so it's become unnatural.

Tips?

Hi Mark and welcome to DV! How is your recall? That is one of the first things you should focus on. Start writing down your dreams in a Dream Journal and your recall will improve. Sometimes trying to hard can have a negative effect, so relaxing a bit can do wonders. It wasn't after a two month break that I started having LD's more often.

Have you tried WBTB? It works great for me and alot of other people aswell. Set up a realistic goal and think and read alot about lucid dreaming and you should have one. But if you're having a hard time, then perhaps just focusing on your recall for the moment would be for the best.

Good luck!

Just to add on to what matte said, you also should read up on some of the terms such as DILD, reality checks and dream characters. These can get confusing if you are just reading stuff on here and don't know what they mean. Also, in addition to working on dream recall, you want to find an induction method and reality check that works best for you. Personally, i use DEILDs and DILDs a lot, and for reality checks i plug my nose and try to breathe in, and osmetimes check my hands.

My recall is pretty good, though I don't actually keep a dream journal. I generally just tend to remember a lot of dreams, but I have been meaning to keep a dream journal because I've heard it helps.
I've read about techniques such as WBTB, DIELD, MILD etc. but not adopted them yet. Think I'll start with the dream journal as my first goal, then work on the the lucid techniques after, thanks for the help.

Hey there! Welcome to DV!!

Definitely keep a dream journal - this is, in my opinion, the #1 most helpful tool in dream recall and lucid dreaming.

Is there anything in particular you are interested in or would like tips on?

And always, feel free to pm me if you have questions you don't want to ask in the forums :)