Hello you all!

I´m a 22 year old Swede and I picked up Ld about a year ago and has since then ambitiously entered my dream journal every morning after dream rememberance. I´we been quite close to give up since I´ve tended to stagnate in progress after the "recall part" that´s included in most Ld-methods. The recall part has never been any problem, I´ve gotten aprox. two dreams clear to me per morning (on an average) even those times when I didn´t really focus on remembering the night before. The rescue came one hot mid-summers night this summer when I suddenly found myself doing a combination of the nose-pinch and the look-at-palm reality tests! A totaly amazing, almost divine feeling I must say, even though it lasted for just a couple of seconds. The surroundings where dark and gloomy and I took the opportunity to conjure some stuff while I could. Think I managed to provoke a bowl of fruit or something like that.

Anyhow, I now really wish to make progress in my dream-recognition, because it almost feels like I went several steps back in "recognition ability" after my Ld success this summer. I´m really serious about doing regular reality checks, at least a couple/hour (varying kinds). The journal gets it´s share every morning still, and I´m getting a good amount of sleep as well. I´m also kind of aware of my personal dream signs, even though they have changed a bit during the last year.

The part where I fail, I believe, is the one regarding repetition prior to the falling asleep. Like last night, I repeated lika a mantra; "I will do a reality check. I will do a reality check" foor a good while until my mind couldn´t cope with it anymore. My main question is: Is the repetition part really my issue, and what can I do tho improve it? Another thought of mine is wheter personal dream signs change with time, and by which moments should I "update" myself of them?

Sincerely // H