I used to pinch myself to see if I felt pain. If not I was dreaming. But now that I can "feel" in my dreams, that's not very useful anymore and I haven't tried it in a long time. I've gotten many gut feelings that have told me I was dreaming anyway. I am just going to tell you, for now, to try the whole pinching thing. Once you are used to recognising when you dream, you may start to get gut feelings about dreaming, and not need to reality check as much.