Ahhhhhh first LD that didnt just accidentally occur!!!

I HAD A LUCID DREAM 5 MINUTES AGO!!!
Haha, im so excited i had to come on here and share :)))
My heart is still beating real fast from the excitement... :P

i grew up having allot of lucid dreams, due to stress and bad sleeping patterns, i became non lucid for around 4-5 years.
It sucked.... i could barely even remember my dreams any more :/

So wen i heard there are actually forums (like this one) and different techniques that can help u get back to lucidity, i decided to try it out since i missed lucid dreaming allot.
I started a dream journal 3 night ago and iv been performing reality checks frequently for about 2 days now.
And this morning i woke up from my first lucid dream in a while.... the first time iv ever really purposely worked on getting lucid and not justletting it happen naturally/effortlessly, so this is sooo exciting. And i LOVE the fact that iv actually proven to myself that the techniques u guys share actually DO work!!!

I woke up, in my dream, and as usual i performed a reality check thinking i had just woken up to another day in waking life.... everything was soooo vivid and clear, i was SURE i was awake. But as i looked at one of my hands i counted 6 fingers.... i was like.. wtf? this cat be right... so i counted again.. and again, still 6 fingers.... this is wen i started realising i was dreaming. But just to be sure i did the nose plug RC too and as i could still breath i was certain, i was in a dream! I Quickly got out of bed and noticed i was in a different bedroom, not my own. Thats wen i was getting over excited :/ I tried my best to calm myself down so i wouldnt wake up.... but it didny work :(
After just a few seconds of being lucid... i woke up out of excitement... :/

im still excited whiles im typing this. haha.

Just SO amazing to know that the techniques actually work, its very encouraging to know and i will def continue doing them.

Its interesting that since i started my DJ 3 days ago.. iv only been able to remember one night of dreaming.. the other two i could not remember anything :( ...i was loosing hope thinking ' ill never get lucid if i cant even remember my dreams!!' , yet it still worked and i got lucid! so ya... pretty exciting.

Ill continue working on my DJ and RC and for next time ill try to calm down so that i dnt wake myself up again.. any tips on how to do that??

Thanks for reading.. i love that there is a great community here as i dnt really talk to anyone in my regular life about this... yet. :)

Congratulations, MangoSteen! There's nothing like a lucid dream and good dream recall to make you happy all day long.

The key things to remember are patience and steady effort, both for dream recall and lucidity. Every time you find yourself awake reach for dream recall, and once you've collected as much as you can (and gone over it several times in your mind before physically moving to help cement it into your awake memories), write it down in your journal, at least keyword notes at first, then full details later.

During the day try to maintain self-awareness for longer and longer periods of time: always return to being "tuned in" (paying attention to yourself and your thoughts) after noticing that you've "zoned out" for a while.