Affirmations and hands LD technique

[Firmitas]

Hey guys,

I've been trying this technique on and off for about a week now. Sometimes if im really busy I dont really remember to do affirmations on whether or not I am dreaming. But most of the time I can fit them in. Also I usually check my hands when I do this i hopes that it will pass on to my dream state. However, I haven't had much luck becoming lucid in any dreams yet!

are there any other techniques or advice you all would recommend?

thanks,
-Firmitas

[Xanth]

Keep doing your affirmations and reality checks as much as possible.
They WILL carry over into your dreams eventually. 

I just had a reality check of my own carry over the other morning.
So they definitely do work.

[CFTraveler]

Agree- you can try different reality checks, not always the same ones- because you do get used to the same ones and learn to accept them as reality, and then they don't work.  So gather up as many as you can, and switch them around.

[Xanth]

Here's what I've been doing lately.
Whenever I find myself alone, I do a reality check.

I just switched to this one recently because I noticed in my dreams recently that I've had plenty of times when I've been alone.
Sunday morning I did a reality check when I noticed when I was walking along the side of a road and nobody else was around.

[Firmitas]

Thanks for the tips guys
I'll keep doing my affirmations and I'll be sure to post any updates!

Has anyone had any luck with the hand technique? I always ask myself, "am i dreaming?" and then I look at my hands. So hopefully when I'm dreaming and I see my hands that will give it away.

Thanks again,
-Firmitas

[Xanth]

I did that one once and witnessed the whole "hands melting" thing.
It was quite trippy watching my hands melting in front of my eyes.

[Firmitas]

Yea I was reading about that. When you saw your hands was it an inclination that you were dreaming?

-Firmitas

[Xanth]

Yea I was reading about that. When you saw your hands was it an inclination that you were dreaming?

-Firmitas

At the time, I was already Lucid.
It was a dream in which some strange stuff had already happened which caused me to question where I was.

[CFTraveler]

Yea I was reading about that. When you saw your hands was it an inclination that you were dreaming?

-Firmitas

From what I've read, melting hands means you're projected (etheric) if something looks weird about them (they're not your hands as you have them in real life) it means you're dreaming.
The problem with this (and it happened to me) is that if you're not lucid in the first place, you'll accept whatever you see as real.  I once saw purple hands with claws as "normal" and continued on with my dream, which is why I say do checks, but don't stick to the same one all the time, or it won't work.
There's lots of reality checks.  Here's a sample of things to try:
Regular old introspection- ask yourself "Am I dreaming?"  "How did I get here?"
Give a hop, see if you take off flying.
Look at doors and windows.  Are there any changes? 
And the inception one- carry something with you, look at it often. Every time you look at it ask yourself if you are dreaming.
I'm sure others can give you many more.

[manwesulimo2004]

I've been quite unsuccessful with my attempts to have an OBE/AP but I have had two lucid dreams in which I thought I had projected. I know there is a big discussion about whether LDs and APs are the same thing but I did some really useless stuff in the dreams which made a lot of sense to me at the time and doesn't in retrospect so I consider them dreams.
Anyway, getting back on topic: After already being lucid in my last dream I looked at my hands and they were all crooked and bent. They looked like you do in a house of crazy mirrors because they were morphing and warping in a similar way to when you move in front of a bent mirror (that's the best way I can describe it).
I really wonder what they would have looked like if I hadn't been expecting an anomaly...