Taking it to the next step.. but how?

[Petey]

Hey all,

For about a year or so (with some gaps inbetween where live just got too busy) I have been having my go at Astral Projection.
But thus far I have not experienced any direct success. I think I got close a few times and are definitely on the right way though, but I would like some opinions of other people on this part of my journey
So I have always had very vivid dreams pretty much as long as I can remember. A year or so ago I stumbled across the spirit science series on youtube and the astral projection episode really spoke to me. Well they all did, but that one just stood out a bit more since I have always enjoyed dreams a lot  
So far I have been having sort of a weird issue. Haven't really seen any topics or information about this so decided to ask here.
As I said I have very vivid dreams. Even last night I had a dream that I can remember a lot of things of. But there has been one thing that I never managed to do. And that is to actually become aware of the fact that I am dreaming WHILE I am dreaming.
Right now I have what I guess you could call a trick where about 4-4,5 hours before I have to get up I set my alarm. And then go back to sleep pretty much instantly after putting the alarm on the right time for the morning. And somehow after that I always have a very vivid dream. Now I would hope some day soon I'd be able to replace that word vivid with the word lucid. But somehow I just can't seem to get there.
I remember a lot of stuff from my dreams. Even multiple images and scenes from dreams that date back more than a few years. I feel like the fact that I can remember all of this stuff without ever "training" all of that by starting a dream journal and stuff is a good thing? I don't know lol but that's just what always kept me interested.
I sort of had my go with meditating which I thought might help out. But generally speaking my head is a mess anyways. Not in a bad way but I just have a lot of thoughts running through my head pretty much always. I had my moments of clarity for sure. The one that stood out most was when I actually just completely silenced my head for a good few minutes and had shivers all over my body. I decided to go to bed after that and try "breaking out" in an attempt at astral projecting. As I was doing this I just felt my body go numb and something pulling me upwards. Then I got these massive vibrations and right when I felt that it would finally happen.. I got scared somehow. The thing that I longed for for so long was about to happen (I think?) and I got scared and just opened my eyes.
I haven't been able to experience anything quite like this ever since. It's been a while now and once again Astral Projection was pushed a bit to the background as I am running close to my contract ending for my job. Nothing bad though just took a break from school for a year and starting again next month. So things got a bit busy for the last month or two.

So anyways if you have survived this wall of text. I thank you for reading all of it. The question I have right now though is. Do you guys have any ideas on how to take this thing to the next level. That being becoming aware of my dreams when I actually am dreaming. What are some things you have done to get this going for yourself? Or did it just happen one day?

Well thanks in advance everyone

Greetz, Petey!

[Lionheart]

 Hello Petey and Welcome to the Astral Pulse. My technique to finding success in controlling my Lucid Dreams has come through personal Brain Entrainment.
Every night when I close my eyes I say to myself, By my act of will I RELEASE my focus on my physical body. TAKE ME to your diesired destination. SHOW ME what i need to see. TEACH ME what I need to learn. Please, AWAKEN ME to show me I am dreaming, so I may CONTROL my dreams and REMEMBER them. So I can LEARN from and ENJOY them.
I visualize those capitalized letters as fading into the darkness before my eyes. This technique has worked with me to perfection. But everything I have had to study or learn in my lifetime I have taken this approach, so it works well with me. You just need to experiment and find your own niche!  
Good Luck and Safe Travels!  
You might want to check out the helpful "stickies" found here as well. There are a couple of them that are all about Lucid Dreams and how to take it to the next level!

[Szaxx]

Hi Petey, welcome to the Pulse.

Can you preprogram a dream efficiently during the day and be aware of this while dreaming?
If not, are these lucid dreams totally uncontrolled and random?

[Petey]

Hey guys thanks for the welcome and the replies
I wouldn't quite call it preprogrammed. Meaning that I do not go through the day thinking about it so I can dream about it later.
But I can see a lot of things in my dreams that are results of things that happened throughout the day or even thoughts I might have had.

Edit: Read your comment again but no, I am not aware of it while dreaming. Until now I haven't really been aware of my dreams during the dreams themself anyways. Only after I wake up I realize it was a dream. Still with a lot of the moments and images stuck in my head. But not the complete story.

[Szaxx]

Hi,
The memories are rarely complete and this is one part where a group discussion may help find a way for improvement. At present the common advice is to write down key memories as single words in order ideally as soon as you wake up.
The daily thoughts that appear, can you remember if you were in autopilot mode ie. boring repetitive job and just thinking about something? If its this something that makes it into your dream then plan a subject to think about while doing the boring task to see if it appears.
Another is knowing the feeling about you when your dream reproduces an event from the day. Its hard to explain but a particular ambience or state of mind can reappear in your dreams. If you are familiar then look at a photo of something and convince yourself youll dream about it.
If any of the above can be applied then the next stage can be implemented. That being creating a dream anchor. This stops the dream as you recognise the anchor and gain instant awareness that you're dreaming. Controlling this takes a few attempts but isnt impossible.
Anything familiar above?

[Petey]

It differs sometimes I suppose. Or a combination of both even.
For instance I work(ed) at a large supermarket behind the register. So that night I dreamed that I was working, and there was a special event where John Legend (yes the singer rofl) was at the supermarket sitting there all day signing autographs rofl.
So kind of combined the boring work stuff with music I actually thought about that day.
The part about the anchors that you said in your comment seems really interesting and clever to me. Definitely going to try that
Thanks for the reply once again ^^