So I have been doing hardcore mindfulness for about the past month or or longer. I actually taste my food, feel the clothes I'm wearing and more. I question how I got here and why I am doing things and then do 2 reality checks to confirm.

This has got me nowhere.. The closest thing I can think of to coming lucid was...  My friend who is vegan was eating spaghetti with chicken and drinking milk and I'm like "hmmm that's weird, maybe he is eating around the chicken". That is about the closest I have come to questioning something in a dream.

This is frustrating, yesterday I had a nap and did SSILD, I actually did become lucid for the first or second time ever due to this but woke up immediately. As soon as I became lucid my arms started tingling A LOT in the dreams...  Almost painfully...  And it scared me and I woke up. Clarifying that I'm almost positive this was due to SSILD and not mindfulness.

I don't know....  Its just I've put so much work into this...  And there is no way I'm giving up...  It's just is there something I'm doing wrong?

Also I keep a dream journal on my phone where I record anywhere from 1-5 dreams per night, 2 or 3 on average. I also meditate for about 20 minutes every other day. And I'm on this subreddit for 1-2 hours a day.    

Keep up with the DJ!

This really i frustrating indeed.. i actually had the same a few years ago..

What really did help for me, was WBTB. I combine MILD with WBTB and it gave me some great success. Keep in mind that when you want to get the most out of MILD, you should train your prospective memory at daytime.

WBTB + SSILD can give some good results too, i think.  

But you've had lucid dreams already. You're pretty much guaranteed to have more regardless of used technique.  

Thanks I think I've mostly been doing SSILD and DILD. I will look into MILD  

Do a WILD so you can get used to being lucid in a dream. Then you will be able to recognize and maintain it better  

> As soon as I became lucid my arms started tingling A LOT in the dreams...

I get this very same thing so I would say you are on the right track. Use that to reinforce the idea that you are dreaming. I wonder because others report the same thing if it can be used as a trigger?

I went from vaguely realizing I was dreaming to full blown lucidity and I believe it is a skill that can be slowly trained. You should good to go bud.  

Thanks for the response. I'm going to keep it up. My mind tried to trick itself. As soon as I felt my arms tingling my mind just said "wow that weed you smoked must have been " when in the dream I didn't even smoke, but then I was like "nope this is painful, I must be dreaming". Also, I know marijuana suppresses REM...  I quit smoking weed on October 12th if that makes a difference.  

1.3 weeks of ADA and wonderful results  

meditation should help you with that. You have to just nothing about it (i know its harder than it sounds), but thats what you have to do. If you get the impulse to swallow just do it absently and keep going. The bigger problem is actual the fact that you are sitting there thinking "Dont swallow, dont swallow, come on man why cant i just sit still" which impedes your progress a lot more than actually swallowing.

Also try to focus on moving your brain away from your body if that makes sense. You become more and more detached from your body in the process. So focus on any weird sensations or sounds hear or focus on things inside of your head like thinking about what you will dream about. This will help detach you and accelerate the process, and it will also distract you from intrusive thoughts.  

So do you take 5 minutes every hour to do it? Or do you literally just do it all day? Do you think critically about things like "is that how it should smell/feel/look/taste? Or do you just observe? Sorry for all the questions but do you have any tips?  

Yeah I feel like I've done so many searches on how not to swallow and tried so many different things that it's all I can think about during WILD. I will try just swallowing and movie on.  

I already had my dream count go up  

I do about 5 minutes every hour and I do just observe. i will sometimes question if it should be like this but i mainly just observe. In my dreams I do realize the abnormalities and have been becoming lucid more frequently  

By wonderful results what do you mean? How many in the past 1.3 weeks?  

Ok it has been 1 week and 4 days. Ive had 4 or 5 short ones in that period, but i need to get back into it. i can feel im doing it less and less  

There is a lot of myth in these mindfulness, all-day awareness stuff. The theories are very sound and people instinctively accept them and many see them as the holy grail of lucid dreaming. People who actually try them and receive a few LDs also tend to swear by them, even though those LDs probably have little to do with the practice and the result is never sustainable. Yes, this is the biggest hype in the field of lucid dreaming and anyone dare to challenge it always gets flamed. Ask how I know that, LOL. I won't go into length here... just think about this: will you learn how to swim if you never get into water? Do what you know about the land also apply to the water? The answer is obviously NO. They are two different environments and have different governing laws/physics. Reality and dream are also like that. What seems logical in waking life doesn't necessarily hold true in dreams. A technique that seems to "make sense" may actually be senseless.  

What do you suggest other than mindfulness?  

Interesting.   I always figured that DILD techniques such as mild would have more consistent results over time.  I guess I've always prefered DILD techniques, as I love to just fall asleep.  I've only had 60 LDs though, so I'm still figuring it all out.