Hey JailTime!
I am a new lucid dreaming practitioner as well! Maybe I can help you a little bit.
Firstly, I became interested in studying lucid dreaming over a year ago, at which time I took a masterclass and also purchased an expensive online program to study it. Despite all that, I only put in a minimum amount of effort to “train” myself for lucid dreaming. I tried doing RCs every time I walked through a door or heard a cell phone go off (etc) yet I found I would go through hundreds of these moments and not even once remember to do a RC. In the end, I drifted away from the RC training (and all other methods really, besides my usual meditation). And while I was still fascinated by the idea of lucid dreaming and thought about it frequently, I never once had a lucid dream.
It would be that way for about a year (about 1.5 months ago from today) before I finally got back into it. And by accident really. I was in search of a book on dream interpretations, when I came across a fantastic Lucid Dreaming book (HIGHLY recommend it, it first and foremost Inspires you! Its called the Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming by Dylan Tucillo and others. My favourite resource by far, hands down)
Anyway, this book got me back into lucid dreaming, and I eagerly went into it full force. The sincere dedication to the art of lucid dreaming that I now had made it possible to do and remember to do RCs at the right times, and successfully practice other techniques as well. I had my first lucid dream only a week after starting, and it was so wonderful. I had a couple more little ones shortly after, and then fell off the wagon.
This is where I think you might be at the moment. During this time I continued to do alllll the practices I had incorporated (and there were quite a few) and yet I wasn’t having ANY LDs. In fact, even my NDs started to fade, and I couldn’t recall them in the morning. I slowly came to the realization that I was trying too hard. It was becoming too strained. While you said you haven’t really been practicing any of the techniques, I’d ask you to really question the underlying emotions that are linked to your desire to lucid dream. Are you feeling a twinge of frustration? Or worry, or doubt? It seems to be such a delicate balance. They say to firmly believe and reaffirm that you WILL have a lucid dream tonight, and yet I was convincing myself so much that when I would wake up the next day I’d be so frustrated because I didn’t end up lucid dreaming. It allll has to be positive.
The way I got back on the band wagon was to get off it first, oddly enough. I gave myself a break for a few nights and told myself it didn’t matter if I had ANY recalled dreams that night, let alone lucid ones. I stopped trying. On the second night of that, sure enough I had another incredible lucid dream. When I wasn’t even trying.
All that being said, I think it’s still verrrry important to practice. Daytime LD techniques are important because they are training your brain. It’s not really so much about putting lucid dreaming in your conscious mind all day so much as how you’re putting it there, because this will build up the subconscious, which is what is active when you’re dreaming. You have to teach your subconscious to recognize a dream, and just thinking about how cool lucid dreaming is probably won’t do it. RCs are creating a habit in your subconscious that it will automatically do in a dream, and therefore awake you to the dream. Meditation is teaching your subconscious how to be aware of your surroundings so that you can notice in your dreams when weird things are happening. It also teaches the subconscious how to focus, so that when you do have a lucid dream you can focus on it and not lose it right away. And DJing is teaching your subconscious to bring dreams closer to your waking consciousness, so that your waking consciousness can be present in dreams (lucidity!).
I think I probably talked enough now haha. Like I said before, I am only a few months into serious LD studying, so readers are free to correct me if I’ve said anything incorrect (hopefully, and I’m pretty sure, it’s all right though!)
Happy dreaming!