Techniques For Retaining Lucidity Options

I havent had a lucid dream in about 4 months now but when I have one I keep having them. I started practiciing ways to maintain lucidity and hold the images I see in the dream.

One thing I know for sure is if I concentrate on a certain object for more than a few seconds the whole dream disintegrates or I fade back into unconscious dreaming. I heard of a technique in which you look at your hands and just as they start to disintegrate you shift your attention to another object and keep doing it. The more you do it the longer you can stare at a certain object before it starts to fade.

From just practicing this everytime I find myself in a lucid dream ive managed to hold my lucid dreams for what seems to be about 20 minutes sometimes. I havent attained the ability to manifest objects at will but when im lucid dreaming I can stop traffic, break walls with my fist, jump 50 feet into the air, and ive actually gained the ability to fly at will and sometimes move through solid objects such as walls (I find that the hardest to do, usually I get stuck inside the wall and wake up).

I could never fly up until one day I just started doing it by accident I found myself flying by holding onto a bin in the subway station. Now every time im in a lucid dream all I have to do is run and jump and I can fly.

Do any of you know any good techniques to maintain lucidity, prevent the scenery from fading, and increase your abilities while lucid dreaming?

I forgot to note something important:

When you DO have a lucid dream, try not to think of the physical/conscious life as that will quickly awake you. Try to understand the dream you're in, try something spiritual, do NOT think of daily life in the physical or problems you face, try your best to stay in the dream and forget your daily life, as these will awake you and make you conscious.

Hmmmm..... I don't think that's totally universal. With sufficient experience, it's easier to stay in a lucid dream willfully, and I have sought answers to questions there that concerned my waking life. It hasn't hapened often that i'm able to actually recall events in my life while in a lucid dream, and I think there was a point where I would become lucid, then think of something in my waking life, and then wake up, but I can think of a few times in the last several months that I thought of those things and managed to stay dreaming.

Some months ago, during a lucid dream, as an example of what I mean, I 'woke up' during my dream when I looked at my friend marcus' face, who was there with me. When I did, I remembered that he was having trouble writing songs (he wants to me a musician, although in my dream I didn't make the direct connection between writing songs and being a musician) so we had a short conversation before he faded from my dreamscape about why he was having trouble. He responded by explaining that he was afraid of making something good because if he ever had to record them, he'd be judged. Something to that effect, anyway, but more broken and long winded.

Part of the mastery of dreaming is learning how to stay there as long as you want, under any circumstances. It's a long time working on it, sure, but if you never try, you'll certainly never get there.

peace