How To Do Inner Work | Adventures In Getting Unstuck

Creative Dreaming in hard times

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The last year + has been really difficult for me and lots of times I thought... I should stop posting here. Like - get my shit together ALONE SOMEWHERE... THEN come out and share.

But my whole thing with the Creative Dream Incubator is to share ways to work with our dreams... TO GUIDE US. Because our dreams are a way that our souls show us our path.

So why would we stop receiving that guidance in the times when we need it the most?

It's our fucked up culture that says that creative dreaming is for when you feel strong, bold, sure and creative.

Creative dreaming is for everyone. All the time.

You don't have to be strong or feel capable or have your life going exactly right so that you have all the time, space and support you need.

AND my whole thing with the Creative Dream Incubator is to share the whole thing AND to say... we are stronger together. We can do this together.

So, hiding away when I feel stuck and then coming out to share my victories has never felt right to me.

AND sometimes it just feels awkward AF to keep sharing as I go in circles.

I just wanted to acknowledge that.

If you're creative dreaming in hard times - here is the "Things are bad!" section of the map with some thoughts, tools and approaches to try.

I do feel strong and capable right now. I also want to acknowledge that.

It's so complicated to be in a body sometimes! But I feel like I'm adjusted to the hormone replacement therapy, I have new supplements and I'm getting shiatsu massages which feel like they massage my SOUL along with my body and with all of this going on I FEEL GOOD.

I am working on two things:

Goodbye 2024 Hello 2025: Guided journal, Goodbye 2024 Releasing Ceremony (Dec 13) + Hello 2025 Blessing Ceremony (Jan 17). All three are happening in the membership, but you can also get the journal on its own. (More details next week) (Call times are at 1:00 Central, North America)

Creating a right-fit transformative/healing year-long creative/spiritual project: Maybe that's the title, maybe I will find an easier title as I work with it 🤣 but I am doing a year-long project with HOPE for 2025 and as I sort through HOW I want to do this, I am creating a workbook to share the process.

It will be VERY customizable - if a year isn't the right-fit time for you, you just change that. 30 days, 100 days, a season - whatever time frame works for you is perfect. The goal is to set it up in such a way that it supports you in getting what you want from your project.

My project for 2025 will be the YEAR OF HOPE. And I'll be sharing that regularly on my blog - I feel like practicing hope can teach us all a lot right now.

Come dream with us

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

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You are acting from self doubt or self belief. Pick right.

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This was a message I got in a meditation.

IT. IS. THIS. SIMPLE.

It's not whether or not you FEEL self doubt, but what you ACT FROM.

When you feel self doubt: tend to that feeling INSTEAD OF acting out of it.

Tools from the Creative Dream Incubator Membership:

Self Doubt Relief

Alchemy Process for working with Self Doubt

Alchemy Process for bolstering your sense of courage

Your Self Doubt Is Not Yours You Deserve To Believe In Yourself 

Slow the fuck down! BE as powerful, creative and magnetic as you ARE

Come dream with us

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

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A really difficult conversation with my frustration

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I am so frustrated. I feel so anxious. And then I tense up. I don’t believe in myself or any of my ideas.

And then I get frustrated with myself for how I am feeling and how I am reacting to my feelings.

But reacting well… like saying “Oh honey I’m sorry you feel this way, what do you need?” feels annoying. Like I HAVE DONE SO MUCH OF THAT I CAN’T DO IT ANY MORE.

I went for a bike ride. I distracted myself with various things. And still this pit of self doubt is here, wreaking all sorts of havoc.

But I want to do this thing. I have moments of really believing in it. But whenever I go to take action - I freeze.

And I am a really good coach, I know how to guide people through this and I know how to guide myself through this but I AM JUST SO FUCKING SICK OF EVEN FEELING THIS.

So today I am trying the Un-Sticking Station with that “I AM JUST SO FUCKING SICK OF EVEN FEELING THIS” voice.

So, hi there I AM JUST SO FUCKING SICK OF EVEN FEELING THIS.

It’s my teenaged self sitting there, looking very annoying at being called into this boring meeting.

Oh hi! Thanks for meeting me here.

Did I have a choice?

I don’t know, but I appreciate you being here. 

She leans forward. “WHY ARE YOU BEING LIKE THIS?”

I don’t really know, I am trying to figure it out.

“You have everything! Look at your loft! And your business! And this cute idea for this thing you want to do! Why don’t you just do it?”

I know. I mean. Well…

She rolls her eye “You don’t feel good”

Well, I don’t! I feel like my struggles with perimenopause are so invisible and I also feel like I talk about it too much, but come on MY BRAIN ISN’T WORKING RIGHT.

So fix it.

Ugh. You sound like my ex-husband when he was at his worst. When he was over capacity with his own struggles and couldn’t empathize with mine.

You want me to empathize with you?

Yeah, I guess.

You called me here to empathize with you? (Her tone of voice suggests that she can't believe I am asking her for empathy)

Actually no, I called you here to find out more about what you need.

Ok that’s much more interesting. I need you to stop being all tied up inside, just do all the things you want to do.

OK, why? What would that give you?

Satisfaction of seeing how I turned out.

You don’t like how I turned out when I am anxious?

It’s really hard to watch.

Yeah, I get that!

You do?

Of course!

I thought you wanted to just use anxiety as an excuse to not do anything.

Of course not! I want to do all the things I want to do!

Oh…

This fizzled away there, it's unresolved but I can feel something shifting.

Come dream with us

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

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Making an Un-Sticking Station

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I had "Dream Book time" and didn't know what to do - like nothing was really "in process" so I was kind of stumped.

(Once you've done the 2 years of Dream Book lessons, you get the "Dream Book oracle" which shows up in the menu in the sidebar on the Dream Book page - clicking it will take you to a random Dream Book process or lesson)

So I went to the Dream Book lesson checklist - since this is a new Dream Book I am still at the beginning with it. My next thing was: The Un-Sticking Station.

This page is meant to give you space to start exploring using the Un-Sticking practice to get unstuck... of course I use this practice all the time so I don't really need this page. But I wanted to create an Un-Sticking Station page to explore my relationship with Un-Sticking, in relationship specifically to the dreams I am working on now.

It's important to follow these bits of inspiration or insight that come up as a part of our process, "Oh I would like to..." Whatever it is, DO THAT. Find out where it leads!

You Build The Path By Walking means any step counts.

So, I don't know where I am going with this. I was listening to my intuition about what I wanted to put here, with he circle and the items around it (heaviness, sadness, this never works, self doubt + obstacles) and then the lines between them... and suddenly the Un-Sticking Station felt like a hammock or something... it would HOLD ME. Hold me in the truth - being present with these obstacles WHILE ALSO being present with the deeper truths of what I am capable of.

This feels good. And very much unfinished.

The other page is purple now because I was putting purple in a different journal, too much paint plopped out of my tube, and I try to keep the paint as thin as possible in these journals, so I was looking for another page to put the extra on, and this felt right. (I have a lot of paint pens which can write over paint so I can still journal on this page)

Come dream with us

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

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I’ve been having a hard time with my Dream Self

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I started a new Dream Self Page in my Dream Book for "being deeper in my creative and spiritual practices". I want to feel more creative and alive and I don't really know what this looks like yet.

This feels like an important part of my other dreams and also like a dream in itself, so I wanted to explore this version of me who is really DEEP in the practices. This version of me seems to NATURALLY get into her practices and not get distracted by other things the way I have been lately.

I started the page by giving in a title and put the date in the corner and... nothing.

I was a little annoyed with myself for putting the date in, because then I could see how long it had been without me coming back and doing anything with it.

At the two week mark, I started journaling about how it felt that I am so stuck with this. That this dream self seems so far away from me. I felt like I had failed... but then I journaled about how hard it's been to adjust to this medication I am on and how really - I AM DOING MY BEST.

And then I started thinking about how it doesn't matter what it looks like - I am doing AMAZING because I am showing up. It's fine to just bitch in your journal about how stuck you are, and doing so is so much better than avoiding your journal because you are stuck.

Then I started working on the Dream Self and it was amazing, it felt like I was really getting in touch with his part of me.

Then I started a list of things that can help me be this version of me more often.

And I noticed that I am doing a lot of these things, and there are ways I can be better at supporting myself, and new things to add to the mix.

Come dream with us

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

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Unsticking Anxiety

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This is from a few weeks ago when anxiety was my biggest obstacle.

There is some medical stuff going on causing this and it's already getting better and hope we will get it sorted in the next few months AND here I am in the meantime, with anxiety as a HUGE obstacle.

So I am taking it to the un-sticking station practice.

Hello, Anxiety.

Anxiety is a little round, I don’t know… like a circle stuffed animal but with arms and legs. Big fuzzy eyebrows.

I hug it and it softens a bit.

But my body feels uncomfortable.

Then I imagine the stuffed animal gets really big, and now it’s hugging me, and this is a little bit soothing.

Does anxiety want to comfort me?

Now my head hurts.

I want to feel creative and free. I want to do all these things I want to do. You are making this all really hard, like painfully hard - why?

In the medication I am crying, sobbing, asking anxiety to explain this.

It’s just a stuffed animal, sitting there.

And that's all that happened.

SITTING WITH an obstacle is always better than avoiding it. But sitting with it one time doesn't necessarily change it.

It's a practice, so we keep practicing. Over time YES sitting with the obstacles absolutely changes them. You can use the Un-Sticking Station, or The Obstacle Is The Way Through or other Inner Work practices. Doing ANYTHING AT ALL with it is always better than doing nothing.

Come dream with us

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

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I wrote this in my journal + wanted to share…

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I got to this part so I must be ready for this step

After I wrote it, it felt like a miracle.

Of course I did write this about a step I DID NOT feel ready for but... OMG YES. Why am I here if I am not ready for this step?

AND OF COURSE: Taking a rest, doing some research, asking for help… these are all valid next steps, especially when you get to a part where you’re not sure what to do with.

But… you got to this part because you are ready for this part.

Come dream with us

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

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My dream won’t show up

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I was having an anxious morning and didn't know what to do, so I went to the Creative Dream Alchemy Library to find something to do, and chose Dream Work. (Inner Work would have been good too, but there isn’t a way to choose wrong, doing anything is better than doing nothing).

Once in the Dream Work section, I chose the Dream Lab meditation.

I put pillows on the floor and got really comfy and really got into it…

And my dream just wouldn’t show up.

The meditation did soothe my anxiety, I felt calm from being in the field in the meditation.

But my dream was just... not there.

This is from a few weeks ago. Then last week I did the dream lab meditation in our Friday weekly call, and again - my dream would not show up.

On Friday, eventually I saw something in the meditation... me, from the back, and far away. Like I couldn't reach myself.

My dreams feel far away right now.

This has been so uncomfortable but I finally realized... this is GOOD.

My dreams are taking space to shift, grow, change, become who they want to be next.

Which means... I am taking space to shift, grow, change, become who I want to be next.

Pursing a dream is an alchemical process. You have to let it grow and change you. You have to let the dream itself grow and change.

The work is always only to keep showing up.

It doesn't matter what the outcomes are.

And it doesn't matter how many times I say that, I really prefer certain outcomes!! I prefer clarity and confidence and feeling like I am moving forward in measurable ways.

But you're not IN THE PROCESS if you only allow some parts of it.

So, I keep showing up. Even if that just means sitting in the fog and contemplating what might happen next...

I mean, if I am honest, and we should always be honest in our practice... I do know what's next. I know what's calling me and I have not been answering.

Art is calling. And I feel too heavy and tired to answer.

Maybe it's the side effects of this medication I am on, which means I'll feel better by or before early December and it will be easier to get into it then if I kept showing up in the meantime.

Maybe it's resistance, which means I just need to keep showing up and be with what's there. Maybe even make the worse art ever in my journal to help spark some flow.

Maybe it's depression, which means if I keep showing up that's actually really good for me.

I don't have to know why I feel too heavy and tired to answer this call.

I just need to keep showing up - that is how I answer the call, it just doesn't look like how I think "answering the call to make more art" should look and the older I get the more it sinks in - nothing looks like what I think it "should".

Come dream with us

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

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Vibe check

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Something that's been on my mind:

You can’t stay in the vibe of “I WANT TO _____”

Even though you DO legitimately want to _____

You have to be in the vibe of “I AM ______”

But you can’t STAY in that vibe if you’re ignoring/avoiding/resisting all of the feelings about how hard this this. About how you do want to _______ but _______.

So you do have to sometimes be with how much you want to.

And you do sometimes how to be with how scared you are that you can’t.

In order to really BE IN the vibe of KNOWING and TRUSTING that you ARE doing this... at other times.

You can’t STAY in any of these states!

Being aware of where you are, and what you patterns are around where you tend to be, is so helpful.

I don’t think you can genuinely, fully, magically, powerfully get into the vibe of I AM if you’re not giving yourself space to be in all of the other states, too.

What are the practices that help tip the scales towards spending more time in the I AM vibe? (The Creative Dream Alchemy Library of Dream Work Practices can give you some places to start)

How can you make more time for them?

Come dream with us

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

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Loneliness and desire

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Note: this post is from my daily Creative Dream Practice and includes links to the tools I use which are a part of the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership. You need an active membership to access those tools. You are always welcome to join right here!

For the most part, I’m doing really well with my divorce. I’m meeting new people, joining new groups, trying new things, and marinating in the magic of living alone and not making any compromises.

And then sometimes, yes it’s lonely.

And sometimes the loneliness becomes more like this big sharp pain of longing for something that is not there, and I don’t see any way to get it.

It feels so helpless so I try to avoid the feeling...

But then this one time I was experiencing that sharp pain and decided to try to sit with it.

Try to figure out what my loneliness wanted even though what I wanted to do was just find a way to run away from it somehow.

Sitting with it was like visiting a part of me who is in quicksand. I was at the shore, wanting to help, but my lonely sell grabbed me and started pulling me in. I was holding onto the shore for dear life when a wiser self somewhere piped up and said “Let go”

Holding on felt impossible anyway, so I let go. Expecting to drown in quicksand…

But as soon as I stopped resisting it, it wasn’t quicksand anymore.

It was an energy field so powerful it held me and my lonely self up. It felt powerful like a forcefield and we were floating in it.

Floating in what though?

It didn’t feel like loneliness anymore.

Ohhh.

It’s my desire for connection and intimacy.

It’s powerful but also kind of formless.

Like - it’s still in the process of becoming.

It’s so hard to LONG for a thing but also not quite know what you want it to look/be/feel like.

This happens with lots of dreams.

And it makes it easy for doubts and fears to pop in and take over.

But when we can sit in the power of our own longing… wow that is something.

That sharp aching loneliness was gone. I felt expansive and trusting and settled in knowing that now is not the time to call this in.

I am going to practice sitting in this. And especially when loneliness creeps in I want to come back to this meditation, and move into this powerful field of longing.

Come dream with us

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

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Some thoughts on working through the hard parts

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Note: this post is from my daily Creative Dream Practice and includes links to the tools I use which are a part of the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership. You need an active membership to access those tools. You are always welcome to join right here!

This is from last week:

I’m completely overwhelmed. I did an un-sticking station session but I feel like I am just going through the motion with that... Not really in touch with my feelings.

There is this part of me who 100% believes in me and 100% believes in my dreams.

This part of me is trapped by the parts of me who are panicking and overwhelmed.

Like if I was to drawn a pie chart of how much of me feels which way - the panic and overwhelm would take up the whole pie chart and the part of me who believes in myself would be squashed underneath it.

I think usually the part of me who believes in myself gets squished small in the pie chart - not squashed completely underneath it. This is a new feeling.

Looking through my journal I remember how in touch I was with that part of me a few days ago and it’s so disappointing to not feel it today.

So what do I need?

Probably just some time.

Probably ACCEPTANCE that this is how I feel today.

Probably some self care and nurturing of the part of me who DOES 100% believe in me.

Now it's this week and I am reflecting on this.

It's SO HARD to be in an uncomfortable place and know that you need to just... be there. Accept things you don't want to accept. Feel feelings you don't want to feel.

And it's SO EASY to feel like if you're in that place today, then you'll be in that place forever.

But BEING WITH is a way of WORKING THROUGH. (note to self)

And this week, well today anyway, I don't feel any of this. I feel calm and trusting. I feel proud of everything I've done so far with my dreams, and I feel equipped to keep taking steps. I am feel really grateful to be exactly where I am with everything.

Triangle Dream Compass

This really is how it works!

This is the compass of Creative Dream Alchemy.

Inner work LEADS to outer work. IF YOU SHOW UP FOR IT. Avoiding the inner work does slow everything down.

And the thing is, it FELT LIKE everything was all slowed down last week, but I was actually processing and percolating and shifting.

So, looking back, if I could teach myself one thing it would be to try (practice!) to have more faith in this, when I hit the next rough spot.

Come dream with us

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

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I’ve wandered too deep into the inner work

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Hey! Did you see Project Miracle is now open for registration?!?

If you're in the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership - you already have access to this right here.

But if you're NOT a member - now you can get Project Miracle for just $33 USD!

Get the details and grab your spot here.

I often talk about how, when I first started my business, I had to have daily un-sticking stations with my fear that I couldn’t do this.

Our dreams are TERRIFYING sometimes.

And it can feel impossible to engage with a thing that terrifies us.

But we know that NOT engaging will destroy the dream.

So we can feel stuck there.

And I share my story often as a way to hopefully encourage people that - yes, you can keep showing up with ALL of you. The parts that are terrified AND the parts that want the dream.

And as we know, ignoring/avoiding something because it scares you means you are letting your fear run your life. This won’t lead anywhere good.

I feel like I’m back in that place sometimes now.

Divorce is brutal. Some days I feel so sure of the new life I am creating and I am enjoying the freedom of it. Some days I feel like all of my solid ground is gone and I just don’t know what to do.

I found this in my journal:

I think I have wandered too deep into the inner work.

I’m terrified.

That's a valid way to feel.

Our creative dreams (and recovering from divorce and building a new life IS a creative dream!) do ask us to look at our STUFF.

And that can be terrifying,

And we get stop, and say "This is terrifying" and then take care of ourselves.

This is part of the work too.

It's not all about BUSTING THROUGH this stuff.

At each step, you know what you need. Sometimes you need epic self care to soothe the things that get stirred up. Sometimes you need to take brave steps.

Always you need to listen to what feels true and right for you right now.

Come dream with us

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts about this or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

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Journal Prompts for when you’re so stuck you can’t do anything but you also can’t just give up

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(Since my year-long project on exploring my resistance has me getting more organized as a way of supporting my creative flow, I am going through things I have written. I wrote this one a few years ago and then never shared it!)

Journal Prompts for when you're so stuck you can't do anything but you also can't just give it up

I went to see a friend I hadn't seen in a long time.

In the time I hadn't seen her, she sold her business, retired, moved, and dealt with several family illnesses and deaths.

She was telling me about her new creative dream - to write a book. It's a very specific book, and as she was telling me about it I realised.... she had told me about this before. Before all these big changes, before the pandemic.

She kind of winced. "Yeah, I have been wanting to do this a long time. I mean... I did write one chapter."

But the way she said "I did write one chapter" discounted what she was saying. Like, because she didn't make the progress she wanted to make, the progress she DID make is not valid.

We were quiet for a minute and then she said "It's just so hard"

I've heard that so many times from so many people and each and every one of them felt ALONE in it.

Like everyone else is happily writing and creating and getting things done and they are just all alone in finding this all kind of hard.

But it's hard for everyone.

It's hard for everyone and that hard is magnified by feelings of shame and failure and being all alone in it.

This is why I do my work in an ongoing community -  so you can see that others are on the path with you and help normalize that it's just hard. (Join us here, it's amazing!)

When you accept that it's just hard then you don't have to get all emotionally tangled up about it being hard.

You don't have to be STUCK in the hard.

You can just face the hard parts and move through them. You take your power back. (I know it's not quite that simple, but I have a lot of tools to help you do this in Dream Book. It's absolutely do-able, with some time and work.)

It's hard because it's vulnerable.

Listening to your dreams is some of the most vulnerable work you can do. It touches on your deepest inner stuff because it pushes you to be more authentic in how you're showing up in your life.

That's vulnerable because of the reasons WHY you're not already being more authentic, creative, powerful and brave in how you're showing up in your life.

This is all very deep down hard wired and mostly lives in the shadows where you can't see it.

Working with your dreams makes it more visible because your dreams push up against this and asks you to bring healing and new possibilities to these places inside you.

So: Journal Prompts for when you're so stuck you can't do anything but you also can't just give it up:

Where are things really hard for you right now with your dream?

How does this feel? Where is this feeling in your body?

Stay with this. DO NOT move ahead to the next prompts, don’t try to get to the solution. Stay with the feelings until you feel you have fully described them. For bonus points: can you actually FEEL the feelings? Notice where they are in your body and focus on those sensations.

What are the other thoughts, feelings and questions that come up when you sit with how hard things are with your dream?

How can you validate all of these ways that you react to it being hard?

I can tell you: your thoughts, feelings and reactions ARE VALID. This is hard stuff! You’re doing great! But how can you validate this for yourself?

How can you think of yourself as a success for staying with this?

If you’re feeling like you’ve failed because this feels stuck, can you instead see yourself as being IN PROCESS? Instead of seeing yourself as stuck, can you see yourself as being incredibly brave because you’re still showing up?

Can you remember that creative dreaming is about answering your soul’s calling which includes a lot of inner healing and growth, and that your dreams often push you to face all the hardest things you have to face, all of the things you would much rather avoid, and so: it’s not that you are struggling with this, it’s that this is inherently experiment difficult work and no one moves through it in a linear way?

No one moves through it as quickly as they would like to. No one “feels successful” while they are in the middle of it. AND YET YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE YOU’RE STILL HERE.

How can you offer love to the places in you that are hurting with all of this?

How can you offer love to the places in you where you feel stuck and small?

Really sit with this. Be with the sensations in your body, ask yourself what you need and give yourself some time to find an answer that feels right for you.

Can you trust that your inner genius is guiding you?

And that this means: if you have some really hard stuff going on and you feel stuck, that maybe being with this stuck is the right thing for you do right now? Can you see this as a part of your path?

Somewhere inside you, you do know how to work with this obstacle. What would help you get in touch with this part of you?

HINT: It’s RELALY hard to do this work when you are avoiding anything that you’re feeling. So you may need to repeat this process a few times before you start to get in touch with the answers… but I promise they are inside you.

Want more help with this?

If you're in Dream Book, you have a whole library of inner work practices here.

If you're not in Dream Book, check out my free courses, which include a healing circle for working through the hard stuff.

Come dream with us

 

Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

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You are worthy

By / /

YOU ARE WORTHY OF YOUR BIGGEST DREAMS.

We all have a ceiling on what we think is actually possible for us and that ceiling isn't about reality, it's about our own self concept, which is completely malleable.

Though I don't believe we should be constantly pushing on that ceiling in the name of "dreaming bigger".

It's that we have a mental concept of "right size" "too small" and "too big" and sometimes our dreams push up against that, and so we try to shrink our dreams into what feels do-able.

But your dream is your soul speaking to you.

So, instead of trying to shove it into a smaller container that fits with your current sense of what is possible for you, how about you listen to what it's actually saying?

You are worthy of your BIGGEST dreams.

How about giving yourself space to consider... what do you REALLY want?

Yes, you live in a world that is hostile to dreams. Yes, compromises may need to be made. Yes, the world will judge and belittle your dreams and ask you who are you to think you can do this?

AND your dream is your soul calling you towards your true self. There is magic and power in this.

And there is a big difference between going after your dream and landing on a compromise, and making compromises about what you will ever allow yourself to dream about 👈👈👈

Your dream is here to heal and grow you. But it can only work it's magic if you accept it.

YOU ARE WORTHY OF YOUR WEIRDEST DREAMS

The call to conform is so powerful and invisible. We don't even notice all the ways we censor and distort ourselves in order to fit in.

All the ways your heart's desires stray from the mainstream point to your unique power and magic.

You're not a cookie cutter you're a living breathing mystery.

Everywhere you try to fit in you cut yourself off from your own magic

YOU ARE WORTHY OF YOUR WILDEST DREAMS

FEELING WORTHY of your dreams is magic. It's healing.

CLAIMING YOUR DREAMS is saying: This is the world I want to help create. This is what I believe in. This is what is important to me. THIS is who I am.

Though it's SO EASY to feel not good enough because dreams are so VULNERABLE.

FEELING WORTHY of your dreams isn't something you naturally have, or don't have.

It's a thing to cultivate. 👈👈👈

In all my years of doing this work, I have never worked with anyone who ALWAYS felt worthy of their dreams.

Of course it's possible that those people exist but just don't hire people like me. But it's more likely that we ALL struggle with this...

But I don't think it's human nature to doubt our dreams, I think it's a consequence of the colonialist capitalist culture we live in.

And guess what? ARTISTS AND DREAMERS HAVE THE ABILITY TO IMPACT AND CHANGE CULTURE.

But to do this we have to keep doing the work of freeing ourselves of the ways our culture negatively impacts us.

We have to DO THE WORK to cultivate a sense of worthiness.

Your dreams chose you.

You are already worthy.

It's up to you if you're going to cultivate worthiness as a FEELING and STATE OF BEING.

This was a message I received from my dream last year.

In response, I create two alchemy classes for Dream Book members:

FEELING WORTHY of your dreams

BEING OPEN + RECEPTIVE to your dreams

And I know a lot of you did this work with me then, I want to encourage you to keep doing it. (And if you didn't - join Dream Book now and do it!!!!)

FEELING WORTHY OF MY DREAMS is a daily practice.

Come dream with us

 

Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

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This is too vulnerable

By / /

I talk a lot about how Creative Dreaming is sooo vulnerable.

Today I would like it to not be.

Today maybe it's too vulnerable, for where I'm at?

Creative Dreaming needs us to work from our wholeness, we can't compartmentalize and avoid parts of ourselves. We can't we don't have certain thoughts or feelings. We need to be really present with all of us to engage with this work.

So how do I do this when my marriage just fell apart and now there's this medical emergency in the family that keeps getting worse?

The first thing about Creative Dream Alchemy is: Meet yourself where you are and move towards where you want to be.

To meet myself where I am: I just want to hide under the covers today.

To move towards where I want to be: I do want to keep working on this guided journal.

And these things feel so much at odds with each other that I just can't. I CAN go lie down but I'll be thinking about the journal. I CAN sit here with the journal but I'll just be wishing I was in bed.

Where I am this morning, it's very easy to say "I can't do either, I'm just stuck" and burst into tears.

Which is a completely valid way to proceed. Some days crying IS the next step to take.

And there is also the option of going deeper.

Sitting with the feelings (The Working With Conflicting Feelings Call last week was SO good!) to see what new possibilities emerge.

So here it went today:

When I started, this felt too vulnerable, too hard, there was no way through.

Now it all feels fine. Now, there is SPACE for everything.

I'm going to work on the creative project now, knowing I have loads of time in my day for "healing cocoon" too.

 

Come dream with us
Dream Book members:

Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.

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