I had several really hard days with my hope practice. Lots of hopelessness and "WTF am I even doing?"

Combined with so many destructive things happening in the world it was a lot.

And I was thinking very deeply about a lot of things. And feeling intensely a lot of feels.

Then it felt like Alice in Wonderland, and I was moving through different worlds and I landed in this new one.

The ground felt more solid beneath me. The sun shone brighter. Things felt clearer.

It felt like there was more space for hope inside me, and so I had a firmer ground beneath me to dream from.

That's when I wrote the post I shared yesterday where I was feeling so sure about what to DO.

And I also came up with a hope art project. I don't know where it's going to go, but it feels like starting it is another way to sit with hope and that feels like a lot.

This year of hope project really is like any dream.

If you show up for it and keep showing up when ALL THE HARDS are landing around you - a new path will appear, or more often you will realize that you had the means to build the path all along, but now you'll get it and feel ready to DO IT.

 

 

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.

Every Monday in 2025 there will be a new journal prompt in the Year of Hope classroom in the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership.

​Get this week's journal prompt here.​

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Leave them in the comments at the bottom of that page so we can discuss this as a group. The discussions already have been so good! Practicing hope in community is MAGIC.

 

I sent this as a newsletter on Friday morning, and shared it on social media - but it just feels important so I am sharing it here too.

I want to come out of this with my ability to dream intact. This feels important to me.

My ability to dream means my connection to my soul, my creativity, my feelings, my sense of what feels right, true, meaningful and important to me. And my ability to ACT on all of that.

By “this” I mean all the ways our political and economic systems and our climate itself are collapsing. And I know this state of collapse will likely continue for the rest of my life. So maybe I don’t want to come out of it as much as learn how I want to be in it?

In my morning scroll just now I saw a lot of conspiracy theories that sparked dread in my heart because we cannot solve the problems that we refuse to SEE. And the conspiracy theories have us looking in the wrong direction entirely.

The fires in LA are not weird, or deliberately set (I mean it seems like one maybe was, but that’s after the others had been raging for days?) to cover up crimes. They were entirely predicted and predictable, if we listen to climate scientists. Climate change IS increasing “natural disasters” that get bigger and more destructive. A lot of what we will experience as climate change will be our increasing inability to rebuild. 

We’re in it. And to pretend we are not, to choose to believe conspiracy theories or keep our heads in the sand only keeps us moving deeper into it instead of making choices that can protect the future.

This is why we need the skills of creative dreaming:

⚡️ the courage to face the hard stuff head on

⚡️the groundedness to sit with it, and get more information, and learn

⚡️the emotional capacity to begin to process the magnitude of what is happening

⚡️the emotional capacity to find hope somewhere in there

⚡️the commitment to LIFE, like really being present with the wonder and mystery of life and not being checked out

⚡️the ability to DREAM and IMAGINE beyond what our colonialist capitalist culture has ingrained in us (extracting non-renewable resources from the planet to hoard wealth for yourself is a really lazy and unhealthy dream)

This is why even though everything feels futile to me sometimes, I will keep holding space for the people who want to do this work with me in the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership.

We can create a better future together. 

This Friday, January 17, we are doing a Blessing Ceremony for our dreams for 2025. 

This feels so important right now, to get some support for our dreams, to plug into the magic of community and set intentions together. I hope you join us!

Members: get the call details here.

Everyone else: join us here.

 

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.

The thing that was first on my mind when I opened my Year of Hope journal was: DESERVING.

We deserve to feel hopeful!

We deserve to feel optimistic about the future. We deserve to feel calm, loved, supported, safe, energized, etc, etc, etc.

And then it hit me how many people don't feel these things. How much of the world is set up to make this impossible.

How much I have struggled to feel I truly deserve what I have.

I'm feeling like I opened up a real can of worms.

The main feeling I have now: sadness.

So I am sitting with the sadness and offering it care.

I journaled.

I made a big batch of chickpea stew.

I went for a walk.

I still feel sad, and let down that the intentional practice of calling in hope has called in it's opposite.

I know this is a part of it. Facing and processing hopelessness makes more space for hope.

Still, it sucks.

 

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

Continued from yesterday’s post about my new dream…. once I had accepted all of this and was feeling good about this dream… then I started making a plan to get it all one ASAP.

Like - go get a TON of boxes, and commit a whole weekend and try to get all of the de-cluttering done in one go. Accepting that I can't do it all in a weekend but I could get a big chunk of it done, and then keep going every weekend....

And then I stopped myself because that doesn’t feel fun. 

And also…. what’s the rush?

And then a few things I had ordered online arrived and they came in boxes within boxes and once it was all unpacked I had my pile of boxes, lol! And I knew I didn't want to get them filled with things to give away ASAP so I broke them down and put them away so I can take this slow.

I am still thinking about where I want to start. But I know how I want to approach it: 

• small bits at a time, let’s not make it overwhelming 
• aim to get rid of anything that doesn’t feel like it supports the life I want to be living (does my Dream Self love this?)
• as I do this, really think about how I want to organize and store things, and what kinds of store things I need to make that happen

It's not just about getting rid of stuff, it's about re-thinking stuff. What do I have and why? How does it serve me? What stuff would serve me best?

For example - the clothes I wear when I'm just hanging out at home are pretty worn out. What if I made myself a small wardrobe of lounge wear that is just as comfy but emotionally feels amazing to wear?

And also: "worn out" isn't bad! Especially when it comes to clothing, I like mending my clothes and I LOVE finding ways to mend that add more creative flair.

Even if I want to replace some things with other things - overall I want this to be about LESS consumption, not more. AND more thoughtful consumption.

So going slower with this whole project gives me space to consider all of this and come to better solutions.

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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I want to de-clutter and re-organize every inch of my home. Every drawer and cupboard and random little space.

I have lived here for 12 years. I did a HUGE de-clutter when I moved here and there were no closets and I made this commitment to not accumulate stuff, since I had nowhere to put it... Then I got married and my husband built closets, lol. 

But it’s interesting that I still think of myself as this person who did a HUGE de-clutter and now doesn’t accumulate stuff… because it’s just not true anymore!

But as I think about that’s next for me creatively and how I want to live my life in my 50s and beyond… a giant de-cluttering and re-organizing feels really supportive of all of that AND feels supportive of the process of figuring out my next steps with everything.

I am creating space for my new life. I love this.

I wrote about this over the holidays - how I wasn’t really accepting that I am DREAMING of this, I was thinking of it as a chore.

And now I am really letting myself DREAM of it….  it’s getting bigger.

Like, I want to really think about how I want to store things, and get the right containers to make that easy to keep neat.

And… I want to decorate! I want DIY decorating projects!

This really does feel like MY HOME and CREATIVE SPACE… and what if it also felt like my Dream Self’s home and creative space? Because as I have been sitting with that question I realize it’s really not her space. 

This is the part where this dream merges with another dream and I realize that this is another place where I’ve been tangled up about this dream.

I have been dreaming of renovating the loft… but I see as “when I have more money than I know what to do with and can hire people to tear things down and re-build and I go to a hotel for a few weeks and they get it all done”

Which is… not realistic. And it keeps my dream unattainable.

But when I think of re-decorating as something I do as a part of this de-clutter and re-organization… taking little steps at a time... well now it feels like a fun creative project that I can definitely start…. now!

 

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.

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

It’s Friday morning. I woke up achy and headachy and crabby and I am worried I am coming down with something and I have plans this weekend that I really want to do.

So that’s the vibe I went into my daily hope practice with.

And I could not “glow hope in my body” in the meditation. I just felt frustration as a dark cloud.

So I painted my page which did make me feel a little better while I was doing it but didn’t change anything.

So I wrote about how I was feeling.

This is what makes a practice ALCHEMICAL. To have space to be with whatever comes up even and especially when it is the opposite of what you wanted.

Right now, in this moment, I HATE THIS. 

But, my frustration needs tenderness and presence.

So, hello frustration, I’m sorry you’re so uncomfortable. How can I help?

Frustration is a crabby old man who lives in the fog. He reminds me of my father’s frustration and I get this image of the fog of frustration stretching through generations.

I make it a cup of tea and give one of my gingerbread cookies from the freezer (that I made too many of on Christmas Eve when I was in the holiday spirit). (And to be honest, taking leftover gingerbread out of the freezer and dipping it in hot tea is a favourite after-Christmas childhood memory and so I want to "make too much" gingerbread most years)

I see that usually when you show up, my whole body gets agitated. We never sit calmly together. We don’t drink tea together.

“No, we really never have. I am THRILLED we are doing this now!” This old man now looks more like an elf or wizard or jolly old man. He’s dressed in so many colours.

I wonder if he has things to teach me.

I realize I don’t think I have anything to learn from frustration in the way I feel I can learn from fear or doubt. I just see it as an annoyance but it’s a feeling, it’s MY feeling, and according to my own beliefs, doesn’t that make it valid and likely even wise?

“Oh yes, I am not a crabby old man I am a WISE old man”

Well that’s fantastic! What wisdom do you have for me today?

“REST.”

Oh. Rest? Really? I’m just starting to get back into the swing of things from the holidays. I want to CREATE! And DO! NO I don't want to rest.

“Girl! It’s Jan THIRD. What are you rushing for?”

Yeah! I always get ovewhelmed in the holidays, just the way my routines get trampled. My routines NOURISH me! I want them back ASAP!

“But your routines are also about your work/creative life. What you need right now is rest. I promise you, your most hopeful self is well rested. And right now is time for more rest. You said it yourself - you woke up a little under the weather this morning.”

And then I think…. of I HAVE routines around rest and self care, like my evening routines. And those I have been doing through the holidays so….

Oh my gosh, frustration is RIGHT!

I am putting too much pressure on myself to “get back to work”

I was working on Year of Hope stuff DURING the holidays. And nothing needs to be done today so…. 

I will rest.

Wow frustration did have something to teach me.

Now I DO feel hopeful. And it feels completely true: I can't be my most hopeful self if I am not rested. And also: I can't do the kind of work I want to do if I am not well rested.

Rest/replenish is exactly where I am today. Frustration came from trying to override that to have the day I had intended to have.

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

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OK yes this is the second post today - I won't send one tomorrow 🙂

But - Today is my 14th anniversary of being full time with the Creative Dream Incubator!

It’s such an awkward way to say it, but feels like the most honest. I started doing the work that grew into this in 2007, while working a day job, which I left at the end of December 2010.

But I started exploring creativity, spirituality and how on earth do we actually, logistically pursue our creative dreams and live as our actual selves in high school, and then much more seriously at 22 (which was…. yikes!…. 1996) when I had a degree in fashion design, a passion for textile art, and no clue how to support myself with either without taking the kinds of jobs that felt like they destroyed my soul.

So, it’s more accurate to say that today, Jan 1 2025, is the 14 year anniversary of me figuring out how to financially support myself with my creative dreams.

Which I am wildly grateful for!

AND I have an extremely complicated relationship with business and money within the colonialist capitalist system/culture I live in.

And I want to be really clear - I am not getting rich with this work! And especially this last year, between the divorce, my mortgage coming up for renewal right when interest rates were the highest, and the general state of the economy… it’s been hard.

BUT/AND I feel so much fulfillment, freedom and creative magic in my work life.

And I feel SO optimistic for the future.

In the big picture… THIS IS WHO I WANT TO BE and being able to BE that person is so valuable to me. 

This is what pursuing our dreams really brings us - OURSELVES.

There is so much healing and magic in that and I have no words to describe how grateful I am to hold space for others in this journey.

And I cannot wait to see what we’ll create together in the Year of Hope.

The Year of Hope is a simple practice for PRACTICING hope…. and it is a sturdy container for transforming the places within us where hope is nowhere to be found…. and it is a support system for taking what you learn in that work and putting it out into your life and/or the world.

AND… having a more hopeful mindset will support your wellbeing and ALL of your dreams.

If you're a member - go to the Year of Hope classroom now and share your thoughts on our first prompt.

If you're not a member -find out more + join us here!

 

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.

The Year of Hope is ON.

I sent out the email with the link to the classroom yesterday - you can find it here.

Since I'm doing my Year of Hope as a daily practice, in my giant daily planner, and the planner started on Monday, Dec 30 - I started early. I don't have photos yet but I did share a quick video of my first day on Instagram.

It's been soooo good. The first day was awkward and vulnerable in the ways first steps can be. But it also felt a little.... glowing is the only word.

Which is very appropriate since the hope alchemy meditation is about practicing glowing hope in your body and mind.

The second day was soooo good. It felt EXACTLY like I had hoped it would feel, to show up and practice hope. To have this solid container to support me to keep doing this.

I know that giving myself this time every morning to be with hope (or to be with my hopelessness when that's what's there) is going to be deeply alchemical. I can feel that already.

Hope is so foundational to our ability to dream, heal and grow.

If we have hope, we can easily take it for granted and only notice it later on, in times when hope isn't as strong.

But having that foundation of hope beneath your feet changes how you see the world, your self, and your possibilities.

So PRACTICING hope shifts the ground beneath you and opens up new possibilities in front of you....

AND, to do this, practicing hope may move us to explore new territory. It might get scary or painful or....

We might have to summon more courage than we are used to. We might have to find new ways of handling our doubts and hopelessness. There may be a TON of inner work involved here.

The Year of Hope is Dream Work (in the Dream Work, Inner Work, Outer Work system we use in Creative Dream Alchemy).

So it's good to remember: going deeper with the Dream Work can push us into deeper places with the Inner Work and can create new options in the Outer Work.

 

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.

I have a friend coming over tomorrow and today I am tidying up. And I went beyond the "normal" cleaning and started re-organizing parts of my kitchen.

And then I felt this STRONG DESIRE.... A DREAM EVEN.... to declutter and organize EVERYTHING. Go through every single drawer and nook and cranny. I want to think about WHERE everything should BE to best support me in living the life I want to live.

If I am honest with myself, this is a dream that has been coming to me over the last month or so...

But my response is

OMG boring and embarrassing and annoying.

This is not a dream! It's a chore!

And I just realized - that is an inner critic voice. It's not my truth.

The truth is, this DOES feel like a dream to me.

It doesn't feel impossible or difficult (well, kind of difficult).

Having a clutter free organized home and work space feels sooooo dreamy.

AND it's a part of the divorce process - some stuff is still stored in the way that made sense for my life then, some stuff just got messed up in the process of going through things to pack his stuff. It is time to get all of my stuff arranged in the way that makes sense for my life as it is now.

I realized too - I think of myself as a person who DID do a massive de-clutter and get organized...

But that was when I sold my home and moved to the condo...

Which was in 2011.

I mean!

I didn't de-clutter THAT well, that I am STILL de-cluttered 14 years later.

So, this has been percolating for a while I think. The way I see myself as a person who already did de-clutter and the way de-cluttering now IS a dream and the part of me who just sees this as a boring chore and doesn't want to do it.

It's always interesting to me how we can judge, deny and invalidate our dreams.

This is too big! Too small! Too boring! Too risky!

We have this idea of what a dream should be and our actual dreams don't always measure up.

AND there's this whole layer around how our dreams are showing us who we really are and we have a lot of conditioning to break through to even begin to see that.

And I think other new dreams are percolating too...

I have a lot of questions about the next phase of my life and what I REALLY want next.

And it dawned on me that de-valuing and not pursing the one thing I DO know about what I want next is NOT making it easier to figure out the other things!!!

I mean the advice I would always give is that we have to MAKE SPACE for whatever we want. Doesn't matter if it feels impossible. Doesn't matter if "the work" of it feels boring. If it want it, make space for it.

And when you do - new things open up.

So - I am going to start going through everything, de-cluttering and re-organizing.

And I will NOT think of it as a boring annoying chore, I will think of it as serving my new dreams...

 

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.

I wanted to share something that I did post on social media this weekend but it felt important enough to share here too.

This was my post:

I’ve been enjoying the holidays AND feeling a growing anxiety about getting the content ready for the Year of Hope which starts on Jan 1. It is mostly ready - just a few things to do. So I knew that I had enough time AND I felt anxious about not already having it done.

But then today I started actually…. working on the content. Editing the videos, to be specific.

And then all of the anxiety was gone.

I’m like “holy fuck this is so good!” “I’m so good at this!” “I love my work!” I feel so grateful for the people who are going to do the Year of Hope with me. I feel so grateful I get to do this work. I feel EXCITED about what a renewed relationship with hope can do for us in 2025…

And I feel 100% sure I can get this all done and ready on time.

 I see now that all of that anxiety was from NOT DOING.

This happens a lot with our creative dreams. It’s easier to doubt them when we’re not working on them. Once we’re working on them, there isn’t as much space for doubt.

And then I made a video on Instagram talking about it a bit more.

Once we are IN THE PROCESS there is less space for self doubt.

This doesn't mean we should be working on our dreams 24-7!!!

Or that we will never have self doubt if we are working on them.

Just good to remember that showing up, doing what you can and taking the steps that are possible to take right now DOES go a long way to helping us believe in ourselves, and our dreams.

Some practices for self doubt from the Creative Dream Alchemy Library of Inner Work Practices in membership:

Alchemy process for self doubt

20 minute alchemy meditation video with a journaling sheet

Self Doubt Relief

ALSO a 20 minute alchemy meditation video with a journaling sheet but a different process. It's good to work with this in different ways!

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

Recording of a 1 hour class with a guided journal

 

Year of Hope will start on Jan 1!

But check your email on the 31th, I'll send out a link to the classroom.

 

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.

Some tools from the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership:

Creative Dream HOLYday: The Creative Dream HOLYday is a great way to start a new year or a new project, or get back on track when you've fallen off or to GO DEEPER into whatever it is you are doing.

Get ready for 2025 with the Create a year-long project that fits your life and gets you the results you want. This is also available for free here.

Or with the Goodbye 2024 Hello 2025 journal, Goodbye 2024 Releasing Ceremony and (in January) Hello 2025 Blessing Ceremony. Outside of the membership you can also get the journal on it's own.

Dream Plan Kit if you have some time to get your projects organized over the holidays.

The Love Your Life Creative Journal Class is just a sweet one for this time of year.

 

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.

I am going to be posting here less over the holidays, but I am working on a post with suggestions for things to do if you have some time over the holidays for your dreams. Hopefully I will have that ready for tomorrow!

I am so excited about my Year of Hope project for 2025.

I took this photo with the pen to show you the SCALE of how thick this planner is! It still makes me laugh every time I look at it. This is the dual planner (plus an extra page for each week) that I am going to fill with HOPE as my daily creative practice in 2025.

There is the Year of Hope - where we practice hope together in the membership, with a journal prompt every week and an alchemy meditation for hope.

And then there is MY Year of Hope, my own creative practice where I am filling this huge 2025 daily planner with hope. (Get the Create A Year-Long Project That Fits Your Life And Gets You The Results you Want here - this is a free journal to help you set up your own project)

I am putting a LOT of energy into preparing for this. Making wishes and claiming my dreams for what I want from this.

I feel like I have a renewed relationship with hope ALREADY just from setting this intention.

What I really want to get from this is the magic of being deeper in a creative practice, with a sturdy container to hold me. The intention to fill this really heavy book, the physicality of how it’s actually heavy. The blank pages ready to be filled. The satisfaction of seeing them get filled.

But mostly the way I change when I am deeper in a transformative creative healing practice.

Dream Book is already that.

This is another layer.

I am so ready for a new layer, with less structure. Dream Book’s structure helps make sure you are moving towards your dream. Having less structure in this daily journal makes more space for the unknown. I'm feeling like I want more of both in the new year.

 

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.

Continued from yesterday's post about making a decision in my business...

I did decide to give the journal away.

And I was feeling a bit like... why am I doing this? Like, I have other things I am doing, why am I adding this? It feels so random! The timing felt wrong.

But then I was like... hey what if I trust my creative process?

What if it's fine that I didn't plan it? This journal just kind of happened while I was working on my ideas for the Year of Hope and I am really happy to be able to share it, why feel frustrated about figuring out HOW?

Which is something I could look at much more deeply - where patterns around "doing things right" can make my work less fun... or can interfere with my relationship with my business.

Because it feels messy!

To say - I aimed to create this (Year of Hope) and in the process created this (Create A Year-Long Project That Fits Your Life And Gets You The Results You Want).

In my mind, they are connected since they came out of the same creative process and they can be used together BUT they are two completely separate things.

But like - this is my creative process. Unexpected things happen. I am not aiming to be in control of it! I am not aiming for a straight line... I just have all of this cultural conditioning that judges my lines when they are not straight.

Back to the robe I sewed.

When I joined the pattern club and was looking through my new patterns I was a little surprised that there were 2 robe patterns. Like who would need 2 different robe patterns?

I only downloaded one of them, because it also had nightgowns that I want to make included. So that's the one I sewed.

But now that I've made it, I see why the other pattern would be good to have too. I actually WANT another robe in the other pattern.

I thought having 2 different robe patterns was extreme -> I made 1 robe -> I now really want to have 2 robes from 2 different patterns.

The creative process changed me.

I am circling something here.

Something about enjoying and appreciating the ways my creative process changes me. And valuing my creative process for what it is and not judging it based on outcomes.

One thought that's been rolling around in my mind is: I would like to be less of an entrepreneur and more of an artist.

I know this is not the first time I have explored that! But it wants to be explored again. This feels really important for how I want to do things in 2025.

 

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.

The creative process is not linear.

I've been creating the Year of Hope as my own project for 2025 AND as an offering for us to practice hope together.

My personal project is more intense than the group thing because that's just what I feel really inspired to do... and I want the group hope practice to be easy to participate in.

So, at some point it kind of split into two things: the process of creating a year-long (or other time frame) project that fits your life and gets you the results you want AND the Year of Hope group project where we practice hope together.

Because I worked on them together, because from within my creative process they fit together, I was seeing them as being together, part of the same thing.

I realized today - they are NOT. They are two things. You could use them together but you can have cookies and ice cream together too, that doesn't mean they are the same or should be stored together in the same place.

So, Creating A Year Long Project That Fits Your Life And Gets You The Results You Want is now it's own thing. That is small (currently about 10 pages) journal with a 14 minute video where I talk about setting up these kinds of projects.

This will be available in the membership, of course.

Then the next question is...

Do I want to sell this outside of the membership?

OR

Do I want to give this away?

Like, it feels like a really timely thing that could be a good promotional tool for the Creative Dream Incubator.

There's a lot to look at - like you could make more money giving away a simple thing for free if it promotes another paid thing. Or it could generate goodwill or visibility for the business. There's also nothing wrong with selling our work!

It's just... what feels right for me right now? What makes sense for the Creative Dream Incubator?

It's interesting to suddenly have a "new product" in a sense, since I was really seeing this as a part of the Year of Hope, and now it's it's own thing.

So I am doing the Meeting Your Dream And The Soul Of Your Business meditation from the Dream Lab, I haven't done this one in a long time.

OK that was so good!

My dream was a jack-in-the-box and I was winding it, and it felt like "just keep showing up and eventually it will pop out"

...until I started to worry that it's broken and will never pop out, lol.

But then my dream appeared as Glinda the Good Witch ( I saw Wicked this weekend!) and she pointed her wand at it and I knew that she can make the box pop any time, but that she would wait for the right time, for me. That getting the whole thing at once would be too much.

And I felt calm and trusting.

And I showed them both my project and told them my ideas and it was like...

It doesn't matter what you do

That's the only message I could get from them.

Like - yeah this is good either way. Do which ever you like.

So I imagined doing each, and thought about the energy required for each.

I'm not ready to make the decision, but I feel a lot more calm and trusting. I want to think it through a little more, because they both feel pretty good and I want to go with the one that feels BEST and I feel like I will know that if I map out each option more clearly (in terms of what kind of work I would be doing, either way).

 

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.

I'm writing this one on the weekend.

Weekends, for the last little while, are all about SEWING. I wrote about this last week, how I have SO MUCH creative energy for sewing and so little for other things and how - being in the flow FEELS GOOD and maybe just go with that instead of trying to control it?

I have this new dream of sewing up ALL of my stash - which is actually not that big, since I've never had much storage space in the loft I had a pretty strict policy of only buying what I was ready-ish to sew. But still - I've gathered a stash over the years.

This is combined with the fact that I joined an online sewing membership!

JOINING MEMBERSHIPS IS AWESOME 🤩😉

Support and tools! In this case - patterns. If you pay annually instead of monthly you get all of the previous monthly patterns, so I did that, and I have an entire new wardrobe of sewing patterns.

Last night I cut out a robe - a gorgeous large floral print thin-ish cotton and I had enough fabric for a full length rode with hood! That takes a LOT of fabric, lol.

I've been thinking about how first thing in the morning, my cat Bear is downstairs crying for breakfast and I am rummaging around to find something comfy to put on to go feed him. For some reason, I don't want to go downstairs naked, but I also don't enjoy looking for something to wear.

And what if I just had a gorgeous robe to put on? Avoid that whole thing where I search for clothes.

AND THEN I feel the way you feel in a gorgeous robe vs the way you feel in whatever sweatpants you found on your bedroom floor. (Which is VERY comfy, I'm not knocking sweatpants)

I'm not just sewing up all of my stash - I am looking at each fabric and asking - how can this best serve me in my new life I am creating?

Like the puffy vest I made is soooo soft and sooo warm and just a delight to put on on a chilly day.

And I am realizing - I really am creating these clothes for my Dream Self.

With the Canada Post strike things are sooo delayed, so I don't know when I'll get it, but I also ordered fabric at a Black Friday sale. It's a pink floral print that I'd had my eye on for a long time, but it's a knit fabric and I didn't use a lot of knits before. But now? I have a pattern for a really pretty nightgown that uses knit fabric.

So, once I have that, in the morning I'll put on this gorgeous flowery nightgown and then this gorgeous flowery robe, and... well it feels like I won't sleepily stumble down the stairs to feed the cat, I will FLOAT because of how these clothes and fabrics make me feel.

I know I am losing some people who don't care about clothes but this isn't about clothes!

I have a degree in fashion design, I don't like the fashion industry but I LOVE self-expression through clothing. And there is something to be said for "dressing for the job you want" but in terms of dressing as the person you want to be. Because you exude that when you're dressed as it, so it helps you dial in on BEING the energy of your dream self.

But it's not about the clothes and I wasn't doing any of this "dressing for my Dream Self" intentionally! I was just following my creative flow and doing what felt interesting and inspiring.

And now here I am, seeing how it fits, seeing how I am creating this really sturdy support for me to BE my dream self.

AND making clothes for myself just feels good. And we need ALL THE FEEL GOOD THINGS.

 

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.