This is the mantra I got in this week’s Dream Book journaling + alchemy kit: I welcome more joy + magic into my life

Use the meditation for the weekly mantras to dig in deeper to the mantra, or put your hands on your heart and take five deep slow breaths and repeat to yourself:

I welcome more joy + magic into my life.

Notice where this lands in your body, what thoughts and feelings get sparked.

There is no right or wrong way to react. But your actual thoughts and feelings can tell you something about what you need right now.

How it lands for me: a big YAAAAAASSSSSS.

Like seriously YES. I NEED THIS.

I can feel all the doors inside being flung open to let ALL the joy + magic in.

I feel the things that have been hard just... not mattering as much. And also the parts of me who are holding onto the hard stuff also feel softened by joy and magic.

It's this feeling/energy that's been growing over the last few months. I am ready to be in the BIG SHINY MAGIC. I don't think I've seen much of that since 2020. Like - bits here and there. Magic and healing and possibility are always with us... AND... now it feels like time for MORE.

And under that I think of all the things I can do to INVITE this in.

What are good habits, for welcoming more joy + magic into my life?

A lot of them are the same as good habits for my mental and physical health, good self care... but I think there's more to explore there, too.

If you want to work on this with me:

If I welcome more joy + magic into my life feels good and encouraging, hold it with you today. Look at problems, questions, stucks and obstacles through this lens and see what ideas it brings.

If it brings up some discomfort - that’s your stuff to work on today. To do that work, in the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership we’ve got the un-sticking station and the library of inner work practices. If you’re not sure what practice to use, you can email me, or post in our forum, let me know what’s going on and I will make some suggestions for tools you can use.

 

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.

This is the mantra I got in this week’s Dream Book journaling + alchemy kit: I am determined to succeed

Use the meditation for the weekly mantras to dig in deeper to the mantra, or put your hands on your heart and take five deep slow breaths and repeat to yourself:

I am determined to succeed

Notice where this lands in your body, what thoughts and feelings get sparked.

There is no right or wrong way to react. But your actual thoughts and feelings can tell you something about what you need right now.

How it lands for me: a flickering in my belly.

There's a lot there, determination YES and confidence YES and also... the fears.

This dovetails so nicely with my current explorations about MOTIVATION.

Being told by my doctor that a lack of motivation is a perimenopause symptom, and a common one that goes with my particular cluster of symptoms, noticing all the different things that can and do motivate...

I am starting a page in my Dream Book (that Dream Book lesson comes out around month 9 so you might not have access to it yet) about motivation: where does it come from, where do I want it to come from, what might help with that, what other thoughts come to mind about motivation... just get it all out on one page and see what's needed.

If you want to work on this with me:

If I am determined to succeed feels good and encouraging, hold it with you today. Look at problems, questions, stucks and obstacles through this lens and see what ideas it brings.

If it brings up some discomfort - that’s your stuff to work on today. To do that work, in the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership we’ve got the un-sticking station and the library of inner work practices. If you’re not sure what practice to use, you can email me, or post in our forum, let me know what’s going on and I will make some suggestions for tools you can use.

 

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 had decided not to share this, lol. And then I decided to share this because I see other people breaking up or contemplating it, and I see people with dreams that fall apart and they're in the place where they don't know how to put anything back together and I was remembering how that felt and I wanted to share this story from the other side of all of that.

This year has been intense!

I have maybe learned more about myself this year, than any other year of my life and that is really saying something!

So I wanted to mark this anniversary. That morning I rode my bike downtown for my favourite breakfast treat, the Everything Bagel Doughnut, and ate it in the park with my journals, but didn’t feel like journaling. It was a gorgeous morning and I just sat there, appreciating EVERYTHING.

Then I meal prepped roast veggie salads for the week, cleaned up the loft, got my art supplies organized because my dreams told me to MAKE MORE ART this week, and did laundry including washing my bedding. 

That night I was going to a potluck + bonfire at my friend's farm and I wanted to come home to a tidy place, a fridge full of nutrient dense yummies (seeing mason jar salads in the fridge make my heart happy, and the lettuce stays crisp all week that way) and fresh clean sheets on the bed.

I did tell my friends that it was the anniversary.

They were supportive. They listened to what I wanted to say about it.

Lots of "you're better off"s. No shade to my ex, but everyone is better off not being with someone who would just walk out on them like that.

In the car, once we were on our way home, my friend asked "So how was it for you?" and I was like "How was what?" and she said "The anniversary" and I had forgotten all about it.

That's a moment I wish I could have sent to myself-from-a-year-ago.

I love the way I treat myself now.

All the ways I had been pouring into my marriage, I now pour into just me. And it’s awesome.

All the things I wanted my husband to give me, now I give to me, and it’s awesome.

Including the things I didn’t even realize I was wanting from him, until sorting through my feelings in the breakup! Which is part of the miracle of this last year, it feels like so many things that I wanted actually came to me, but in completely different form from what I was expecting.

I’m not saying divorce is easy. But I am truly appreciating where I am now.

In a lot of ways, it is an opportunity to have a whole new life. 

And in my situation, my outer life didn't change all that much. I didn't move. I didn't change jobs, or suddenly have to get a job. I do have some financial pressure that wasn't there before. And my goals shifted a little. But I know that I was lucky to have a LOT of stability during my divorce that not everyone has.

AND STILL it feels like a whole new life.

It seems so small to say it this way but it's huge.

Really BEING IN the wreckage of things falling apart is a transformative experience.

I see it all the time with people and their dreams - things fall apart in a HUGE way, and it's so painful and terrifying. Like a dream falling apart really can be an existential crisis.

But when we can BE WITH the immensity and depth of of that moment, we are transformed by it.

So, I woke up the next morning, in my freshly washed bed in my tidy home.

I could smell the fire on my clothes from the night before.

My heart felt so light.

Fuck yeah! I love my life.

 

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.

 

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 actually just had a few days of feeling really good and sure. I’ve got this head cold so I am not moving as fast as I’d like to, but I didn’t feel stuck…

Until today, when I have time and space to take these next steps with the creative work and my mind just goes blank.

It’s a familiar blank. Like a haze that sets in when it’s time to be brave and sure of myself.

Bringing the haze into the Un-Sticking Station.

Hi haze.

Haze is a summer day, hot and muggy and let’s just lay around and read novels.

Yeah I am totally down to lay around and read novels! That’s awesome. AND this project is awesome too. It’s not actually muggy in here, it’s air conditioned and comfortable and I really could get to work for a bit…. what do you think?

Haze doesn’t want to think.

OK, I respect that. Can you tell me why you’re here?

It’s summer.

Yeah, but why are you in my head, right here right now when I want to get to work?

Oh! To stop you.

I see that. Why do you want to stop me?

I have something better for you.

Is it rest?

Yup!

Hmmmm

How can you and I work together on this thing? Like, I am open to this not looking or feeling like work… I notice that I’ve been doing A LOT of creative work in that journal and you aren’t wanting to stop me from that.

No, that’s awesome! I love that project.

OK, so how do we make this project just as fun?

Well for starters, you are trying to TYPE this project, and that project is painting and drawing.

But that’s not even true, a huge part of this project is drawing - just on the tablet, not in a journal.

No, you’re PLANNING OUT the drawing by TYPING on the keyboard. It’s all too… uck. Plan. Type. Boring.

So if I draw and paint the exact same thing in my journal, then it would be ok with you?

That, and - make a cup of iced tea. And sit at the art table to do this.

OK. Iced tea. Art Table. Drawing/painting these ideas into a journal instead of typing them on a laptop. And that would make this project work for you? No haze then?

And put your headphones on with meditation music.

OK let’s go try this…

 

++++

(Yes, it worked)

 

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.

This is the mantra I got in this week’s Dream Book journaling + alchemy kit: Life is on my side

Use the meditation for the weekly mantras to dig in deeper to the mantra, or put your hands on your heart and take five deep slow breaths and repeat to yourself:

Life is on my side.

Notice where this lands in your body, what thoughts and feelings get sparked.

There is no right or wrong way to react. But your actual thoughts and feelings can tell you something about what you need right now.

How it lands for me: first a spark of discomfort and then my body opens up and accepts this deep unconditional support.

The discomfort is that I don't think we can think about this without the lens of privilege and intersectionality. When I say LIFE I mean THE UNIVERSE which is a mystery. But when we think LIFE we often think of THE WORLD and the culture we live in and that life is only on your side to the extent that you conform to dominant culture.

Like: are you white, male, straight, cis, never been sick a day in your life, will never be disabled and were born into a nice family that had a lot of generational wealth? Then sure it's easy to say that life is on your side because it IS.

As a straight white cis woman who has been lucky about her health until perimenopause although is likely neurodivergent and masking has taken a LOT of energy of the years, who wasn't born into a lot of money but did have a stable home life in my childhood, life is on my side in ways that it's not for a lot of other people. And I want to be aware of that and use my privilege mindfully.

And that's not what this is.

LIFE as in the universe is on your side because it is you.

That's how this feels.

I don't have words for any of this, it's not cognitive.

But it feels like freedom.

And it feels like... life is so POWERFUL and dominant culture and all the obstacles it puts between us and our dreams feel so tiny and powerless in comparison.

And I can draw on that power.

I am alive and I am a part of life. Life wants me to grow, life is always cheering for life.

If you want to work on this with me:

If Life is on my side feels good and encouraging, hold it with you today. Look at problems, questions, stucks and obstacles through this lens and see what ideas it brings.

If it brings up some discomfort - that’s your stuff to work on today. To do that work, in the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership we’ve got the un-sticking station and the library of inner work practices. If you’re not sure what practice to use, you can email me, or post in our forum, let me know what’s going on and I will make some suggestions for tools you can use.

 

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.

This is aside from all of the complexities of creative dreaming… It’s really complicated and exhausting just to take good care of ourselves!

Especially if you're sensitive. And especially as we get older. And especially for people with chronic illness or neurodivergence. And especially if you have other people you are taking care of... there are so many ways that this is just complicated and exhausting.

Sometimes it’s hard to be in the moment AND know how to best take care of ourselves.

This is why noticing patterns and building routines around self care is so helpful for me.

Being in peri-menopuase, everything I knew about how to take good care of myself at various stages of my cycle has been obliterated.

Now it’s like - oh wow I am so worn out and overwhelmed by everything today. What does this mean? What do I need?

AND THEN I have to figure it out with my most overwhelmed brain.

Not fun.

But creative dreaming can’t really happen when we can’t take good care of ourselves as we are.

Self care and creative dreaming will always be linked.

So, for me, for today, figuring how the fuck to take of myself when I am SO overwhelmed and tired and crabby and have no freaking clue what I want - this IS my dream work.

What I am saying with this post is: Those days when all you can do is try to take care of yourself - you’re not failing!

This work serves your dreams, too.

We can be SO FAST to discount this work but it’s VITAL.

You need a solid foundation to dream from.

Giving yourself this solid foundation may take more time/work than you want it to. But it is VITAL for your dreams, and yourself today.

 

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.

Starting about three years ago, I was dreaming up "my life in my 50s" (I turned 50 in May)

There were all these things I wanted to be different and it just FELT SO DIFFERENT to think of myself in my 50s.

I had forgotten about all of that dreaming though.

My husband left me a year ago. When my 50th came it's like... whoa I'm turning 50, starting a whole new decade, in the middle of a divorce I didn't see coming. Everything was changing and there was a lot of exciting and beautiful things happening but it was also just really hard to feel like I was starting over at this age.

(As if it's easier at any other age?)

But now, looking back to all of the dreaming of "life in my 50s" I was doing... the creativity and spaciousness is what stands out and... I HAVE THAT NOW.

A divorce is NOT how I was thinking it would happen. But here it is.

I don't think I manifested the divorce of course. But, also of course, I recognize that I participated in it .

And I said loads of times.... I am no expert in dreaming with another person. My therapist stresses to me that my partner and I really did give each other a lot of space to be who we are, that we can be proud of that. But still - it was harder to move forward with some things I wanted while in that marriage. Though in saying that I should also recognize that there were things I was receiving in that marriage that I just don't have now.

AND there are compromises everywhere! I knew what I was choosing and don't regret it.

AND hindsight is 20/20!

So I just want to kind of marvel about how I AM FEELING THE WAY I WANTED MY LIFE IN MY 50s TO FEEL.

Those dreams are here, in that way.

I don't have all of the external parts, but I do have some of them. And I FEEL THE WAY I WANT TO FEEL IN MY LIFE. That is A LOT.

 

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 plan for what I want to do next.

It feels really solid. I am considering the things that have not been working, I looked into WHY those things are not working, and came up with ideas for addressing that.

It feels like the kind of plan where - I have taken a lot of steps, many of which have not gotten me the results I wanted, but I have taken SO MANY steps that I have learned so much from those steps - and now I am applying all of that into making a different plan.

I feel really good about it.

Or, I DID feel really good about it until I felt totally panicked.

Suddenly my brain was flooded with the reasons why this is bound to fail.

And I felt stressed, pressured, helpless, discouraged and sad.

It was a lot, and I wasn’t able to instantly use the Un-Sticking Station to turn it around.

So I focused on self care. Taking care of upset self in the moment AND looking at “what can I do to make tomorrow a better day?”

That was yesterday. And today is a little better.

I’m sitting with my fear, offering it love. It feels calmer though still present, I had hoped it would just kind of dissolve in the love.

How do we do this together?

The part of me who is excited about this plan and the part of me who is afraid.

My eyes land on the tarot card on my desk. Yesterday I had picked a card to help me get started with this plan this week and I got 8 of pentacles. It’s saying KEEP GOING.

I think that’s the answer. Keep going… with both. Take steps, implement the plan AND keep meeting the fears/anxiety that comes up.

And suddenly I remember… this only happens EVERY TIME I start with something new.

The moment where the rubber really meets the road, all the fears and doubts get stirred up and I feel like I don’t know what I am doing.

So - go slow, self care, soothing fears AND taking little steps. As long as I keep showing up, I’ll find creative flow again…

 

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.

This is the mantra I got in this week’s Dream Book journaling + alchemy kit: What I seek is seeking me.

Use the meditation for the weekly mantras to dig in deeper to the mantra, or put your hands on your heart and take five deep slow breaths and repeat to yourself:

What I seek is seeking me.

Notice where this lands in your body, what thoughts and feelings get sparked.

There is no right or wrong way to react. But your actual thoughts and feelings can tell you something about what you need right now.

How it lands for me: like warm honey. Sparkling and healing.

Like microscopic bits of PRESSURE that were floating around in me are getting stuck in the honey and disarmed by it.

It's not all on me.

My dream is my PARTNER. And the whole universe is my ALLY. So yes I can take the pressure off of ME to figure it all out and then also do it all.

I am not alone in this.

And then a new awareness rises... how can I make myself more visible to my dream?

If it's seeking me, how do I make me easier to find?

Well... daily Dream Lab meetings. Visualizing. And taking consistent steps towards it. Something about consistency feels so important to me lately. Not necessarily DAILY or even REGULAR but consistent.

If you want to work on this with me:

If What I seek is seeking me feels good and encouraging, hold it with you today. Look at problems, questions, stucks and obstacles through this lens and see what ideas it brings.

If it brings up some discomfort - that’s your stuff to work on today. To do that work, in the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership we’ve got the un-sticking station and the library of inner work practices. If you’re not sure what practice to use, you can email me, or post in our forum, let me know what’s going on and I will make some suggestions for tools you can use.

 

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.

This is the mantra I got in this week’s Dream Book journaling + alchemy kit: I am free to be anyone I want to be

Use the meditation for the weekly mantras to dig in deeper to the mantra, or put your hands on your heart and take five deep slow breaths and repeat to yourself:

I am free to be anyone I want to be

Notice where this lands in your body, what thoughts and feelings get sparked.

There is no right or wrong way to react. But your actual thoughts and feelings can tell you something about what you need right now.

How it lands for me: like a SWISH

A SWISH of freedom, starting around my heart and whooshing away.

Like a bird. Free to fly.

I am shifting my sense of WHO I AM. This is the work my dreams are asking of me right now and it's... messy, I guess. Complicated. So non-linear I have no clue where I am.

I really am free to be anyone I want to be.

And when I sit with this, after the SWISH, my body feels open.

I know exactly who I want to be. I've been clarifying this on the Dream Self Page of my new Dream Book.

Oh! And then I am instantly reminded of why it's hard to BE that version of me all of the time.

And I have so much empathy for myself.

And I want to COME UP WITH A PLAN that makes this all easier.

But the truth is, it's in a process. And as long as I keep showing up, I'll get there.

I will hold I am free to be anyone I want to be close to me on the path this week.

If you want to work on this with me:

If I am free to be anyone I want to be feels good and encouraging, hold it with you today. Look at problems, questions, stucks and obstacles through this lens and see what ideas it brings.

If it brings up some discomfort - that’s your stuff to work on today. To do that work, in the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership we’ve got the un-sticking station and the library of inner work practices. If you’re not sure what practice to use, you can email me, or post in our forum, let me know what’s going on and I will make some suggestions for tools you can use.

 

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.

(Bear and I working from bed)

I was SO EXCITED to do this thing last night, and now that it’s today, and it’s time to do the thing…

I am exhausted. I do NOT have the energy to do this.

And I did do all the things I need to do to get my morning off right… a smoothie, bike ride to the park, now I am drinking a GIANT lavender iced latte in the park and journaling...

And I am still not feeling it.

So. Resistance, is that you? Are you behind the overwhelm and exhaustion?

Ummm. No I don’t think so. Why don’t you blame (ongoing annoying situation in my life)?

Because ongoing annoying situation is, in a sense, handled for now. Like - I have my next steps with it which I will do later. It’s not like ON MY MIND… OMG I am letting you distract me from you!

I am hard to look right at.

No shit!

Resistance just looks at me.

I just look back. Resistance feels like a he today. Kind of like… lots of dark clothing including a cape and a hat, maybe medieval or something like that.

I’m not medieval, that’s ridiculous.

OK whatever, you’re old timey somehow.

I’m ancient.

OK yeah that makes sense. But listen, don’t you remember how EXCITED I was about this project last night?

It’s easy to be excited about a creative project when you just got out of a bath and you’re on your way to sleep and there’s no way to take a step with it.

Are you saying I don’t have it in me to be excited about doing this when I can actually do this?

I’m saying when everything is in place and it’s time to take that step - that’s when all the inner shit comes up. You know this.

I know.

And then you just blame me, like I am something outside of you.

Ugggghhh.

Yeah Uggghhhhh.

I take a deep breath and a big sip of my iced coffee and ask myself what’s happening underneath the resistance.

Fear. Terror actually. What if I’m not good enough? What if I fail? What if I do my best and it turns out I can’t actually do this? Yes, it is VERY easy to feel confident when you’ve just gotten out of a bath and are on your way to bed and not anywhere near taking an actual step.

Where is the part of me who believes in me and my dreams 100%?

Buried under all of those other selves. It almost feels like they have tied her up, there’s no way for her to get free.

That’s interesting - she still believes in herself 100% EVEN WHILE TIED UP AND BURIED UNDER A PILE OF FEARS AND WORRIES AND WHAT IFs.

She’s like “Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll get out of this.”

And I know she will.

I zoom in my focus on her. Can I just work with her and ignore the other stuff?

She smiles at me and turns around to show me how her hands are tied up… the rope is tied so loosely it would be easy to get free. And when I look closer - the rope is actually liquorice.

My fears are little kids and she’s indulging them.

Together, we pick up each kid and put them down on bean bag chairs. We give them popcorn and turn on a movie. We set up some games, an art station and a nap area. We install a new light in their room which radiates love. We go to each of them, one at a time, and tell them how much we love them, exactly as they are. How proud we are of them. How happy we want them to be.

And then we close the door on their room.

And then this journaling ends abruptly because I just… got to work on that project!

 

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.