This is the mantra I got in this week’s Dream Book journaling + alchemy kit: I am ready for bigger things.

First: Holy crap I am at WEEK TWENTY?! It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing this for 20 weeks. I love it.

I still feel like I “just started” re-doing all of these.

I AM READY FOR BIGGER THINGS.

It keeps amazing me how the right mantra finds me at the right time.

I am breathing this one in and it fills my body like helium… I feel light.

Like I can float up into bigger things, and not “work my ass off to get there” which is the vibe I can tend towards, if I am not intentional about HOW I am holding my intentions.

How does it feel to you?

This one can easily feel uncomfortable, and sitting with that discomfort can show you things that your dream wants you to know.

When it comes to “dreaming bigger” and “thinking bigger” our toxic culture impacts us in what the ways we define what is BIGGER and MORE VALUABLE.

Our creative dreams always want to bring us back to what is true for us.

So listen to YOU. Listen to YOUR dreams. No one else has to understand what “bigger things” is for you.

Leaving a high paying job and fancy life to life a more creative and fulfilling life can be “bigger”, you know?

 

Dream Book members:

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(I wrote this post a few weeks ago)

Seven years ago today, I got married. Today, I am not speaking to my husband. We are separated and plan to divorce, at the stage where getting the paperwork figured out feels like too much so just leaving it for now.

I honestly thought I was getting married for life, but here we are.

Things often don’t go as planned. I feel like we can’t say enough: it doesn’t matter what happens in your life YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE.

There is so much in our culture about this. So much judgement and shame and this unconscious push to try to make our lives look as perfect as possible. This is traumatizing.

Life is a mystery. The world is a mess. We’re all doing our best.

I’m finding such surprising gifts in the divorce process. My life is opening up in new ways. I’m turning 50 next week and feel so optimistic about this new chapter in my life.

AND it’s not what I’d planned or aimed for but… what if it’s better?

Re-reading this a week later:

That “It’s not what I’d planned or aimed for but… what if it’s better?” feels like SUCH A FUCKING CLICHE.

Like a pollyanna take on the pain of how disappointing it is sometimes, to go after a dream wholeheartedly and not have it work out.

Re-reading this a few days after that last update:

Last weekend I shared my birthday cake.

I am IN LOVE with how it turned out...

But it wasn’t what I had planned, lol!

My sister baked it - 5 layers of chocolate lavender cake and FIVE (!) batches of icing, so I’d have plenty to play with. She helped me dye the icing 6 different colours.

I piped different shapes all over the cake, in every colour of the rainbow except purple. I saved purple for last.

The purple was in a larger bag with a larger tip, and I piped this thick purple ribbon over the thick, multi-textured piped rainbow of icing…. and then this purple ribbon was too heavy, and pulled the rainbows of icing off the cake as it slide down the sides.

Yikes!

I had a flash inspiration of a “rainbow galaxy” smear of all of this thick icing. It felt like when I am doing intuitive painting and I tend to smear colours together a lot, like I am letting them play with each other.

So I grabbed a knife and did it.

There were big hunks of icing falling down which I piled on top of the cake as I spread out the sides to create this rainbow gradient kind of thing.

Then I had quite a bit of yellow in a bag with a nice thin piping tip so I added the yellow lines and….

It FELT like I wanted this cake to feel.

The original piped shapes, which were sooooo cuuuuuute, didn’t quite have the ZING of it feeling the way I wanted it to feel.

So, my cake was a disaster for a second there and then it did end up turning out better than I’d hoped.

My sister said: “It’s like your life! It fell apart but with the magic of creativity you turned it into something better!”

And now I am remembering that this is actually NOT Pollyanna at all.

This means FACING and BEING WITH the disappointment. Working with it and growing through it, to find your next step.

Accepting that disappointment is a companion on the path, and learning how to find the lessons and opportunities in it.

(Creative Dream Incubator members: there is an alchemy process for working with disappointment, right here. It's three videos with two different journaling sheets, for different ways of working with disappointment)

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

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

Some of the steps towards a dream are boring and some are scary. Sometimes you need to be your BRAVEST and MOST ALIGNED SELF to take a step, and sometimes, that step comes along on a way when you are not that version of you. Not even close. That’s where I am today.

So. What am I going to do?

I feel upset that I can’t do the thing I want to do but when I look at it, my head hurts. I am so far away from the version of me who can do it.

Can I accept that I feel upset about not being able to do it AND accept that I feel really really off today? Like the opposite of brave and aligned?

Those two feelings are conflicting a bit. The uncomfortable feeling and then the resistance to the uncomfortable feeling.

In this moment, all I know is that pushing myself is not the answer.

If I can’t seem to access any other answers, can I try to access another question?

It comes to mind immediately: What do I need?

I wrote this a few weeks ago.

Coming back to it today I am thinking of how the step that’s in front of us is not always the step we want to take.

I had an Outer Work step I had WANTED to take on that day, but the actual step that was in front of me to take was Inner Work.

My taking THAT step, and doing the Inner Work that was in front of me to do, I brought myself closer to being able to take the Outer Work step that I wanted to take.

We do tend to want to focus on certain steps, and totally ignore/avoid others but the path only works if we take ALL the steps.

 

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.

On our Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual practice call last week, we talked about how awkward and embarrassing this work can be.

A few times over the years I have talked about feeling cringy about promoting myself and would get messages back from people telling me not to feel that way.

I know they all meant well, but that is just not helpful.

We feel how we feel! Pretending we don’t is a waste of energy.

Plus avoiding your feelings gives them a lot of power over you. Feeling your feelings, and processing your feelings GIVES YOU CLUES about how to get what you want.

So, we made space to feel awkward and embarrassed and found ways through it.

Then, last week, I got this idea to do a promotion for my 50th birthday.

Because this feels like a Big Deal kind of birthday, I wanted to ask for what I wanted: help spreading the word about the Creative Dream Incubator.

Which felt SO awkward and embarrassing.

So this is how I handled it: I gave myself loads of time to feel how I felt AND take little steps.

On Tuesday morning, I went out for coffee with the goal of writing a rough copy of what I wanted to say. And brainstorm ideas for an image to share with it.

I do not usually spend this much time on a single post/email. Because I felt embarrassed, I gave myself more time to work through the feelings and in so doing - I also gave myself more time to write the best post possible. It was a win/win.

So Tuesday morning after a few VERY AWKWARD writings, I ended up with good rough draft! And I got the idea to take a photo of myself in front of the flower garlands I was making to decorate for my birthday party, which felt exactly like what I was going for - celebratory.

Then I sat with it, and came back on Wednesday to update it, and read through it and notice how it landed in my body.

Did I feel ready to ask for help in such a public way? What would help me feel ready?

I was already feeling so much more ready to do it... and I still have three more days to get ready, emotionally, to post this thing.

This is how we do things we don’t feel ready for. We break it down into teeny steps and then PRACTICE THEM.

 

Dream Book members:

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This is the mantra I got in this week’s Dream Book journaling + alchemy kit: I trust my power.

I breathe deep and just sit with it. It's like, the deeper I go inside me, the more I can find my power.

When I feel connected to it - yes I trust my power.

But am I "feeling powerful" and "trusting my power" as my usual state of being?

No, I don't think so.

That's interesting to notice.

I do feel competent, but POWERFUL has a different quality and then TRUSTING MY POWER has another different quality still.

Trusting my power feels like: I am not rushing or pushing or forcing. I am not betraying my values. I know I can do this MY way in MY time. I won't deplete myself in the process...

It puts a new spin in how much I have slowed down in the last few years.

Partially the overwhelm of the pandemic and partially peri-menopause. And I was doing a lot of exploration around how much capitalism determined how fast I moved, and how much "this is genuinely and sustainably how much I can work" determined how fast I moved.

But, when I sit with this... I trust my power... I don't feel any need to move faster.

 

Dream Book members:

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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 joined a CRAFTIVISM group, which I was SO excited about while also feeling not sure how, exactly, I could contribute.

And you know - it can be uncomfortable to join a thing NOT KNOWING how you could contribute or participate. But the organizers were so warm and welcoming and had an attitude of “We’ll listen to everyone’s ideas and figure this out”. They were open to hearing ideas and growing the group together.

So, I went, and worked on an embroidery of a Palestinian flag. The group wanted to collect handmade items to raffle off to raise funds for relief efforts in Gaza.

The flag was beautiful but I was feeling kind of like - why bother? It’s so small in the face of the intensity of the bombs falling. And also feeling like - well it feels good to gather with people and do SOMETHING. And I had gone to some of the rallies, but sitting together and crafting is really more my speed.

But still, I had this sense that embroidering a flag, with really fine threads because that’s how I embroider, so it takes a loooooong time, is not quite how I want to do my craftivism. Like hours and hours of work for... how much money could this possibly raise? That there must be something more impactful I could do.

I say that to highlight - we often feel this way about wanting to do a thing.

We can see a way we could do it, (I embroider A LOT so I had all the stuff on hand to make this flag) but that’s not necessarily the BEST way we could do it.

It’s uncomfortable to take the POSSIBLE step instead of waiting for the opportunity to take our BEST step, but it’s in taking the possible step that we actually get to a place where a better step becomes possible.

Because now I am starting to see new ways of engaging with crafting as a form of activism - ways I could not have seen if I hadn’t starting by just doing a thing that felt possible.

BECAUSE I joined in and start doing stuff, I saw other stuff I could do!

And then when the Craftivist group decided to do a CRAFT BOMBING in one of my favourite parks downtown, I knew exactly what to do.

I got a bunch of cheap broadcloth and sewed these big flags...

I made two flags, which took way less time than the one (small!) embroidered flag I had started with.

This is VERY messy - I cut and pasted the fabrics (with a glue stick) like collage. Then did a quick zig zag to sew them down, this is not actual quilting, which would also take a loooong time to do.

So this takes less time and is more impactful.

BUT I don't know that I would have done this, if I hadn't started with that small possible step, you know?

I think using our creative gifts to support our values and support the work of creating the world we want to live in is some of the most powerful work we can do. It was so great to see everyone's creations as we put them up all over the park and I can't wait to see what we do next.

 

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.

I was hoping the hardest part of my divorce would be right right when he left, and then it would get easier in time. Of course life doesn’t work that way, there are ups and downs. Nothing is linear!

And a part of me is like - this isn’t about your creative dreams! Don’t write about it here! OMG don't be so embarrassing!

But the work of showing up for your creative dream practice DOES include how you navigate life’s challenges.

There is this tug-of-war between your current life and your dreams.

And sometimes current life takes over. Sometimes this is for really good reasons and sometimes this is for incredibly shitty reasons.

And the work is to keep figuring out - how do I practice my creative dreams, even here?

And remembering that creative dreaming as a practice includes so many things.. healing, creativity, courage, growth.

Lately I’ve had a TON of resistance to the conflicting feelings I have about my ex and our situation. The conflicts are just too big for me to carry - I don’t mean conflicts with him, I mean conflicts within me about my different feelings.

We did a call on Working With Conflicting Feelings because this isn’t unusual when it comes to dreams...

But I don’t want to do that.

I want for my conflicting feelings to just disappear on their own without me having to sit with them or work through anything....

Luckily, after sitting with this for a few minutes with my journal open, my desire to work THROUGH things outweighed this resistance to NOT work through anything.

I drew a little diagram of me and wrote all of my feelings where they are in my body. This helped me get a new perspective and find a little acceptance.

Then I laid down and breathed for a while. Which gave even more perspective and acceptance.

We don't have to SOLVE things, just making a little space to BE WITH them can help them dissipate enough that our creative dreams can win that tug-of-war.

 

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.

I was taking a bath and thinking about why things have been feeling SO HARD. I’ve been really anxious, and having a harder-than-usual time of managing my anxiety for the last few weeks.

And you know what? Sometimes it's like I forget how fucked up things are. I'm trying so hard to just go on in my little life I forget about these brutal times we are living through.

I have not recovered from the pandemic, in terms of my mental health and cognitive functioning

AND I’m in perimenopause, which has been hard for me. AND now we can add on top of that getting a divorce that I hadn’t seen coming. And at the same time navigating my step-son’s sudden life-threatening illness. AND record inflation! Becoming single didn’t just double my cost of living, my mortgage was renewed (yikes!) and condo fees went up considerably too. Along with everything else increasing.

So that’s four pretty major things, all happening on top of each other. Or colliding with each other. JUST IN MY OWN LIFE.

But what about when I peek outside my life? We've never had wars and genocides be LIVE STREAMED like this before. This is traumatizing all around. And the brutal police response to protests in the US.

I keep seeing people complaining in my city about how all the homeless shelters are full of asylum seekers and there's no room for Canadians. I really don't think it's radical to say - everyone deserves a safe space to live. And having these conversations in the backdrop of so many empty buildings downtown since most offices never went back to 100% in-office work AND so many businesses closed....

Our political and economic systems continue to fail. It's such a long, slow, traumatizing and expensive collapse.

This is the world we are dreaming in.

I wonder why I am anxious?

There are moments when I feel such incredible peace and trust it’s amazing.

And most of the time I still believe that a better future is inevitable - both for me in my life and for all of us collectively.

AND managing anxiety takes more work right now.

I don’t believe that putting our creative dreams aside is a good plan.

I have the new dream I have talked about - getting an RV or camper and traveling with my cat Bear. This feels like TOO MUCH to contemplate actually DO in the near future, but dreaming of it happening a little further down the road is SO sweet. And I need sweetness. And the question: How do I set myself up to make this work financially? feels expansive whereas the question: How do I make more money to survive record inflation that is actually just un-checked corporate greed? feels panicky.

Creative dreaming is nourishing and generative.

And we need more nourishing and generative when things are hard!

I also have this other dream I haven’t shared details of yet. But that’s something that I do plan to start doing this year - taking baby steps anyway. It feels creative and expansive and energizing to think about and plan for.

I am so excited to get everything in place to start taking those baby steps.

This excitement and enthusiasm can coexist with the hard stuff, and bring more joy.

We deserve more joy. Always. But especially in the hard times.

If I put this new dream off until I felt ready - I would just be delaying joy.

MUCH NEEDED joy.

And our creative dreams can show us new possibilities for how to live.

Creative Dreams open doors that we can't see from where we are right now.

So, if there is something you are putting off, can I please encourage you to dive in now?

Weekly Coaching Calls started last week! Get the replay here. Make a plan to attend next week, or to watch the replay over the weekend.

Or if you're not a member of the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership - join us here!

We can do this!

 

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.

This is the mantra I got in this week’s Dream Book journaling + alchemy kit: I am a dream magnet.

I did the guided meditation that goes with it.

I'm noticing all these uncomfortable feelings I have, step-parenting was always this complicated thing, but step-parenting while getting divorced is very WTF. Breathing deep, letting my feelings be what they are. Thinking about why I am doing this... I remember when I used to FEEL like a dream magnet more often. I want that back.

Ok I LOVE the part where I am radiant with the light of my inner knowing. I'm leaning against a pile of pillows, so comfy, and this feels so expansive.

HOLDING the mantra feels so good, like a healing in my heart. It makes me more aware of the things that have making everything hard: I haven't fully recovered (in terms of cognitive function or mental health) from the overwhelm from the start of the pandemic, then there's perimenopause which is WTF, then there is getting a freaking divorce and re-arranging whole life and future with all this grief, then the financial stress of living alone during inflation, when my mortgaged renewed at the current rate, and condo fees went up along with everything else.

Yeah, no wonder I am overwhelmed...

AND...

I AM a dream magnet. I've got this. (DREAMS not just as in the big life changes but also: healing, feeling good, enjoying my daily routines, etc.)

This mantra is an invitation to trust the process of life.

 

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.

I am having a really bad day.

I am doing ALL THE THINGS to feel good and none of them are working.

There is a thing I want to do, and when I check in with myself - YES I still want to do it. AND this bad mood floats over everything, covering it in doom.

I have breathed. I have meditated. I took ashwaghanda. I put on calming perfume. I didn’t journal because that felt too frustrating. I got dressed and took a bike ride to my favourite coffee shop, and got my usual (mini veggie quiche (I get here a few minutes after they come out of the oven and they are amazing) and a coffee). I am listening to uber-calming music in my noise-canceling headphones.

My dreams need me to work through this or rise above it so I can do the thing I want to do today. I need me to work through this or rise above it to enjoy my day.

Ok I just sat here, sipping coffee and watching people walk by for a few minutes and that actually does feel al little better.

Trying to keep my breathing a little deeper than usual.

I wanted to be my MOST enthusiastic and trusting self to do this thing I want to do today.

My questions are:

1. Do I need to find this version of me, can I just do it as my crabby self?
2. What would help find my most enthusiastic and trusting self?

1 - I would like to try, because I don’t completely trust my crabby self. I may overlook details or just bring a lacklustre vibe to the whole thing.

2 - I can try to  do an Un-Sticking Station style meeting but invite in my most enthusiastic and trusting self.

Not sure how this will work, but let’s see?

Hello, my most trusting and enthusiastic self (MMTAES)

Oh honey - she gives me a big hug. Sweetie. Darling. You’re not feeling it today! Are you sick?

I don’t think so. I think it’s stress  from my loved one having surgery this week - they are at home recovering but now that it’s done it’s like my stress is more noticeable - and also some uncomfortable things I am processing about my divorce.

Well sweetheart that sounds like a lot.

Yes. Thank you. Yes, it is a lot AND I really want to do this thing, you know? I am not trying to avoid how hard this all is, and I have been tending to all the things that need tending and this is one of those things. Taking this step.

I see that. And I think it’s obvious - I hope it’s obvious to you, it is to me - that you WILl be your most enthusiastic and trusting self again. There are good times ahead of you it’s just, yeah, right now, this is a lot. And this weather! Like WTF! It IS depressing.

Yeah. Yesterday the sun came out for thirty minutes and I felt changed, lol.

MMTAES hugs me again. Darling, you are doing amazing.

Thank you. AND… can you help me? Do you see that I am not trying to avoid my feelings by doing this thing, that this thing means a lot and I will feel better with it done?

Yes, darling, I see that.

ALSO, this is the kind of step that DOES stress me out. I mean right now it feels like my life is so stressful that this kind of thing is nothing. BUT in the past, when the whole world felt easier, I remember feeling this way prior to doing things like this.

So part of this is your way of taking this kind of step. Part of this is that EVERYTHING is so much more complicated right now because of things in your life and the way the world has changed.

So let’s start with the basics: How do you want to feel?

Enthusiastic about this thing I am doing. Trusting that it will go well.

What do you mean by “go well”?

That it will feel good to me to do it and it will be well received.

Hmmmm yes there is a tangle there around “well received” because I am not quite sure what that means.

The thing I am doing is ANNOUNCING the new Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership. I’ve already shared it with Dream Book members and it was well received there! I’ve talked about it out in public and have gotten good feedback there too.

A part of “well received” is that I want more people to join. But I understand that won’t happen IMMEDIATELY, I mean it likely won’t. And I have so much I want to change about how I talk about it and invite people into the work because… BECAUSE OF HOW FUCKING STRESSFUL AND DIFFICULT THE WORLD IS RIGHT NOW…. we need more support. Giving up on our creative dreams takes us down a dark path and we need more light.

Oh. That touched on it. Something shifted inside me. Some enthusiasm woke up.

Like, I am the example today of why we all need more support to do the things we feel called to do.

And I have this offering I have developed that DOES HELP. The work is still hard, but I offer that people don’t have to be alone with it and I can help hold that enthusiasm for them because I do believe in everyone’s dreams….

Another shift inside me. Not just enthusiasm but confidence.

OK I feel ready to work on this.

…a little while later…

This “thing I want to do” includes a lot of steps. I started taking the smallest ones. WHOA.

My energy shifted.

Enthusiasm and trust poured in.

Excitement even showed up.

I am doing this thing!

(This was my un-sticking around announcing/launching the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership which I did earlier this week!)

 

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.

All of the meditations I share are Alchemy Meditations - meditations where we are changing something into something else.

Like: 

our love and enthusiasm for our dream -> inspiration and motivation for our next steps

our fear about our next steps -> confidence and a feeling of being ready

That kind of thing. Alchemy meditations are about exploring, healing, growing and  creating.

(I added a section in the map that lists ALL of the guided meditations, right here)

There is also meditation where you just…. sit with yourself.

I am finding, especially as SO MUCH IS CHANGING FOR ME I need more time to be in that kind of meditation. It’s a way of grounding and acclimating to where I am.

Also, we can trust that meditation without any kind of focus or intention WILL bring us what we need. That we, as in our current-every-day-consciousness-self, don't have to choose our focus, we can let a larger part of us choose, which is what happens in this kind of meditation.

Sometimes, with alchemy meditation or any kind of manifesting or healing techniques, we can be coming from a very head-focused or ego place. Like, we decide what we need then try to give that to ourselves.

Meditation without focus can bring us what we ACTUALLY need, which is sometimes VERY DIFFERENT from what we think we need.

This is similar to journaling! In Dream Book, I talk about how the Dream Book journaling is all very focused on moving towards your dream, and I encourage you to ALSO “just journal” as much as possible. “Just journaling” meaning - sitting with yourself, on the page.

OF COURSE we love doing things with focus and intention, we love to choose where we are going and how we are going to get there. We are creative beings, this is natural!

In the practice of sitting with ourselves, we release that sense of “being in control” and choosing where we are going. We open ourselves up.

Having a balance of both, or shifting back and forth between them, is so good!

Since my husband left me, and then we had a huge medical situation with one of the kids, I’ve been reacting. 

I’ve been trying to heal and process. I’ve been VERY VERY FOCUSED on healing, feeling better and moving my life forward. I’ve been processing everything from the end of my marriage very deeply. I’ve learned and grown and my perspective has shifted so much I don’t always recognize my past self.

So, right now, I need A LOT of “sitting with”. In both meditation and journaling - sitting with myself, letting go of control, opening up to the moment and seeing what comes without intentionally choosing my focus.

 

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.

I’ve been sitting in the absolute MESS OF SHIT that comes up for me when I think about how I want to do the things I want to do next.

All of the fears. The unknown. The doubts. The “why bothers”. The way I really want to do this thing but I’ve never done it before so I just don’t know how BUT I do know I don’t want to just follow someone else’s path, I want to create my own way BUT, again, I don’t know how.

Feeling all the feelings that are sparked in this.

Thinking all the thoughts that come to mind.

Journaling. Getting it all out so I can try to see it from different angles.

And then… and this only happens EVERY TIME SOMEONE STAYS WITH IT… it’s like the bottom just drops out, and I land somewhere new where I can see something new.

That’s where I am this morning.

Actually I landed last night while trying to fall asleep, this new idea just floated in and was so excited it was hard to get to sleep.

And suddenly I have this new direction to go in and a SHIT TON of inspiration and motivation to GET MOVING in this new direction.

So many coaches and helper-people out there try to FORCE these moments. Like - give you their insights about your journey to spark this magic.

But it doesn’t work that way.

Because it’s YOUR journey. So YOUR perspective is the most important one. And your PROCESS of getting to the insight actually matters. Having it handed to you DOES dull the magic.

Being in the mess of your emotional and mental reactions to your process is an alchemical process. It brings you what you need.

So, as a coach, I don’t hand out insights on a silver platter.

I make space for you to join me in the mess, I have up string lights so you can find your way around to alchemize your stucks and obstacles into gifts, medicine and fuel.

Because this is better.

And you are worth this BIG magic.

So if you're in the mess - stay with it.

 

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.

This is the mantra I got in this week’s Dream Book journaling + alchemy kit: Life is happening FOR me, not TO me

This is one of these mantras that comes with a GIANT CAVEAT. If it doesn’t feel hopeful, don’t use it.

It’s very easy for this to turn into a way of blaming YOU for the ways the world has failed you. It can erase the impacts of systems of oppression. It can make you feel like the most horrific things that happened to you were your fault.

AND, only when it feels right, it can help re-frame difficult things and put you into a more empowered place.

I have been thinking along these lines about my divorce, which I did not choose, or see coming, but now, with 8 months hindsight, I am starting to say - yes, this happened FOR me.

There are parts of me who are still “FUCK THAT, no this didn’t happen FOR me” and that’s valid.

The part I am exploring is the part of me that feels curious about this, and curious to explore the ways this divorce benefits me.

When it feels right, it’s SO helpful.

It’s alse SO helpful to look at our dreams-that-just-stay-stuck-no-matter-how-hard-we-work through this lense.

Not to deny the hard parts or invalidate your feelings about the hard parts. Just to make some space for the part of you who can find the gifts in it.

Life is so multi-faceted. And dreams are WILDLY multi-faceted.

There ARE ways that it absolutely sucks that you don’t already have the thing you want and maybe there are also ways that it’s good that it’s happening exactly how it’s happening?

 

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.

Once in a while I think… I should check in with this “year long resistance project” I am doing, and then I feel a LOT of resistance to that idea, so I don’t.

The start of this project was amazing, the commitment and determination I felt was so energizing. That energy helped me explore more deeply and come up with really good little changes to make (little as in DO-ABLE) that made a huge difference.

I am nowhere near as resistant now, as I in January.

And, I am still going through a divorce. Now I understand why it’s called “going through” a divorce. It’s a lot to go through, and a lot of it has nothing to do with the relationship, it’s just a big life change. So some days I am going through as in struggling to get through and some days I am going through as in moving along the path.

And it’s all connected.

My sensitivities. The ways I get overwhelmed. The ways I respond when I am overwhelmed.

I’m starting to feel like I’ve been in a nervous system freeze response since the start of the pandemic, and I am coming out of if now.

So, some of my resistance is nervous system overwhelm. Which needs rest and restoration.

And some of it is my own fears and self doubt trying to stop me. Which needs presence, focus, intention, healing, and ACTION.

Life is so complicated. Our creative dreams ask us to be more alive, more engaged with all parts of our lives and this just makes a complicated thing more complicated.

AND more meaningful and fulfilling and joyful.

AND… am I writing all of this to avoid actually looking at my resistance? lol

Thinking about resistance is kind of like thinking AROUND resistance and the only way out is THROUGH.

So, resistance, let’s talk.

Resistance shows up as a snake.

Slippery, hard to hold onto (and ewww I don’t actually want to hold onto it) and changes it’s skin continually.

I spread a blanket out on the ground, and put out a picnic.

Let’s talk.

The snake is enjoying a cup of tea and a cookie. But it’s skin keeps changing, I can’t tell what it is.

I’m not one thing.

Sometimes I protect you. Sometimes I hold you back. Don’t try to understand me, focus on knowing your relationship with me.

So…

Be more still.

Really listen to myself.

HOW DOES IT FEEL?

Does it feel like I need to rest?

Does it feel like I need to do the thing I am resisting?

Does it feel like I need to do something else?

There are so many layers to our feelings.

So many ways our conditioned patterns pop up and interfere with us knowing our truth. And then whole new layers of conditioned patterns pop up and interfere with us acting on our truth, once we finally know it.

This is a work in progress.

 

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.

I do a New Moon Intention Setting Call every month, which is open to all Dream Book members. There is also the New Moon Intention Setting Ritual Kit for people who are not in the membership.

When it comes to my new moon intention setting, some months I know exactly what I want to do next, and some months I have no clue.

But I DO IT every month. And in the process of reflection and meditation - it feels like the right intention finds me.

Our last new moon intention setting call was on April 5 (I try to do these a few days before the new moon so that people have a chance to use the replay before or on the new moon)

I just looked through my journal and… ever since that day I’ve been drowning in the opposite of my intention.

This is how it works sometimes.

I’m not failing.

Sometimes life just lifes.

Sometimes, more often actually, setting an intention clears the way for us to see what needs to change in order to have the thing we want.

And that can get really ugly.

Which is where I am right now.

And I’ve been here so many times I am not un-nerved by it. I was relieved to open my journal this morning, revisit my new moon intention journaling, and notice how I had the exact opposite of it.

Oh, ok, so THIS IS THE WORK.

I mean I tell this to people every day, and it’s still humbling each time I see it for myself. This is the work.

Most “next steps” in outer work, most changes we want to see in our lives, require “next steps” in inner work, to go deeper.

This is NOT because we are fucked up and need to change to be good enough to have our dreams!!! Because we are deeply and significantly impacted by the culture we grow up in, and our culture is a flaming trash bin. White supremacy, the patriarchy, colonialist capitalism - these systems are bad for all living things and they’ve impacted us all.

So, in these times, you need to get MORE curious about where you hold back from the things you want, you need to be MORE compassionate with the parts of you who don’t believe in you or your dreams.

You are not wrong for the places where you hold back.

You are not wrong for HAVING inner work to do, to get to where you want to be.

This is where I am today. Noticing how the inner work just got more clear.

The prompt I am working with:

How can I support ALL PARTS OF ME in being ready to do this thing I want to do?

 

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.