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

This is the mantra I got in this week’s Dream Book journaling + alchemy kit: I have the power to change

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 have the power to change.

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.

This one really LANDS for me today.

First of all - there is no "I SHOULD change" or "I would be a better person if I changed this or that"

It just feels like having the POWER to CHOOSE change - in ways that feel good to me.

Life is always changing. We are alive. We do always have the power to change AND there are times when accessing that power feels like too much.

Right now I DO feel I have the power to change.

And it feels so helpful to remember that.

Oh! I can just CHANGE. I don't have to deal with this situation in the ways I always have, and get more of results I've always gotten. I can always change.

It feels magical and freeing.

ALSO, looking at sticky situations and dreams that feel stuck...

What changes when I look at it through the lens of "I have the power to change"?

This feels exciting to explore as my mantra this week.

If you want to work on this with me:

If I have the power to change 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 becoming who I am meant to be

Use the meditation on this page 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 becoming who I am meant 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.

This one makes my heart feel bigger.

What if I was meant to be divorced? That our life together was meant to be AND it was not meant to be for the rest of our lives. And there is more good stuff ahead of me...

And all of the healing, the way a divorce brings up so much stuff it really is a beautiful opportunity to free yourself.

As I keep sitting with it, it starts to feel a little scary.

I'm trying to be with the fear, but it's moving around. It's like maybe "who I am meant to be" is somehow bigger than what I feel comfortable with. But then it slips around like... no I can trust my own purpose, right? I can trust my inner callings, can't I?

And now my heart feels uncertain.

I notice when I think of "who I am meant to be" I am thinking of external things - things I do or have or create.

So I bring it in.

YIKES!

Suddenly MEANT TO BE feels sticky to me.

Like someone outside of me telling me who I SHOULD be, what I SHOULD want... which is what our world is always doing which I rebel against.

I don't like it.

I feel how important it is to CHOOSE and CREATE.

I am becoming who I CHOOSE to be.

My life is becoming what I choose to create.

So - I'm not sure about this one.

I'm going to use I am becoming who I CHOOSE to be as my mantra for this week.

If you want to work on this with me:

If I am becoming who I am meant to be feels good and encouraging, hold it with you today. Maybe make a list of the amazing ideas you want to act on next.

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 full of amazing ideas

Use the meditation on this page 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 full of amazing ideas.

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.

This one makes me smile.

I really am full of amazing ideas.

And lately I have all these experiences of really deeply feeling how each step matters. Each step adds up. Each thing I do helps me learn and grow and take a better step next time. I trust this.

Building a "new life" after divorce feels like A LOT and yet... all I can do is keep taking little steps.

And it's so reassessing to think of how I AM full of amazing ideas, and that even if what I am doing now doesn't pan out like I hope - there is no shortage of other things to try.

It's easy for creative people to feel overwhelmed and bogged down by having too many ideas.

One thing that helps me feel good about so many amazing ideas is STRUCTURE.  Like having places to store my ideas so they're not whirling around in my mind. The Project Page in Dream Book, and the prompts in the Dream Plan Kit for processing ideas. I start there, and then put everything into Notion, my project management app where I have slowly  been getting everything organized/structured in a way that works for my brain, and is really making it easier for me to do the things I want to do.

If I AM FULL OF AMAZING IDEAS feels good and encouraging, hold it with you today. Maybe make a list of the amazing ideas you want to act on next.

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: Nothing can stop me.

Put your hands on your heart and take five deep slow breaths and repeat to yourself:

Nothing can stop 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.

At first, I think about all the things that CAN stop me.

This mantra feels objectively untrue.

But then I remember that this morning when I was looking through things I noticed that I self published The Creative Dream Playbook at the end of October 2023.

One month after my husband very suddenly left me. Two weeks after my step-son went into the hospital and the doctors were saying we would likely not make it. (Though now, seven months later, he's out of the hospital and doing well!)

I didn't write and do the artwork for the whole journal in October! But I did self publish it, as in ALL BY MYSELF which is a really big deal. It was a lot of steps to take, most of them VERY annoying, and even with all of that stress and grief, I got them all done.

So now I'm like... maybe nothing can stop me?

If NOTHING CAN STOP ME feels good and encouraging, hold it with you today.

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: The whole universe supports my dreams.

I recorded a video of this post - I'll be sharing it on Instagram this morning, if you'd like to listen to me say it 🙂

Put your hands on your heart and take five deep slow breaths and listen to me.

The whole universe supports your dreams.

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.

It’s so easy to feel like the world is against your dreams and in a lot of ways - it is. Extractive capitalism based on white supremacist values, especially the late stage capitalism we’ve been sliding into since the 80s, absolutely is against a lot of your dreams.

But the culture we currently live in is not the universe.

The whole universe supports your dreams.

Your dreams are a part of you. They are a part of your authenticity, your purpose and potential. They are not things outside of you to chase, they are your own soul shining a light on the path.

This is what you are here for.

The whole universe supports your dreams.

If that feels good and encouraging, hold it with you today.

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.

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

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

But if you're NOT a member - now you can get Project Miracle for just $33 USD! Get the details and grab your spot here.

+++++++++++

 

Some days I do my Creative Dream Practice, I meet my dream and journal and meditate and feel in alignment…

and then I just go my stuff.

I don’t write a post to share about it because there's not much to say.

It’s the days when I feel lost that I write more, because writing helps me find my way through AND I feel we need to normalize that we feel stuck OFTEN on the way to a dream. And that FEELING stuck is fine - just keep showing up and working with it.

So, don’t worry about me!

I’m sharing a lot of the harder stuff because I think this is more valuable to share. I'm actually having lots of good, creative days 🙂

With that said, here’s today’s post:

I just feel heavy and foggy today. I had a bike ride and coffee and journaling and I can’t shake this feeling.

So, taking heavy foggy into the Un-Sticking Station:

It shows up right away and says: I’m not heavy or foggy I am sad.

Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry. Here, let’s get you a cushy blanket and some tea and cookies. A big pillow to lean on. There’s so much to be sad about, this is so valid.

My sad self bursts into tears. I offer her Kleenex.

What can I do?

I kind of want to pull you under here, you know? Let’s just BE SAD ALL DAY.

OK, that feels like resistance speaking, not sadness.

I know, right? Interesting.

Can I talk to JUST sadness, with no resistance hiding behind it?

Hmmmm, sadness WITHOUT resistance. That’s interesting.

Are you able to separate yourself from resistance?

Resistance seems to LOVE to glom on to sadness and use it, like a curtain to hide behind.

That is interesting. AND annoying because right now I can’t separate them.

Sadness, do you want me to do these things I wanted to do today?

Oh yeah, I do. I think that doing these things help us not be sad.

And then there is this little whisper of “But it’s too hard, let’s not do it today”

Which invites the question: Are things harder for me to sort through because of the divorce OR are my life-long companions, resistance and self-doubt, using the divorce as a diversion, so they can take over?

Probably both.

Also, does it matter?

 

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.

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

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

But if you're NOT a member - now you can get Project Miracle for just $33 USD! Get the details and grab your spot here.

+++++++++++

 

I’m having a lot of WAVES lately.

Times when I feel so sure. Like, SO SURE. Completely confident that everything is going to work out like I am hoping it will. Super brave and clear-headed and focused and getting things done.

And then times when I feel so unsure. Like, SO FUCKING PAINFULLY SURE that it’s all going to fall apart and my life is over.

Sometimes I get caught in that undercurrent that it’s all bound to fail.

And sometimes I say “Oh honey, I’m so sorry you are feeling this way, even though yes of course you feel this way. Creative dreaming is such a brave way to live your life and it gets scary sometimes! So what can we do to help you feel better?”

THIS. IS. THE. PROCESS.

When we feel like SOMETHING IS WRONG when we feel this way - we shut down the process.

Everyone has these feelings.

Allowing them to come to the surface allows us to understand these parts of us better. It brings shadows out into the open.

In the open, we can heal and change and grow.

In the shadows, very little change is possible.

So, these intense waves I’ve been feeling are because I’m in such an intense time of growth.

They are a part of it.

So I am really trying to EMBRACE them.

Yes, sometimes I end up take over by them and that’s really uncomfortable.

AND if I can stay in the process - I can learn, shift perspectives, heal and grow.

This is the work.

I’m doing it.

(Reminder to self 😉

 

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 already perfect, whole and complete.

Oh yes. Breathing this one in.

Creative visionaries can always see WHAT'S NEXT. We're always growing and looking at MORE growth.

This is so beautiful. AND. We need to stop looking towards the future and looking towards more, turn around, and notice just how beautiful and perfect we already are, right here where we are.

Creating dreaming IS NOT SELF IMPROVEMENT.

It is self actualization.

There is nothing to fix. There is always more to explore and create.

 

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.

At therapy last week I asked my therapist for help with something - something that is just feeling stuck and I am not sure what to do with it.

And she tossed it right back at me, lol.

She said “I think you have a lot of practices with your work, that work for this kind of thing. And usually when you feel stuck you make a commitment to show up and be with it every day until you work through it.”

She’s right. The times when I’ve been the most stuck, or wanted to make a big change that felt out of reach - I do a daily coaching session with myself. And I commit to keep doing the daily coaching until I reach a certain goal.

I am starting a new journal, and starting fresh with Dream Book, which is what I’ll do as the “self coaching”.

I feel so excited about keeping this up over the summer, when the early mornings are warm enough to bring a smoothie and an iced coffee to the park for journaling.

It’s so interesting to me that I was struggling SO HARD about getting into my Dream Book earlier this week, and now I am dreaming of making more space for it in my morning routines.

Like - I can't really explain how this LIGHTS ME UP to think of a summer of "Dream Book picnics" to start my day. I'm thinking of the different parks I'll go to. Wondering if I need to get new art supplies, lol.

I'm really looking forward to this, and having things to look forward to is SO IMPORTANT.

 

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.

Yesterday I was writing about how “interesting” it is that it’s been SO HARD for me to work with my Dream Book.

And then… I did it.

I opened my Dream Book, set to make a new Dream Page.

And I re-read the 1 Dream Pages I had in there.

And… oh wow yes I see why it was so hard for me to open this journal.

When my husband left me in September, and then my step-son suddenly developed a life-threatening illness and was in the hospital for almost 4 months… I created a new Dream Page.

It was my fall/winter “liminal space dreams”.

I was dreaming of finding my way through all of this. I did the Dream Lab and saw myself crying a lot all winter… and then in the spring my tears would melt, and there would be a river there which I could float away on, to my new life.

And re-visiting this page is like WHOA. I found my way through SO MUCH.

And I am SO PROUD of how I did it. I updated this page with how I feel now, where I am now, and all the things I am so proud of myself for. I journaled about things I have learned, the ways that a divorce kind of throws all of your stuff at you and leaves you with no choice but to work through it on your own.

And I journaled about all the ways that I feel like a different person now, even though I am not “through” this and I am sure things will keep changing. (The best advice I got about divorce is to remember that your perspective will change, radically and often. So don’t assume that anything you think is REALLY what you think.)

Anyway, WHOA.

Dreams do touch on all of our most vulnerable places.

And so sometimes we need that space to resist and avoid, because deep down that’s how we are preparing.

Because when I finally did open this up and start to work with it, it felt like the right time. I don’t think I was ready any sooner.

*** And as long as we keep SHOWING UP and doing what we CAN do (like how I was doing “creative dream practice things” but was also avoiding opening my Dream Book) we will find our way through.

People tell me sometimes that they come to live calls, or watch replays, but don’t look at the Dream Book lessons, and they feel kind of sheepish about it. But there isn’t a “right way” to do any of this.

There are a lot of “ways in” because there is no “one way in”.

Just keep showing up!

 

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 want a more ALIVE creative dream practice.

I want to feel more deeply connected to my dreams, and to the version of myself I want to become next.

I want to be deeper in my creative flow.

I have space for this. I can’t think of anything I need…

Except a WAY IN.

Because I am sitting here.

I pulled a tarot card.

I lit incense and a candle.

I’ve got a new sketchbook plus my journals and art supplies aplenty and…

I don’t know the way in.

I mean - this is what the Dream Book program is, lol. Ways in, prompts, starting points.

So what is the problem?

It’s hard to start.

It’s vulnerable and awkward.

This “new dream”… it’s kind of nebulous. I have named some parts of it but a lot of it feels unclear.

And I keep opening up my Dream Book to work on it and…

Well, is it resistance? Procrastination? Fear? Waiting for the “right time”?

I have coached SO MANY PEOPLE through this.

And yet I keep falling into it myself.

But of course I do!

THIS IS THE PROCESS.

This is how we get “ready” (in quotes because we’re always ready and rarely feel ready)

I AM IN THE PROCESS.

I made Dream Book the way I did, with all the short videos and step-by-step so that you can just DO ONE THING and those things will build on each other and at some point you’ll be in your flow with it…

I trust that.

AND

Somehow I am not doing it.

This is just such an interesting dynamic.

And here I am - I have a few hours set aside to do this and instead of doing it I am journaling about how interesting it it that I am NOT doing it.

This IS how we work through it.

By STAYING WITH it. Staying with the thoughts and feelings that come up when we’re NOT doing the thing we want to be doing.

THIS IS THE WORK.

Remember the compass of Creative Dream Alchemy. So often we want Outer Work to be the direction we are focused on, but that’s just not where we are.

BEING where we ARE and doing the work that is there, is the way to get to where we want to be.

Which means my options right now are:

• Do the video for resistance
• Or the Un-Sticking Station
• Or the video for when you are avoiding the Un-Sticking Station
• Or…. do the Dream Book. Go to the main checklist and click the link on the next thing you haven’t checked off. Or pick a think that looks interesting. Or start again from the beginning (I re-start OFTEN and highly recommend that approach!)

I am going to actually DO Dream Book. I’m on the website. I’m going to re-watch the video for The Dream Page and start a NEW Dream Page. the last few months I feel like I have refined my dreams and opened up to new ones, and I’m learning about what I want my life to look and feel like - and I want to capture all of this on a new Dream Page.

And whichever one you do remember: All you need is THE WAY IN.

You don't need to see the whole path.

All of these WAYS IN help you get into your Creative Dream Practice.

One you're IN IT - you'll see new options and possibilities.

 

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.