Creative Journaling Prompts For The New Year

By Andrea Schroeder / December 31, 2013 / healing, intention, Journal Prompts, journaling, Manifest Your Dream Life

Today’s post is a Dreamtastic Creative Journals post. Dreamtastic is an ongoing (free!) e-course about using your journal as a tool for transformation, healing and dream-growing… new Dreamtastic posts show up regularly right here on my blog, click here to check out what’s happened in the course so far.

These prompts are for playing and creating with.

Use them as little diving boards to dive off into other things to explore – the most important part of creative journaling is following your creative impulse.

Use lots of different coloured pens, markers and pencil crayons (when you engage your creativity in your journaling you access your creative genius, the part of you that knows how to bring your dreams to life – plus it’s more fun that way!)

Use collage or make your own art to illustrate your answers.

As you get creative with this pay attention to your inner voice… once you’re in your creative flow it’s much easier for your intuition to speak to you.

If getting creative in your journal is new to you – check out Dreamtastic Creative Journals, (my free creative journaling e-course) for loads of videos & ideas to help you get started.

When you’re not sure about your answers – draw mandalas to help you connect to your inner wisdom.

The prompts are divided into 2 sections: looking back and looking forward.? Start with whichever one you feel drawn to.

Goodbye 2013. Looking back:

What was amazing in 2013?

What did you do in 2013 that you’re proud of?

What do you learn/discover that you want to bring into 2014?

What do you want to leave behind in 2013?

What are you most grateful for about 2013?

How did your dreams grow in 2013?

What did you do to help your dreams grow in 2013?? What worked?? What didn’t work?

How did YOU grow in 2013? What gifts and strengths do you have now that you didn’t have in 2012?

Is there anything you need to do to complete your year? Any unfinished business that you’d like to finish, and leave behind as you move into 2014?

Hello 2014! Looking forward:

List 5-10 things you’d like to have happen in 2014, in each of these different parts of your life:

health
relationships
creativity
purpose/career
money
self-love/self-care
spirituality
happiness
adventure/play

Remember that as you get creative with this pay attention to your inner voice… once you’re in your creative flow it’s much easier for your intuition to speak to you – so as you write this list brilliant ideas may come to you for how to bring these dreams to life.

Go back through your list and imagine how each of these things will make you happier in 2014.? If there is anything on your list that won’t make you happier – consider crossing it out.

What is your Big Dream for 2014?

Why do you want this?

Do you already know how to make this dream real, or is this something you need to learn more about first?

What’s your plan for giving this dream what it needs to thrive in 2014?? Brainstorm 10 things you can try.

What do you want to STOP doing in 2014?? And what are some things you can you do to make that as easy as possible?? How will not having these things in your life make you happier?

Write your year in review for 2014.

Then imagine yourself at the end of the 2014 that you described in your year in review – how are you different?? How did you grow?? What new strengths and skills do you have?? Does you-from-one-year-from-today have any messages or advice for you?

Here’s to a sparkletastic New Year, for all of us.

I would love to help you bring your brightest dreams to life in 2014 – join me in the Creative Dream Circle for a whole YEAR of Creative Dream Support.

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Creative Journal FAQ: Help! I Get Stuck Trying To Put My Dreams into Action

By Andrea Schroeder / December 19, 2013 / journaling, Manifest Your Dream Life

Today’s post is a Dreamtastic Creative Journals post. Dreamtastic is an ongoing (free!) e-course about using your journal as a tool for transformation, healing and dream-growing.

Today I’m answering a question I got…

My question is the best ways to use your journal to put those dreams into action. I am decent about dreaming it up a bit in my visual journal however I seem to often get stuck on that part.

It’s good to start with more clarity about why and where and how you get stuck.

Often, when we get stuck we just… stop.? It’s good to remember that it’s not the stuck that gets you stopped, it’s the decision you made to stop that gets you stopped.

Stucks are our fears, limiting beliefs and established patterns.? They try to put up a wall when we try to change out of that old way of being and step up to create something new.

And they are a natural part of the process of bringing a dream to life.

Exploring stucks ALWAYS leads to something amazing.

Start with the assumption that there is a good reason why you got stuck.? The stuck indicates that there’s something for you to look at.

Welcome the stuck.? Make space for it.? Let it be a part of the process.? Find out more about why it’s here and what it wants.

Journal about being stuck about how to bring your dreams to life.? Journal about what you would do if you weren’t stuck.? Journal about it every day until you don’t feel stuck anymore.

Journaling through the emotional stucks gets you clear enough to be able to take action.

Yesterday I felt stuck.? I drew it out in my journal:

See here at the bottom – that yellow circle with small orange rays?? And the arrow pointing to it that says “I AM HERE”?? Right on top of that – that’s a pile of boulders.? That’s how I was feeling when I started exploring the stuck – like I was buried under a giant pile of boulders, and my dream was on the other side, and I had no tools.

Because I do this all the time, I quickly found the gift in the stuck, and got myself un-stuck.

You can see the rest of the page looks pretty happy… this was me working it all out and getting myself back on the Woo Hoo I Can Do It Possibility Train.

If you’re new to exploring stucks, it will take a little longer.? It’s like with anything – the more you practice, the better you get at it.

Resources:

Read Creative Journal Prompt For When You Don’t Know How To Make Your Dream Real.
Read 100 Reasons Why You Can Do this.
If you’re in the Creative Dream Circle you have an entire Un-Sticking Station to quickly un-stick ANY stuck.
And, of course, sometime you need support to get through a stuck!? We’re starting a session of the Creative Dream Incubator on January 28… I guarantee no stuck is stronger than the Incubator.

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Creative Dream Journal Prompt For When You Don’t Know HOW To Make Your Dream Real

By Andrea Schroeder / December 18, 2013 / journaling

Today’s post is a Dreamtastic Creative Journals post. Dreamtastic is an ongoing (free!) e-course about using your journal as a tool for transformation, healing and dream-growing.

Today’s post is inspired by the work/play/explorations I am doing with my new dream.? Any time you’re working with a dream that is bigger/smaller/sparklier/somehow different from anything you’ve done before, you’re not going to already know how to make it real.

Often, we assume this means it’s impossible.? But that’s not what this means.? (No one who ever made a big dream real started out already knowing everything about how to do it.)

This means you have to learn how.? Research.? Explore.? Experiment.

You already know that doing more of what you’ve been doing is only going to get you more of what you’ve already got.

To get a different result, you have to do one of two things:

Keep doing what you’ve been doing, but somehow do it better/faster/more.
Do something different.

So, that’s the prompt:

To reach this new dream of mine, do I need to step up what I’ve been doing, or do I need to take a different approach?

The magic comes when you dive deep into this question to explore.

What would stepping it up look like?? What would you do?? Learn new skills, hire help, find a mentor, quit something else to devote more time to this?? Make a list of what you could do to step it up so you can see if it looks like this is going to get you to where you want to be.

If you were going to take a different approach, what approach would you try?? List different options, do some research.

This is just a brainstorm.? List everything that comes to mind.

There will be a lot of “Ugh that’s too much work” and “Yikes, that will cost a fortune!” and “If only I had more time!”.? Remind those thoughts that this is just a brainstorm.

If you listen to them, those thoughts can easily derail the whole process.? So don’t give them any attention.? For now.

Later on of course you have to refine your plan, it has to be do-able without making you crazy or broke or exhausted.? But if you start by editing things out before you have a chance to play with them, you end up with such limited options that your dream will still seem impossible.

Once you start to play with this and see how many ways you could make your new dream real – you’ll get super inspired.? And before you know it “I don’t know how” will be replaced by a bunch of ideas of things you can try.

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How To Blend Lots Of Dreams Together

By Andrea Schroeder / December 11, 2013 / journaling, Manifest Your Dream Life

Today’s post is a Dreamtastic Creative Journals? post.? Dreamtastic is an ongoing (free!) e-course about using your journal as a tool for transformation, healing and dream-growing… click here to start playing!

Today’s question:

How do I or can I narrow my focus? ?How can I blend all my dreams and ideas together in order to create the reality I desire?

This comes up time and time with my students and clients!? We are BURSTING with dreams and want to give them allll love and attention and nurturing to bring them to life.

And nobody ever likes to hear this, but the truth is you’ve got to narrow in.? You’ve got to pick ONE to focus on.? For now.

There is really only one Creative Dream: to live a life that feels true to who you really are.

All of your dreams are ideas live underneath the umbrella of that dream.

Every time you bring a dream to life, it nourishes the umbrella dream. So bringing one to life does nourish all the others because they’re all connected.

Meanwhile – staying locked in a holding pattern and NOT choosing one dream to focus on nourishes nothing except your excuses.

So, you blend a lot of dreams together as real things in your real life, by bringing them to life, one at a time.

You can pick the one that inspires you the most.

You can pick the one you want the most.

You can pick the one you think is the most achievable.

It does not matter how you pick, it only matters that you pick.? Creative Dream Incubation requires your commitment.

The good news about this is that once you’ve made that first dream real, it gets easier to make the next one real – and so on, and so on, and so on.

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Looking Back Through Your Journal

By Andrea Schroeder / December 8, 2013 / journaling

Today’s post is a Dreamtastic Creative Journals? post.? Dreamtastic is an ongoing (free!) e-course about using your journal as a tool for transformation, healing and dream-growing.

Today’s question:

Should I look back to identify patterns in my journaling?

If this feels helpful to you, then by all means yes!

If it doesn’t feel helpful, then don’t do it!

Whether you are looking back through your journals or not – you are likely to become more aware of your patterns through your journaling practice.

I spent years complaining in my journals before actually doing something about changing the things I was complaining about.

And even though I was looking back and re-reading things all the time – that wasn’t enough to actually get me to CHANGE the pattern.

Because awareness is only the first step.

Now, though I rarely look back through old journals, I’m much faster at spotting and changing patterns (thanks to the magic of Creative Soul Alchemy).

So you absolutely have permission to save and read your old journals or burn them (I’ve done both).

Whatever feels right for you is the right thing for you to do.

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