I’ve been reading How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lise Feldman Barrett.
It’s about the latest scientific studies about how our brain works to create emotions. It shows that a lot of our current cultural understanding of how emotions work is wrong.
And it confirmed that everything I’ve been doing in my work is right. Which is always nice! But, of course it’s right, I didn’t pull these ideas out of my ass. I developed them over many years of working with people.
Reading about this research helped solidify some things for me, which has been especially helpful during my divorce when emotions are flying, and often flying right into each other as they contradict each other so much. And then it’s all topped off with a heavy coat of peri-menopause anxiety.
None of my feelings are TRUE.
There is nothing in our bodies or brains that says we have to feel certain ways about certain things. Contrary to popular belief - there is no universality to feelings.
The way our brains create our emotional state is based on our own past history and patterns. We LEARN this.
All of my feelings are VALID. There is no sense in telling myself not to feel a certain thing - ignoring/suppressing feelings is extremely ill-advised.
The helpful thing to do with feelings we find uncomfortable is to get CURIOUS about them.
WORK WITH THEM.
Yes, start by, validating that you ARE indeed feeling however you're feeling and then actually literally FEELING THE FEELING in your body helps you move THROUGH it.
But that same feeling WILL COME BACK the next time you’re in a similar situation. Feeling our feelings releases them but does not change the patterns.
Curiosity is an incredibly powerful tool for healing and changing patterns.
You can see it every time I share a post here using the Un-Sticking Station. I can be HORRIBLY stuck with something, and getting curious, sitting down and having a picnic with it to find out how we can work together - shifts it every time.
Since we LEARN our emotional responses to the outer world - our feelings are cultural.
And our culture is a flaming trash heap.
So becoming more skilled at the inner work is actually necessary for freeing ourselves of the ways our culture holds us back from being who we really are.
Which is so connected to creative dreaming there isn’t a way to separate them.
Your dream is your soul showing you who you really are, it’s how your soul lights your path for you.
Your FEELINGS ABOUT your dream are your conditioned responses that you learned from living in this culture - they are not necessarily true, helpful, or needed.
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 a zoom call open to all Dream Book members, happening on April 9th.
When I say “zoom call” I mean it’s a cross between a healing/alchemy circle, a group coaching call and a community spellcasting.
These are powerful rituals and I should stop calling them “zoom calls”.
This topic was suggested by a Dream Book member who is looking for more EASE and I thought it was such a great idea.
I talk all the time about SHOWING UP CONSISTENTLY and DAILY PRACTICE and YOU ARE BRAVE! KEEP DOING THE HARD THINGS and that can start to feel like a slog and that’s not how I mean it.
Showing up… to chase after a dream that is outside of you and very hard to get to
Is different from:
Showing up… to meet with a dream that is very much coming to you, and wanting to be with you just as much as you want to be with it.
Remembering that your dream actually is NOT outside of you, it’s INSIDE of you, helps immensely. This is a calling. It’s already in you.
This is one of the places where we have to re-wire our brains a bit, because they take on so much cultural conditioning about how things happen.
Your dream IS real. Spiritually, it exists. Otherwise you couldn’t dream it. It’s got it’s own energy signature which you can draw on.
Yes it IS your work to do the bulk of the physical work. But your dream can be your PARTNER in that work, to make it so much easier.
And on this call we’ll do some healing work around allowing the ease and support of truly partnering with your dream so it can COME TO YOU instead of you feeling like you are chasing after it.
Dream Book members - get the call details here.
Everyone else - join Dream Book here!
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 excited about what comes next.
Oh wow this one LANDS.
Divorce is an upheaval that has me re-thinking… everything. While also sending me deeper into the roots of my emotional reactions.
And it’s birthed TWO WHOLE NEW DREAMS so far!
One I already shared - getting an RV or camper or something and creating a tiny home-on-wheels and going on adventures with my cat Bear. This one needs planing, preparation, and money and I am working towards it slowly, savouring the process of dreaming about it.
The other one is brand new - I want to start making lino cut block prints. I did this in university and LOVED IT and always wanted to come back to it, but… life lifed. And it’s a lot to get into a whole new thing.
But recently the pieces all came together… I am making some new clothes for spring and bought solid coloured fabrics with the idea to get simple stamps to make patterns on them. Once I saw what is out there for block printing (I did this almost 30 years ago so the landscape has changed!) I got SO inspired. And then I remembered how it felt to hold those tools in my hands and carve out my drawings and it felt like coming home to a part of me that has been lost.
And then the idea just expanded and expanded.
I dug around in my “journals I bought and haven’t started yet drawer” and found a sketchbook and I am starting to sketch my ideas and getting ready to go ABSOLUTELY BONKERS with lino block printing. I am imagining eventually re-arranging the loft - again - to make space for a huge block printing table.
It’s making me feel SO ALIVE. SO EXCITED ABOUT MY FUTURE.
But AS ALWAYS, it’s our actual reactions to the mantras that matter. And we can react differently to the same mantra each time we use it! Each of those reactions can teach us something.
But I have had SO MANY FUCKING LESSONS coming at me lately, and it’s really nice to just sit here and FEEL EXCITED. This is healing, too.
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.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
On Fridays I do my Dream Status Report which is a series of prompts I use every week to help me have more clarity, momentum and groundedness on my path. You can do them with me (Dream Book members: come post yours in the forum!)!
My Dream Status Report for this week:
PART ONE:
My dream is: I want to get an RV or camper van and travel… WITH MY CAT BEAR!!!! Create a comfy cozy home on wheels, and write + make art on the road while we have adventures. AND... this week I got another new dream!! More to come but YAY! I am loving the magic of being excited about a new thing.
I want it because: It feels so sweet and makes me happy. And the new dream, which is more about art I want to make, feels like it will expand and energize my whole life.
When I have it I will feel: I think I will feel so happy, free and thrilled with my life.
PART TWO:
Invite the soul of your dream in (using the Dream Lab practice) to help you with the rest of the prompts.
I am really feeling the CLARITY TRUST AND KNOWING part of the meditation today. I feel like I am inside a sparkling crystal. And when I invite my dream in, a path unfolds in front of me. Like literally folds...like there was a box of blocks that were all connected and it rolled out, leaving this perfect path behind it.
These dream don't feel far away or like I need to cross impossible chasms, the way every other dream I've ever had felt in the beginning. Now it feels like I am building on what I have.
PART THREE:
Last week’s focus was: TRUST my dream. Keep showing up.
What happened in the last week? Another week that felt kind of boring, in terms of just showing up and doing the next thing. Unsticking the stucks and taking the steps.
The exciting thing is that I did find a new dream... I wrote a whole post about it I will share next week. But I am savouring the magic of feeling really inspired and excited to start down a new path.
What am I learning/How do I feel about this?
I feel a bit frustrated, but I think that's more about winter coming back, after spring was here in February.
I also still feel a bit in awe of the process, of how when you SIT WITH A THING and KEEP SITTING WITH IT new ideas and possibilities emerge. I am feeling so creative and ALIVE.
What do I need now?
I am still just "sitting with" this new dream of mine, and I think I need to start taking some STEPS. There is a LOT of stuff to buy if I am committing to doing this thing, and that's where I am holding back -but I could look for a smaller way to begin.
What does my dream need now?
It reminds me of that magical unfolding path and just wants me to trust it and keep taking steps.
Taking all of this into account, my focus for the next week is:
Keep taking steps and also: How can I bring that feeling of CREATIVITY and ALIVENESS into more of what I do?
Dream Book members:
!https://www.creativedreamincubator.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/come-dream-with-us-295x300.png
Come to the forum to share your Dream Status Report or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.
Get your next Dream Book lesson.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.
I don’t know WHY today is so hard.
If I knew, would that make it easier?
Or is “I don’t know WHY this is so hard!” just stopping me from working through whatever is happening here?
Remembering: IT’S SIMPLE. JUST SHOW UP. WORK WITH WHAT IS THERE.
I have time to work on my dream and I feel stuck, broken-hearted and angry.
This is not how I want to feel while working on my dream, so I want to just put this all away and…
And what?
I don’t know.
So I am going to use the Journal Sheet for Taking Consistent Steps
Working through the sheet, a few things I notice:
My big dream feels so far away. For some reason I feel I can’t do this until I am divorced, not while “going through a divorce”.
My plan for today is a little vague, having a more sharply defined plan might have helped me turn this morning around really fast. I HAVE noticed this about myself before and i DO have a protocol where at the end of each day I check in with everything and LEAVE MYSELF A NOTE FOR THE NEXT DAY so I can pick up the threads and keep going, not feel like I am starting from scratch. Obviously, I didn’t do this yesterday.
I do feel completely unprepared for my list today though. And that feels like the main issue, so I am going over to the un-sticking station with that:
Hey, Completely Unprepared For My List Today, can we chat?
I see me, at my current age, kind of blurry but feeling like a deer in headlights.
Oh sweetie, here. Let’s cozy you up with a blanket and a cup of tea and a little snack.
She appreciates this, gives a big sigh and says “This isn’t where I thought I would be”
... but while this is happening, it feels like my NEW LIFE is trying to BURST IN. Like - break up the whole scene.
I check in with my deer-in-headlights self “Hey sweetheart, what do you think of my new life just bursting in like this?”
It feels so strong and bright and exciting. I feel drab in comparison to it.
I paused here, and made another cup of coffee. Soaking this in a bit. My old life, the version of me who is stunned by where I am now, is DRAB in comparison to what is in front of me.
This is important.
I also have been feeling desperate to cling to my old life. Which feels futile and when I really sit with those feelings, dig in deeper to find out where they are coming from - it’s just old programming. There’s nothing at the core of them that feels like truth.
This BRIGHTNESS feels like truth.
I’ve been exploring, more deeply than I ever have, the difference between my feelings and my soul - or what feels like my TRUTH. Which part of me has a broken heart? Which part of me is mapping out my new life? Which part do I want to follow?
I am trusting, more deeply than I ever have, my dreams. Every little desire. The way they light me up from the inside and feel like coming home.
I’ve had a new dream come to me over the last few days.
It’s something I used to do, and dreamed of doing more, and then… life happened. For the last few YEARS I’ve been thinking of doing it, in a more casual way, but it felt like A LOT to start something new… now suddenly it feels IMPORTANT and LIFE CHANGING.
There is this BOUNCY energy around it.
Do I trust the bounce?
I mean, obviously, I trusted my dreams and all the good energy about marrying my husband and…
So, do I keep trusting it?
There is this James Baldwin quote I just wrote out HUGE and put up in my living room:
Love brought you here.
If you trusted love this far,
Don’t panic now
When I remember that, I think of all of the growth and healing I experienced in my marriage, and how my husband did not take that from me when he left.
I wish we had a relationship right now that honored that. But right now we’re not speaking (which I thought was best) and maybe a part of what is bothering me today is how unresolved so many things are.
Hmmmm. Not what I was expecting to find in my explorations today.
(Sitting with this for a bit)
OK, back to Completely Unprepared For My List Today….
She’s not so drab anymore! Sitting in a rainbow sweatshirt. sipping coffee. The sun is shining into the room. She’s holding a journal that says “WE GOT THIS”
(which feels like a miracle given where I started this week and how I was feeling about "I got this" as my mantra)
And we don’t feel unprepared for the list anymore, we are ready to dive in.
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 wrote recently about being in that moment when you’re feeling like “I’ve tried this so many times already, why do I think I’ll succeed this time?” and how discouraging it is to try over and over and over.
I’m so lucky because I have the perspective of a creative dream coach, so I know that WE ALL go through this. So when I feel it, as hard as it is to feel, I know that it’s not just me, and it doesn’t mean anything about whether or not I will succeed.
So - I’ve been back at that place the last few days.
Which I know isn’t a sign that I have failed “too many times”.
It’s actually a sign that I am NOT in resistance, that I am not avoiding the hard stuff. I am staying with it, and learning what I can from it.
And also sometimes we really only need to feel our feelings to process them and move through them.
But in the case where you’ve been trying to do something and it’s not working - usually there is more to explore. Deeper inner work and shadow work can tell you more about why you’re not getting the results you want.
Like, maybe you need to just keep trying and learning as you do (this is how dreams work!)
OR maybe you need to make a change, and you can’t quite see it.
It’s hard to be able to listen clearly to our deepest inner truth, the part of us who DOES know how to do the things we feel called to do. This is why I teach that this must be an ongoing PRACTICE, because that makes that voice more accessible.
It’s just generally hard to hear that voice, but then when anything stressful is happening it gets even harder.
So, we’ve got to be patient. Keep finding ways to soothe all the discomfort that comes up, and keep showing up.
I have to say - I think I am in my own way right now.
I can’t see HOW. But this feeling of feeling stuck with this one thing is so FAMILIAR. And I’m like “Oh no I don’t want to be back here” so I want to run away from it.
I don’t share this stuff for empathy or to express my feelings.
I share it so that YOU feel less alone. Because I know, if you are genuinely going after the things you want, then you have these experiences too.
And I share it to say - you can feel this way and still get to where you want to be. And more importantly - you can USE these hard parts as FUEL and CLARITY.
That’s what they are here for.
Tools from the Dream Book membership that help:
The Un-Sticking Station! (I always suggest starting with that one)
Or - Video to Watch When You're Avoiding The Un-Sticking Station
Alchemy Process for Working with Self-Doubt
Alchemy Process for Working with Overwhelm
Alchemy Process for Working with Disappointment
Alchemy Process for Hearing your Intuition
Alchemy Process for Bolstering Your Sense of Courage
Alchemy Process for Coming Back To Yourself
Alchemy Process for Making Your Trust In Your Dream Bigger Than Your Fear
Yikes! I am Having A Lot Of Feelings!
Alchemy Process for removing the things that make it hard to know what you want
Sitting With Uncomfortable Feelings
Exploring Resistance and Creative Flow
Taking The Inner Work Deeper (Shadow Work)
There are SO MANY WAYS to work with the hard parts. The only way to keep yourself stuck is to ignore your feelings.
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 doing deeper-than-usual dives into my inner work and into exploring… what are feelings, anyway?
Reading the latest scientific research about how and why the brain creates emotion in the body.
Looking at my own feelings through this lens.
And I keep coming back to what I have always known.
Our feelings matter. They are one of the senses we use to navigate our lives.
Like, imagine if our culture was afraid of sight. Like our eyes are dangerous and not to be trusted, so everyone goes around in blindfolds. People who are born blind are considered to be closer to God than everyone else.
And what if your blindfold slipped and you could see danger coming and tried to warn people and everyone just called you hysterical for believing your eyes?
That’s what happens to people who feel their feelings. And people who are better at suppressing their feelings are considered better, they will navigate our political and economic systems and be successful, in the most capitalist definition of success.
Our feelings are not EVERYTHING and they are not NOTHING.
They are one of the ways our brain processes our life.
Almost 7 months after my husband told me he was having a nervous breakdown and left me - I’ve had a lot of feelings I didn’t want to have.
But I gave them space. I haven’t made any of them THE TRUTH of anything. But I have let them exist, and not tried to squash them down or pretend they are not there.
And you know - they’ve shown me a lot. About my own beliefs, about my own actions, about what I want.
“Feelings” is so charged in our culture just because our culture is unnecessarily suspicious of them.
You don’t have to be.
I’m not saying believe and obey your feelings. Just give them some space.
Like, say you’re so angry with your ex-husband you want to firebomb his house. Don’t actually do it, but give your body space to actually express all of that rage.
There were moments in the last few months that I learned what the phrase “blind with rage” meant. I felt so much rage, I couldn’t see right.
I screamed into a pillow. I punched a pillow. I cried. (I hate it, but crying is how I express rage sometimes). I scribbled in my journals.
I discharged the energy and then I felt good.
Just like how animals in the wild will shake, after a close encounter with a predator. They are discharging the energy.
If you don’t do this, if you tell yourself you’re not that angry, or that it’s not ok to be angry, you’re only creating problems for yourself.
FEELINGS are not something I ever wanted to know about and certainly not a subject I ever imagined myself writing about, as a part of my creative work.
But if we don’t allow ourselves to feel our feelings in healthy ways - our dreams will be totally stuck.
It’s the only way.
Refusing to feel your feelings stunts your possibilities. And I don’t want that for you, or for anyone.
Use the Creative Dream Alchemy Library of Inner Work Practices for support. And the call on Working With Conflicting Feelings.
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 got this.
I mean OMG YIKES.
Feeling like “I got this” is something I’ve been working on but I still only have the teeny tiniest tenuous grasp on in.
So it felt like a bit of a slap in the face to get it as my mantra.
Even though I know the Creative Dream Incubator doesn’t hand out slaps in the face.
And this is actually an invitation deeper into the work I’ve been doing.
And that my reaction is MY REACTION and tells me a lot about MY NEEDS actually.
So. I got this.
Sitting with it, it feels less like a slap in the face and more like an arrow to the chest.
The deeper down in me I go, the more I know this is true. There are all these places in me where I am ROCK SOLID in believing this.
But on the surface there is so much anxiety and doubt and all these places where I am looking outside of me at evidence that I DON’t got it.
Interesting that the evidence that I DON’T got it is outside of me, because… is anything outside of me even relevant?
I mean yes I need to navigate the external world, the culture and systems we live in. The outer world places a ton of obstacles in my way. That’s relevant to my dream.
But none of that is relevant to whether or not I GOT IT.
That’s 100% inside me.
One of the ways peri-menopause impacts me is anxiety. Not that I’ve never had anxiety in my life before, but I haven’t had it LIKE THIS. And some months I skip my period and get a few solid weeks of SUPE SUPER HIGH ANXIETY and this sucks.
It’s harder for me to feel I GOT IT when my anxiety is bad.
BUT ALSO
I think anxiety is a natural response to the current state of the world. And LOADS of people have anxiety.
And I want ALL the anxious people to still work with their dreams.
Because our dreams are our medicine, healing and growth and we deserve these things always but especially when things are hard.
So - can I be anxious AND feel I GOT THIS?
Well, yes. That’s just what I described feeling in response to this mantra.
How do I move forward confidently and bravely AND anxiously?
I can really notice how the more inward-focused parts of me trust myself and it’s the outer-focused parts of me who are more freaked out.
I can take EXTRA GOOD CARE of myself. Remembering specifically how exercise helps my anxiety AND how I tend to want to move less while in a lot of anxiety so there is that place where I do need to be a little strict/insistent about exercise.
Give myself TIME for the inner work and dream work. Meditation, journaling and sitting with my feelings helps me be with ALL of my feelings, not just the anxiety on the surface.
Move at the pace that works for my anxious self. Like, having meetings with my most brave self and my most anxious self so they can learn to work TOGETHER. No one steamrolling the other.
Two of our upcoming Dream Book calls will help with this, too:
Letting your dream come to you instead of chasing after it
Creating Self Care Protocols to support yourself in being the version of you who can do your dream
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.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
On Fridays I do my Dream Status Report which is a series of prompts I use every week to help me have more clarity, momentum and groundedness on my path. You can do them with me (Dream Book members: come post yours in the forum!)!
My Dream Status Report for this week:
PART ONE:
My dream is: I want to get an RV or camper van and travel… WITH MY CAT BEAR!!!! Create a comfy cozy home on wheels, and write + make art on the road while we have adventures.
I want it because: It feels so sweet and makes me happy.
When I have it I will feel: I think I will feel so happy, free and thrilled with my life.
PART TWO:
Invite the soul of your dream in (using the Dream Lab practice) to help you with the rest of the prompts.
My dream shows up as a warm light in my heart. Like it's here to guide me to my best life, the one where I feel most like myself. It feels reassuring.
PART THREE:
Last week’s focus was: Be more intentional about being more intentional.
What happened in the last week? I played with a new start to my morning journaling - I wrote out my current goal and why I thought it was possible. And then journaled with whatever thoughts/feelings came up. This is helping me be more intentional with my goal.
It was a pretty boring week, which is good! I took steady steps towards getting to where I want to be.
What am I learning/How do I feel about this?
Remembering that last week was brutal with anxiety and self doubt, just having a nice week, making steady progress towards my goal feels a bit like a miracle. I am remembering the magic of MAKING SPACE FOR IT ALL and STAYING IN THE PROCESS.
What do I need now?
Nothing new is coming to me. Just keep going!
What does my dream need now?
It says: TRUST.
Taking all of this into account, my focus for the next week is:
TRUST my dream. Keep showing up.
Dream Book members:
!https://www.creativedreamincubator.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/come-dream-with-us-295x300.png
Come to the forum to share your Dream Status Report or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.
Get your next Dream Book lesson.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.
When you say you’ve tried everything and nothing works, what do you actually mean?
That you’ve tried all the things you know to try?
That you’ve tried all the things you are interested in trying?
Because, even if I don’t know you, I do know that you have not tried ALL the things. That’s just not possible.
I say this because this morning I sure feel like I have tried all the things!!
But, if I am honest with myself, I have actually been extremely choosy about which things I try.
As we should be!
OF COURSE I don’t advocate for doing a ton of shit you don’t want to do.
AND your dream is here to grow you. It’s going to stretch you. Some parts are going to be uncomfortable.
So it’s like I have spent a lot of time looking for the most comfortable to do the thing I want to do, and now it’s time to… just do it.
Do the work I have not wanted to do.
But this brings up a quandry.
Creative Dreaming is NOT about working your ass off, or following someone else’s, or society’s, rules about “how you should do things”
There are huge swaths of grey area here. Like, there are ways to make an annoying task less annoying. There are a million productivity hacks out there.
But before exploring those, we need to be with the parts of us who don’t want to do the thing. Listen to them.
We need to validate our actual experience.
There are no hacks for this.
But if you just go with the hacks and ignore what parts of your own self are telling you about why they don’t want to do the thing… well, ugh. That can lead to productivity, for some people, sure. But at the cost of wholeness.
So when I talk about making an annoying task less annoying, I want to stay VERY FAR AWAY from productivity life hacks, lying to myself about how I feel and what I want, or any form of bribing myself to do things I do not want to do.
How can I GENUINELY make it FEEL RIGHT to do these things?
Maybe there are hard things to be done. Maybe some parts are uncomfortable. But does it FEEL RIGHT? Am I acting in alignment with my own values?
Am I really listening to myself about HOW to proceed?
That is an especially tricky question to answer when we don’t know how to do the thing we want to do because we haven’t done it before. So we have to leave space for experimenting and learning.
But if we keep making space for our actual feelings, and listening to the parts of us who don’t want to do the things, we do find answers.
I have come to a place where I know - it’s time to do some of the things I have been avoiding.
I even feel somewhat energized to figure out a plan for how to do them. To get some help to move out of my comfort zone.
This is the part that is so hard to put into words because it's entirely non-linear.
But when you STAY WITH IT you do WORK THROUGH IT. Even though it often doesn't look like WORKING THROUGH until you've already worked through.
So - keep showing up!
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.