I’m starting over with Dream Book. Fresh new book. Re-doing all the pages.
I’ve always wished I could combine my planner with my Dream Book but that felt complicated… but during the Structure Habits Routines prompts I saw a way to do that. At least for the next 5 month until the end of the year, I can experiment with this.
THIS FEELS SO DAUNTING.
To re-start. To really sit with…. what do I want? Why do I want it? How will I feel when I have it?
I know these are the questions I sit with every week in the Dream Status Reports, but it feels different to start over and answer them FRESH, not working from what I already have figured out,
My dream is being the writer + artist I want to be.
(Of course I already am this. And of course there are still so many ways I want to do this.)
The heart of this doesn’t change, but some of the specifics of what this looks and feels like for me are changing. I do need a new Dream Page for this.
And, even though I have been doing this work so for long, it still feels sooooo vulnerable.
Like, I can’t believe all the ways my mind is trying to run from this.
So, let’s explore the resistance then.
Hey resistance, can we talk!
Sure! I mean no. Let’s go to the store and get milk and make coffee.
Well, yeah I want to do that but I also really want to do this!! It feels like you are putting this off to go to that.
No I’m not. We’re sleepy! Some fresh air and coffee would really hit the spot!!!
OK, if I agree to go that, when we get back, you agree to work with me and start the new Dream Book?
Ugh. Well…. yeah ok.
*
*
OK I am back. With coffee.
That little bit of fresh air and 1 cup of coffee have not magically transformed into a person who feels ready to do this.
But I am showing up. But before I can start the Dream Book I need to set up the actual book...
First - the paper. I have this ultra heavy weight paper I used for my planner. I have to remember where I put that when I re-arranged my space….
Found it. Or rather, found ONE SHEET of it, with my other printer paper. Did I use it all? Put it in a special place?
NOT LETTING THIS STOP ME, going ahead with regular printer paper…
Hole punched… (I use the happy planner punch which can only punch a few sheets at a time, so this is a bit of an effort) (My planner is disc bound, so I can move and add pages very easily though, once properly punched)
Removing the first 6 months of this year from my planner…
Arrrgh it all comes to a screeching halt.
Looking back through my planner there are so many pages I love! I want to take pics! I want to save this! I always add my planners to my stack of finished journals, I don’t want to rip this year apart.
WOW. OK. I did not anticipate this.
But actually there is room to add a bunch of pages, and if I run out of space in a few months I’ll figure that out then. I could always switch out the discs for bigger ones.
Added the new blank pages to the front of the planner….
Well holy fuck!!! Here is the rest of the heavy paper I was looking for!!!! I had already hole punched in and put it in here to use for journaling.
I ALREADY HAD EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED.
I HAD IT THE WHOLE TIME.
I want to laugh and cry.
Adding my thinner paper to the thick paper at the front of my planner…
I made 2 quick messy tabs - a rectangle of cardstock folded over, glued on, with “dream book” on one and “planner” on the other. Making nice tabs would be a fun creative project, but not today! It doesn’t have to be pretty! Let’s just do this!
Now I’m in the Dream Book classroom, going through the main checklist. Printing out the Dream Page, Dream Self Page (which includes the Project page) and Un-Sticking Station Page cutouts.
There is a printable for the Table of Contents, but I like to make my own.
Whew!!!! I DID IT.
I mean I haven’t done anything in my Dream Book yet, but I got ready to do it! So many little steps and so far my resistance hasn’t gotten in the way.
It’s just happily sipping coffee, watching me take all these steps.
Sitting here, holding this dream book/planner hybrid in my hands. Tons of blank paper to re-start everything about my Dream Book, the cutouts to get me started, my scissors and glue stick nearby, this feels amazing.
One more thing - the Year of Dreams 2023 planner had 1 page at the beginning with an incubator to put your BIGGEST dream for 2023 in it. I had put my income goal. This is no longer my biggest dream, or a dream at all, so I tore it up which was very satisfying.
AND making it in the first place, claiming the income I want for the year, that felt satisfying at the time too.
Nothing we do in this work has to stay true/relevant FOREVER.
We are alive! We get to grow and our priorities will enviably change as we do.
(There is this video on starting a new journal in Dream Book - when you have pages you are still working with in the old journal. What I'm doing now is re-starting completely, taking nothing with me for a fresh start. I've never done it this way before, but right now I am really feeling like I need a fresh start with everything.)
Dream Book members:
Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with. Or go to the Structure Habits Routines class (it's staying there so you can go through the prompts in your own time)
Get your next Dream Book lesson.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab which is what I am using for my dream meeting drawings.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
Last week we did Structure Routines Habits. It feels like such a whirlwind!
It was just a few questions each day to explore this from different angles, but it feels like a lot got stirred up and I’m not quite sure where I am with it all.
I mean I have a lot of VERY GOOD IDEAS for things to do, and more clarity than every about what I want this to look like, and I even tapped into the feeling of how I want to feel in these routines and habits and how supportive the structure will feel.
AND
Here I am. Waking up foggy. Like I am still my old self, but I see the path to my new self but I’m like… can I trust it? Do I want to just take a nap instead? Do I really want this?
There is such a sense of SAFETY and COMFORT to be found in hiding in old routines.
Even after we outgrown them! Even when we KNOW we want the new routines.
So....
How do I bring this safety and comfort with me into the new things I want to be doing?
That’s the question to sit with today.
My new routine/habit ideas don’t feel unsafe in any way, it’s just… that “BUT THIS IS ALL NEW” feeling that feels unsafe.
Dream Book members:
Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with. Or go to the Structure Habits Routines class (it's staying there so you can go through the prompts in your own time)
Get your next Dream Book lesson.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab which is what I am using for my dream meeting drawings.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
I'll be doing these live Co-Dreaming calls every Monday until Aug 28.
Watching these videos all summer WILL get you seeing, and feeling, your dreams in new ways.
The replays will all be on my blog. If you want to attend live, register here to get the Zoom details.
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.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.
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!)!
Over the year I've gotten a lot of push-back from people who don't want to do the same prompts every week. I know it's annoying somethings but I promise - this is magically clarifying. The repetition helps you go deeper into the process.
Here are the prompts:
PART ONE: (sometimes these can stay the same for months at time, sometimes they change often)
My dream is:
I want it because:
When I have it I will feel:
PART TWO:
Invite your dream in (using the Dream Lab practice) to help you with the rest of the prompts.
PART THREE:
My goal/wish/intention for this New Moon is:
Last week’s focus was:
What happened in the last week?
What am I learning/How do I feel about this?
What do I need now?
What does my dream need now?
Taking all of this into account, my focus for the next week is:
My Dream Status Report for this week:
PART ONE:
My dream is: BEING the artist + writer I want to be and everything this entails. Having a less dramatic creative process (like less battling self doubt and more happily humming to myself while I write and draw). Doing more creative projects for fun - like having short bits of creative play mixed into my days more often. And how I feel in my life in perimenopuase and beyond.
I want it because: This is what feels most enticing and interesting to me. I'm also noticing how BEING who I feel I AM is important for my mental health. I feel so strongly - a better world is possible and our dreams show us the way there.
When I have it I will feel: Just a little more ME, more energized. More stable/sturdy. Excited about the new work I am doing.
My new moon intention: OK this is embarrassing, I don’t remember!! I don’t have the journal that I was using with me right now. This is good modelling that we don’t have to do this “perfectly” lol
PART TWO: Invite your dream in (using the Dream Lab practice) to help you with the rest of the prompts.
My dream shows up as a lantern, and when I look close there is no flame inside, there is a butterfly of light.
I see the 27 year old (!!) butterfly tattoo on my wrist and think about how long butterflies have been around me.
I sit down, the light of the lantern isn’t just light, it’s also healing and magic.
My dream says “I am guiding you, it’s ok you don’t have to know where we are going” which feels like a relief.
PART THREE:
Last week’s focus was: Explore structure - so excited we’re going to do this as a group in the forum next week. USE THE PLANNER.
What happened in the last week?
I GOT MY GROOVE BACK LIKE ALL THE WAY BACK.
NOT back to my post-pandemic ways of working and creating but really stepping into who and how I want to be now. I feel so good!
What am I learning/How do I feel about this?
Structure is everything - not having MORE structure but having right-fit structure. Not structure to make me more productive or have my shit together (which, I think, is how I usually approached it in the past without even knowing I was doing that)
I feel SUPPORTED and NURTURED. I am doing the things I want to do and feeling like there is space for me to hold everything. Like, I don’t have less going on but I do feel less overwhelmed.
What do I need now? KEEP GOING this week was a big shift in things I’ve been working on for a long time, I am not grounded in this at all yet, so stay focused on this.
What does my dream need now?
The butterfly bats it wings. It wants to DELIGHT. It’s easier for it to DELIGHT when I feel DELIGHTED.
Taking all of this into account, my focus for the next week is:
DELIGHT and STRUCTURE - how to I structure my life and work so that DELIGHT is the main vibe?
Dream Book members:
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.
My plan this week was to draw my dream meetings every day. This is a practice I really want to get into. It feels soothing and restorative to do but also expansive and growth-inducing, as I continue to do it over time. I do go in and out of doing this as a regular practice…
After feeling so much enthusiasm for getting into this ALL WEEK this week, here I am on Wednesday not feeling it.
One thing about a creative dream practice that makes it so difficult to navigate, is that we do need to listen to our inner nudges.
I mean - is this resistance? Do I need to just follow through and do the thing and I will I be glad if I do that? Or is this information, telling me that there is somewhere else to focus, something else that I need?
With time, we get better at knowing the difference between resistance and an intuitive-guided change of direction. For me it’s how it FEELS in my body.
And this feels right.
Like this is a day for writing, for processing. This is what I need right now. The dream meeting drawing practice moves me into a different space.
Things are changing so fast. It feels like it anyway, after moving at a glacial speed for so long.
I am picking up the pieces of all the things that fell apart in the pandemic - specifically as they relate to my routines, habits and systems around my work life.
I am shifting from “I am just doing the best I can do keep going while the ground beneath me feels unstable” to “Oh wow there is so much magic and medicine in this unstable place what if I explore this?” to “OK this is who and how I want to be now, moving forward”.
I am gathering up the gifts and learnings and I know what I want to do with them and I even feel like I know how I want to do this.
This week we are exploring structure, habits + routines in Dream Book and I am LOVING IT.
I am seeing the places where I always approached this as a tool for productivity and, underneath that, fuelled by a desire to prove worthiness.
I am delighting in how those places don’t fit anymore.
As much as I am SO HAPPY on the days when I get more pages done for the guided journal I am hand writing/drawing… I love watching this project come to life but it’s not the productivity that matters to me now. I am not looking for the way to do this as fast as possible.
I am not doing all the creative self care practices in order to wring out every bit of creativity and productivity from myself.
I want structure to help me feel how I want to feel. Free. Expansive. Delighted.
I want structure as in SUPPORT. Ways that make it easier to be nourished - physically, emotionally, mentally, creatively, spiritually.
I want structure that makes it easier. Like the example I always use for containers and Dream Book… if you have a ton of sugar, flour, etc. just loose in your kitchen that’s just a mess, you can’t do anything with it. But if you have them in containers you can use them to make a fantastic treat.
And I am finding my way into these structures and routines! I am noticing what I need and finding ways to incorporate those things.
I am giving myself space for this to take the time it takes.
But/and/also it’s like each little new thing I find adds SO MUCH. They don’t add up, there is multiplication of magic happening with each new element being added.
Dream Book members:
Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with. Or go to the Structure Habits Routines class.
Get your next Dream Book lesson.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab which is what I am using for my dream meeting drawings.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
This week I am drawing my Dream Meetings. I feel really excited about this new practice - I mean not a new practice, but a new commitment to do in this way, by drawing it out.
And I'm sharing them here to invite you to do this too - if you're in Dream Book use the Dream Lab, if not just sit with your dream for 5-10 minutes as a daily practice just to see where it leads.
I don't know where this is going for me, but I feel excited to keep taking little steps with this to see where it leads.
My dream is this thing deep inside of me that is changing.
It feels like the external complements of the dream I had been working with are fading away, and this new energy is there and I don't know what it all means right now but it feels really good to give it space.
I was thinking about how when we are more externally guided, like most people, there is always a next goal, always a thing to be looking towards.
But when you listen to your inner wisdom for guidance for how to move through life, there will be times of no answers, no goals. Times of rest and renewal and letting things incubate and grow.
I am doing a lot right now in terms of other work, re-building systems and structure, I am doing and creating, making space for this dream work practice of being with an incubating dream feels so healing.
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.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab which is what I am using for my dream meeting drawings.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
This week I am drawing my Dream Meetings.
My first dream meeting, my dream was a flat pancake and I felt... deflated.
At the same time, I was just really feeling the magic of journaling.
Then I went for my bike ride to the park, had some coffee, called my dream back in and now it's like...
I have opened a can of worms.
My dream is not actually my dream. The thing I've been thinking of as the biggest element of "my dream" is not actually my dream. It's a thing I want, but my DREAM...
My dream is different from what I thought.
Things are shifting.
The "new" dream meeting was me floating in the magic of being in congruence with myself.
Drawing this felt like a healing.
I am so excited to see what happens tomorrow.
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.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
I'll be doing these live Co-Dreaming calls every Monday until Aug 28.
Watching these videos all summer WILL get you seeing, and feeling, your dreams in new ways.
The replays will all be on my blog. If you want to attend live, register here to get the Zoom details.
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.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.
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!)!
Over the year I've gotten a lot of push-back from people who don't want to do the same prompts every week. I know it's annoying somethings but I promise - this is magically clarifying. The repetition helps you go deeper into the process.
Here are the prompts:
PART ONE: (sometimes these can stay the same for months at time, sometimes they change often)
My dream is:
I want it because:
When I have it I will feel:
PART TWO:
Invite your dream in (using the Dream Lab practice) to help you with the rest of the prompts.
PART THREE:
My goal/wish/intention for this New Moon is:
Last week’s focus was:
What happened in the last week?
What am I learning/How do I feel about this?
What do I need now?
What does my dream need now?
Taking all of this into account, my focus for the next week is:
My Dream Status Report for this week:
PART ONE:
My dream is: BEING the artist + writer I want to be and everything this entails. Having a less dramatic creative process (like less battling self doubt and more happily humming to myself while I write and draw). Doing more creative projects for fun - like having short bits of creative play mixed into my days more often. And how I feel in my life in perimenopuase and beyond.
I want it because: This is what feels most enticing and interesting to me. I'm also noticing how BEING who I feel I AM is important for my mental health. I feel so strongly - a better world is possible and our dreams show us the way there.
When I have it I will feel: Just a little more ME, more energized. More stable/sturdy. Excited about the new work I am doing.
My new moon intention: My intuition sent me an almost-scary message about being more clear about something. LOL that was vaguely written, but I am being more clear with myself, it's not something I'm ready to share about.
(Re-reading this and noticing how I have dropped this practice over the last week. To explore on today’s New Moon Intention Setting call!)
PART TWO: Invite your dream in (using the Dream Lab practice) to help you with the rest of the prompts.
My dream shows up as… well nothing, at first. I just feel SO STRONGLY how I haven’t been doing this practice as much as I wish I was. And then I also feel like I want to be doing the version of this practice where I also meet with the soul of my business, more often. I mean - when did I get out of this habit anyway?
Then my dream shows up as a cloud of light, with arms, that hugs me from behind. “Dear, there is so much you want to do! You’re at that part of your journal project where your creative energy is all diverted into the project. That’s all.”
OK. But I actually am CRAVING this practice, I want to DRAW MY MEETINGS (I mean drawing like a 3 year old, very quick little sketches) with the souls of my dream and business, EVERY DAY!
My dream is cheering for this idea and it feels like it’s not upset that I haven’t been connecting as much - it is always connected to me.
PART THREE:
Last week’s focus was: Explore structure more deeply. What kinds of structure would be helpful now: for my ongoing journey of putting my work out there, and for the journal project (I did get great advice about that last week, keep exploring where that leads) and what else in my life needs more structure?
What happened in the last week?
Sometimes I wonder why I keep picking focuses when I don’t follow through in the ways I wish I did.
BUT/AND sometimes I don’t know CAN’T KNOW ACTUALLY how long a thing will take to work through, and this is a form of intention setting that can shift things even when I don’t follow through.
BUT/AND it does show how I do need more structure! I haven’t been using my planner and that’s usually where I would track those kinds of things. It’s so wild! Before 2020 I would NEVER not be using my planner but since 2020 I come and go from it. When I miss weeks, I go back later and make art on those pages, which is fun too.
BUT YES it’s time to be more consistent with the planner. Also, I’ve been thinking about not making a planner for 2024, and making some undated ones instead because that would make it easier to just use it when you want to use it. Also I really want a smaller planner, not full printer pages, and I could make them in different sizes (using the disc binder I can make them any size! I forget this!) and different formats. Maybe I will play around with that - brainstorming ideas would help me figure out what kind of structure will be most helpful for me right now.
But to answer the question, lol, I really was working on structure and “how do I support myself in doing what I want to do” specifically - making more time for art - the handwriting + artwork of the guided journal I’m working on. It’s not just having the TIME but being in the right space.
What am I learning/How do I feel about this?
I feel like I am muddling through it all. I always dream of figuring things out easily and in some kind of logical order so I take clear, simple, consistent steps that always feel like progress. LOL I mean OMGLOL I have coached enough people to know that this is never how it works.
What do I need now? To use my planner and keep exploring how I can set things up to help me do what I want to do.
What does my dream need now?
I want to say it needs me to get organized, lol, but actually it’s saying it would love it if I was more accepting of being where I am, and that the process is messy. Can we enjoy the mess? I am also getting the sense that my dream thinks it’s boring to clean up messes. Hmmm
Taking all of this into account, my focus for the next week is:
Explore structure - so excited we’re going to do this as a group in the forum next week. USE THE PLANNER.
Dream Book members:
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.
Yesterday, which started as a cyclone of uncomfortable feelings, ended up being amazing. I got EIGHT PAGES DONE in the Creative Dream Journal I am working on. EIGHT!!! I think four was my record in one day before this, it's been very slow going.
(I mean - hand writing the pages, and doing the art, which includes editing my ideas, shifting things around, etc)
And when I look at the pages - my heart just beams. I am so happy with this, I get that "this is what I am here to do" feeling.
Those big uncomfortable feelings do get dredged up when we work with our dreams.
Tending to them is a part of the work, otherwise you can't make any moves that would dredge the feelings up, and you end up caged in by the avoidance of the discomfort.
(Though a part of me is thinking: DISCOMFORT?!?! That's a very tame way to describe how it feels. It's agonizing and of course we want to avoid it!!!)
Yesterday a little discussion started in our Dream Book forum about STRUCTURE.
It's something I am working on in my practice, and since a few people were also into exploring it - we're going to do that together next week. (I'll share about it in the daily posts with prompts and ideas and we'll explore together in the forum - how do we help each other create and maintain the structure we need to show up in the ways we want to show up?)
There are so many practical physical aspects of structure. And then there are all of the inner aspects. It's all a lot to sort through.
I had a big breakthrough about a really practical aspect of: how do I make it easier to show up consistently?
I like to work in coffee shops, and at a particular park near me. Technically, the park is a bar patio in a park, but there's a coffee shop and bakery open in the morning and hardly anyone there, it's perfect.
One thing is that I am very picky about WHERE I go, which is partly because I am a sensitive person and the vibes need to be right but also, and I can't believe I just noticed how important this is - I need a TALL table and stool.
With a tall table and stool, I can journal, write and draw for hours.
Sitting at a lower table, eww no I can't.
This spring, when the snow melted and the park people put the tables and chairs out on the patio at the park I like - initially they put cafe tables and chairs under the trees I like to sit under and I saw that and thought "my whole summer is ruined". Like, I just can't sit at a lower table. I was so relieved when they re-arranged and put the tall tables and bar stools under "my trees".
Anyway, with all of this.... why did it not occur to me that my desk and chair at home are essentially what I think of as "low tables" in coffee shops and never sit at?
Like, I need a standing desk and a stool! This makes my body feel good sitting at the table and encourages me to show up in the ways I want to. I want to be a person who does TONS of art and journaling. Having the right physical set up for this is one form of structure.
So yesterday I ordered an adjustable standing desk. And I saw a stool I like I'm going to check out at Ikea this weekend.
And I feel SO EXCITED.
SO MAGICAL to notice this, and be able to do something about it.
PS: The July New Moon intention setting and coaching call is on Friday! Get the call details 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.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.