My province went into lockdown today. It sucks, but I do get to ride this out in a very comfortable, warm, safe home, full of food and loads of ways to entertain myself.
What about the people who don’t have this?
What does it mean for me to stay in and focus on my own creative projects, to live in my beautiful privileged bubble while people in my city suffer?
How am I using my privilege to make my own life better?
How am I using my privilege to make any kind of positive difference in the world?
People are always quick to tell me how important my work is. How it DOES make a positive difference to so many. But how is it helping the homeless in my city when all of the safe COVID isolation rooms are already booked while our numbers keep spiking?
And yes I do give money away to groups who help the homeless, I’ve done that for many years and so far that has not solved the problem. I don’t think we should be so quick to feel good about ourselves for our financial donations while the problems persist.
How is my work helping Indigenous children in my city in CFS who just had more of their funding taken from them by our government? Most of these kids already end up in jail or on the street and their futures just got even harder. This is colonization in action in my city.
We're all connected. Pretending we're not is destroying us.
Once you are aware of your privilege you do have a choice to make:
- just feel guilty about it and do nothing to change it
- lean into it so it can keep making your own life better
- use it to dismantle systemic privilege and create a new culture where we take care of each other.
I know that feels like a big thing. It feels daunting and hopeless like… what can I possibly do?
I wrote the above, and then I sat down with my Dream Book and this was my mantra: I am a portal of possibility.
I had glued it into my journal earlier his week, but I couldn’t journal with it because it felt too far away. I WANTED to be a portal of possibility, but I couldn’t feel it and didn’t want to journal and about how far away this felt.
And that’s when I saw it. The answer to the question: what can I possibly do?
Sit with it.
Process your feelings. Get out of emotional reactivity and into constructive creative thinking.
Make space for the answers.
Because this IS a big thing. It will take all of us.
It's too small for any one of us, but ALL of us getting out there and doing the things we can see to do - can burn this fucking thing down.
When you sit with the questions and make space for the answers... ideas will come.
I just had a great one I'm going to explore this weekend.
I started the day an absolute MESS of feelings.
On top of the chaotic US election process, my city is now Canada's Covid hotspot. Our hospitals are at capacity, and our health care and social services have been absolutely GUTTED for the last several years by our conservative government for the last several years, leaving us completely vulnerable. Their response? They are asking for VOLUNTEERS for Covid testing and health care services.
They're not willing to spend any money to keep us safe. Meanwhile they have given millions upon millions to their friends for consultations while they were gutting everything.
I am incandescent with rage that we allow people with no compassion, vision or integrity to govern us. I am also so completely distracted by all the news I want to check my phone every five minutes to see what's new.
So this is the vibe I brought into my daily practice today.
Anger and fear and heartbreak and worry and determination and confusion and helplessness and hope and a wish that I could work on my creative projects but the kind of focus needed for that feels so far away.
So many conflicting feelings, with such intensity, I felt like all I could do today is bounce around in my emotional reactivity.
Five minutes into my practice, all that changed.
(This is why we ALL need a daily practice - to have this container ready and working for the days when we REALLY need it)
I received a clear + helpful message: USE your feelings as FUEL to create a new future.
This message felt revolutionary and super familiar at the same time.
I got out my iPad and wrote it down in block letters and then of course i saw it: This is what I have been teaching for the last 10 years.
It's landing differently right now because of what's happening in the world.
But the work hasn't changed.
More feelings = more fuel
A better world is possible. It will take creativity, vision, wisdom, hard work and collaboration to get there.
The first step: be with your feelings.
Move beyond emotional reactivity and sink into your deeper inner truth.
Then you can HARNESS the power of all of this energy, and use it to create something good.
You don't have to do it alone.
I can help - The Hard Parts Are Where The Magic Happens Healing Circle and Inner Work Workshop is a free 80 minute video class I offer where I lead you through this process.
I recorded this class a few years go. I think we need this work now more than ever.
Sign up below for instant access:
On Oct 26, we're going to explore DISTRACTIONS and how to keep your creative projects and emotional wellbeing practices going in hard times.
This is certainly on my mind right now.
It will be magic. See you there.
If you can't make it live, the replay will be here when we're done (you don't need an Instagram account to watch the replay)
I LOVED our Creative Genius Intuitive Planning LIVE on Instagram last Monday.
If you missed it, you can watch it here.
I'm going to keep doing them on Mondays at 10 am (Central, North America)
I'll be doing this live on Instagram - right here.
(If you need help attending an Instagram live - check out the Instagram Help Guide right here.)
It's about making some space to meet yourself where you are...
We're all processing A LOT right now, so we NEED SPACE to be able to really be with what's going on with us.
We all need more space for processing our feelings and reactions to everything that is happening in the world, which is an important part of Creative Genius Planning because it clears the channels so you can hear your inner wisdom more clearly.
It's a practice to help get out of auto-pilot and get into a deeper connection with your inner wisdom.
And then move towards where you want to be.
Once you are more connected to your inner truth, moving towards more joy and hope and opportunity and creativity tends to be the result.
We're not FORCING ourselves to "make it happen" or get to work - we're creating space our natural genius to flourish. We're playing with possibility.
I don't have one set way of doing this. It will be a little different every week.
As I said, for Oct 26, we're going to explore DISTRACTIONS and how to keep your creative projects and emotional wellbeing practices going in hard times.
It will be magic. See you there.
If you can't make it live, the replay will be here when we're done (you don't need an Instagram account to watch the replay)
I ordered the noise-canceling headphones of my dreams and they were supposed to arrive yesterday.
There was all of this fortuitous synchronistic stuff happening around the purchase of the headphones, and the whole thing felt like an opportunity to step into my next-level future dream self.
The headphones represented spaciousness and ease and having my self care needs exquisitely met.
The headphones did not arrive.
When I checked the tracking, I saw that they had arrived in my city, and then were returned to sender. Also: no more of these particular headphones (this particular choice being ridiculously well-researched) were listed for sale on the website of the Canadian company I’d bought them from. (Yes, I can check other stores, but NO I will not shop at Amazon)
I was so frustrated and disappointed.
I cried.
And while I cried a part of me was like “WTF? Are you really this upset? We’ll find the headphones eventually”
But it wasn’t about the headphones. It was about feeling like I was stepping into that next level of having my self care needs be exquisitely met and then having it taken from me.
Feeling like I don’t deserve it.
And then feeling into all of the losses of this year.
And then remembering that my friend is gone and feeling terrified that people can just die.
An then I was like “Oh sweetie, I’m sorry, I get it, cry all you want”
So I did.
And when I was done crying I did some soothing yin yoga, kissed my husband goodnight, noticed how exquisitely my self care needs are already being met, and drifted off to sleep. I woke up feeling happy and inspired.
I see so many people asking for help dealing with their feelings, because 2020 has been so hard and we all have so many feelings.
But what most of them are really asking for is help DISTRACTING THEMSELVES or TURNING OFF their feelings.
We need to FEEL our feelings, now more than ever.
Un-felt feelings don’t magically disappear. They calcify in your inner landscape.
I’ve been helping people with this since 2008 because that calcification forms the basis of the INNER BLOCKS make it harder to pursue your dreams.
This calcification of un-felt feelings makes it harder for you to know your true self.
It makes it harder for you to act in integrity with who you really are - it keeps you in a life that is too small for who you really are.
It’s what is making parents say “but our children have lost so much already” and demand that Halloween go on without any changes, ignoring the facts about super spreader events.
It makes us entitled and greedy and short sighted and without empathy for those who are more vulnerable than we are. This is why our species are killing the only home we have. This is why white supremacy and colonization and capitalism and greed.
And this morning on social media what I kept seeing is people wishing for 2020 to end.
As though that is some kind of solution.
The end of 2020 is not a magical portal that’s going to bring us into a better place.
That’s not the way through.
People keep asking about the online healing circle I did where I lead you through the working through a difficult feeling to get to the other side of it and feel free. You can get instant access to it when you sign up for the Your Next Steps free course.
Creative Genius Intuitive Planning LIVE on Instagram.
This happens Mondays at 10 am (Central, North America)
I'll be doing this live on Instagram - right here.
(If you need help attending an Instagram live - check out the Instagram Help Guide right here.)
Use this time zone translator to make sure you've got the right time where you are - it's already got my time entered in, so you just have to select your time zone to see what time this is for you.
The first on happened on Oct 19, watch it here.
Creative Genius Planning:
This means planning from your creative genius instead of from your head, which is where we tend to plan from.
Planning from your head looks like:
- making logical to-do lists
- pushing yourself to do the things you think you "should do" or "need to do" to reach your goals
- not noticing where your unconscious limiting beliefs are getting into the driver's seat to sabotage your success
Planning from your creative genius looks like:
- letting your intuition lead, especially when it gets weird
- creating space for growth, healing, and magic-ing your way to where you want to be
- planning from a deep alignment with your inner wisdom, power and creativity
I love my Monday morning Creative Genius Planning Sessions and can't wait to share it with you.
Here are 19 ways you can make space for your next big thing, right now:
- Look at what you can delegate - either tasks in your business or cleaning your house or getting groceries delivered instead of shopping, there are lots of things you do that other people can do instead!
- Get up 1/2 hour earlier to work on it a little each day (it's a cliche because it works - though I would add to also go to bed 1/2 hour earlier because sleep is important)
- Meditate on it
every day - Let go of the things you're doing that aren't fulfilling anymore (yes even if other people expect you to keep doing them - your dreams thrive with strong boundaries!)
- Book a creative retreat - just go somewhere where your only thing to focus on is this new thing you want to be doing
- Do Dream Book! Within the first month you'll see all sorts of new possibilities for how to do your thing
- Take a social media break, or severely limit your social media time
- Block off a week in your calendar where you just don't book anything. Of course you'll still have other things to do, but you'll have quite a bit of time in this week for your new project
- Work on it during your lunch break
- Let your house get messy
- Get take-out or pre-made meals at the grocery store
- My favourite is to go out for coffee on Saturday mornings to work on dream projects
- Be really honest about how you are spending your time and look for things you can temporarily give up to make space for your new project
- Exercise every day. It gives you more energy
- Stop watching Netflix/tv
- Cancel all of your social plans for 1 month
- Make a list of everything you can put off to make space to do this thing now
- Get together with some friends for an afternoon where you all work on your projects together
- Consider the idea that "I don't have time for this" is actually a lie
MAKING SPACE is a part of the process of making the thing happen.
No one just magically has all the time and space they need to do what they want to do.
You've done it before and you'll do it again.
When it FEELS impossible to make space, that means something else that's in the way.
Staying in this story that you "just don't have time" keeps you from the truth: That this new thing is terrifying.
How much would it hurt to give this thing everything you've got, and still fail?
THIS is what makes it hard to make space for a new thing.
It takes an INCREDIBLE amount of trust in yourself, and COURAGE, to wholeheartedly pursue your creative ideas.
So this is actually THE BEST WAY to make space for your next big thing:
Have a consistent practice for:
- listening to your intuition (it knows exactly how you can make space for this new thing)
- cultivating the courage to act on your intuition
- calming your fear and self doubt
- transforming your patterns of holding back
- connecting with who are becoming as you do this new thing (every creative project and dream your pursue GROWS YOU)
- accessing your inner POWER to take brave steps and make things happen for yourself
I do this work every day in Dream Book and would love for you to join me there.
You are infinitely wise, brave, creative and powerful.
You already have everything you need for your next big thing.
Today was not a good day. I woke up dizzy and overwhelmed.
It was really hard to find my creative flow and I was thinking... maybe I should just take the day off. You know - have a me day. Make popcorn, catch up on my Netflix queue.
I checked my email and saw that one of my students was wondering the same thing.
She's hit a hard part in her work with her dreams, plus there are hard things happening in her personal life, plus the whole world is overwhelming so she was wondering if it was better to just take a "self care break" and come back to it when it's easier.
But no, it's not better to take a break. Working on your dream is THE BEST form of self care that we've got.
It's just that REAL self care is hard sometimes.
It asks you to face the hard things and make the hard choices.
Taking a break, having a me day - sometimes that's exactly what we need and sometimes (more times actually) what we're talking about there is numbing and distracting ourselves.
Which is fine it itself...
But when you dress it up as "self care" then it's problematic because you are legitimizing your excuses for not facing the hard thing.
You're actually just leaving yourself stuck in the hard place.
Here's the solution: you NEED practices that meet you where you are and help you move towards where you want to be.
NO ONE always feels brave and capable.
But there's lots you can do to connect with your inner wisdom, courage, creativity and power and then you WILL feel brave and capable... and filled up and happy and ready to explore your dreams.
I do this work every day in Dream Book.
Some days I meet myself crabby and feeling disheveled from a night of weird dreams.
Some days I meet myself feeling inspired and lit up.
It doesn't matter where you start - your Dream Book shows you how to get to where you want to be.
Having more ideas than you know what to do with is a natural part of being creative.
You're a creative genius and your mind doesn't stop. That's good!
But you can't let your overabundance of ideas overwhelm you. I know it's easy to be kind of frozen not knowing what to do next, but all movement is good, so you need to get yourself out of that frozen place.
This place where you're trying to pick which idea to go with is RIPE with opportunities for your inner critics and limiting beliefs to just take over.
So it's important to not stay in this place very long!
These journal prompts will help you get moving sooner.
It's usually not all that important WHICH idea you choose, just that you CHOOSE something and get moving with it.
But we all hesitate and second guess.
Your journal is such a good tool for this, to give you some space to dig deeper, maybe get some insights around WHY you're hesitating and second guessing this particular project, and help you get more clear about what to do next.
Journal prompts for when you have too many ideas and don't know which one to focus on:
Start by writing down ALL of the ideas - get them together on one page.
Then let’s play with ranking them!
Which one would be the MOST fun?
Which one would be the LEAST fun?
Which would be the EASIEST to do?
Which would be FASTEST to get done?
Which would take the most time?
Which would be the most difficult to actually pull off?
What's THE MOST inspiring idea?
Do any of the ideas feel kind of blah or heavy to think about?
Which one will help you reach your goals?
Which one has the biggest potential payoff?
Which one feels the most impossible?
You don't have to answer each of the prompts. It's more important to follow the rabbit-holes.
The point is to explore your ideas from different perspectives.
And while you do this...
What fears or limiting beliefs makes themselves known and what does this tell you about the inner work you need to focus on at this time?
This is the real thing to explore here.
I do have a this set of journal prompts for overcoming fear if you want to explore those.
Take the (free!) 10 day Creative Dream Journal Challenge and get my You Are The Magic guided journal for Creative Dreaming.
This will give you a new way of working with your dreams, for more momentum and clarity.
(Artist Jaime Black started the Red Dress Project in 2010 as an aesthetic response to the more than 1,000 missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada. Find out more here.)
Oct 4 is the MMIWGT2S Day of Remembrance.
Due to the pandemic, here in Winnipeg the West Central Women’s Center is asking us to hang red dresses around the city as a way of marking the event and encouraging discussion.
Discussion is needed.
There was an inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women in Canada which shows in detail why First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people are vulnerable to violence in our society and lists specific calls for justice which we can all participate in.
Canada is in this weird situation where we try to look like we’re not racist but we’re not willing to do the work of actually not being racist - so we’ll fund something like a national inquiry into MMIW (there was also an in inquiry on reconciliation) but we will not trust or act on the findings of the inquiries.
The findings of the inquiry are clear: Indigenous women are murdered as a part of an ongoing genocide.
I remember in school learning about genocide and apartheid and I would wonder how the people in those countries allowed these atrocities to happen in their homes.
Meanwhile, it was happening in mine -the last residential school in Canada closed four years after I graduated from high school.
And it's still happening to this day.
This is how we allow it to happen, by not talking about it.
So many well-meaning white people, settlers, hear about what’s happening and are all “OMG it’s terrible what’s happening I feel helpless” and leave it at that.
If that's you - please don’t leave it at that.
If you haven’t yet, please read the findings from the inquiry into MMIW and the truth and reconciliation commission.
Come up with some things you can do (the TRC has 94 recommendations).
Follow your local Indigenous leaders, artists and writers online and listen carefully to what they're saying.
No one can fix this alone. We all need to be a part of the solution.
There’s this thing that happens, both with our personal dreams for our lives and with how we collectively want to change the world, where we shy away from taking action.
I could knit this one sweater, but I don’t know how to quit my job and make a living knitting, so I do nothing.
I could make a red dress and hang it up in my neighbourhood but what if someone asks me something about it and I don’t know the answer? So I do nothing.
With our own dreams, we can take baby steps, learn to listen better to our intuition and get into the flow and find our way to where we want to be. You never have to know HOW before you start the journey.
When it comes to changing the word, the good news is that it’s NEVER our job to know HOW.
Especially when it comes to white people wanting to help end white supremacy and systemic racism, we’re not supposed to be the leaders. We’re not supposed to have the answers.
We need to be willing to listen and learn and show up and support.
It's that disorienting time of the year when I am starting to wake up before the sun.
This morning I lay in bed in the dark, with my husband's arm around me and my arm around our cat Bear, just feeling so grateful to feel clear-headed, inspired, and happy.
I felt.... S P A C I O U S.
Spacious is my holy grail of inner states.
For most of 2020, I have NOT had space for everything, so waking up feeling spacious was a real miracle this morning.
Thirty days ago, I started Project Miracle.
This is a 30 day meditation + journaling program designed to generate a breakthrough/miracle. (You can try Day 1 for free here!)
I had a very specific miracle that I wanted to call in, and I've been feeling like I did get a LOT out of the last 30 days, but I didn't get what I wanted.
Today I re-read my journaling from 30 days ago, I looked at what I wanted and realized - it was already here.
It doesn't quite feel how I thought it would, but it's here.
I was working with two main things in Project Miracle:
- figuring out my work/home situation - I was dreaming of getting a new place to live and using the Dream Loft as my work space
- figuring out my next steps in my business - my marketing has felt "off" for some time, like the public part of my business and the things I offer for free are not matching the big magic of Dream Book and need to be updated but I didn't know HOW and figuring it out felt completely overwhelming
And now:
- I feel *at home* in my home in a whole new way. I decided not to move, and am more grateful than ever for all of the gifts of working from home. We got new furniture, re-arranged everything, and I LOVE IT.
- I know what to do next in my business. In fact I HAVE ALREADY RECORDED + EDITED a whole new free course! I see why my marketing felt off and know what to do about it.
But the bigger thing is that I discover what it is I REALLY need, which was hiding underneath the things I thought I wanted.
Yesterday I started to see it and then today I got this prompt in my Dream Book kit and I knew:
My habits and routines need a re-set.
I did journal about this yesterday already, but today I got the next piece.
It's ME.
This thing I am looking for, this thing I wish was different. It's ME.
While yesterday I was focused on what kinds of routines + habits I want to create for the fall/winter, today I see I need to look at the habits and routines I need to QUIT.