Hearing the stories of people who are pursuing their dreams is one of the things I find most inspiring in the world. I'm lucky, I get to hear these stories every day in the Creative Dream Circle, my Online Incubator for Dreamers, Artists, Healers, Coaches and World-Changers.
So I'm sharing some of their stories out here!
Today I'm talking with Eefje Jansen. Eefje is working on accepting who she is and daring to share her light with the world. She is a sensitive, intuitive woman, mother and wife, reconnecting with Mother Earth and developing her skills as an organic artist.
Eefje had some REALLY inspiring things to share about facing fear as an artist.
Her fear, and a really strong inner critic, stopped her from doing her art for years, but her art kept calling her and now she's answering the call with her inspiring work.
website: www.eefje-jansen.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ateliereefjejansen/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atelier_eefje_jansen/
Hello 2020!! Creative Journal Prompts for the New Year
First we reflect on the year that is ending.
It's actually REALLY HARD to keep making new goals for the New Year if you're not taking the time to reflect on and learn from what happened with your plans for the year that is ending.
By taking some time to reflect, you're gathering up the gifts and lessons of the year that is ending, so you can carry them with you into the new year.
You're also making some space for processing and healing the hard parts of the year that is ending, and getting some clarity on what you want to let go of, to make space for what you want to receive in the new year.
(If you're struggling with that part - I have a FREE 90 minute video class + healing circle where i lead you through this - get it here)
Looking back:
What did you try with your dreams in 2019? What worked? What didn’t work?
What was amazing in 2019?
What are you most grateful for about 2019?
What did you do in 2019 that you’re proud of?
What did you learn/discover that you want to bring into 2020?
What was hard in 2019?
What do you want to leave behind in 2019?
How did your dreams grow in 2029?
How did YOU grow in 2019? What gifts and strengths do you have now that you didn’t have in 2018?
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 2019?
Looking forward:
Try to list 5-10 things (impossibly big or microscopically small or anything in between) you’d like to have happen in 2020, in each of these different parts of your life:
health * relationships * creativity * purpose/career * money * self-love/self-care * spirituality * happiness * adventure/play
I know that seems like a lot, but the act of listing TONS of things can really open up your sense of possibility. So spend some time with this - I find it's best to leave this list out somewhere for a week or so, so I keep adding new things as I think of them.
When you're done go back through your list and imagine how each of these things will make you happier in 2020. If there is anything on your list that won’t truly make you feel happier – cross it out.
What is your Big Dream for 2020?
Why do you want this?
How will you feel when you have it?
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 2020? Brainstorm 10 things you can try.
What do you want to STOP doing in 2020? 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?
Then imagine yourself at the end of 2020
(You might want to draw/collage/doodle an image of you from one year from now).
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 did literally fail at ALL of my goals for 2019 and, upon reflection, this is a VERY GOOD THING.
I have a lot to say about how wholeheartedly and enthusiastically pursuing our goals can move us towards our dreams - regardless of it we reach the goals or not.
So.... as I shared yesterday, I failed at ALL my goals for 2019.
Last week I did a Circle of Reflection + Release in the Creative Dream Circle - we got together on Zoom to reflect on 2019, to explore and honour all the things we learned, all the ways we grew, and to release the things that we don't want to carry with us into 2020.
This call was difficult for me to do.
As a space-holder for this kind of work, my own practice becomes a part of the container... the call can't be a container for exploring things that I can't face myself. So i had to face some hard stuff...
All of my goals for this year crashed and burned by spring.
And as they crashed and burned they took some other things with them. My website was hacked multiple times and though I could recover the content from backups, by the end I couldn't re-build where I was, so I had to move everything AND my SEO was lost.
(SEO = Search Engine Optimization. 10 years of blogging and building my SEO meant that Google used to send me thousands of new people every month so I had new customers coming to me all the time without me working at finding them which is a total dream-come-true way to run a business. That's gone now.)
The company that I moved my website TO (Simplero) promised me that my SEO would improve in the move and instead it was completely trashed. For months I expected them to do the right thing and fix it while they just ignored it.
And then some other tech stuff went wrong and I was so focused on re-building while also continuing to do my work in the Creative Dream Circle - that I forgot all about my goals for 2019.
I had to sit with how painful and scary and embarrassing it was, to have ALL of my goals fail like this. But once I'd done that, and spent time grieving and offering love to the parts of me who felt wounded by this experience, I saw everything more clearly.
The crash, burn and destruction of so much of my work that happened this year was an opportunity to do things differently.
There are times when what you have needs to fall apart to make space for what you want.
Sometimes this is obvious. You've got to dump the crappy partner if you want to be able to find a good one.
Sometimes, like in this case, it's more subtle.
The day, last spring, when I saw that all this stuff I had spent so long building had all fallen apart, I was devastated. I still remember how that felt, feeling like it was all gone, and there was no more hope.
I felt like not only had I failed at my dreams but I'd failed every person I'd taught over the years
Because if I can't keep my dreams going then how is there any value in what I am teaching? Am I just leading people astray? It was very hard.
But I only stayed in that place for 1 day, because as I sat with those feelings and tried to bring light, comfort, love and safety to those parts of me who needed healing so badly - I saw that none of it was true.
It wasn't gone. I hadn't failed. There was still oodles of hope.
And then I found the biggest truth: I built all of this. I can re-build it all better now.
When that idea came to me, it felt different. It felt true. It felt like a doorway and as I went through the doorway I saw that I had built everything in my business without knowing what I was doing!
I was trial-and-erroring my way long. I was following inspiration and doing creative experiments. And the results of all of that turned into the business I built.
Ten years of trial and error and inspiration and experiments have actually taught me a lot.
I DO know what I'm doing now, in some ways anyway. I certainly know TONS more than I knew 10 years ago.
And then I knew that I could re-build SO MUCH BETTER.
Then I knew that the falling apart was a gift because it created space for me to re-build.
None of this was easy. Dreams aren't easy.
Oh course, I was in a good position to have some parts of my business fall apart because other parts did not fall apart. I still have long-term Creative Dream Circle members and I even had wonderful new people finding us and joining - just not as many new people as I usually get.
So yes I made less money this year.
But I'm a saver, and I am in this for the long term, so I have savings put aside especially for helping me through any lean times that may come up. I know that of course there will be ups and downs in business so it just makes sense to save for the down times... though it was hard to actually USE some of this savings because that made me feel like I was failing again.
But now that I am through that part, I feel so grateful to have had that space to focus on re-building. To really explore how to make all better.
I mean - my own experience in my business: my schedule and routines and how I show up for the work and how I am supported in that. And also my customer's experience with my business. We do DEEP transformational work so it is SO easy to get caught up in resistance or tangled up in fears and doubts and just give up. How do I build an even sturdier container for their process of growth and healing?
These explorations gave me a whole new way of relating to my work and I am SO EXCITED about the changes I have made as a result.
Where I am now feels LIGHT YEARS away from the goals I had set for myself at the end of 2018.
Had I accomplished my original goals for 2019, I don't think I'd be in such a rich place with my dreams right now. Working with your dreams means tapping into something bigger than yourself.
That part of me who set goals for 2019 was ready to GROW! I am so grateful for everything she did because it did lead me to here.
Are you ready for some year-end reflecting?
My Creative Journal Prompts for the New Year are on my blog right here.
It's a LONG series of prompts for reflection back on 2019 and looking ahead to what you want to create in 2020.
This is one of those classic new age affirmations:
It's easy for me to ___ (fill in the blank with something specific) ___
And the idea is that you're supposed to repeat it to yourself until you believe it. You're supposed to CHANGE your belief that it's hard to have your dream.
It's NOT that hard to change a belief. Beliefs are just thoughts we think so often they become weightier in your unconscious. There are lots of tools for changing beliefs, for creating a belief system that makes it easier for you to achieve what you want in life.
But this work can be downright violent.
If the shallowest part of you, your logical mind, decides that you want easy money and a big house and sets out to change your beliefs to make this possible for you to achieve... what are you doing, really?
First of all you're allowing your shallowest self to be in the driver's seat in your life. Not usually a great idea.
But more importantly, you're allowing your shallowest part of yourself to bully other parts of you into thinking the way it wants you to think.
And in the process you're totally erasing the reasons why you have the beliefs you have.
You have the belief system you have for a reason.
Some of those reasons are pretty benign.
And some of them are protective trauma responses.
Some of them are tied to other core beliefs, which are there for really good reasons...
I mean you just don't know.
To say: Everything would be better if I had a belief that money comes to me super easy all the time is dangerously short-sighted.
Last weekend we took the kids to my friends' farm. On the drive home we were talking about Henry Ford and the regret he felt at the end of his life over how his mission to make cars accessible to everyone had changed the world in really negative ways.
Since then I've been thinking about how short-sighted we are can be, when we're in the thrall of inspiration with our creative dreams.
And how this short-sightedness can lead us to take a different path than the one our wisest self would choose.
Which is not to say you should give up on all of this change your life stuff.
The problem is when you put your logical mind, your shallowest self, in the driver's seat.
So - put your deepest wisest genius self in the driver's seat.
Which means instead of DECIDING what to chase after - make space for LISTENING for what is most true for you.
The bonus is that this deeper wiser genius part of you is also the most POWERFUL part of you, so once you get aligned with what this part fo you wants - it's much easier to do the outer work of making it happen.
It's easy for me to ___ (fill in the blank with something specific) ___
I've been using this mantra and am encouraging my Creative Dream Circle members to use it with me for the next month.
Not because my logical mind decided this certain thing should be easy.
But because after months of listening and following direction from my inner wisdom, I am doing a thing that is really HARD for me.
And because my inner wisdom is clear that this is the thing for me to do now, I started using this mantra to help make it more doable for me to do the thing.
See the difference? It's all about which part of you is in the driver's seat.
Hearing the stories of people who are pursuing their dreams is one of the things I find most inspiring in the world. I'm lucky, I get to hear these stories every day in the Creative Dream Circle, my Online Incubator for Dreamers, Artists, Healers, Coaches and World-Changers.
So I'm sharing some of their stories out here!
Today's spotlight is: Briana Goetzen, MA, founder of Orange Spiral Arts.
Briana is an expressive arts facilitator living in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) area of Minnesota, in the USA.
As an artist, avid photographer, visual journal keeper, and deep conversation enthusiast, Briana supports people who desire to fully express themselves in mind, body, and spirit.
She helps people re-connect to the inner artist and divine inner wisdom that is inherently theirs.
Check out Briana's work here.
I asked Briana to tell me about her project and this is what she said:
My dream for a long, long time has been to teach/facilitate mixed media art workshops for adults. My personal mission is to inspire the inner creativity in others. I believe we are all born creative, and somehow along the way, many adults have lost touch with this part of themselves.
Some adults simply have not had the opportunity to explore their own creativity.
I also believe that being in touch with our inner creativity allows us to access our innate inner wisdom. Often this wisdom helps us grow, change, and transform our lives for the better.
I have been developing in person workshops and online classes off and on for the past fifteen years. Now that my son is "school age," I have been focusing full time on developing more online classes that are intended to inspire and spark your expressive, intuitive self.
In September 2019, I have released two online classes. The first is called Introduction to Abstract Alcohol Ink Art.
The second is what I call my "signature course", which is Liquid Watercolor Mandalas.
Then I asked: What were the biggest obstacles you faced with this?
And I asked: How did you work through the obstacles?
Check out Briana's work here:
Blog: orangespiralarts.com
Email: orangespiralarts@gmail.com
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/OrangeSpiralArts
Facebook: facebook.com/OrangeSpiralArts
Flickr: flickr.com/photos/brianacreates/
Instagram: @orangespiralarts
Pinterest: pinterest.com/brianacreates/
Twitter: twitter.com/BrianaCreates/
Hearing the stories of people who are pursuing their dreams is one of the things I find most inspiring in the world. I'm lucky, I get to hear these stories every day in the Creative Dream Circle, my Online Incubator for Dreamers, Artists, Healers, Coaches and World-Changers.
So I'm sharing some of their stories out here!
Today's spotlight is: Ricia Fleming, who has been working since forever to understand and heal those intangible interpersonal traumas from childhood – traumas like emotional neglect, unattunment, unempathic overinvolvement, or being used as a trophy to build up a parent’s status -- subtle traumas that fool us into thinking we have nothing to be upset about.
She’s writing a book to share with us what she’s discovered about validating and healing these subtle traumas.
Check out Ricia's work here:
Check out Ricia's work here:
If you want to get in touch with Ricia you can email her at Ricia [@] RiciaFleming.com
Hearing the stories of people who are pursuing their dreams is one of the things I find most inspiring in the world. I'm lucky, I get to hear these stories every day in the Creative Dream Circle, my Online Incubator for Artists, Healers, Coaches and World-Changers.
So I'm sharing some of their stories out here! (Circle members: if you missed my invitation to participate in this just send me an email I would love to spotlight ALL of you!)
Our first spotlight is: Angel Sullivan and the amazing business she's created: Small Biz Organization
Check Angel out here:
SmallBizOrganization.com * Facebook * Pinterest
Check Angel out here:
These are the principles behind everything I teach.
No one can follow all of these principles all of the time, that's not even the point.
The point is to be mindful of them, and do your best to be aware of when you're going against one of the principles.
You can usually tell that you are doing this because you'll find that you're stalled out on the path to your dream.
You don't have to feel ready.
The conditions in your life will never be ideal for your dreams - that's kind of the whole point of a dream. It wants to CHANGE your life, and to do that you have to start where you are today.
Hopefully it helps to remember that your next step is both smaller and simpler than you think. You don't have to do some big dramatic thing, your next step is a thing that you absolutely can do sometime within the next week.
That's easy to say and hard to do. Learning how to act before you feel ready is one of the things we work on in Creative Dream Alchemy - it's about letting your intuitive wisdom speak to you more loudly than your fear. It's your fear who thinks you're not ready, your inner wisdom knows that this is what you're here to do.
The truth is, you are strong, smart, creative, and brave enough to do this. If you weren't your dream wouldn't be calling. You are already ready for this journey since the path that leads to your dream runs right under your feet, exactly where you are right now. Your soul set it up this way.
Your Dream is how your soul calls you towards your true self.
This is why your dream feels so magical and special - not because changing your life on the outside will instantly make you happy, but because it's about growing into who you were really meant to be. Your dream leads to your most authentic, fulfilling, and purposeful way of being.
This means your dream lives inside of you, not outside.
So you don't chase after it. And you don't sit around waiting for it to come to you. You open yourself up to it and explore how to live in tune with it, right here right now, no matter what’s happening in your external world.Your dream is waiting for you to come true.
Your True Self is creative, powerful, and wise.
You won't always feelcreative, powerful, and wise. That's ok! It's ok to feel doubt and fear - those feelings are actually a part of the process, but we'll get to that a bit later.
This means that you already have everything you need to make your dream real. It means that your answers are inside you, not outside.
That doesn't mean you can wave your magic wand and *pouf* the dream is real in this instant. And it certainly doesn't mean there isn't stuff for you to learn along the way! It just means that you have what you need to do this - one baby step at a time.
Your answers live inside you.
Your dream lives inside you.
Your power lives inside you.
All the magic is inside you, including all of the answers you need as you navigate your path. You got this.
You build the path by walking.
There is no such thing as "waiting for the right time". That's just a bullshit procrastination technique.
Your build the path by walking means you take the little tiny baby step that is in front of you to take, and that step builds the next step on the path.You get creative and curious about your dream. Your try stuff. You make mistakes. You learn along the way. You play with your dream.
You can do all of these things from right where you are, right now.
Yes I know there are obstacles that you face right now that make it hard to do this, but those obstacles are a part of the path.
You live in a world that is hostile to dreams and places obstacles in your way. Facing and overcoming those obstacles is your hero’s journey. I mean what would a hero's journey be like without a few fire-breathing dragons to battle? You can’t skip this part or wait for the obstacles to clear themselves.
Just start moving, there is no such thing as "right way" or "wrong way" when it comes to dreams you're just either moving or you're not.
Honour your process as it is, not as you wish it was or think it should be.
You are never behind, you are never doing it wrong - you are always exactly in the centre of your unique process. It's ok if it gets messy. It's ok if parts of it are hard. It's even ok if parts of your path terrify you!
This is a hard one because we all tend to want to judge and then push away things that we think are wrong and we have to work at creating a new way of looking at this. Also you live in a world where you are compared to other people as though there is one yardstick with which to measure us all! You have been encouraged to conform to the norm instead of claim your own unique ways of being in the world.
On top of all of that, the structures of oppression that exist in our world that make it so hard to make a dream real do not target each of us in the same way. Some people do have it easier. Some people do have it harder. This is a fact that we all have to deal with in varying ways.It's not fair that the outer world make it harder for some to do this work.
All I know is that when we bring the magic of our creativity and inner purpose to the external obstacles we face - we can start to change the world.
So when you feel like everything is too hard, or you're falling behind, or you're doing it wrong, or that this stuff works for other people but not for you so maybe you should give up - that means you're caught in your own stuff(fears, limiting beliefs, inner critics, etc) and you need to take a look at that stuff. There is always a way through.
Feel ALL of the feelings that come up for you on the path to your dream.
When you honour your process *exactly as it is* then you bring yourself right into your discomfort where you have the opportunity to transform your own inner patterns and get to create totally new ones. This is where the magic happens.
This is where you look that fire-breathing dragon right in the eye and let it know that it can't stop you.
We all have a tendency to want to turn away from the uncomfortable feelings. In Creative Dream Alchemy you are given tools, encouragement and support to meet how you're feeling: frustrated, scared, angry, overwhelmed.
So instead of turning away you can dig in and bring healing to this part of you who is upset. This is the actual work of liberating yourself from the things that hold you back.
This is the transformation of consciousness and this is the whole point of Creative Dream Alchemy. So when you hold back from your uncomfortable feelings you're actually holding back from receiving the gift you need in this moment.
I know it feels counter-intuitive to follow your feelings of self-doubt, fear or frustration towards liberation, magic and dreams come true. But when you make space to feel how you actually feel you become more connected to your True Self. This means you become more connected to your inner wisdom and the inner gifts that are going to help you make your dream real.
Your logical self does NOT know the way. It's your heart that will lead you there.
Your dream will grow you.
Your dream lives inside of you and once you open yourself up to it it’s going to help you grow towards your True Self. This is beautiful and amazing and contains everything you want - but it’s also going to get uncomfortable, and maybe even downright terrifying, at times. This is just the nature of growth!
Do you think a seed is happy to be split open so the plant can burst out of it?
I know I've mentioned this a few times already but it bears repeating because of just how hard we humans work to try to avoid discomfort (even though avoiding discomfort is actually very uncomfortable!). Growing pains are real and the end result will be worth it.
Remembering that your dream will grow you means you can’t see everything clearly from your current (smaller) perspective while you're being grown. Keep your mind as open as possible. Your dream will surprise you along the way.
It takes the time it takes.
Creative Dream Alchemy isn't about speeding up the process of manifestation. It's about creating a deep alignment between your conscious self and your True Self - so that the light of your inner truth can shine out to illuminate your whole life.
And when you follow these principles you'll find that there are so many gifts and riches along the way it doesn't matter if you never get to the finish line.
I mean of course there is no finish line because Creative Dream Alchemy takes you on a journey of self-discovery, magic and liberation. This journey brings you to somewhere that you likely can't even imagine right now.And the longer you are on the path the more it becomes about the process of navigating your life by your own internal wisdom and finding joy in the process instead of focusing on the external outcomes.
Ironically, that's also when the external outcomes you want tend to start to come to you more easily.
We've been exploring some tough topics this week in Creative Dreaming VS The End Of The World POP-UP PODCAST and Video Series.
So I wanted to end with a special treat for you: an energy clearing meditation.
This is the kind of work we ALL need to be doing more of right now.
Watch it here:
Thanks so much for joining me for the Creative Dreaming vs The End Of The World Pop Up Podcast!
This the final episode for this season - I may pop back up with a new podcast on a new topic 🙂
Join the Creative Dream Circle here - to get access to ALL of my classes plus ongoing masterminds and monthly live alchemy classes and coaching calls.
All week we've been exploring Creative Dreaming VS The End Of The World and all of the unique issues we are facing at this time.
This is hard stuff.
BUT.
We can GROW THROUGH our challenges and that's what the world is asking of us right now.
So for today's episode we're focusing on moving THROUGH this in a powerful way.
Watch it here:
I'm sharing a new episode every day this week.
So far we have talked about: feeling like you don't deserve to pursue your dreams when there is so much upheaval in the world, taking better care of yourself when you're overwhelmed by the news and how to handle the overwhelm we're feeling so we can act more powerfully.
Tomorrow I'll be sharing an alchemy meditation for Energy Clearing.