I recorded myself reading this blog to you! I LOVE it. Though - it's SUPER rainy and I thought the rain falling might add a romantic touch, it just sounds staticky. So - next time I'll wait for the rain to clear, but I am loving this idea of reading my blogs to you in this way:
I help people get un-stuck and yet I still get stuck.
I do have an inner critic who is all "Seriously?! How can you keep saying you can help people when YOU are so stuck right now?"
These inner critic voices are SO black + white that they miss what is actually happening. They don't care about truth, they care about saying something that hits in such a way that it STOPS you.
It's true, I've been feeling super stuck with a lot of projects lately.
And the people are work with in Dream Book are more stuck than ever!
Not all of them, but more people than ever are writing to me to say "OMG ARRGHGHSO I DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM DOING!!!!"
So I've been writing a lot about being stuck, and about navigating transformational times.
I've been creating a new program called Space-Making which is a super gentle and do-able way to start to make space for yourself, and your dream, in your life. A way to ease into Dream Book for those times when you are too overwhelmed to really get into the work of dream-making.
I'm creating this because I still believe in our dreams and want everyone to find their way in to the magic of really deeply working with your dreams.
And I love the ways that people's dreams have changed over the last few years.
But back to the stucks.
Yes, I'm stuck with a few things right now because being stuck is an important part of the process.
Being stuck is where you look at things from different angles.
Being stuck is where you make space to FEEL your feelings... process them, learn more about yourself, and find our more about what you're really made of.
Being stuck is where you get real with yourself about the ways that YOU get in your way.
Being stuck is where you get real with yourself about where people in your life are in your way, and if you're brave you will start to set new boundaries.
Being stuck is a pivotal point.
This idea that you can take one step after another and go all the way from where you are to where you want to be without ever getting stuck - this is a fantasy that is holding you back.
THIS IS ONE OF THE MOTHER STUCKS because it keeps you from starting until you can see that clear path. That clear path doesn't exist so you will never actually start, but you won't feel upset by that because you are believing the lie that you are "waiting for the right time".
If only our stucks came with neon signs that said "Transformational experience here! Stop and look more closely at this!"
Which is, actually, my job. I hold up that sign and offer the tools that help you transform the stuck.
And even still, sometimes we will look at the tools and say "Oh, no, no this isn't an "opportunity for transformation" this is an outer obstacle and I need to just sit here and wait for someone else to clear it for me. Surely life will be less crazy in a few months."
The only way out is through.
We can sit with a stuck for years.
I had one for about 15 years - it was this idea that "I'm just not into business" and "There isn't a way to do the things I want to do and make enough money to live well".
I had these ideas that people with amazing work GET DISCOVERED.
I had hope that one day some kind of manager would find me, and take care of the business parts for me.
So I kept doing my work, on the side while working in an office after the starving artist thing became too stressful.
Until the time came when I decided to look at that stuck more closely.
It's funny for me now to look back at when I was SO SURE I could never do what I do now as my way of earning a living. I've been doing it for 11.5 years, and it feels like the only way I want to be in the world.
We are wrong about SO. MUCH.
So I look back to that, remember how sure I felt and how wrong I was, and ask "What am I wrong about now?"
There actually are an infinite number of paths that lead from where you are now to where you want to be.
You can only see the options that your current perspective will allow you to see.
And your CAPACITY plays a big role in how large your perspective is.
And I think we're all struggling with capacity issues right now.
AT THE SAME TIME
When we can find ways to NOT let this shrink our dreams, this is actually a time of HUGE NEW possibilities.
To dream BEYOND what we've dreamed before.
It's really stressful to have inflation rising out of control and increased civil unrest everywhere and attacks on our democracies and a war that threatens to pull most of the world into it and a pandemic that rages on while watching climate happen right in front of our eyes.
When I say I'm excited about dreaming BEYOND what we've dreamed before...
I am not talking about DREAM BIGGER! Seven figures is the new six figures!
I am talking about DREAM TRUER! We can create a whole new way of doing this life.
I am seeing so many people doing this, like:
- Creating collaborative ways of working instead of trying to build the biggest business in the least time.
- Holistic practitioners taking an honest look at the cultural appropriation in their training, and working with Indigenous people to clean it up and create new ways of doing things.
- Art as a vehicle for activism.
- Coaching as a vehicle for activism!
Shifts are happening.
It feels like a whole new movement of healing and creativity is springing up. One that is focused on activism, anti-racism, disability rights, honouring everyone's unique gifts. One that is deeply rooted in anti-oppressive ideologies and consciously looking for how to be as intersectional as possible.
It feels, to me, that the new age movement (including holistic wellness, yoga, life coaching) was attempting to do all of this without doing ANY of the deeper work of understanding what white supremacy, colonization and privilege actually are, and so without ANY understanding of how we draw on these oppressive ideologies and systems in how we do EVERYTHING. And so all it was was the colonization of Indigenous spirituality in various forms.
But now, we are starting to wake up.
We are starting to see new possibilities, which were always there, but hidden in our considerable blind spots.
This is the time for dreaming the new world into being.
So, then I come back to where I started: holy shit I feel so stuck with so many projects right now.
But now - all I feel is possibility.
A stuck is an opportunity for healing and transformation. Doing this work frees up new energy for the dream.
As always, you are welcome to do this work with me in Dream Book. This is my comprehensive program for how to create the path that leads from where you are to where you want to be, by engaging more deeply and directly with the Inner Work and Inner Growth (I call the inner GROWTH the Dream Work) that your dream needs from you, and then using the energy freed up in that work as fuel for the outer work.
It's comprehensive. It's complex. It will help you heal and grow beyond what you believe is possible right now.
