I painted this in my Year of Hope journal a little while back but it applies to dreams too.

Taking the time to write "Why is this so hard sometimes" and then paint around the letters gave me space to sink into the question.

Then I filled the other side with answers.

Of course dreaming is hard right now.

If you understand what is happening in the world.

And of course dreams are more important than ever. Living our values is more important than ever.

And yet we have a LOT of cultural programming that impacts how we are experiencing this moment.

I keep noticing myself saying "Why am I so tense??" Like, my muscles are SO TENSE and I think about how I have been exercising, looking for the answer. We live in this culture of hyper-individualism that impacts the way we see the world and ourselves so we do look to blame ourselves for anything that goes wrong in our bodies and our lives.

So then each time I have to remind myself: I'm so tense because the situation in the world is so tense. This makes sense. A better question to ask is "What do I need now?"

And that is usually: more rest. More gentle stretching. More art. More meditation. More water. More sleep. More than that.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership 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 had another unsettling meeting with my dream - using the Dream Lab practice.

The Field of Creative Dream Alchemy was a desert, with mountains off in the distance. This just felt like an unsettling start, since this is SO far from the terrain where I live - there are 100,000 lakes plus arctic ocean shore in my province, and the city I live in is on a flood plain.

Then my dream shows up as a bunny rabbit. It’s being lowered in and it’s standing stiff/frozen.

Oh, it’s a cartoon. It’s Bugs Bunny.

He stays frozen the whole time and I’m like “I wanted a good dream meeting that made me feel inspired and energized and like everything is possible for me”

Thank goodness I was doing the 10 minute (shorter) version, so I only had to sit there for a few minutes, lol. At the end of the meditation when I held out my hands - Bugs turned into a real rabbit, so soft and snuggly and sleeping.

I just want to be soft was the message I got.

I drew it out in my journal and journaled about it and then I saw it more clearly.

Late stage capitalism, the way that in Canada we only have a few grocery store chains and they have been making record profits, higher every year, while prices soar and it’s like… this doesn’t feel like inflation, it feels like straight up oligarchy and greed. Tarrifs, fear of being taken over by the US, nothing feels stable economically and my dream right now is about having more people in the membership.

There is a part where I’m feeling so inspired and alive in my work I want to share it with more people.

And there is a part where I just need more money to feel secure with all of these changes.

And it’s like Bugs - I just want to be soft. But the coyote keeps chasing me.

So it brings up a few questions: how do I bring softness to my marketing efforts?

And also:

I can’t just kill the coyote and have it stop chasing me. Trying to do that never works and can take up energy I could use for other things.

Where am I trying to kill the coyote instead of using my energy for the things I really want to do?

I have no idea, but that feels like a good question to sit with.

And I want to talk a bit about some other dream meetings I have been having.

I am obsessed with the Dream Lab lately - I usually listen every morning before I get out of bed and then sometimes repeat later in the day.

My dream keeps showing up as things that are ready to GROW.

It showed up as a flight of stairs, and showed me that my dream is only like halfway up the stairs, so it felt like “there is more, you just can’t see it yet”

Then it showed up, on our Co-Working/Co-Dreaming call on Easter weekend, as a chick and I was like WTF but then my dream said “No! This is AMAZING! I was an egg for a long time and now I’m a chick” and it felt magical.

Then it showed up as a caterpillar. In the mediation, I was in space. And the caterpillar was made up of a galaxy. But I brought it to earth and it was bright green and I was like “This is cute but what could this mean?” and then it finally sunk in that the caterpillar will soon be a butterfly.

That’s when I put all three together: My dream is sending me encouragement.

Things are getting ready to step up, come to life and transform into something magical.

I think sometimes you get the message more clearly when you do the Dream Lab practice a few times and then look back.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership 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.

Every Monday in 2025 there will be a new journal prompt in the Year of Hope classroom in the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership.

​Get this week's journal prompt here.​

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Leave them in the comments at the bottom of that page so we can discuss this as a group. Practicing hope in community is MAGIC.

I hope we learn to truly take care of each other + make it so everyone is safe everywhere.

I've been a bit off in my Year of Hope daily practice. And I shared last week that a part of this is because... I HAVE THE THING I WANTED FROM THIS.

Which feels like a major miracle.

And doesn't look like I thought it would.

But I feel more hopeful, and grounded, and optimistic, and confident even about my own future.

And I don't feel I need to keep practicing it in the same way now.

So I am shifting to spending time practicing hoping for the things I hope for. Writing it out in big letters and then painting around them is kind of time consuming and gives me that chance to just sit with my hope and feel like I am sending it out somehow.

Which gives me an opportunity to get ideas about steps I could take, to be a part of the change I want to see with this.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership 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 wanted to share this story because it shows how we can get what we need from this work even when we're really distracted and unfocused.

I did the 20 minute version of the Dream Lab.

And I was super distracted!

I kept noticing that I wasn’t listening to myself, lol.

And I kept coming back to it.

I felt like I missed everything, in terms of getting ready to meet the soul of my dream…

And then If let like I had done it all wrong because the soul of my dream appeared as some blocky thing.

Like a wooden block?

So vague and I thought… oh I am doing everything wrong here.

But I reminded myself that I decided to give this 20 minutes, and that there is no ideal way to do this, there’s just… showing up and being in the process.

“So, sit with your blocky thing” I told myself.

The blocky thing became stairs.

A wooden staircase.

And the thing I want most right now is a few steps up from where I am living, but there is more to the staircase.

My dream wanted me to see that.

Suddenly, I felt so loved and cared for and looked out for.

And I even played around with taking it one step higher, assuming that this mean having MORE of what I want now…

But then it felt like… unsure and unknown.

Like actually dreams are not always MORE!  MORE MORE! Until they collapse like late stage capitalism.

So, when I get to the step I am currently dreaming of - THEN I will have more information about what the next step looks like. It felt like… there is a lot of mystery and surprises here and I shouldn’t try to define what my “biggest dreams” can be from where I am now.

So then it felt like I was small and the stairs were big, and I could snuggle in on my stair (not the one I am living on now, the one that is my dream, a few steps up from me) and it felt like I could acclimate to being where I want to be in this gentle way.

At the end of the meditation, I felt SO MUCH GRATITUDE for the staircase as it shrunk and went into my heart.

And then it was also kind of the real life staircase in the loft, which has a big window at the top of it, facing north so it’s always a really gentle light coming through, and that gentle white light was at the top of my staircase and it felt like…

I am really going somewhere.

I don’t have to know what that destination is. I can just enjoy my trip up the staircase.

And then I felt very peaceful about my dream for the rest of the day.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership 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.

So this is a lovely though unoriginal thought.

It came to me in a meditation.

What’s interesting is that I was meditating on a business question, and this was the answer.

And it answered my question in a way that kind of… opened up my perspective, changed what felt possible and gave me a huge sigh of relief.

This is what connecting to your inner knowing should be like.

Sometimes the answers are HARD, sometimes you are going to tell yourself to be braver than you think you are.

But usually, your own self has remarkable wisdom about how to do things in a way that will not deplete you. Unlike the ways dominant culture will always tell you to work harder, be better and never stop climbing.

For context: I did the 10 minute version of the Dream Lab meditation, which is an 8 minute meditation with 2 minutes of music to journal to at the end.

My dream, in this case, was an answer to a question I had about what to do about this thing in my business. My dream appeared as an intense sensation of ALIVENESS in my body. I didn’t understand how this helped me figure out my question, I just held it there and enjoyed the sensation of it.

At the end of the meditation, when I held out my hands, I was expecting nothing to happen but a “little me” appeared… it was like a Barbie doll, only it looked like me and it was ✨FULLY ALIVE✨. It felt amazing to put that into my heart and then I saw how cultivating more moments of feeing fully alive would answer all of the questions I went into the meditation with.

This is how it works.

The Dream Lab meditation helps you connect to your own soul and your dream (which is your soul showing you your path) and the place inside you where you believe in yourself…. it is an energy alchemy process to help move you deeper into all of that. So you can find answers from a richer place inside you.

You DO have everything you need, inside you, to make your dream happen.

But accessing all of that magic, power, healing, courage and creativity does take consistent work.

The right message will find you at the right time when you keep doing the work.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership 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.

A theme that keeps coming up for me is: I AM NOT DOING IT WRONG.

I have this pattern that wants to find fault with what I have done. Or this feeling I am just wrong. Like I don't know what I am doing and somehow everyone else does.

This is a little monster voice that needs tending to in the Un-Sticking Station.

And it's a deep rooted kind of thing that needs regular attention. Like, sometimes we want to say "Oh, I worked on that already. I healed that." but that's not how it works, and our unwillingness to look at what's actually going on inside us can create space for the thing to grow quite a bit before we notice it's a problem that needs tending to.

Healing and growth are non-linear.

Whatever you think "non-linear" to mean - imagine it is LESS linear.

Like a lot of people use the example of a spiral - but a spiral is still a line. Yes it's not a STRAIGHT line because it curves, but it still moves in a predictable, linear fashion.

Healing is more like fireworks. You really don't know where the next thing will happen.

So if your process looks like a mess: good news! You're not doing it wrong.

There is no way to do it wrong and there is no way to do it right.

There is only "engaging" or "not engaging"

Keep engaging, with both your dreams and your healing.

When you are engaging, things keep happening and as long as things are happening there is possibility.

ENGAGING is a way of making space for the magic to find you.

Some tools that can help: The Creative Dream Incubator Oracle (this gives you a random page, so ask for the thing that is right for you, right now), Journaling Kits can be a simple way to keep engaging, come to the coaching calls or watch the replays, or if you want something that is more specific to where you're at - send me an email and I'll help you find something.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership 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.

Every Monday in 2025 there will be a new journal prompt in the Year of Hope classroom in the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership.

​Get this week's journal prompt here.​

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Leave them in the comments at the bottom of that page so we can discuss this as a group. Practicing hope in community is MAGIC.

My Year of Hope journal was really quiet this week.

So for my photo, I flipped through older pages to find one I hadn't shared.

This is from the hope meditation, which still does feel REALLY POWERFUL to me, to intentionally hold hope in my body like that.

At first I was frustrated with myself for not keeping up with the Year of Hope this week.

Then I realized - the Year of Hope has ALREADY given me what I wanted from it. to feel more optimistic about my life, and be energized by that optimism. To feel more creatively ALIVE in my life, which I have been feeling.

And still... I want to keep this up.

So I will work on it this week. I deliberately am using a DAILY PLANNER for this project so that there is a page for every day waiting for me to fill. (Plus an extra page each week for extra notes)

BUT I am not being militant about needing to fill a page every day. Sometimes I get behind, then I will do a ton of journaling and catch up. So that's what I plan to do this week.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership 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.

What if I stop judging myself for being "too slow"?

I painted out this page while really sinking into the question.

WHAT IF?

This is connected to the question: What if I have the right brain for this stage of my life? (Addressing the anxiety, brain fog + low capacity that I have now, compared to how I was in my early 40s)

Experimenting with the idea that I DO have the right brain for this stage of life has been amazing. AND it's caused me to slow everything WAAAAAYYYYYY down.

Which lead to this question popping into my mind: What if I stop judging my pace as slow?

I mean, if I have the right brain for this stage of my life, and I am moving at a pace that meets my current capacity, then... it can't be slow, right?

What happens when I really allow this is magical.

Because "slow" and "fast" generally describe only Outer Work.

And where I am now is going WAY DEEPER into Dream Work and Inner Work.

Outer Work takes a back seat in terms of how I prioritize my time.

BUT

When I do get to it, the Outer Work is SO MUCH simpler.

In some ways, I feel frustrated with my past self for not seeing this sooner.

But I think the ratio of how much attention we pay to Dream Work, Inner Work and Outer Work is always shifting. AND I think I was probably in the right ratio for my life + dreams at the time.

It's just that I tried to keep that ratio when my self, life + dreams all changed and that wasn't working.

So now I feel so grateful to be in the ratio that feels right to where I am now.

If you are curious about exploring your ratio of Dream Work, Inner Work and Outer Work and what would best serve you and your dreams now - there are a few Creative Dream Alchemy classes here. And we can talk about it in the forum!

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership 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 image came to me in a meditation.

I am blossoming.

Not blooming.

Which feels cool, like FRUITING might be next?

I saw the image in my mind and went right to my desk to draw it out.

Related: my new dream is enjoying my life TODAY as deeply as I can

I had been struggling to really connect with any of my dreams and I sat with that... I felt like… enjoying my life TODAY as deeply as I can, can be the DREAM. Like the thing that feels dreamy and soul-aligned and swoon worthy. 

I keep re-arranging the plants in my bedroom. Looking for… what will absolutely fucking delight me to see when I open my eyes in the morning? 

I like having a dream as a thing to focus on that feeds my soul.

Not dreaming of anything feels really dull. And constantly dreaming bigger feels stupid.

This dream, right now, feels so rich.

And it feels like a dream that will lead to other dreams, but I’m in no hurry for that to happen.

We had a little conversation about this on a group call recently - how "enjoying my day" is SUCH a valid dream and how soothing that can feel.

I know it can feel like blossoming or blooming or anything good growing at all is impossible right now.

Feeling hopeless is 100% valid! (And if you're feeling it, get into the hopelessness alchemy meditation!)

AND

Blossoming, blooming and growing are still available to us.

A better future is still available to us.

But we have to show up for it. I think Dream Work is really vital right now. And whatever we have been doing - we need more.

By giving myself more space to meditate with the soul of my dream - I have improved my mental health in this chaotic time and I am enjoying my days a lot more. I am so grateful for this.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership 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.

You have the dream.

Then you either: 

know what to do about AND are able to do it

or

are stuck in some way

But surprise!

Both of these are actually…

CANS OF WORMS!

It doesn’t matter what is happening on the surface. The real work happens when you open the cans of worms. This is what will bring the healing, growth and magic.

But it will NOT look like what you think it will.

So try to be open to the surprise.

And be ready for worms to pop out of the can as soon as you open it. Expect the unexpected.

And don’t let that stop you from opening it.

If you know what to do next: go do it! OR, tools for more support: Creative Genius Planning Sessions, Dream Plan Kit, Creating Creative Momentum, Focus Pocus and check out our group coaching calls of more support.

If you don't know what to do next: use the Un-Sticking Station

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership 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.

Every Monday in 2025 there will be a new journal prompt in the Year of Hope classroom in the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership.

​Get this week's journal prompt here.​

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Leave them in the comments at the bottom of that page so we can discuss this as a group. Practicing hope in community is MAGIC.

I am GLOWING HOPE out into my life + the future.

This is from the hope alchemy meditation in the Year of Hope.

This kind of meditation, done consistently, DOES create changes.

WE NEED THOSE CHANGES RIGHT NOW.

We need to be grounded in hope, as in the opposite of despair.

One reason why this meditation feels so good and magical and helpful to me is because it feels ESSENTIAL.

These times are asking us to GROW.

It is SO easy to be filled with despair right now. This is an extremely valid response.

AND.

Learning to sit with the despair and bring light and healing to the places in us that need us help us connect with something deeper and truer and more powerful.

(The hopelessness alchemy meditation helps with this!)

Drawing this out in my Year of Hope journal felt AMAZING.

One of the dreams I am working on right now is: being the artist I know I am.

This started out being really focused on the inner process and not on the outer results.

I went through all of my old sketchbooks and found all the ones with un-used pages and just started filling them up. Not even a new sketchbook! Just wanting to fill pages and BE IN THE PROCESS with this.

Now, a few months in, it's even LESS about the outer results, lol.

But I did shift over to doing more drawing and painting in my Year of Hope and Dream Book journals. Still, just using old craft paints and not getting precious with any of it. Still - focusing on being in the experience of it.

The experience of painting this page helped me get more grounded in my experience in the meditation.

This feels like such a healing balm. Like exactly the healing balm I need now. Which really is what I wanted to get from the "BEING the artist I know I AM" dream. So I am counting this as a huge success!

And I want to do more of this for other meditations I use often - like Dream Lab, Un-Sticking Station, Dream Self.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership 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.

Another page from my Year of Hope journal:

Hope is a practice, not a destination.

I think I was reminding myself - it's fine to not feel hopeful.

It's not about being somewhere, emotionally.

It's about practicing.

Creative dreaming is a practice, too.

It's not all about getting to a specific destination in your life - though there is the thrill and joy of creating more of what you want in your life.

It's mostly about showing up and practicing... listening to yourself, listening to your soul, sitting with your feelings and thoughts and ideas, trusting your creativity... really it's the process of becoming who you are and this is a life-long pursuit.

Which means: You're doing great.

Parts of it are a mess. Parts are confusing and you can't even identify WHAT your dream actually IS. Parts of it you will fall flat on your face every step you take.

Parts of it are so amazing it's like they glue all the broken parts of your heart back together.

But it's not meant to all be smooth. It's not meant to be easy. Dominant culture tells us we're failing if we're struggling. It's not true. You are healing and growing.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership 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.