You can just lay down and cry. That counts as showing up too. [Dream Status Report]

By Andrea Schroeder / September 7, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

I am siting down to do my Dream Status Report for this week to check in with myself and my dreams and what I need and what my dreams need, for the coming week.

Doing this, consistently over time, IS MAGIC.... this is where your dream becomes REALITY. This is where you stop and notice: How am I showing up? Is this working for me? What else might be needed? This is where we figure things out!! There is so much we can learn by witnessing our own process.

AND... Consistency is hard for most of us these days! So - I try to do this on Sundays, and write about it, to remind you to also take a few minutes to check in with yourself and your dreams. Do this with me!!

I TRY to send these out every Sunday but of course I'll miss some. So - Hello Monday!

Last night I got out my journals to do a BIG Dream Status Report, BIG as in looking through both of my Dream Book 2026 journals and doing more reflecting. A LOT came on up Friday's Co-Dreaming call and I wanted to re-read and hang onto it.

It was raining and the forecast said a thunderstorm was on the way so I brought my journals up to my bedroom where I have a big space to lie down and do yoga beside the huge floor to ceiling window so I could watch the storm.

I didn't get very far in my reflections and didn't even look at the Dream Status Report prompts.

I started journaling furiously about how I'm feeling and how hard I have been trying to be well and how I am just not getting the help I need.

When I listed all the changes I have made and things I am doing to navigate all of the health stuff I am facing - that's when I started crying. It's just been so hard.

Which doesn't negate that so many good things are happening, both in my life and in my work...

But - in Creative Dream ALCHEMY - we've got to be with what shows up.

Laying down on the floor and crying is a perfectly fine way to do your Dream Status Report, if that's where the process takes you.

Because actually answering the Dream Status Report prompts really help guide me, I am going to do that today. But that doesn't negate that journaling + crying without answering the prompts was the right thing for me last night.

We talked about this on Friday's call- how we are always finding balance between BEING WITH what shows up (in this case, tears) and also holding onto our dreams, and also being accountable to ourselves AND our dreams. AND ALWAYS being gentle with ourselves in the process.

This is tricky, changing terrain!

But "staying positive" and pushing yourself to "keep moving forward" towards your dream WILL pull you out of the alchemy. Just like drowning in the sadness and believing the lies your inner citric says will pull you out of the alchemy.

The alchemy is REAL.

It's not a metaphor for what happens it IS what happens

Fears, doubts and obstacles do become alchemized into fuel for the journey and wisdom to guide you.

And gifts, ideas, inspiration do become alchemized too! They become more grounded, stable and sturdy enough to count on them.

The dream itself becomes more grounded, stable and sturdy so you can depend on it.

And of course this doesn't all happen from laying down and crying every time you feel like it.

It happens from showing up somewhat consistently, and doing all three parts of the work - the Dream Work and Inner Work alongside the Outer Work. (Those links go to the libraries of practices we have for each of the "works" in the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy - if you can't pick one, try the new Dream Self processes)

Meet yourself where you are. THEN move to where you want to be.

This is how the alchemy works. You do have to start from where you are, and if that's holding a bunch of un-cried tears, then cry the tears.

But we do it from within the context of the whole practice, so all the ways you show up come together to create a path.

Without the context of a practice... your experience will be more haphazard. It will be harder to get the results you want because you're not HELD in your process.

Everything I am doing in the membership is to HOLD your process so you get more out of your efforts.

Please reach out when you're not sure what to do with your dreams. I want to help!

Where are you this week? What's happening with your dreams? I'd love to hear your updates in the forum.

You can just lay down and cry. That counts as showing up too. [Dream Status Report] Read More »

Yikes! A creativity coach who has been creatively stuck for almost a year??? Shouldn’t I keep this quiet?

By Andrea Schroeder / September 4, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

This is so embarrassing, frustrating and freeing all at once.

I have spent all year trying to find my way into this new body of textile art that I want to make.

I have not found my way into it.

But I have been trying! I truly have been showing up! I have been:

experimenting with my ideas and making test pieces
sitting with the soul of my dream and trying to understand it - meditating and journaling with it
sitting with the very heavy sensation of doubt that I sometimes have about being able to pull this off
going in circles with my ideas
wresting with the self doubt and fear
practicing trusting myself
understanding who I am becoming as I make this art
stepping back, reflecting on the process, looking for what I can learn there
acting on ideas that seem not related but maybe are, like trying all the different paths that come up

I started this thinking that I would have maybe 1 month of all of that, and then find my way into a CREATIVE PRACTICE that was PRODUCING the kind of art I wanted to make.

Ha!

I am now going into my 9th month of doing all of that feeling more lost and frustrated that ever while also feeling increasingly embarrassed by my process.

A creativity coach spending a whole year being stuck? Shouldn’t I keep this to myself?

Except what my embarrassed self doesn’t understand is that I am not stuck, I am going deeper.

Nine months in, I am deeper than I have ever been. Of course I feel lost. I HAVE NEVER BEEN HERE BEFORE. There isn’t a way to get to a new place inside you without being lost. No one else can give you a map to YOUR magic, power and wisdom. You create the map by exploring.

Your dreams are not outside of you.

Your healing is not outside of you.

Your best art is not outside of you.

No one can ever show you YOUR WAY to do it.

Though we can hold space for each other to go deeper into the mystery of our own process, which is what I do in the Creative Dream Incubator Membership.

And I love what we are doing in there.

And I would be betraying the magic of it, to not tell the truth of my own process. Because the obstacle we are always pushing against is CULTURAL NORMS.

Culture tells us who gets to believe in their dreams and who better keep their dreams under wraps. Culture tells us that if you risk it all on a big dream and it doesn’t pay off - that makes you a loser. Culture tells you that you should be moving from one success to another or else give up. Culture tells you that building a dream is a linear process - heck culture tells you that HEALING is a linear process! Culture is always expecting you to conform in a million different ways.

Your dreams stay saying: stop contorting yourself into shapes that demean you.

I know who I am going to keep listening to. Even if I have to spend months on end exploring in the dark.

Also, actually some huge lights have started to turn on in the last few weeks, I know I am onto something here…

Co-Dreaming Co-Working Call Today

Co-Dreaming/Co-Working call is today! I hope to see you there!

We'll do a 40 minute meditation/journaling/alchemy process for connecting with the soul of your dream and finding out what it wants you to know NOW about where you're at. Then you can join the conversation as we will talk about what came up and talk about our dreams, or use the good energy we created together to work on your projects.

Call details are here. Replay will be there a few hours after we're done today.

AND...

I added a new call to the calendar -Dreaming WEIRDER is happening on Oct 1 in the membership - get the call details here.

Or if you're not a member - find out more + join us here.

Yikes! A creativity coach who has been creatively stuck for almost a year??? Shouldn’t I keep this quiet? Read More »

I am starting to really trust my own timing

By Andrea Schroeder / September 3, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

It’s raining outside, and I am inside, working on a raincoat.

I love this raincoat! The fabric is SO soft and silky, and I interfaced it with flannel instead of interfacing so it’s got such a soft cozy feel to it. And light as a feather… but the fabric is really hard to sew so I am taking it slow.

This rainbow is actually a test of this jacket pattern, I want to use it to make a pink puffer jacket. I did make a green parka 2 years ago, and it’s WARM in our Winnipeg winters. Like -50 C windchill and I am cozy in there! Which means it’s too hot for walking around in -20C, so I am making this lighter winter jacket because when I walk outside, at least an hour a day, all winter - I feel better.

My life-long dream of making ALL of my clothes has really been all about feeling better.

Having clothes that feel like me. Having clothes that fit me perfectly - physically and emotionally. Having the clothes that help me live how I want to live.

I’m sewing this afternoon because I am making some space for some new ideas to really LAND.

I’ve been in deep reflection with my work as work on a new program.

Sixteen years in with the Creative Dream Incubator, I am starting to understand what I am doing in a whole new light.

Also, sixteen years in - I feel more inspired than ever!

Also, sixteen years in - I spend more time doing other things while letting my ideas incubate instead of trying to push them. Like working on this raincoat.

I am starting to really trust my own timing.

Remember the Slow The Fuck Down!!! BE As Powerful, Magnetic + Creative As You ARE calls we did?

That teaching keeps teaching me.

(This is a good one to revisit once in a while! Get the replay here.)

I just added a new class to our calendar: Dreaming WEIRDER.

This idea came out of yesterday’s Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice call where we were talking about how really listening to ourselves and really trusting ourselves about how we put our work out there… means getting WEIRD with it! It means not doing things the way “everyone does them”.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the magic and power of our WEIRDEST dreams and how they help us embrace more of our wholeness.

I can't wait to explore this with you!

Dreaming WEIRDER is happening on Oct 1 in the membership - get the call details here.

Or if you're not a member - find out more + join us here.

I am starting to really trust my own timing Read More »

The way you market and sell your work can be a force for healing.

By Andrea Schroeder / September 1, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

The World Needs Your Magic

I’m working on a new program. It’s called YOUR CREATIVE DREAMER and it starts on Dec 21, on the solstice. A part of it includes strategic planning for how you’re going to show up for your dreams, and as I create those guides, I want to work with people who want more help with their dreams, so I will be sharing some parts of it in the membership this fall as I work on it.

I've been trying to write a post that explains what this new program is, and explains the support I want to offer this fall…

But every time I try to explain, in a way that you would be able to understand what I mean… I freeze.

I cannot pull the words out of me.

I can’t make these ideas make sense to anyone but me.

This is normal! As the person giving birth to a new idea, you are the only one who can see and understand it the way you do.

Finding the language to talk about it in such a way that the people your thing is for can understand it… that’s a different process from the process of creating the thing.

Putting it out there is a whole new creative process, a whole new growth process, a whole new alchemical process.

The work of putting it out there may actually be harder and take more time and effort than the work of creating the thing.

This can be a surprise! After the herculean hero’s journey of DOING THE THING, it can be surprising and disheartening to find out that there is a whole other hero’s journey ahead of you if you want anyone to actually engage with the thing you made. A whole other mountain to climb, when you just finished climbing one!!

I still remember reading marketing and business books in 2008-2009 and crying, it felt so painful to figure out how to even talk about my work. I had an office job, and on the side I had been doing spiritual counseling, healing and circles at a spiritual center on a volunteer basis, and I was was starting to create my own creativity workshops and starting to figure out - how can I put this out there in a bigger way?

I started Marking as a Creative + Spiritual Practice Calls as an experiment in the fall of 2024 - after 14 years of doing the Creative Dream Incubator as my full time work.

The experiment was to stop thinking of marketing and sales as being so "outer work focused" and go deeper into he spiritual practice of offering your gifts, and the creative practice of creating ways to do this that feel aligned and alive.

After that first call, I fell in love and have been doing them regularly in the membership ever since.

And it’s not an experiment anymore, it’s my whole way of doing things now.

I’ve learned so much from this practice, from going deeper into the work of shining the light of my gifts in such a way that the people that my work is for can receive it.

Our next Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice call is tomorrow, Sept 2.

This is a 45 minute meditation + journaling deep dive into how you are sharing your gifts with the people they are for and all of the relationships there… your relationship to your gifts and your relationship to the act of offering them more widely or more effectively… your relationship with the people your work is for, and their relationship with your work.

There is so much going on there in the inner relationships.

After these years of practicing marketing as a creative and spiritual practice, now I think it’s really unhelpful to focus on outer tactics instead of explore the inner relationships. Especially these days when algorithms change so fast and AI is everywhere…

It’s like what someone said on one of our first calls - “it’s just so exhausting to put my precious work out into such a toxic world”.

Indeed!

And, of course, sharing our heart/soul work with the world is one thing that helps to heal it.

Which can feel like a catch-22. Like you need to do the standard “business things” in order to succeed even if some of them insult your soul…

I don’t think it needs to be.

I mean yes we need to learn some business skills if we want to support ourselves sharing our gifts. But I also think we need to give a LOT more time and attention to exploring the inner relationships to help us find new seeds to plant and new ways to plant them.

So many strange and wonderful ideas have been shared on these calls as people explore how their unique gifts want to go out into the world in their unique way.

I think your precious heart/soul/creative work deserves better than “business as usual” especially in late stage capitalism!

I think the way you market and sell your work can be a force for healing.

And I think YOU are the only one who can create that path.

Yes we all have things to learn but in the end… THESE ARE YOUR GIFTS! YOU ARE HERE TO SHARE THEM IN YOUR WAY.

If you want to practice this with me, I’d love to see you there! It’s a 45 minute meditation then we usually talk about what came up for us in the meditation for another 45 minutes. The replay will be available later in the day.

This is deep work, it’s not always easy to look at all of this, hard stuff can come up. But this work can create real shifts that help you see your options in a new light.

(Members: get the call details here. If you're not a member, it's worth joining for this!)

The way you market and sell your work can be a force for healing. Read More »

Gaslighting is a terrible tool for Creative Dreaming [Dream Status Report]

By Andrea Schroeder / August 30, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

I am siting down to do my Dream Status Report for this week to check in with myself and my dreams and what I need and what my dreams need, for the coming week.

I've got another difficult week to reflect on and move on from.

As I sit down with my Dream Status Report, I'm noticing how much I don't really want to do it this week. I am just so IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MESS with so many things at once. I trust myself to work through it all and build the path that gets to where I want to be... that doesn't meant I don't get tired and overwhelmed along the way.

But doing this ANYWAY, the practices of reflection and intention and really just HOLDING ONTO YOUR DREAM IN THE STORM... this is the ONLY WAY to find your way through. Putting it down and waiting until it's easier really doesn't work.

BUT AT THE SAME TIME...

I am thinking about a friend who told me that there’s this change she wants to make in her life and she can’t make it while in her current job. So she’s been doing the much bigger work of making a career change, which puts off this change she wants to make until next year.

And some people have said to her “Just make the change while you’re in your job!”... as though she is lying to herself when she says “I can’t do it while I have this job.”

She’s not lying to herself. She knows herself and her life, better than anyone.

And yet - people will judge. People will say she’s not trying hard enough or doesn’t want it badly enough.

It's easy to internalize the judgements about "you are the only thing holding you back".

But the world is just more complicated than that.

And any time we tell ourselves, or anyone else, that you are the only thing holding yourself back, that is called GASLIGHTING.

Of course I’m not saying that no one ever says “Oh I can’t possible do what I want to do until ______” and then puts off their dreams forever when really they COULD have had their dream all along, they just weren’t ready to face their fears and do the thing.

OF COURSE we all hold back on our dreams and give our obstacles more weight than they deserve... sometimes.

But sometimes those times are actually really important parts of the inner healing process where we circle around our fears and shore up our courage.

Sometimes waiting IS the way forward.

No matter how good or bad your attitude is, the obstacles are real.

There are rarely quick, easy answers.

But when you really sit with yourself, consistently, and practice checking in about what you want and what you need, and try stuff in small ways, when you PRACTICE intention and PRACTICE healing and PRACTICE courage and creativity and believing in yourself.... you do figure it out.

You do find the place, somewhere in that messy grey area, where you find YOUR RIGHT WAY to do the things you want to be doing.

Sometimes you do have to wait. Sometimes you do have to take a risk. Sometimes you do need to be more honest with yourself. Sometimes you need to give yourself a break.

It is a LOT easier to know what you need when you are working with the ALCHEMY of dreams.

The Dream Work AND Inner Work alongside the Outer Work.

Because my friend I mentioned? She was only talking about the Outer Work.

There are a ton of things she can do, and is doing, when it comes to Dream Work and Inner Work.

The soul work of growing into this version of you who does the thing. The healing work of offering compassion and understanding to the parts of you who don't feel ready. The transformative work of composting fears and doubts that are no longer needed. The grief of having a thing you want to do and having it feel unattainable and the ways this has impacted your life. Sitting with all the shit that comes up when you contemplate making a change.

Because obstacles don't exist for Dream Work.

And doing Dream Work consistently opens up possibilities for Outer Work. REAL possibilities, not just "feel the fear and do it anyway" but you start to create REAL options for yourself to have more of what you want.

We see it ALL THE TIME in the membership.

You do NOT have to choose between gaslighting yourself into positive thinking or never having your dream.

You can TRUST YOURSELF to get there your way and in your time. It's not a race.

Where are you this week? What's happening with your dreams? I'd love to hear your updates in the forum.

Gaslighting is a terrible tool for Creative Dreaming [Dream Status Report] Read More »

The process is a mess

By Andrea Schroeder / August 28, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

I had this whole week devoted to working on a new program.

I got nothing done. If you’re only counting the outer work.

I sat with my feelings about it. How BIG the project feels and how SMALL I feel in comparison.

I sat with the ways my mind goes to fuzz at that moment where the rubber meets the road, when I sit down to actually DO THE THING.

I sat with all the parts of me who wanted to distract me from this mission.

I was also dealt a blow by life that took energy to recover from. I’d been waiting since early spring to see a specialist about a medical treatment and finally saw her, only to be dismissed and prescribed something I don’t want to take.

But mostly I was just in all of my feelings and resistance about this project.

I also got to know the soul of this work in a new way.

Which gave me new ideas for how to approach it.

And then I had a lot of thoughts about how the creative process changes as we age and how interesting that is.

And a lot of thoughts about how my creative process changes the more I try to decolonize my work. How slowing down helps me more faster but I am still in the “no…. slow down MORE…” part.

So, as I start this last day of this week of “really getting started on this thing” and still have no tangible work to show for it … what I feel called to do is sit on the floor with art supplies and see what comes of that.

I share my process while I am in it, before I know whether or not it’s going to pay off, because I don’t want anyone to feel alone in how messy and difficult it is to build your dreams. I even built a whole online membership full of classes and support for being in the nitty gritty of showing up, day after day, to build your dream.

If you're in the membership and have questions about your next steps - post in the forum! Let's talk about it!

The process is a mess Read More »

There is no right way to do this [Dream Status Report]

By Andrea Schroeder / August 23, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

I am siting down to do my Dream Status Report for this week to check in with myself and my dreams and what I need and what my dreams need, for the coming week.

I had a HARD week on a lot of levels, and I am having a hard time with the prompts this morning.

And then I realised that I was trying to do the prompts “right” instead of “honest”!!!

There is no “right” way, of course. But the more honest we can be with ourselves, the better. When I remembered that, I knew the most relevant question for me this week is: HOW DO I FEEL ABOUT WHERE I AM?

With so much going on in the world it makes sense that we continue to need more time to just… sit with our feelings about it all.

I feel tired, worn out, etc. Feeling the WEIGHT of trying to stay hopeful.

It was good to write it out but I it didn't help me feel better...

AND THEN I realised… I forgot about the meditation that goes with these journal prompts.

I have so much, too much, happening. Of course I forget things!

But once I did the meditation, everything shifted. I came back to myself. I still had a lot of space to feel my feelings about everything… AND… I found my creative power and magic.

Which is just such a good reminder - we need to give ourselves the time and space we need to connect with ourselves, our souls, our creativity, our magic. This is so important right now.

How my dream showed up was so beautiful and healing.

First - I was like “Oh wait, which dream do I want to call in?”

Then my Big Dream I’ve been working with for a while came in, only to kind of usher in this new dream… which flew in because it’s a PEGASUS!

This week, coming up, is a BIG ONE.

I have the whole week blocked off for a DEEP DIVE into a new project (now represented by the pegasus) creating a new program.

I am SO excited about this. I am SO grateful I started making more art last week because I feel like my creativity is “flowing better” and I am ready to take some big steps with this project.

I feel like my work is a unicorn, you know? The magic of creative dreaming. And this new project - yes it’s a PEGASUS. It’s got WINGS. It can FLY. It’s more about movement and momentum… while staying tapped into the magic. The unicorn and the pegasus are friends.

But I'm doing all of this is less than ideal situation, I am super distracted from emails while I am planning something with my parents and yet... I am doing it!

That's the thing about CONSISTENTLY doing this kind of check-in. Some weeks it's kind of a shit show. That's OK! As long as we keep showing up, we'll find the support we need!

So I want to encourage you to do your weekly check in! Reflect on how things are going and how you're feeling about it and what you are learning and what you need next. Doing this consistently every week over time MAKES IT EASIER TO SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING AND FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU NEED NEXT. This is the work that helps clarify your path.

As I said, I have a big week this week! I'll be focused on my new project.

So - I might write here less. Or I might write more! Sometimes writing, and sharing my writing, helps me find my way. Sometimes I need to keep quiet.

(But I will be checking emails and the forum so if you need some help figuring out your next steps - I'm here!)

Where are you this week? What's happening with your dreams? I'd love to hear your updates in the forum.

There is no right way to do this [Dream Status Report] Read More »

Andrea: 2 Inner Critic: 0

By Andrea Schroeder / August 21, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

This is what healing looks like

This week TWO DAYS IN A ROW I made art when I felt blegh.

This is something I have been trying to do for so long!!!!!

I tend to make stuff when I feel good.

I tend to journal when I feel stuck.

I’ve done a lot of journaling this year, lol! And that’s good - being stuck is good IF you are working with it because there is so much to learn in those places.

But my explorations have told that I should MAKE SOME ART when I feel stuck. I like this idea, and I had some ideas for things to make…

But each time I felt blech and thought about starting those projects my inner critic was all…

Why bother?

Like really though?

WHY? This project is just a tiny drop in the bucket of all the art you want to be making, it’s so insignificant, why bother?

And this heaviness would descend on me.

And I would agree… yeah, why bother?

I know that somewhere inside me a wiser part of me was like WTF? Girl go make the art! But I have not been feeling well and it’s so just been so easy to let the inner critic and the heaviness win.

I have a new body of work I want to create, a new direction I want to go in with my art.

I see where I want to be, creatively. But I feel far away from it.

I do have a MOUNTAIN of creative ideas but no one idea can actually get me to this new place that I want to be in.

I’ve coached a lot of people through this terrain, I know the only answer is to MAKE MORE ART and then KEEP MAKING IT and FOLLOW YOUR ART and it will get you there. OF COURSE no one idea gets you all the way there! Each idea is a step along the way!

But I am over here judging some ideas as “too insignificant” to count as a step which is what is making it so easy for my inner critic to take over.

And it’s wild to notice myself doing that when I have help SO MANY PEOPLE to NOT do that.

In my mentoring work I feel like a broken record of reminding people to take smaller steps more often and DO NOT wait to feel ready for a bigger step because that is a dream killer.

Which just goes to show how it doesn’t matter what you KNOW. Understanding how healing, growth and creativity work is not the same as giving yourself over to the process.

And at the same time… GETTING STUCK IS GOOD!!!!

Being in the muck is good. You learn so much here, so much healing and growth happens… so much that you don’t notice it while you’re in it, but you will see it later, once you get going again. This inner work needs to happen BEFORE the outer work is possible - this is how you GROW your self so you can grow your work.

But this week, TWO DAYS IN A ROW actually, I made art when I felt stuck.

The inner critic could not stop me. I am so glad to finally be here!!

The first day I carved a linoleum eye, which I want to print onto a t-shirt to cover a stain… but also to add to my library of linoleum carvings for printing different things.

The second day I made papier-mâché jewels for a project for my home. The jewels really don’t feel like they fit in with my “new body of work” in any way except… surrounding myself with more things I made can only help!

And I feel inspired about them and following inspiration is the way to create the path.

Both times it felt AMAZING to make stuff when I was feeling blegh.

To sit with that energy in a different way. To MOVE that energy in a different way.

Carving and linoleum and smoothing the newspaper over the shapes - both felt soothing the way the act of embroidery feels soothing to me. My hands were meant for making!

I feel like this is a big part of becoming my post-menopausal self.

When I was younger I mostly made art when I felt good and inspired. What if, as I age, I make art MORE OFTEN because I make it when I have low energy as well as when I feel good and inspired?

Also, as expected, the act of making did soothe the "blegh" and I feel a lot better now.

This is especially great to experience during a health flare-up that makes exercise harder to do - exercise used to be the way I would move that energy and help myself feel better and it's taken a while to find a alternative for that! I actually feel like making more art more often could give me the energy to get the exercise I want! I will keep experimenting.

If you are stuck now:

USE the Un-stiicking Station! Remember there is even a whole meditation to use if you are too upset to do inner work.

The idea to "make art when I feel blegh" came out of Un-Sticking meditations.

If, like me, you're been doing Inner Work and getting ideas for what to do but having a hard time acting on those ideas... remember that it is SO BRAVE AND AMAZING to stay in the process. It's not a race to move through it as fast as possible. You're not failing to act on your inner wisdom, you are IN PROCESS.

Co-Dreaming/Co-Working is today!

We'll start with a longer meditation for connecting with the soul of your dream to receive the message/healing/insight/idea that your dream wants to send you now.

This will create a lovely atmosphere for co-working, to start with the meditation and then leave the audio on or off, and do your thing within the bubble of the magic we create together in the meditation.

And we can talk about what comes up in the meditation and look at how we can really receive and act on the messages/ideas/healing/shifts we receive in the meditation.

Get the call details here. The replay will be on that page a few hours after we're done.

Andrea: 2 Inner Critic: 0 Read More »

I’ve been really sick this year.

By Andrea Schroeder / August 19, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

I’ve been really sick this year.

There are so many things I have not been able to do... AND I feel so deeply engaged with my work.

I would have thought a long illness would make my work more difficult but it hasn’t. It’s made it BETTER. I feel so much more deeply aligned with the magic and power of the Creative Dream Incubator.

It turns out, not being able to participate in life the way I usually do has given me so much QUIET SPACE… for reflecting and growth. Like I finally have ENOUGH time/space to THINK!

So I’ve been thinking about artists and writers who create amazing inspiring even world-changing art while being mentally ill, chronically ill or disabled.

There’s a lot to be said about how we treat ill and disabled people in this culture, and how a lot of disabilities aren’t really limiting people, it’s THE WORLD BEING DESIGNED FOR ABLEDS that limits them.

Like how we use steps everywhere when we could have planned our cities to work for people in wheelchairs. An inability to walk doesn’t have to limit your life - living in a world that’s not designed for your abilities limits you.

I’ve also been thinking about my time in new age/healing spaces and how often I was fat shamed, how people would so earnestly share with me that they believed I could lose weight and “be healed”… when I wasn’t sick or bothered by my weight. Like - I never mentioned it! THEY brought it up as a thing I SHOULD be working on healing because their definition of HEALED couldn’t include any FAT at all.

Wellness culture is sick.

Most, not all but MOST, of the healing and wellness spaces, all the way from licensed therapists to the wooest of the woo healers, operate from within dominant culture and it’s values. So they are operating on a definition of HEALED that is really off.

Yesterday I wrote about how you can dream from different parts of you… how it’s actually kind of easy to NOT be connecting with your most authentic dreams… but how working with the dreams you have does help you move towards hearing your deeper dreams.

This is related: Which part of you is defining what HEALING and HEALED means?

I was lucky to be able to find a therapist who is rooted in a decolonial, intersectional, non-oppressive worldview. So when I was caught in un-helpful definitions of my own healing, she could say things to me like “Andrea, are you expecting that one day you’ll be so healed that you’ll be able to (do the thing that other people or the culture in general expect from me that I honestly don’t have the capacity for)?? Could it be that real healing would look like honouring and respecting your actual capacity?”

There are so many places where we JUDGE ourselves for not measuring up to dominant culture’s standards instead of CELEBRATE ourselves for having the strength and courage to BE our unique self.

There are so many places where HEALING is used as a tool to help us cope with the injustices of the world so we can conform to who and how the world tells us to be.

The truth is, your most healed and authentic self might not “measure up” to what the world around you expects.

After all, it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society!

I believe your most HEALED self is your most CREATIVE self and our most creative selves, together, can CREATE a much better world that honours everyone’s unique ways of being.

I believe this is what our creative dreams are leading us towards.

So let’s keep dreaming!

And keep thinking: Where do your definitions of HEALING and HEALED come from and do they truly serve you?

I’ve been really sick this year. Read More »

All of your parts are dreaming of different things

By Andrea Schroeder / August 18, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

Are you aware of which part of you you are dreaming from?

You can dream from pure ego. You can dream of winning capitalism.

You can dream from the part of you that conforms to dominant culture. You can dream of external approval and acceptance.

You can dream from the part of you who rebels against everything the world wants you to be.

You can dream from the part of you who desperately wants you to feel safe in a chaotic world.

There are so many parts of you and each of them have their own dreams.

None of those dreams will get you to what you REALLY want.

The dreams that really HIT… the dreams that HEAL YOU ALONG THE WAY… those are the dreams that come from your soul.

In my work, I always say that your dream is how your soul shows you your path...

I speak as though all of our dreams come our soul...

I say this even though I know it’s not true!

I say this to HOLD SPACE for the process of you finding the soul dreams even when you pursue the other dreams.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the other dreams. And some of them ARE things you genuinely do want to create in your life! Some of them are important stepping stones.

They're not WRONG, they're just not THE BIG THING THAT YOU ARE HERE TO DO.

And the dream that’s calling you is ALWAYS the one to work with!

So I’m not judging the other dreams…

We also dream from INSIDE the culture we live in, and our culture is so fucked up and impacts us and our dreams in so many ways…

So really listening to ourselves and hearing our deepest dreams is a process.

And as you grow and heal, you make space to see your deeper soul dreams.

No dream is ever wrong but a lot of dreams that we think are THE THING end up being a stepping stone to something even better.

Stay open!

This is why it's so important to work with the SOUL of your dream and not focus on the external outcomes so much.

This is what I share in the Dream Lab class and practice. There is no end to how DEEP you can go with the soul of your dream.

All of your parts are dreaming of different things Read More »

This one gets so WEIRD but it’s actually GENIUS [Dream Status Report]

By Andrea Schroeder / August 16, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

I am siting down to do my Dream Status Report for this week to check in with myself and my dreams and what I need and what my dreams need, for the coming week.

This one is a little long and it gets WEIRD but it’s actually GENIUS the way it all comes together in the end.

What happens when you really go into the ALCHEMY of being with your thoughts and feelings as you sort through your next steps… often gets WEIRD. It hits is a really emotional/spiritual place where only YOU understand the message from YOUR dream.

So I don’t share this thinking you will understand what I mean about what my dream is telling me, I share it to be the change I want to see in the world, and to remind you to go DEEPER into your inner process with your dream instead of always trying to move FASTER in the outer process… because that is actually what gets you there faster.

Starting with a bow of gratitude to past me who made the Dream Status Report Meditation to go with these journal prompts!

I am all over the place this morning, this meditation really helped me settle and focus and be able to do this.

(If you want to go deeper into it, you could also use the replay from the last Co-Dreaming call to get the 40 minute alchemy process for reflecting on your week and receiving the message/insight/healing that your dream has for you now - and we’ll do that again this Friday!)

For a very long time I have believed that we need alchemy meditation + journaling together to be able to create real, grounded, lasting change in our lives… but these days I feel like we need alchemy meditation + journaling together just to navigate these times!

The more often you do these, the more you develop your relationship with the Field of Creative Dream Alchemy which is a way of deepening your relationship with the place inside you where you always believe in yourself, always believe in your dreams and always trust yourself to know what to do next.

Once in a while I see someone on social media sharing something along the lines of “Hey guys we can just shift into a better timeline! Just be positive! Be nice! Have fun! Let’s do this!”

And it’s like… if you have the ability to “just be positive” and then none of this dystopia will affect you… that’s not spiritual growth, that’s priviledge and luck.

And also, I don’t know who said this, but the best definition of how climate change/collapse is happening is by watching weather events with increasing intensity, happening more often, through the screen on your device, until they are happening in front of you.

Your positive thoughts won’t change that.

Your positive/hopeful thoughts combined with thoughtful action supporting the people who have been in the fight for a better future for decades… that’s where the magic happens.

We need to go deeper.

So when I talk about that place inside you where you always believe in yourself and always believe in your dreams… this is not spiritual bypassing. I am talking about going deeper inner work to be able to access this. This is what everything in the Creative Dream Incubator is set up to help you do.

You have creative and spiritual gifts that are meant for these times… because you are here now.

Everything about how dominant culture tells us how to live severs us from those gifts.

So the work of creative dreaming gets so complicated as we have to un-learn a lot to be able to re-learn (re-lean as in “we were born knowing”) how to connect with our gifts and BE who we really ARE.

One you have that, the work of building your dream is so much more straightforward.

This came up on a recent call so I want to mention it… a few years ago I did a class called Slow The Fuck Down! BE As Powerful, Creative and Magnetic as you ARE! and that replay is worth revisiting once in a while! The work of slowing down is surprisingly complicated and magical.

In the meditation, my dream shows up as… At least 6 women on water skies doing tricks like standing on each other in a pyramid formation (on water skies! Attached to a speed boat!!!)

Looking more closely, there are 10 women. In sparking bodysuits. In a pyramid. Flying across the water.

This is amazing!!!!

Also I know this lake… it’s the only lake I ever water skied in, as a child. The lake that my dad’s best friend had a cottage on. He passed away this summer.

But I am remembering… wow this is so relevant in light of what I shared about how dominant culture severs us from our gifts and shows us how to live disconnected…. going to their cottage every summer and being so IN AWE of these people who were really rich and had all these fancy things.

I am remembering my child self excited about being able to try water skiing and also the process of learning to discover what is right for me instead of doing what other people are doing... in all honestly I am not a water ski person. I am a swimmer. I prefer my lakes without speed boats flying around.

So thinking back to my dream… it was that vision of the 10 women in sparkling bodysuits water skiing in a pyramid.... I am noticing that place where the ropes they were holding attached to the boat.

And that place - all 10 ropes coming together attaching to the boat, was two things at once. It was also a hand (my hand!!) holding onto the handle of a kite, with 10 ropes leading to 10 different (huge!) kites.

Which feels in tune with a common theme of creative dreaming…. I feel small, my dream feels big...

And these dreams (kites) are so big but this time, right now, I feel like I can handle it because of the ropes all being attached to one handle.

Because the wind is helping to hold up the kites.

Also there is a “magic vibe” around the bodysuits sparkling in the sun.

It feels like… yes there is a LOT going on here. Yes lots of project at once! I can’t really handle them on my own, I do need the wind to help keep them all in the air, I do need to rely a bit on magic.

BUT

I AM holding it all. The kites ARE in the air.

Compared to times when I have felt so insignificantly small in comparison to my big dreams that I could HOLD THEM.

I can hold them!

I have a handle that allows me to hold them with one hand. It feels like I BUILT THIS HANDLE TO HELP ME HOLD THEM BETTER.

And then I realise…

I kind of feel like a woman in a sparkling bodysuit at the top of a pyramid flying across the water in the sunshine.

It’s so magical and amazing and freeing… just the joy of being in the moment...

Sure I could fall..

But I’d land in the water and I love the water.

Wow. OK. Taking that energy into my journal prompts…

I do feel like I have “too much” on the go right now but my dream is showing me that it’s ok, I’ve got it.

That “handle” with all the ropes attached to it is my project management app, lol. But it’s also the two Dream Books I am doing, and the Dream Book 2026 to hold space for myself and all the ways that work informs how I am planning in the project management app and implementing those plans and checking in with my process and learning as I go.

Again. WOW. That meditation totally changed how I see where I am.

I had this idea about a thing I could try this week, and it kind of matches the energy of the pyramid of water skiers in sparkling bodysuits, so I am going to do it.

I am in so many processes with so many projects that sometimes I get overwhelmed... but this meditation reminds me that I can trust that I am holding them all at once. And I am!

I did a lot of journaling today and this was where I ended:

I am moving DEEPER into the inner process of my work instead of trying to move FASTER with the outer process. There is so much magic and healing here. I love that I am moving so slow, so I can experience it all.

And I made a list of things to focus on this week - for my work and for my self care and for my art.

And I want to focus on that sensation of feeling like the woman in the sparkling bodysuit at the top of the pyramid flying across the water and trusting the magic of it.

Where are you this week? I'd love to hear you updates in the forum.

This one gets so WEIRD but it’s actually GENIUS [Dream Status Report] Read More »

The intersection of healing + creativity inside a dystopia

By Andrea Schroeder / August 14, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

Two new things I learned about doomscrolling this week:

The first is that I scroll more often in the afternoons... simply because my brain needs a break! I may feel inspired and want to get a few things done, but my brain is just not up to it.

So the doom-scroll is a signal to TAKE A BREAK. If I keep trying to get the work done then, I will keep “ending up” scrolling on social media. AND if I keep doing that for any significant amount of time in the afternoon… I’m going to keep reaching for screens in the evening, too. If I scroll in the evening, it’s harder to get to sleep.

By using the anti-doomscroll meditation to pull my energy back and use it to FEED AND NOURISH MYSELF, and to learn more about what I really need when I go scrolling, I save the whole rest of my day AND my sleep!

That's great! Is that information ALWAYS enough to get me to stop? Not so far! But that’s why this is a PRACTICE.

The other thing is that… some of my health problems are exasperated in the heat, and this has been the hottest summer of my life (so far!) and...

It has taken SO MUCH time and energy to deal with this...

It’s only now that it’s cooled off a little this week that I can see how much being in my own personal distress distracts me from the distress we’re all in together.

But just because my conscious attention is focused on figuring out how to manage these symptoms (10 days now until I see the specialist I’ve been waiting to see!) it DOES NOT MEAN that the stress of the world isn’t impacting me.

It just means I am less aware of it because I am focused elsewhere.

So… the distress of my own health problems was quickly replaced with the distress of the state of the world around me.

And it’s a lot to sit with. But the only options are to sit with it or distract ourselves.

And sitting with it helps us process it helps us see HOW we want to BE in all of this.

So… I am using the Hello Day meditations to give me space to do that.

And using the Anti-Doomscroll Kit as needed.

Recently someone mentioned they are using the Year of Hope prompts for making art! That feels like such a great way to explore how to hold onto hope in these times.

The more I think about it the more it feels like all of these big, painful creative blocks I have been experiencing this year are because of how important it is that we keep dreaming, keep creating, keep practicing hope, keep looking for how to create a better future for everyone.

It’s the job of the artist to hold up a mirror to society and to CREATE culture.

I feel so deeply called to this mission.

Of course this riles up the self doubt and inner critics.

And of course I will keep working through the muck and finding ways to make the art I am called to make.

This year I’ve put so much thought into my structures, habits + routines… feeling like this new phase of life I am in needs new structure! Which is true.

But I wasn’t fully noticing how this new phase of dystopia in the outer world ALSO needs us to revisit our routines, habits and structures while we also revisit our dreams and callings about how to respond.

Our dreams are our creative and spiritual response to the world around us.

As the world changes, our dream may change.

I think the dystopia is calling the artists, healers, helpers, visionaries and dreamers to step it up.

Not to work HARDER or dream BIGGER but listen more deeply.

The intersection of healing + creativity inside a dystopia Read More »

When the path breaks your heart

By Andrea Schroeder / August 12, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

*Photo of a still-fresh-in-the-plastic-wrap Leuchtterm 1917 notebook I pulled out of my shelf this morning to start my new Dream Book.*

I felt so messy and chaotic yesterday, and so stuck with my dreams...

And today I know why!

The answer is so obvious it's silly, now that I see it.

I need a new Dream Book for this dream.

I always say this to people when they get tangled up with multiple dreams - if you have more than one dream you are working with, you need more than one Dream Book.

Dream Book is where you get into the nitty gritty of the Inner Work, Dream Work and Outer Work of the dream, this is where you get into the details of it so you do need a different Dream Book for each dream.

You can move veerrrrrrrryyyyy slooooooow with Dream Book, just have a book for each dream so you are holding space for the process.

And here I am, for some reason, dreaming without a Dream Book!!

So OF COURSE I get tangled. OF COURSE I can't tell if I need Inner Work or Outer Work. OF COURSE I don't even know how to start the Outer Work...

So now it's simple. I am going to give this dream 1-2 hours a day. Either DO THE THING... OR... work on the Dream Book to learn more about it.

I am SO excited.

This is the dream of making a whole new body of work in visual/textile art... I see the big picture of it, like what it could be in 10 years, but all year I have struggled to find my way into the practice of it. Everything I do feels too small or insignificant in comparison to where I want this to go.

This is CLASSIC "looking too far ahead to be able to take steps where you are".

We want to KNOW the big picture of what we want - of course!

But then we have to FOCUS on the small steps that are immediately doable.

We have to put ourselves into the process and then stay in it long enough to get to that end. But being in process, especially being at the beginning of the process, doesn't necessarily look anything like the Big Picture Dream. It's easy to get tripped up there.

It's easy to have all sorts of feelings about how insignificant the little steps feel in comparison to the Big Picture Dream.

But if you don't take those steps because you have too many feelings about them being insignificant... then you're not getting any closer.

It's like we think if we wait, eventually a train will come and ZOOOOOM us all the way there.

That's not going to happen.

It's the steps-so-small-they-feel-insignificant that get us there.

I've made so much insignificant art this year.

I am calling them experiments.

Each one is so far away from where I want this art to be.

It's breaking my heart to be so far away from where I want to be. And my broken heart doesn't want to make more insignificant art.

AND YET

The REAL heartbreak would be to give up because it's uncomfortable.

The next ten years is going to go by no matter what I do.

I can either keep making insignificant art and see if I can grow it into a creative practice that creates the work I can dreaming of...

Or I can still be stepping in and then stepping back when it gets uncomfortable, not committing, waiting for it to not break my heart, and not be any further ahead.

I know what I choose.

When the path breaks your heart Read More »

When trying to do something new lands you DEEP in the Inner Work

By Andrea Schroeder / August 11, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

I share this to normalize that... this is the work. Experiencing BIG CHAOTIC MESSY FEELINGS is a part of the process.

Because your dream will always ask you to do the Inner Work that needs doing... and this is the way in.

And culturally we are taught to avoid the feels at all costs and this keeps us separated from our healing and from our dreams. It keeps us disconnected from our selves and our souls.

So. We had our New Moon Intention Setting ritual yesterday on Zoom (replay is here) and I left with such a solid plan for how to move forward.

I went to bed last night EXCITED to implement this new plan this morning.

And this morning I could not do the thing. At all. Trying to make myself do it gave me a panic attack.

I tried to hold back the tears. I looked for a way to somehow pave over all of this inner chaos and feel how I want to feel and do what I want to do.

AND I knew that wasn't an option.

I decided to honour what I was feeling and make feeling it and being with it my new plan for the morning.

I have this big piece of thick forest green fun fur that I use as a rug. I spread it out on the floor. I made some coffee, toasted a bagel, and I got out my GRIEF ANGER RAGE HOPE 2026 Sketchbook and sat down for an Inner Work Picnic.

I wrote my feelings in paint. I drew a little diagram of how fucked up everything seemed. Even though everything in me wanted to run away from how I was feeling I slowly went deeper into the feeling.

I tried to breathe deep, to make space in my body for all that I was feeling.

I had my laptop with me so I could listen to Un-Sticking meditations (the For When You're Too Upset To Do This) is ideal for this situation.

I looked for ways to offer love, support and healing to the parts of me who were upset.

I felt lost about how to do that so I reminded myself that BEING WITH a thing can transform it. This is the alchemy.

And - it's 11am now. I feel much better.

Have I resolved anything?

Not really.

But I moved through the big feelings of it and I feel calm now.

And I have a new set of questions to sit with.

This is what it means to be IN PROCESS.

When trying to do something new lands you DEEP in the Inner Work Read More »

The magic of letting yourself be in process [Dream Status Report]

By Andrea Schroeder / August 9, 2026 / daily practice, Manifest Your Dream Life

I am siting down to do my Dream Status Report for this week to check in with myself and my dreams and what I need and what my dreams need, for the coming week.

My meditation was pretty trippy and I don’t understand what was happening with the soul of my dream.

It kind of… bowed to me? It felt like reverence but then also half of it just kind of… laid down? Rest and reverence?

I am reminding myself that I don’t need to understand. Creative + Spiritual growth are not linear or logical.

Just stay in the process.

I had a REALLY hard time doing the Dream Status Report questions this week. After sitting with this a while and doing my best with the prompts... that “half lying down, partly bowing in reverence” thing starts to make sense.

That’s the vibe!

Depleted but respecting the process.

lol!

I got such good info from the soul of my dream on our Co-Dreaming session on Friday AND the last few weeks a lot of ideas have come together for me and there is so much I want to do with all of that AND I have been acting on it.. BUT…

I am noticing how, in the past, I used to ACT FASTER in terms of the Outer Work.

These days that’s not possible. That’s partly my health problems but it’s also… I am taking more space for the mental and emotional integration.

I am ROOTING IN to creativity and soul in new ways and this isn’t work that my logical/linear mind is ever going to understand.

Which ties in to some conversations we've had on calls recently about the incredible magic of SLOWING THE FUCK DOWN (which, of course, is slower and more dramatic than just SLOWING DOWN).

How there is so much we miss when we move too fast.

And how we don't have an accurate understand of speed... of what is "too fast" and what is "too slow" because we live in a culture that is always pushing for more more more more more.

So there is so much discomfort, on so many levels, in slowing down.

And there is so much we can't see, understand or experience when we move too fast... and dominant culture tries to keep us moving too fast for our whole lives.

I feel I am becoming a more creative and magical and powerful version of myself than I have ever been and that this looks nothing like what I thought it would.

All the places where we decide what our growth “should” look like… are actually places where we limit our growth. Your possibilities are bigger than what you can see…

And that doesn’t mean MORE MORE MORE MORE in the ways that dominant culture defines “bigger”.

It means more SOUL RICHNESS and FULFILMENT.

I think am learning a new level of what it means to “trust the process”

I am in the discomfort of NOT focusing so much on the Outer Work and giving the Dream Work and Inner Work more space. It's one thing to talk about this or understand it mentally.. it's another to experience it. And another to keep going deeper into it.

Your dreams are always calling you deeper into the process because that brings you deeper into yourself, your creativity and your soul and THAT is where you find what you need to fuel your next steps.

So... depleted but in reverence of the process. Yes that's where I am.

Where are you this week? I'd love to hear you updates in the forum.

The magic of letting yourself be in process [Dream Status Report] Read More »