This is the Be The Change section of my blog, where I talk about creating a world that nurtures everyone's dreams, and explore the intersections of colonialism, the patriarchy and white supremacy in the New Age movement/Live Your Best Life Industry.
My biggest dream was always to be creatively self employed in a way that felt TRUE, in alignment with my values and my soul. The Creative Dream Incubator has been that dream come true for the last thirteen years and I’m grateful for it every day.
I’ve been reflecting on the last 13 years and a lot of my reflections become rants about how the industry has changed.
But actually it’s me that’s changed.
Our dreams are sacred. They come from the part of us who wants to help us heal and grow.
So, following your dreams will heal you and grow you. Which will change you.
And I have changed.
It's fascinating to me how we always think we know how we'll change as we heal and grow - but then we surprise ourselves. So I am surprising myself.
I keep writing, deleting and re-writing this post.
There are so many different things I could say about this and I have no clue which of those things I want to say.
I think back to myself 13 years ago making this choice and feel so much gratitude for my younger self. All of her determination, courage and hard work have made my life so much better. I do cry thinking about it.
✨Thirteen years in, I believe this more than ever: Our dreams are our most sacred selves showing us the way✨
There is a mystery to creative dreaming. And as I grow with this work, I become more open to that mystery.
And I am thrilled to keep doing this work this year.
If you're not in Dream Book - join us here.
Dream Book 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.
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 started blogging and sharing my work online around 2008. I turned that into a full time business in 2010.
It was easier then. There is no question about that.
There were enough people blogging and being on social media that there were opportunities for online business… but not so many people that it was hard to be seen in the crowd.
And the algorithms were just babies then. Not the full grown monsters they are today. I could go on and on about that so I’ll just say that I feel pretty UGH about social media a lot of the time…
But this is a place where people connect. This is a place where ideas are shared and your ideas deserve to be a part of the conversation.
Your voice deserves to be heard. Your ideas matter. Your work is important.
If you just stop sharing them in these places… that’s no good. It means these places become even more filled with even more of the inane nonsense that the algorithm likes to uplift.
+++++
I am offering Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual practice as a monthly call for this for all of 2023. Together, we are practicing listening to our deepest inspiration about how to put ourselves out there in a way that serves the soul of our work.
This is available to all members of Dream Book. Join us here.
When I finished university with a degree in fashion design and started my career as a textile artist, what I really wanted to do was make things that made people believe in themselves, and their dreams.
Partially because I was desperate to believe in myself and my dreams.
Partially because there were times when I DID believe in myself and my dreams and when I had this feeling, it was everything, and I wanted to share it.
I had a lot of passion and desire as well as creative skills and talent.
I did not have ANY sense of how to make my dreams work in a practical, financial way. Nor did I have any support, mentors or role models for that.
But I didn't give up. I followed my dreams on a weird and winding road (which includes becoming an accredited spiritual teacher and having my clients refer to me as their "life coach" and not knowing what that meant) until I was 36, which is when I quit my last job (in 2010/2011) and made the Creative Dream Incubator my full time job and dream come true.
Even through a worldwide pandemic, inflation and late-stage capitalism, my business has been stable. I'm so happy that these days my dreams DO work in a very practical and financial way.
And I do want this for everyone.
I spent the first 10 years of my career with the Creative Dream Incubator working very closely with people and developing as many programs as I could. Then I took everything I learned about WHAT ACTUALLY WORKS and put it into one thing: Dream Book.
Dream Book is a sturdy container for growing your dreams. It offers support and guidance while holding your own intuition in the driver's seat. Because all of your answers are in YOU, but most of us do need support and space-holding to FIND those answers - and then to summon the courage to act on that inner knowing.
Dream Book is what I needed 26 years ago as a starving artist. And it's what I still need, and use, every day as I continue to explore, heal, grow and create.
I just walked 30 minutes to one of my favourite coffee shops.
It's a bakery with a wood fired oven, so it's toasty warm in here all winter, and smells amazing. Off to the side is a little coffee shop with windows along both walls letting in so much sun, and the whole place is full of plants.
Between the heat and the sunshine and the plants it really is an epic place for journaling on winter mornings. (When the weather is nicer I prefer outdoor spots)
I'm sitting at a bar along the window, with a fresh quiche tart (red pepper and feta) and a really good cup of coffee.
Today's the day, Slow the f*ck down! BE as powerful, creative and magnetic as you ARE is happening this afternoon.
I have an almost-daily meeting with the soul of my dreams. Last summer it sent a really clear message one day: Slow the fuck down!!!!!!
I was like "Wow I don't think you have ever sworn at me before"
And my dream was like "This is the perfect language to convey the intensity with which I want you to slow down."
And I was like "OK, I guess" but I didn't really get it.
Then the next day the message was "BE as powerful, creative, and magnetic as you ARE" and over the next week or so it became clear that these two messages worked together.
Here's the thing: I was already moving slower than I was comfortable with. I was moving slower than I wanted to. I was moving slower than I see everyone around me moving.
So I didn't see how this message applied to me.
But the soul of my dreams is this energy force that includes my own soul purpose and potential, everything my heart desires, and all the ways I need to heal and grow to be able to move towards any of this. It has never steered me wrong.
So last August, I created the "slow the fuck down! BE as powerful, creative and magnetic as you ARE" journaling + meditation invitation. I journaled and mediated on this them every day for 30 days and shared this on my blog, and invited everyone to do it with me.
This theme still pops up inside Dream Book.
I've been surprised by how many members are finding their dreams also telling them to slow the fuck down.
Since then, I have continued to work with these messages when they come up. Some of the things I've learned:
1. This thing where I like to go for a walk or bike ride FIRST THING in the morning and then do some coffee + journaling - it's vital for my wellbeing. The voice that says "Maybe skip all that today, you have a lot of work to do" is always wrong.
2. Just because I was moving way slower than the people around me, and waaaaayyyyy slower than I was raised to move, still doesn't mean I am moving slow enough!
3. I carry a lot of generational trauma around working hard. It's very heavy in my body.
4. Me, moving slow, enjoying my life, pursuing whatever the fuck I feel inspired to pursue - this is my ancestor's wildest dreams for me. At one point I got in touch with one particular ancestor, I don't know who they were, but I could feel all the joy they felt about my life and were cheering me on to be even happier.
5. I started working on a passion project: embroidering my own clothes. I have been making my own clothes for a long time, which brings me a lot of joy, but embroidering my own clothes is next-level. I did not anticipate the joy and healing I would receive from this.
6. I wore one of my embroidered dresses to therapy and showed my therapist and she said "Wow! I have so many questions!" and we ended up having a really deep and intense therapy session around embroidery and how I am re-claiming my creative spirit and some of my original creative dreams as a young person fresh out of university.
I feel so optimistic about the world right now.
As the systems we have lived inside collapse, something so much better is ready to be birthed.
Slowing down is a form of dis-connecting from the culture we live in, so we can re-consider our values and needs, and create whole new ways of being.
I am so thrilled to be doing this work.
I hope you'll join me today for Slow the Fuck Down! Be as Powerful, Creative and Magnetic as you ARE.
It's happening at 1:00 Central (North America).
But the replay will be amazing too. On our last live call we had a conversation about this - some people had been re-listening to old calls and realizing that there is a potent magic found in the replays that is not on the live calls. Just like there is a different kind of magic on the lives.
From my journal: Staying rooted and stable while the world is unstable.
This has been one of my practices lately. It's the one we did together in the Staying Stable In Your Relationship With Money When The World is Unstable call last week. (Replay is available when you join Dream Book - find it in the "Zoom Calls" section)
That was a 90 minute class. In first part we did the practice of creating our own bubble of stability and then the second part we invited money in to work with it there.
By doing this work in the class we created a FELT SENSE in our bodies of having this bubble of space, which makes it easier to conjure that feeling on your own after.
And lately I am just doing that first part - creating that bubble of stability around me and staying there.
From this place I feel so much more creative and free. Like the stresses of the world aren't right up in my face, I have some SPACE for myself.
Having that space gives me the opportunity to figure out how I want to respond, instead of just reacting.
This is so helpful and healing for myself. And also - this is the way we can create a better world.
All those feelings we have in reaction to what is happening in the world - anger, frustration, terror, whatever it is for you - ARE VALID.
AND ALSO
Being reactive with these feelings is not usually helpful.
By sitting with them (validating, processing, expressing) we work through that flurry of sensations and come to a place where it's easier to connect with our truth and then we can ask: How do I want to respond? What do I want to do here? how can I act out of my values?
One of the things that starts to feel SO FREAKING IMPORTANT for me when I do that work is: Your gifts are needed.
EVERYONE'S gifts are needed.
Your books, art, coaching programs, healing modalities, blogs, events - the things you feel inspired to create, the ways you want to share your gifts. THIS IS NEEDED.
So for me, last week's call naturally leads to this week's call:
Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice.
Rooting in to your inner light and exploring how you want to shine/share it.
Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice is:
- practicing exploring this light
- practicing TRUSTING your light
- practicing shining your light and experimenting with all the different ways you can do this
- practicing sitting with all of the questions and feelings that come up for you as you do this, while bringing your intuitive knowing and creative power to creating the answers
You have gifts. And there are people who need these gifts.
How can you practice showing up in such a way that they can see you?
How can you practice staying grounded and sure when this inevitably gets scary?
This work is SO inherently creative and spiritual, and when we make more space for this part of the work, then the outer work all becomes less fraught and more clear.
Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice on Zoom. Tuesday, Nov 8 at 1:00 pm Central (North America)
(Note: we did just have the time change for daylight savings. Use the Creative Dream Incubator Google calendar to double-check what time this is for you)
This is just the first call, it will be a monthly call inside Dream Book for the foreseeable future because I believe that all of our gifts are URGENTLY needed out there in the world so let's practice sharing them more brightly.
It's totally ok if you can't be there live. Make a plan to watch the replay ASAP and leave your thoughts, comments and questions in the comments under the video.
Hope to see you there. YOUR gifts are needed.
We had a group coaching call in Dream Book where one person attending (a very accomplished creative entrepreneur actually) said “I mean, what am I even doing?” and I laughed because I saw myself in it.
“What am I even doing?” came up again and again later on in the call as more people shared their stories.
It’s actually REALLY EASY to feel “what am I even doing?” when you are doing your own thing.
It’s natural to feel lost.
It’s natural to think you’re stuck when you’re really just incubating, or resting, or preparing for the next thing in ways your conscious self doesn’t know about yet.
With our dreams, the tangible parts are only about 1/3 of what is actually happening. So if you’re only using tangible, measurable things to measure progress, you are missing most of the picture.
And yet, this is what we do. Myself included!
The week before last I was in that “what am I even doing?” place. At the beginning of the week I was being GRACIOUS with myself and my process. I was MAKING SPACE for how I was actually feeling. I was honouring my energy.
But a few days in I’m all “OK process, wrap it up. I need to be doing something productive here”
But my process did not wrap it up.
In fact, on Friday, the day I did the Holding Space For What’s Next To Emerge class, I had my list of things to catch up on and instead I took 2 naps.
I felt great DURING the class because I always feel great when I connect with people in that way.
But the rest of the day I was still… meh.
And then Saturday I woke up feeling clear-headed and inspired. I rode my bike downtown, got my favourite doughnut for breakfast, and went to my favourite park (which has a TON of seating overlooking the river - it’s actually a bar at night but gorgeous and quiet in the mornings).
I wrote and wrote and wrote. Blog posts, emails, ideas for new projects.
It’s like all week I WAS incubating.
And then when it was time, it was a time. And everything just poured out.
This kind of trusting our creative flow is one of the things we need, if we want to create a new world.
The way our world is run on the Monday-Friday calendar and being productive on a schedule is counter to our actual human nature.
Also, we only have weekends because enough unions fought for them that they became the cultural norm. We can create new cultural norms. This is literally what humans have always done.
Humans created the huge corporations that have become corrupt and are now holding our economic and political systems hostage. They are even holding our entire future hostage by refusing to address climate change in any meaningful way.
We can destroy this and create something new.
We do it all the time.
This fall, my husband and I are going to tear apart the workspace he built for me when we got married. You know the cute one in the background of my videos? It will be GONE.
We’re going to use that wood to build a wall to create a new bedroom in the loft, in the space where my workspace was.
There’s more to this story, which I will share in time.
I just wanted to share - we can tear apart the things we built for A LOT of different reasons. Maybe because they didn’t turn out like we’d hoped. Maybe because time marches on and we change and want something different. Maybe because they turn corrupt and threaten to destroy the world.
We are the creators. We are the ones with the power.
But we need to give ourselves the thing we need in order to access that power:
- Feel your feelings.
- Give yourself space to process your thoughts and ideas.
- Take your dreams seriously and pursue them.
- Be open to the GROWTH and HEALING that your dreams are pushing you towards.
I’m doing all of this every day in Dream Book You are always welcome to join me there.
It’s time.
I’m sitting in a coffee shop full of plants. I’m the only one here.
The coffee shop is off to the side of a bakery - which is full of people baking in a wood fired oven which keeps the whole place SO warm and then with the plants everywhere it’s like being in a conservatory, making this my favourite winter coffee + journaling spot.
In the summer I’m usually outside, but it’s rainy today so here I am. I’m sitting at a bar by the window, watching people on the busy street outside.
I had a disorienting night of weird dreams, waking up and also dreaming of waking up but still sleeping.
I feel disoriented in my life.
I lay in bed asking myself what I wanted and decided to come here and journal. Once I looked at my Year of Dreams I saw that I had a lot to journal about. I’d been filling my pages with questions and ideas about what’s next.
I feel un-moored without my routines. As a highly sensitive person, my routines are one of the things that keep me settled in my body enough to hear my intuition and act on my creativity.
The pandemic destroyed so many of my routines and then this last winter I discovered a new form of magic, having ALL of the space without routine or structure.
Anyway. Now I am here - having let go of so many routines that I don’t feel interested in picking back up AND ALSO remembering the magic of routines and how they fuel creative flow and progress AND ALSO feeling really interested in FINDING OUT what’s next for me vs PLANNING what’s next for me.
I’m 48.
A lot of my dreams this last year have been thinking about who and how I want to be in my 50s which doesn’t need to be different than my 40s of course - unless I want it to be.
Which I do.
I feel ready to stretch and grow but in the past that always meant that I had a clear picture of WHO and WHAT I was growing into.
And right now I feel OPEN about all of that. Which is SO thrilling and terrifying.
There are a lot of metaphors in the life coaching/new age/wellness communities about planting seeds and how a tomato can’t be a rose, what you plant is what you get.
What if I am actually a lot more magical than all of that?
What if my brain and it’s clear intentions were only in my way?
What if I don’t need to plan? What if I need to LISTEN?
Since 2015 when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its findings in Canada, I have been learning about colonization and white supremacy, which are systems I have lived in my whole life without seeing them for what they are.
Which led me to see the entire new age, life coaching and wellness communities in a different light.
Which led me to feel differently about my own work.
Which led me to re-work my work and create a space that can hold the bigger questions and invite in a more soul-truth aligned kind of growth. (Which is Dream Book)
Which is what brought me here, I think.
To a place where holding intentions feels so small. Like a way to try to control the mystery.
To a place where I’ve let it go.
To a place where I feel ready to LISTEN as my primary way of PLANNING.
Which is wild - in my late 20s my best friend nicknamed me “Planny McPlanster”.
I had this idea that the best growth grew you into who you WANTED to be. Brought you the life you WANTED.
And I still believe that we need to be better at trusting our desires for a lot of reasons.
But now I see how SMALL that is.
To only dream about the life I can visualize for myself.
I mean yes I always spoke about how your dream can be much better than what you’re thinking, about how the inner growth will nurture you in ways you can’t see now, about how it WILL be different and better than what you picture.
But now - I guess I see the next level of that.
Our dreams are a light on the path, for sure.
But that path is leading to something much more expansive than what we dream of.
AND ALSO we are right here in the heart of the mystery right now. We are so creative and powerful right now.
What if we are MORE creative and powerful when we're in the mystery of it all, and not trying to manifest, create, or control the outcome?
Which feels like a different way of holding our dreams.
AND ALSO a different relationship to the mystery.
I'm offering a free Zoom class on Holding Space For What's Next To Emerge.
It's happening on June 24th at 1:00 pm, Central (North America).
Details to come. Everyone on my email list will get an invite to the live class. The will be a replay available on my blog - for 1 week only. Then the replay will only be accessible to Dream Book members.
(Photo from Leah Gazan's website. Leah is the Member of Parliament for my riding - Winnipeg Center.)
One of my big dreams is a Universal Basic Income for everyone.
I know - people come here for inspiring stuff about dreams, not political posts.
But dreaming is ALWAYS political because we don't dream in a vacuum, we dream in the world.
Who gets to dream is political.
Who gets to have the resources, time, and support to pursue their dreams and who needs to work multiple jobs to try to feed their kids - is political.
Whose creative work receives grants and accolades, and whose creative work is not understood or appreciated - is political.
We dream in the same intersections that we live in.
Racism, ableism, sexism, classism - all the things that make life either easier or harder for us also make creative dreaming easier or harder for us.
Most of the new age and coaching industries focus on the things that you, the individual, can do, to achieve your own dreams. And that's an important part of the work but it's not the whole thing.
I've been coaching for a long time. Full time since 2011, but on the side for a long time before that.
And from everything I have learned along the way:
A Universal Basic Income would do more to support our dreams than any master class or coaching program ever could.
Yes - quality coaching and mentoring are vital.
But so is having all of the SPACE and TIME we need to get in touch with our creative gifts and figure out how to share them.
And yes - your own personal determination plays a role there.
But we have to recognize that your personal situation and the number of intersections of oppression you face plays a much larger role - both in terms of your ability to "be determined" about your dream, and terms of the obstacles you face.
As one example: if you are childfree that's going to make your dreams much easier. If you have kids with a supportive partner you'll have more stuff to work through but if you are a single parent you've got a LOT of work just to make space to make space.
Also, a parent with money is a completely different situation than a parent without money.
And, here in Canada, an Indigenous parent dealing with inter-generational trauma of the ongoing colonial genocide is in a completely different situation than a while settler. (My family has plenty of inter-generational trauma, but all of our stories include "and then we came to Canada and were able to farm here and settle and create a good life" with NO mention of the people who were forcibly removed from the lands we settled on, and what happened to them to keep them from being able to get their land back.)
A universal basic income could help level the playing field. It's not everything we need to end systemic oppression, but it's a very good step in the process.
In a country where people actually die of poverty, a universal basic income would save lives.
For that reason alone, I think it's vital that we put our support behind Bill C-223. (And if you're not in Canada you can do some research to see what is happening where you live, maybe there are people working on this and you can help.)
It's illogical to spend money policing poverty when that money could instead eliminate it.
It's an easy change we can make with a HUGE impact, beyond the peoples whose lives would be directly transformed by it.
A universal basic income helps EVERYONE, not just the people who need it.
Violent crime is on the rise where I live because poverty is on the rise where I live. This morning my husband found out his car was broken into last night.
(We are still living apart, he's in an apartment very close to me, but in a much more bougie neighbourhood than where I live. When he lived here, his car was broken into several times a year)
Even though we are ok, we are going to feel the effects of increase financial instability around us.
Think about what it means to live in a city where EVERYONE has a safe place to live and enough food to eat and can get the medical support they need.
Crime goes down. Education goes up. People are healthier and happier.
It creates a sturdy foundation for dreams. But it also creates a better world.
Everyone's dreams are needed.
Your dream is your soul calling you towards your true self.
Your dream is your purpose, your creative callings, your most authentic way of living.
You know this. You can FEEL how the things we are dreaming of can help save the world.
My dream was always to use my creativity to support others to believe in themselves and their dreams, even long before I had any clue how to believe in myself and my dreams.
In being able to pursue and create my dreams, I've been able to support thousands of other people with their dreams. Dreams are so generative.
Right now, people are dreaming up solutions to climate change and skyrocketing inflation and war and every single problem we face.
But are they all able to have the time, support, and resources to bring their ideas to fruition? Of course not.
Think about what could change if everyone DID have this.
Beyond saving the lives of our most vulnerable citizens, a Universal Basic Income could set things up to save the world.
Solutions already exist.
When Leah Gazan (pictured above) first ran to be the MP for Winnipeg Center in 2018, I was volunteering for her campaign.
I hate politics. But Leah made me feel hopeful at a time when I was feeling less hope than ever, so I was really happy to step out of my comfort zone and help her campaign.
She showed me how the solutions to all of the problems we face in our riding already exist in our riding. There are so many people out there doing good things!
And we have to do more to empower and support those people, instead of putting so much money into empowering and supporting multi-national corporations with corporate welfare and tax loopholes, instead of policing the impacts of poverty.
A Universal Basic Income is one of those solutions and it's easy to fund it.
Even if a UBI was funded by a tax increase I believe it would be worth it.
But it costs less money to give people homes than it does to police homelessness.
It costs less money to police the impacts of poverty, than it does to eliminate poverty.
I know for some people this can feel radical, but it's been thoroughly studied and I suggest you do some research.
If you're in Canada I ask that you check out Leah's National Framework For A Guaranteed Livable Basic Income Act to find out more.
This can happen.
All of the stressful ways that our economy is changing right now could be the impetus to push this through.
This is why I went out of my comfort zone to volunteer for Leah Gazan's election campaign. I believe in her and I am going to stay hopeful.
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.
I've got Covid last week and I'm pretty sick so there won't be a live Monday meditation + planning today.
Instead, I recommend:
- Last week's meditation + discussion on creative dreaming in a dystopia
- The week before we did one on filling up on good energy for the week
- The 15 minute Creative Genius Planning video for planning your week from your most wise, brave + creative self (that's the one I listen to every week while I do my planning)
This Thursday I'm doing a special discussion with my dear friend Chris Zydel about change, healing + creating a new world.
Please join us! It will be live on Instagram at 1 pm Central on Thursday, March 31.
Go to my Instagram account from your mobile device to set up a notification to get a reminder to join us.