It’s here. The Year of Dreams 2022 Weekly Planner, Visioning Journal + Creative Dream Playbook
I can't believe it's here.
I am SO in love with the Year of Dreams 2022 and can't wait for January so I can dive into it.
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Jacqueline opened her etsy shop!
No one EVER starts out already knowing HOW to do their dream.
It's just part of the nature of having a dream.
And yet, something about not knowing how can easily trigger us into feeling it like it's impossible.
That's where Jacqueline Manni was just one month ago, about opening an Etsy shop to sell her gorgeous art.
And then last week she sent me this message:
I joined Dream Book a month ago because I really wanted to start an Etsy shop with my artwork in it, but didn’t know how or even if I should (unworthiness gremlins!).
Well, that first month of journaling, affirmations, coloring, and videos got me through it, and I now have a new Etsy shop!
It really does feel like a miracle because I didn’t know the first thing about how to do any of it, but working with you inspired me to take the leap even though I didn’t feel ready.
In Jacqueline's words:
I chose to share this painting, Morpho Eugenia, first because of all the palette knife work!
When I first wanted to paint many years ago I took a studio class, and would lay down about three brushstrokes an hour — I was petrified of making a mistake! My teacher noticed and told me to buy a palette knife and use it instead of my tiny brush. I warily bought it, stared at it for a few weeks, put it away, and didn’t start using it until last year! Now I can’t imagine working without it. It’s turned into a bit of a talisman, representing how much healing I've done around my artistic practice.
I also chose this painting because it incorporates another big love — literature.
It was inspired by the novella Morpho Eugenia by A.S. Byatt, which is one of my favorites. I finally got painting after studying literature, which led me sideways into Book Arts, which then led to painting. I incorporate so many things I learned in bookmaking into my paintings, too — this painting is backed with decorative paper as a reference to endpaper, for example. Plus the ephemera. I just love paper, and work on paper as much or maybe more than canvas.
Finally, I chose this painting because it takes into account my darkness as well as my light.
Although there is a fair bit of whimsy and butterflies and such in my work, there is also a gravitas and even a sadness. I’ve been letting that come out more and more, which feels really good and true. The reason I want to paint, and have a place where people can see my work, is because I want to make my soul visible. I can’t do that without both light and darkness.
Go check out her whole shop - it's gorgeous!
And I hope her story inspires you to think differently about what FEELS impossible for you right now.
Jacqueline opened her etsy shop! Read More »
In a meditation last week, I saw how my own relationship with my inner power got thrown this last year and a half.
In this meditation I saw how my inner relationship with my power could use some work, to bring it back into alignment.
I saw how this will make EVERYTHING easier: like meeting my business goals for this year and putting my new guided journals out there, but also just having a fun life outside of work too.
Our world is profoundly messed up when it comes to power.
It feels like our power gets taken from us by these huge systems we live in, like capitalism, white supremacy, the patriarchy, and also in smaller ways all the time.
Like we don't have the power to CHOOSE who and how we want to be.
And sometimes we really DON'T.
And sometimes we really DO, but we don't see it.
Calling your power back is about being more powerful in how you show up for yourself.
This makes it easier to live your outer life in alignment with your inner truth.
I originally did The Superpower Creative Journal Class in 2014, and in that meditation the other day I was given the message to do it again.
I was shown how I need this POWER-UP for myself so I can meet my goals for the rest of 2021.
So I decided to do it as a group thing, because I am sure I am not the only one who needs this right now.
The Superpower Journal Class is a deep-dive energy healing of your relationship with power. With creative play and glitter markers.
It's an energy-shifting healing circle, with a guided journal full of processes to help you HOLD ON to that shift, and bring it into how you life your life.
It's happening August 24 at 1:00 pm Central, North America.
To find out what time this is in your time zone, use this link. Enter the above date + time and for location choose Canada: Manitoba: Winnipeg. Then, under place to convert to - put your location.
Included in the class: 90 minute live Zoom class + the recording, 28 page printable guided journal and mandala colouring book.
Here's what you'll need:
- 90 minutes to listen the class or attend live (you may want more time to keep journaling afterwards, or you can come back to it another day)
- Computer/phone/tablet with internet connection to listen the audio class
- Printed copy of the Superpower Journal Playbook (or you can keep it on your computer/phone/tablet and do the journaling in your favourite journal)
- TOTALLY OPTIONAL: Art supplies for getting creative with your journaling - use whatever you like, all you really need is a pen and paper.
The Superpower Creative Journal is only open to members of Dream Book.
You can join us for this class (which is worth way more than the monthly subscription cost of Dream Book) and totally ignore everything else - or you can use this as a change to check out Dream Book and see if it's right for you.
If you've got some dreams and goals to catch up on before the end of the year. Dream Book will help.
Ricia published her book!
I am so happy to share ANOTHER book that's been published by one of our amazing Dream Book members:
Here is Ricia in a beach labyrinth she made with some friends:
Ricia is a long-time member of Dream Book and a continual source of inspiration to me. I've been DELIGHTED to watch this book take shape over time, but didn't realize until I started reading it this weekend, what an incredible revelation it is.
What Ricia has defined as non-physically-assaultive, attachment-based Chronic Covert Trauma is something that I believe almost all of us suffer from, kind of an inevitable side-effect of late stage capitalism.
It's WHY we struggle to believe in ourselves and go after our dreams with the full force of our creative genius.
So, obviously, I believe this is a very important book for my fellow creative dreamers and encourage you to check it out.
In Ricia's words:
Some of us remember tightening our stomachs and chanting with all the bravado we could muster:
Sticks and stones may break my bones,
But names will never hurt me.
How we longed for that to be true. We longed to be delivered from the dizzy feeling, the sensation like a fist in the stomach, that told us how badly we'd been hurt by a name, how deeply wounded we'd been when we were left out, humiliated, or abandoned.
Many decades as a psychotherapist have compelled me to respect these intangible wounds. Like many of my colleagues, I have become convinced that these wounds, especially those that recur in a child's relationship with a caregiver, are often serious enough to be accurately classified as trauma. The name I've given them is (naCCT).
The reality of naCCT was brought home to me in my work with over 4000 people challenged by such problems as anxiety, depression, addictions,and physical pain. Their struggles testified to the power of naCCT. And their triumphs demonstrated that healing is possible.
Recovery takes a lot of nerve.
Here is a map of the recovery process from the point of view of the adult survivor of naCCT, grappling with the cPTSD it caused. what you are going to do, how you are going to do it, what tools and resources will help you do it, and special tips for success, what to say to yourself and what to do for yourself.
On writing the book:
Writing the book is a record of what I experienced as a hero's journey to validate myself and puzzle out an answer to the question: "if nothing was wrong, what's wrong with me?"
As I wrote the book, the me that is a struggling human being and the me that is a professional therapist came together, merged and integrated. "Physician, heal thyself," This is the story of how PatRicia J. Fleming Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Ph.D. in English, detective and researcher in the mysteries of the human soul, came to apply her professional expertise to her own misery and learn to trust her own experience and validate herself. It is not a memoir. It is a record of discovery. The exercises, the healing activity interludes, are very like those I did myself. The footnotes and references are not to lifeless articles in dry as dust archives, they are the life-saving words of validation and sanity given to me by my friends in books, guidance given to a lost child searching in a bramble wood by marvelous wise beings send by higher powers of love and wisdom. I hope what I write will serve that guidance function for readers.
Going through the experience of writing this book, I learned that a door to healing opens when you turn toward the very things about yourself and your life that you want to avoid
--the painful moods, distressing physical problems, embarrassing behaviors, unhappy relationships and situations. Instead of just bashing yourself for having these difficulties and trying to will them away or sweep them under the rug, pay kind respectful attention to them.
Pay attention to troublesome symptoms, especially when you have dismissed the possibility of trauma in your childhood.
Dignify your distress. Trust your present experience, especially body based experiences such as painful body/feeling states (including depression, anxiety, and physical sensations, even including pain), the nature of relationships, and attempts at self-medication (e.g. addictions). Welcome the insights they give you into your true story, your total life experience and what lessons you may learn in this lifetime.
Honor that experience, respect it, take it seriously. Provide yourself with compassionate witness and gentle guidance, free from self-hate, shame, and moral condemnation.
Attending to present distressing moods, physical symptoms, troublesome relationships and annoying behaviors can lead to knowing and appreciating your true life story, developing the ability to gently guide yourself in new directions that will bring you to a place of greater joy.
Ricia published her book! Read More »
When you’ve been accused of cultural appropriation in your spiritual, wellness or coaching business
Photo by Content Pixie on Unsplash
You've been accused of cultural appropriation in your spiritual, wellness, or coaching business.
You have nothing but good intentions.
You don't know why people are being so mean about it.
Everything you try to do seems to make it worse.
And you're not sure what to do next.
Your reaction is normal.
Notice how you are feeling, notice where those feelings are in your body.
If you feel afraid, ashamed, angry, defensive, righteous....
If your skin feels hot.
If your blood pressure has risen.
If you are breathing fast and shallow.
Just notice everything that's happening in your body. Notice the thoughts that are repeating in your mind. Notice your reaction.
You need to give yourself space for this, or else you'll react from your reaction and that will make everything worse.
You're a wellness practitioner or a coach. You have tools. Use them.
What do you need to do, to soothe yourself and come back to center?
Do it now.
You need to be grounded, centred, and able to listen to perspectives that are vastly different than yours.
You need to open your heart wide enough to see the pain you've caused.
At this point, you probably still want to focus on explaining your good intentions.
I promise - this is NOT the time to explain your good intentions. Trying to do that WILL make this worse for you.
You have an opportunity here.
This situation can help you grow and learn how to become an ally to the people you respect enough to honour their traditions or practices in the way you are doing.
I understand - you had good intentions, you meant to honour, but people are saying you are NOT honouring, you are appropriating.
This is an opportunity for you to learn what it would look like to ACTUALLY honour, in a way that those you are honouring FEEL honoured.
The temptation for most healers/guides/coaches at this point is to go into spiritual bypass.
I promise you, your answer is here on earth. Stay with us.
DO NOT speak of "one race" or unity or anything along those lines.
The fact is, the people you have been accused of appropriating from have a VASTLY different life experience than you have because white people are treated differently in the world. Calls for unity erase these realities, erase the pain and suffering and oppression of racism.
Which means: ANYTHING you say calling for unity is actually violent. It's a dismissal of other people's pain. A refusal to acknowledge the reality of what systemic racism does to people.
And, to the people who experience that pain every day, it really makes you look like a clueless ass.
Do better.
This morning, I had an email from one of my students saying "Hey thanks for those new videos you posted yesterday, I am finding them helpful! But I think you uploaded the 7th one twice, so the 8th one is actually missing."
It's true. I made a mistake. I somehow ended up with 2 copies of the 7th video and named them 7 and 8, and then uploaded them that way, and now this person is watching the same video twice.
I said "Thanks for letting me know! You're right, video 8 IS just a copy of video 7! I have fixed it. You can watch the real video 8 now, here it is."
If this person had mentioned in their email that not being able to see video 8 right way had caused pain in any way, of course I would have added an apology and asked what I could do, besides uploading the correct video, to make amends.
We all mess up sometimes. Then we apologize and make amends.
It was easy for me to quickly make amends in the case of the missing 8th video because I didn't have any kind of emotional reaction to what I was accused of.
I didn't waste any time in "HOW FUCKING DARE YOU? I DID NOT UPLOAD THE SAME VIDEO TWICE!!!!!"
I didn't feel attacked, and then react from that feeling and set out to attack my accuser.
No drama was created.
When you've been accused of cultural appropriation online I know it FEELS like something different. It FEELS like being ganged up on and "cancelled".
But really, it's just people letting you know that you made a mistake and your actions are actually doing harm.
Continue to notice if you feel charged, and do your work to calm yourself.
White people respond is VERY similar ways to accusations of cultural appropriation and racism. (You can google it, it's called White Fragility and I promise, everything you want to say to your online accusers is covered there in the descriptions of white fragility responses.)
This is because our nervous systems get activated.
We're afraid.
We feel attacked.
And we attack back.
In the Live Your Best Life Industry, we tend to attack back with spiritual by-pass - all the unity talk and accusing your accusers of "being triggered" and "needing healing" and "I'll pray for you" while placing yourself on some kind of spiritual by-pass pedestal where actually you did nothing wrong.
Accept that you made a mistake.
Cultural appropriation contribues to systemic oppression.
This is because cultural appropriation is NOT just about you honouring or being inspired by a thing from another culture and then taking it and using it in your business.
Cultural appropriation happens within colonial systems that oppress the Indigenous population while supporting the non-Indigenous population.
For example, in Canada and the USA traditional Indigenous spiritual practices were made illegal, as a part of the process of colonization. Those who continued, had to do so at great cost to themselves. Even today, the path of a traditional medicine person is about a million times more difficult than the path of a white online coach or healer.
While those laws are no longer in effect, their effects are still very much in effect.
For non-Indigenous people to come along, and do nothing to help Indigenous people mitigate those effects, and just take the spiritual practices and sell them themselves...
Are you seeing it now?
There is no such thing as Cultural Appreciation. The opposite of cultural appropriation is COLLABORATION.
In this industry, most forms of cultural appropriation are about profiting from the theft and colonization of Indigenous practices.
This is particularly hurtful because the Indigenous groups where the practices come from are still living under the oppression of colonization.
Journal prompts for when you've been accused of cultural appropriation:
Continue to do your work to calm your nervous system, not get emotionally reactive, and consider each of these questions with an open mind:
What is your relationship with the culture you are taking this thing from?
How would it feel to speak, face to face, to a person from this culture, and explain why you are selling this thing? Do you believe that they have had the same privileges in life that would allow them to sell this thing as easily as you can? If they are not making money from this but you are, what would you tell them about why that is?
If this person historically lived on the lands that you now occupy, what do you know about how this land came to be yours? What do you know of how this has impacted the original inhabitants who are still here?
Do you understand the full history of the thing you've taken? How was it originally used? What was the culture around it? How is your culture different?
How are you participating in the healing, decolonization, empowerment, and liberation of the culture you are taking this thing from?
Does the way you are offering this thing contribute anything to the people that you took it from?
Continue to do your work to calm your nervous system and read everything that's been said to you. Where did you make a mistake? Of course you had good intentions, but as you read what's been said to you, are you truly understanding the IMPACT of your actions?
If you want to be spiritual about it: this situation IS happening for a reason.
That reason is to contribute to YOU waking up.
Instead of culturally appropriating - you could be COLLABORATING.
And using your good intentions to make amends and build bridges.
This is a part of the work that builds a better world.
I know you do the work you do because you believe in a better world.
And I hope you trust me when I say: the places where you are culturally appropriating are your blind spots and they're stopping you from being an effective helper in creating a better world.
As white people growing up in white supremacy, we're all hooked into it's power.
Un-hooking is the REAL waking up.
This accusation is your opportunity to begin. I hope you take it.
Janet published her book!
I am SO HAPPY to share with you Janet Gerson's new book: Reclaimative Post-Conflict Justice: Democratizing Justice in the World Tribunal on Iraq.
Janet's deep commitment to peace has been so inspiring to me.
It's easy to feel daunted and "too small" and "what can I possibly do" about world peace, and yet Janet shows up and works hard and brings her all to the process of peace.
We can all learn a lot from her.
Janet is a long-time participant in Dream Book, and she says the Creative Dream Incubator has been instrumental in helping her pursue this accomplishment. Yay!
I know that a lot of you have books in you to share, and I hope Janet's success helps inspire you.
Drs. Janet Gerson and Dale Snauwaert’s forthcoming book Reclaimative Post-Conflict Justice: Democratizing Justice in the World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI) examines the historic case of the WTI’s global civil society tribunal, a creative collaboration organized non-hierarchically to record, analyse, and demand accountability for the 2003 war and occupation of Iraq. Reclaimative post-conflict justice is a new conception for grounding the revitalization of democratic ethics underlying justice and peace. Previous scholarship on post-conflict justice tribunals has been conceptualized along two lines, retributive as exemplified by the Nuremberg Tribunal after World War II or restorative as exemplified by the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The WTI enacted a third form, reclaimative post-conflict justice. The WTI’s purpose was not to punishment, nor the restoration of political legitimacy, nor clarification of Iraq’s boundaries, but to enact a democratizing and deliberative model, which exemplifies a dialogical turn in various methodologies of normative justification. Reclaimative justice and its democratic tribunal form exemplified by the WTI are basic elements of post-conflict justice, in that they constitute a methodological procedure necessary for the normative justification and thereby appropriate for key tribunal questions of legitimacy, legality, and accountability, and agency. In this way reclaimative democratizing justice as organized through the WTI’s deliberative and democratizing processes aligns with the methodological procedures of contemporary normative theories of justice.
What was your inspiration for writing the book?
The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI) was an outstanding global people’s tribunal, one that documented what no government or official institution acknowledged – the illegitimacy and illegality of the Iraq War and occupation. The WTI modelled positive globalization as peace action -- global citizens coordinating justice as accountability, agency, and responsibility.
What does your book do differently to similar titles?
Citizens and people’s tribunals typically publish documentation of their forums. However, Reclaimative Justice places the WTI within the ethical and historical contexts of exemplar tribunals -- retributive, restorative, and alternative. The World Tribunal on Iraq (Sökmen, Ed., 2008) documentary text provides a history of the Iraq war and occupation from the perspectives of international law and state sovereignty, but importantly from violations against people of Iraq, the environment, cultural history, and of global civil society for the right to peace. This book brings out what is most innovative about the WTI’s “creative assertion” – how the WTI Coordination used a democratic ethic of participation, non-hierarchical organizing, deliberation, and consensus decision-making to demonstrate how non-domination, communicative action, and nonviolence can be the basis of justice.
What new insights has the book revealed?
Reclaimative democratizing justice in the WTI demonstrates the necessity of transnational interdependence and a global civic culture for conceptualizing democracy and justice. In the modern era, democracy and justice have been couched in the context of the nation-state. However, the increasing recognition of various dimensions of transnational interdependence -- economic, political, legal, ethical, cultural, and ecological -- suggests that our national conceptions of democracy and justice are outdated. The WTI brought together thousands of people from all over the world, from diverse disciplines, experiences, and even ideologies. The WTI instantiated in practice many of the ideas concerning global democracy and justice that we have understood to have philosophical validity based upon reasoned argument and the standards of normative justification that that reasoning is based upon. It constitutes an enactment of fundamental normative principles that are of great significance for the ongoing pursuit of democracy and justice, locally and globally.
Janet published her book! Read More »
My new dream: The Creative Dream Incubator Press
I can trace the roots of this dream back realllllly far.
In 2015, I started creating + sending out a weekly journaling kit, and have sent out a weekly journaling kit every week since then!
And then in 2017 I self-published 2 guided journal/colouring books which are no longer available. And, of course, my Journal Cards for Dreamers.
I loved those books and cards, and I had ideas for dozens more, but it didn't quite feel like the right time, and other projects took precedent.
Then in the last year, this dream came back with a vengeance, and with much more clarity and heft.
In hindsight, I can see that I needed to develop my ideas which became Creative Dream Alchemy and the Dream Book approach to journaling while also developing my visual voice (by creating the weekly journaling kits) for how I want to create the guided journals.
Everything fell into place... except the logistics around publishing, printing, sales and distribution. Just that little piece 😉
I've had a lot of ideas for how to do this.
I've done a lot of research.
And I got very tangled up in everything I learned.
This is a TOTALLY NORMAL stage of creative dreams. When you dig in and start looking at all of the details OF COURSE you will get lost in them.
In 2017 I published those books through Amazon because their self publishing system is really simple. They make it easy to sell your book almost anywhere in the world.
BUT seeing how much profit Amazon made during the pandemic while not paying taxes or treating their employees well, I stopped using Amazon as a customer and didn't want to use them with my business.
So I went ahead with a non-Amazon option.... but by the time I had my first journal ready to publish, the retail cost was $200 - plus shipping! It was a GORGEOUS journal with luscious paper but I really don't want these journals to be precious.
Then as I sat with this tangly mess of ideas and obstacles and dreams and wishes I realised that I have only THREE priorities right now:
- Dream Book: both as a participant and leader
- Making new guided journals
- Epic Self Care/feeling good and enjoying myself
That's all.
I don't want to gather and manage a team and build a publishing empire... right now.
And I don't want to keep figuring out the details of the physical journals.
The idea of just making my journals and putting them out there in a simple way by myself feels REALLY REALLY GOOD.
There are no real rules when it comes to your dreams, but for me, the simplest way is often the best way.
You can refine and embellish and expand as you go. But start with whatever way feels do-able to who you are today.
So, for now, I am going back to Amazon.
Later on I can do it differently! In fact, my research showed me an AMAZING way to build the Creative Dream Incubator Press... but it will make more sense to work on that part AFTER I have a bunch of journals completed.
Amazon makes it easy for me to put out there, and easy for people to buy from anywhere in the world.
I've spent A LOT of time and energy working through details and plans and also processed A LOT feelings about this and I am not interested in feedback from anyone at this time. Amazon is not how I wanted to do this AND it's the right way for me to do this right now. I think it's a really beautiful metaphor for how our dreams help us build a better world, but to get there we need to be present in this world, as it is today.
I am now getting ready to publish THREE new guided journals! It's a series called Let's Do This: Guided Journals for your Impossible Project.
It's three journals for the three stages of working on your project:
- Going from "OMG I want to do this and OMG I don't know if I can and OMG am I stuck? and OMG this is too hard, is it??!?!" to feeling ready to begin.
- A journaling process for creating MOMENTUM out of little steps, and learning as you go. (Build The Path By Walking)
- A whole journal of journaling processes for navigating the INNER work of growing into the version of you who definitely CAN do this thing.
Watch this space!
My new dream: The Creative Dream Incubator Press Read More »
How are YOU going to do this?
The last year and a half has been A LOT.
But even before that, a lot of things were A LOT
And personally, I am also finding peri-menopause to be A LOT.
It's so easy to get stuck in this kind of overwhelm.
Kind of frozen and unable to move forward and too tired to really even think about it.
This is partly because when we're overwhelmed, we stop doing soothing forms of self care and start doing numbing/distracting/avoiding forms of self care.
Of course, it's totally natural to turn to the things that help us avoid our feelings, or distract us from what's happening.
Totally natural.
AND...
At some point, if you want to go BEYOND the overwhelm, you need to shift away from numbing and towards soothing.
Last week I did Goodbye Pandemic Overwhelm, Hello Dreams class: Sooth Pandemic Overwhelm, Restore Joy + Magic, Grow into your brightest dreams for 2021 class.
(You can get the whole thing right here)
SOOTHE was the first part of the class, because that part has to happen before you can shift into restoring your magic and growing your dreams.
It's how you fill your tank back up.
How are YOU going to do this?
The meditation + journaling class gives you space to do some alchemy work with the quality of soothing, to experience being soothed, and use that experience to spark some ideas of what you need to be doing - the practical changes you need to make in your life, in order to be more SOOTHED so you can begin to move BEYOND the overwhelm.
Later in the class you also connect with your dreams, because dreams help GROW and HEAL us, which can help pull us out of overwhelm too. But it begins with the soothing part.
What came to you during the class about what YOU can do differently, to give yourself more nourishing and soothing?
How are you going to make space to DO these things this week?
It's Monday!
Join me live for Creative Genius Planning: live meditation + journaling for working on your genius plan for this week!
It’s happening on Instagram live this morning at 10 am (Central, North America). Join me here, or catch the replay at that same link after we’re done.
We’ll do an alchemy meditation to connect with your intuition and get more clear on what YOU need this week to help move you towards where you want to be.
Then I’ll pick journal prompt cards, for some questions to help figure out HOW to move closer to your dreams this week.
These sessions are MAGIC. Every week I get more emails from people telling me how helpful they are.
How are YOU going to do this? Read More »
Goodbye Pandemic Overwhelm. Hello dreams. ⚡️FREE CLASS THIS WEEK⚡️
Soothe pandemic fatigue. Restore Joy + Magic. Grow into your brightest dreams for 2021.
The new moon sent me a message to offer this class.
It said: of course you're feeling wobbly! Look at what you've been through!
It said: you all need extra doses of self care!
It said: everything you want is waiting for you.
So let's do this!
This is a free live Zoom class happening on July 15 at 3:00 pm Central, North America.
(You can use this to translate to your time zone - I'm in Winnipeg time). The replay will be available shortly after.
The class will be about 90 minutes long. Bring your journal and do your best to have uninterrupted space for the call.
To attend live:
If you're already on my email list, you're already signed up!
If not - you can sign up for my email list and I'll also send you my free class for figuring out your next steps.
I'll email the link into the Zoom room on Thursday morning.
To watch the replay:
You can sign up for my email list if you want me to email you a link to the replay as soon as it's ready.
If you're not into email, I'll also be posting the replay on my blog so you can look for it there.
Goodbye Pandemic Overwhelm. Hello dreams. ⚡️FREE CLASS THIS WEEK⚡️ Read More »
Journal Prompts for when you’re ready for your NEXT LEVEL dreams
Journal Prompts for when you're ready for your NEXT LEVEL dreams:
What does this mean for you right now?
What does your next level look like?
And more importantly - what does it feel like?
Write it out, make it VERY VERY CLEAR.
Next-level dreams need you to take some time ACCLIMATE to them before you will start to see how to build the path to get there.
Keep journaling about them regularly!
Your dream is here to GROW you.
Your dream comes from the intersection of your purpose, your creativity, your uniqueness and your potential.
Pursuing this next - level dream of yours is REALLY about becoming more of who you are here to be. A braver, and even more creative and more powerful version of yourself than the creative genius you are today.
By giving as much attention to the inner processes of healing and growth as you do to the outer work of makign your dream happen - you get to play, heal and grow your way into your dream.
Take the (free!) 10 day Creative Dream Journal Challenge - it will help you GET MOVING with your next-level dream!
Sign up here <--- you also get my FREE guided journal for creative dreaming as a part of the 10 day challenge.
Journal Prompts for when you’re ready for your NEXT LEVEL dreams Read More »
Resilience, Canada Day and Creating a World Where We Can All Pursue Our Creative Dreams
Art by Isaac Murdoch
I was reading Micheal Redhead Champagne's blog post about The Resiliency Trap.
I love Micheal and have always seen him as a remarkably resilient person. And so this really hit me:
But the way resilience is often used in academics and media is so problematic, I warn that when we only focus on how strong people are, we ignore the many challenges they should never have had to overcome in the first place!
My automatic view is to see Micheal as remarkably resilient because I don't know what I would have been as strong or brave or upbeat as I see him being, if faced with the same circumstances.
I mean automatic as in - that's how I see it before I really sit with my thoughts. It's just my automatic way of seeing him.
We're not really to blame for our automatic ways of seeing things.
However, this response isn't helpful just like lots of our automatic responses are not helpful. So it's good to challenge ourselves, look deeper, and see where we can create new ways of seeing the world.
Resiliency has been on my mind a lot lately.
At one session with my therapist, she asked how I had been doing and I said "I'm just so disappointed by my lack of resilience"
And, in the emotional state I was in at the time, I thought she would say something like "Oh that's tough, let's look at how we can get you better resourced to be more resilient"
But instead, her face fell. She looked sad and said "Oh Andrea, it makes me so sad to hear that you don't think you are resilient."
She challenged my belief around how resilient I should be and offered a new perspective:
Everything has just been so fucking hard lately do I really need to make it harder by judging myself for not measuring up to my own standards?
I am crying a little as I write this as I hit that place in me that DOES judge me when I don't measure up.
I did NOT handle the pandemic in the way I had hoped I would.
I got depressed. I got lethargic. I was frustrated and snappy with my husband. I put things off. I ate a lot of chips. I watched a lot of Netflix.
At the same time: I kept my business running and helped so many people stay in touch with themselves and their dreams in a hard time, I offered healing + support to everyone in Dream Book, I made a whole free class on self care in the pandemic,I helped my step-son finish grade 9, I got AMAZING at making pizza from scratch, after being intimidated to try to bake with year I became really good at making bagels, baguettes and crispy artisan rolls, I worked on my dream project which is now almost finished - I did a lot.
I can see it that I wasn't very resilient or I can see it that I was super resilient.
But I'd rather move away from judging and measuring at all. And I want to bring it back to Micheal's post about The Resiliency Trap.
Because focusing on my level of resilience, measuring it in any way, IS the trap.
And this is why I've started writing so much more about politics in the last 4 years.
Because it's not right that we have so many obstacles to overcome in order to listen to our intuition and get our outer lives into alignment with our inner truths. And it's not right that different people have different levels of obstacles.
And ALL of the systems that make it hard for us to be true to ourselves need to be torn down.
Your dream is calling you towards your true self, it's asking you to live your truth and showing you the way to get there.
All of the internal obstacles you face - the fear and self doubt and the places where you hold back and don't believe in yourself - these were created because you live in a sick culture.
As Micheal said - these are challenges you never should have had to overcome in the first place.
Now he is speaking to the colonial systems that cause inter-generational harm.
And when I say that I want to live in a world where no one feels self doubt because we are properly nurtured and nourished that includes everything he is talking about.
And this is why I've been so frustrated by the Live Your Best Life Industry's "I don't want to get political" "I can't read mainstream media it's too negative" head-in-the-sand approach.
A guaranteed liveable income, safe affordable housing, free quality ACCESSIBLE mental and physical health care, a green economy and Indigenous sovereignty are the building blocks of creating a culture where we are all free to pursue our dreams.
Otherwise, you are leaving out everyone who doesn't have a certain amount of money and privilege in this white supremacist patriarchy colonization culture.
And you're leaving all of these harmful systems intact.
We are all connected.
Our dreams are all connected.
We need each other.
Our dreams need each other's dreams.
And it feels like most of the Live Your Best Life Industry just doesn't care enough about marginalized people to want to fight systemic injustice for their sake. Like it's not worth climbing down from their "high vibe".
They'd rather celebrate people like Micheal who overcame so much, in ways which cast aspersions on everyone who DIDN'T rise above debilitating system injustice.
So maybe they can consider that systemic injustice is hurting them, too? Maybe that would get them to care and get involved? Because our dreams need each other's dreams.
None of us are truly free until we are all free.
You know what I think is TRULY positive, powerful and empowering?
Facing the truth.
Calling things what they are.
Shining a light on where our culture does harm.
Looking for ways to support the people who are out there actively fighting systemic injustice to create a better world.
This is what's on my mind this Canada Day. I think Cancel Canada Day is SO NEEDED and so exciting.
Today my husband will be speaking at Effy Wild's Cancel KKKAnada Day event - an afternoon of reflective art-making and listening to Indigenous voices.
And then we're going to a march + sacred fire to honour the children whose bodies have been found, and those whose bodies have not yet been found.
This whole movement to bring awareness to the genocide that birthed our country and continues to this day, to cancel celebrations, to reflect and learn - this is how change happens.
We are doing it! We are 154 years too late but we are starting.
If you're in Canada and upset by all this news, I suggest:
- Read the reports from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: everything is in there. We've known for a long time that a lot of bodies would be found if we searched former residential schools and have, until now, chosen to ignore this fact. Canada would not exist today if not for the abusive genocidal residential schools. As Canadians, we have to be able to understand this before we can do better.
- Read the calls to action from the TRC and look for ways to apply them in your life.
- Understand the treaties that were signed to create this country - which will show you that Canada has never honoured the treaties. What does it mean that you, as a Canadian citizen, do not know what's in the treaties? How are the treaties being honoured if the citizens don't know what's in them?
- Research the Indian Act
Resilience, Canada Day and Creating a World Where We Can All Pursue Our Creative Dreams Read More »
I was wrong. Again. About that new project.
Last week I wrote that I'd have my new GUIDED JOURNAL TO HELP YOU DO YOUR IMPOSSIBLE PROJECTS (!) ready to share this week.
Ha.I was wrong.
Well. I did finish it.
BUT I didn’t want to publish it the way I had done with previous journals - on Amazon.
I only want to work with companies whose values align with mine, and profiting billions from a pandemic without providing paid health leave or even decent working conditions to your employees just doesn’t feel very dreamy to me.
And yet, Amazon has this great system in place, to make it easy for anyone to publish a book, AND makes it easy for people to buy the book, almost anywhere in the world. Those qualities ARE dreamy.
So I did format the book for Amazon and was preparing it for sale there….
Thinking, even though Amazon will make more money on this than I will, this is the best way to start because it’s simple and lets me focus on making MORE journals, and once I had more journals ready I could look at better ways to do the publishing and sales.
But the Amazon journal just kept not feeling right.
Sitting with that feeling led me to do an experiment this weekend…. creating a journaling KIT with multiple journals plus booklets - all the same content but put together in a much more CREATIVE and ALIVE and ENTICING way.
I could see this kit really helping people get EXCITED to do the hard work of making their impossible projects happen.
And it felt soooooo exciting. So much creative energy!
But.
It also felt like “Oh wow I am doing So Much Work on this, and the ideas behind my work took 20 years to develop and the way I am doing this with this printing company is soooooo cute but.. the printing company gets almost all the money.” I mean that’s better than Amazon getting it but…
Sitting with that feeling led me to see ALL SORTS of other ways I can do this - to make the content FUN and ACCESSIBLE and also for THE CREATIVE DREAM INCUBATOR to make most of the money.
Sitting with these uncomfortable feelings is the worst.
Especially when I’m already finishing this project a year behind schedule and all I really want is to BE DONE and put it out there.
But.
I’m going to hold onto it a little longer.
Keep exploring these new ideas.
I think I really have something here.
Sometimes I just finish a project only to learn how I REALLY wanted to do that project. And the next step is to start the whole thing over. This is how it is sometimes.
If you've got some uncomfortable feelings about your creative proejcts, I invite you to sit with them too.
The hard/stuck places have SO MUCH to teach us and can often show us the BEST way to do the thing.
And you don't have to be alone with it!
I offer TONS of practices and support for doing the deeper Inner Work as a part of Dream Book, my ongoing creative dream mastermind.
I was wrong. Again. About that new project. Read More »
I woke up this morning feeling DESPERATE to sit in a coffee shop and write. On Dreams and Privilege and Changing The World.
I've been staying in bed and meditating for 30 minutes before getting up, which usually means I wake up feeling quite calm and centered and clear about what I want to do with my day...
Not today. Today, even post-meditation, I just can't shake that desperation of wanting a thing I can't have.
After two months of being North America's covid hotspot, Winnipeg's third wave has peaked. New cases are down which is a relief except our hospitals are still overflowing and there is such a backlog of medical issues, we are really not out of the woods.
Nevertheless, we are opening back up. Because our conservative government doesn't know how to do anything except put money ahead of people's health and wellbeing.
All this to say, I CAN go to a coffee shop as of Saturday. And next Tuesday is 2 weeks since my second vaccine shot.
But that's not feeling helpful to me, on Thursday morning.
So here I am, sitting at a picnic table in the park with my laptop, which is my attempt to give myself the next best thing.
I made a lavender iced latte, which melted in the heat on my bike ride here and now is just watery cold coffee. It's the time of year when the trees are dripping sap and everything is sticky. It feels like bugs are actually getting stuck on my legs.
A lot has changed for me in this last year, but I still believe in the magic and wisdom of DESIRE and MAKING WISHES and FOLLOWING OUR DREAMS WITH EVERYTHING WE HAVE.
That wish to drink iced coffee on a coffee shop patio is about:
treats
fueling
ease
stability
comfort
ritual
routine
space-making for my creative process
When I look at it that way, I can find other ways to get some of these things. And some of them are just inaccessible right now.
Stability is the thing that's been the hardest for me to call in over these last 15 months.
I mean, the world changed. It feels like it happened overnight, but I can remember watching the pandemic unfold in China and then Italy while knowing that our health system isn't better than theirs as that feeling of inevitability slowly swooped in. It's hard to call in the quality of stability when the world just fucking CHANGED and we can't just change it back.
Obviously, a lot has happened in my life as well. My husband isn't living with me anymore. Having the space and quiet of living alone IS what I need right now, AND it is incredibly disorienting the way my home has changed. Our relationship is actually stronger right now than it was, AND I miss him a lot of the time. AND we know for sure living together in the Dream Loft is not an option, so we are creating a new vision together.
I'm lucky that the Creative Dream Incubator hasn't really changed. I'm LOVING my work in Dream Book and am fueled by it all the time. I'm lucky and privileged that my income stayed steady even as I was distracted as fuck and nowhere near as productive as I used to be.
And that's what I wanted to write about: Privilege and dreams and changing the world.
Because what about the people who have NEVER had the kind of stability that I took for granted until the last year? The stability which is such a helpful ingredient for being brave and bold enough to pursue your dreams?
A world where the most privileged have the most access to their dreams looks like.... the world we live in today.
A world where white supremacy and the patriarchy rule.
A world of increasing wealth inequity. I mean how do we not collectively see how psychotic it is to have individuals hoarding more money than our brains can fathom while others starve in the streets?
A world where fighting for a liveable future for all is actually a fight. And we're loosing that fight.
A world where, here in Canada, we've now found over 1,200 children's bodies buried in unmarked graves at former residential school grounds and settler Canadians are in shock even though we've known since 2015 that the number is closer to 6,000.
A world where slavery exists.
A world where gangs really are the best option for a lot of kids.
A world where we joke about rape. And we judge women for "sleeping their way to the top" instead of jailing the men who abuse their power to force women to choose between sleeping with them or not moving up the ladder at all.
I could go on but you know what I mean.
Our culture is sick. And I believe our dreams can help us heal it.
Because working with your dream connects you more deeply to your true self.
Your dream will push you to heal your wounds that keep you stuck in the unhealthy coping mechanisms that contribute to more disharmony in your life and in the world around you.
Your dream will help you grow into your true gifts and power and we need EVERYBODY'S true gifts and power to heal our culture and create a better one.
A lot of us privileged folks in the Live Your Best Life Industry are looking at ways to do this and wondering.... How do we increase accessibility and inclusivity in our spaces?
These are well meaning questions but they are not going to lead to the kinds of answers that make a difference.
Accessibility and inclusivity are NOT how we build a world where we ALL have access to our dreams.
Since 2015 I have been struggling with the incredible amount of privilege in the Live Your Best Live industry, and my own participation and contribution to that. I have made changes in my work to make it more accessible - not just financially but energy and time wise by creating a deeper, sturdier container.
That's not enough. It's nowhere near enough.
It's still a form of inviting "others" to the table when what is needed is to tear the table apart and build something new that includes everyone, from the ground up.
I mean, anyone in the New Age world looking at ways to be more inclusive and accessible, myself included - and even with the understanding that we've all got good intentions - is laughable.
This whole industry is built on cultural appropriation and theft. We are really going to now open the doors to be more inclusive and invite the people we stole from, to feel more comfortable to come in and buy back what we stole?
The audacity!
It's the same way Canadians are now pointing the fingers at the churches and employees of residential schools instead of looking at how we, ourselves, benefit from residential schools TODAY and how we can, RIGHT NOW TODAY, tear down this system, which continues to kill Indigenous children.
Your dream wants you to BE who are here to BE.
I know a part of who I am here to BE is a kind hearted person who won't stand for genocide. Not in my own country and not anywhere else in the world.
This includes facing a lot of uncomfortable truths.
Both about yourself, and the places where you hold back and follow your inner critic instead of your inner truth, and also about the outer world.
We can't change anything that we can't be with.
And once we can BE WITH the uncomfortable truths, change is not as far away as it feels right now.
So stay with it.
Personally, in our own lives and collectively, in the world. This is the work.
Let your heart break
The Scream by Kent Monkman, from the Shame and Prejudice exhibit.
My heart is broken over the remains of 215 children found in a mass grave at a residential school in British Columbia.
Children who were taken from their families, and never came home.
Children who would only be a little older than me, if they had lived.
Children whose parents, siblings, relatives and neighbours could still be alive today.
And the knowing that most, if not all, of the residential schools in Canada also have these mass graves, besides the official cemeteries.
This isn't our past. It's the ground we're standing on.
Residential schools and all of the harm they caused were a deliberate component of the colonization of Canada and other countries.
It's part of how the colonizers created an environment where they could break the treaties and take whatever they wanted.
It's why my country is the way it is. It's why I've had such a nice life here in Canada.
We can never make a thing better without being able to really SEE it.
This is so much of the work I have done with my clients and students. CLARITY.
You have a dream, but the path that gets you there is all foggy.
And the process of being clear about how to create what you want in your life ends up being A LOT about looking in the dark shadowy places that you'd rather avoid.
I had to learn to stay present with my fears and inner critics before I could live with my dreams.
It's a package deal.
Clarity means CLARITY. Seeing all of it, not just the parts you want to see.
And that's also how we make the world better.
It's in learning to stay present with the pain and injustice of the world that we can begin to see a better way.
That's when you are your most powerful, when you can BE WITH both.
So that's my tip for the day.
Don't be a part of the "sending love and light and good vibes" spiritual bypass crew.
Let your heart break.
Be with the pain in the world.
That's the place where we'll heal, grow, and create a new world from - together.
Let your heart break Read More »
There are SO MANY healings and insights available right now.
This week my dream showed me the path that leads from where I am today, to where I want to be.
The part where I am now is full of waves.
My dream was quick to clarify "Those are WAVES, those aren't bumps. The path is wavy, not bumpy."
I got that that felt important to my dream, but I didn't understand it, so it continued...
"They are waves of healing for you, but also waves as in: the ground is at an incline which changes your perspective to generate the insights you need."
Oh yeah, I see it now.
A wavy path is way better than a bumpy path, which is what it has been feeling like lately.
What changes when I remember that the bumps are waves?
I slow down.
I question where the thought "You are doing this all wrong" is actually coming from and find, each and every time, that it's not my truth.
I stop pushing so hard against the thing that's not working - or in the language of my dream, I stop treating a wave like a bump.
Which helps me make space to RECEIVE healing and insights that the wave has to offer.
Which then usually means I slow down even more.
This "THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE AND I'M JUST STUCK AND IT SUCKS" feeling mellows out and I start to see more clearly and inner and outer obstacles that are stopping me from doing what I want to do. And I start to see ways to face and move through each obstacle.
There are SO MANY healings and insights available right now.
I would say TOO MANY but my dream reminds me "This is what you need to get to the next part"
After over ten years of this work being my full time job - it STILL surprises me sometimes, how the path is not what we think it will be.
I've been seeing my next steps as being all about the outer work, all about these shifts and changes I want to make to my business and new projects I want to take on.
But my dream shows me that this is ALL ABOUT honouring my own truth and inner guidance in ways that make me uncomfortable right now.
Your dream is here to guide you into your best future.
We all need this guidance so much right now.
I mean personally and also collectively.
Our dreams can put us onto the right path, personally and collectively.
I'm so glad I made Dream Book BEFORE the Pandemic started.
I HAVE NEEDED THIS WORK SO BADLY to help me get through this time. My dreams have had so much advice and healing to offer me lately because I have needed so much advice and healing.
Dream Book is a sturdy container for doing the work of understanding what your dream is trying to teach you, and growing in the ways that your dream is trying to grow you.
Each person gets something different out of it, because each of us has a unique path.
It seems complicated but it's not.
Your dream is always calling you towards your True Self.
Towards your healing and growth and the fullest brightest expression of who you are. Your dream is showing you ways to bring all of this into your life. There are many facets and each of them has the potential to help you heal and grow to be able to move towards the next one.
Your dream does have the power to turn your bumps into waves.
Join us here and find our what your dream has for you.
There are SO MANY healings and insights available right now. Read More »