I’m so embarrassed I’ve been journaling about this for so long but I think I figured it out.

My pre-pandemic self used to get up every morning, get dressed and walk or bike to a coffee shop with a journal and laptop. This routine kept me quite consistently productive and motivated.

It took me a long time to sort out my habits and routines as a creative entrepreneur - to mix self care and structure to support myself in being as productive as I could AND do my best work. This particular routine just WORKED for me, as a way to get my work day started.

I felt like the pandemic steamrolled over that. And then a lot of other steamrolls have joined in, in the years since.

And this year I’ve been exploring my routines from new perspectives and this month I tried to REALLY come back to this. I made a commitment to get up, get dressed and show up in the world every day.

This has not gone well.

But this is exactly how creative dreaming works. There is even a section on this in the Dream Plan Kit about planning for when you have no clue how to do a thing. I had an idea, I made a plan to implement the idea, and I did it, I noticed what happened and now I am learning from it so I can refine my plan and try again.

I don’t need to make judgements about how it went, I can just learn from it.

While this routine used to help motivate and energize me and get my days started… these days, this alone can take so much energy I don’t have enough left for my work.

What used to energize me now depletes me! This is good information! Not just to know where I am at now but to know how dramatically these things can change for me.

So I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on this. Even though I feel so embarrassed that something that seems to small is frustrating me so much. As a self employed person I do need to have a routine, or some way of doing my days, that works for me.

I do LOVE to go to a coffee shop with my journal. I see now that my old routine relied on this for motivation and productivity… it’s like I was plugging into this joyful thing to extract whatever I could from it. I was trying to extract the best quality and quantity of productivity that I could from myself.

And I don’t want to make my past self wrong! I am grateful for everything I did when I had the energy to do it. It’s just time for a new way.

I feel like this might not make sense to anyone but me and that’s ok.

I guess… I am breaking up with life hacks! And appreciating the magic of honouring my actual capacity.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your Dream Status Report or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

If you're not a member - find out more + join us here!

I have been having the WILDEST Un-Sticking Station sessions lately.

This is an inner work practice to un-stick the stuck places inside like fears and doubts.

I wrote somewhat recently about feeling a shift in my relationship with my critical inner voice, how I notice it more quickly and am able to tune it out from other parts of me...

That has changed!

Lately I feel like I keep getting lost in my inner critic's voice, and I am mistaking it for my inner wisdom. I'm listening to it too much. I am doubting myself. I am really going deeper into my fears than I want to.

My aim is to be with my feelings and validate them - tend to them without letting them take control of the driver's seat. So - not believing their stories or doing what they say.

Lately, I am getting caught up in the stories.

And it's making the Un-Sticking work harder.

And I'm just... doing my best. All we ever need to do is keep showing up. Sometimes the inner critics and doubts will win. That's ok.

I've never gone through a hard time with the inner work and not come out of it feeling grateful on the other side.

Things tend to get harder in the inner work when we're really onto something, or being especially brave, or are working on something that REALLY matters... this doesn't tend to happen for no reason.

So if you're feeling this too... keep going.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your Dream Status Report or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

If you're not a member - find out more + join us here!

This is connected to last week's post about starting over with my Dream Book.

This page is from the journal I've been using this year as an experimental Daily Creative Dream Practice Journal which is becoming the Dream Book 2026 program!

And as I have said many times - circling around a thing is so good! So I am circling around this.

Having a plan helps you stay on track.

Having a plan makes it easier to get on track!

But there's also the emotional component... having a plan makes me MUCH less overwhelmed with my creative dreams.

I even plan out my sewing projects, even though I know what I want to make with each piece of fabric I have - I also have a page for sewing projects in my project management app! It just FEELS less overwhelming than looking through a pile of fabrics to decide what's next.

A lot of the time when I feel overwhelmed and don't know what to do next - the answer is to MAKE A PLAN.

Planning resources from the membership:

Dream Plan Kit including the creative planning + project management class for making the big overall plan

Creative Genius Planning Sessions for weekly planning

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your Dream Status Report or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

If you're not a member - find out more + join us here!

On Fridays I do these "Dream Status Report" prompts to help me have more clarity, momentum and groundedness on my path.

There are journaling sheets for doing this! These are available for everyone, not just membership members. Download them here.

I had a WEIRD week.

We signed the final divorce papers at the courthouse on Tuesday. I had been really looking forward to this official ending of this “going through a divorce” phase and being ready to step fully into my new life.

And I think probably I just need a little time to adjust. AND/OR maybe this has nothing to do with that but now here at the end of the week I have SO MUCH anxiety.

This fall, much like last spring, I DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO WEAR. This is a daily source of frustration and annoyance.

I have a degree in fashion design and LOVE expressing myself in this way! I sew all of my clothes and LOVE making new things. But suddenly I have no clue WHAT to make that is the right combination of emotional and physical comfort for the transitional seasons. Which feels like.. maybe a new way of expressing myself is on the horizon which is so exciting but right now I’m in the hard part of change.

Not knowing what I want is contributing to the anxiety for sure.

I also didn’t do a great job at meal prepping this week so almost every meal I’m all “Arrrgh what am I doing I don’t feel like cooking”

I am feeling very much lost about the daily taking-care-of-my-life stuff and from this vantage point taking care of my dreams feels completely impossible.

So - taking some time to plan and brainstorm would be sooo good. (I am OBSESSED with squash of all kinds so usually fall meal prep is an exciting thing for me and I end up prepping too much, lol.)

Mostly though I notice that I am INVALIDATING my overwhelm and telling myself I should be handling everything better (wow so not helpful!)

And I am also telling myself I SHOULD be further ahead in a lot of things. Which is connected to the anxiety - that voice gets louder then all hell breaks loose. I am pressuring myself and I don’t know why and it would be good to look at that.

I have been working on the Creative With Money Late Stage Capitalism Update and the soul of money has been coming to me as a hot air balloon on a gorgeous blue sky day and that’s how my dream came to me today as I asked it for help with this.

My dream needs me to take care of myself so I am in a space where I can trust it again.

I need me to, in a calm and loving and not-blaming way, get organized for the new season.

I know underneath some of the frustration and anxiety is the excitement that I am ready to be more organized and structured because I am ready to be more productive. I feel a lot of things coming togehter AND making space for it is A LOT and right now it feels like too much.

But - baby steps.

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

We'll start with a short meditation for connecting with the soul of your dream (like the Dream Lab) and then have time for whatever you want to do - planning next week, working on your projects, sharing your updates, talking about something that is stuck with your dreams or just hanging out in the magic of the group.

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

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your Dream Status Report or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

If you're not a member - find out more + join us here!

Every day it becomes more important that we LISTEN TO OURSELVES about how we navigate our lives.

Our own values and inner knowing can show us how to divest from the destructive systems we live inside and which are becoming more destructive every day.

Our own dreams show us how a better world is possible.

And it's so hard to make space to be able to hear these quiet inner callings in this LOUD LOUD world. And then, when we can hear them, it's even harder to figure out how to act on them.

Art is a bit of a shortcut.

ART meaning whatever that means for you. What feels creative and inspiring and lights you up?

That's your art.

Trust it.

Do more of it.

Lean into it.

It can show you surprising things.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your Dream Status Report or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

If you're not a member - find out more + join us here!

Almost two years ago I started the Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice experiment...

We do this every month on Zoom and the September Marketing as a Creative + Spiritual Practice call is today!

Get the call details (and replay!) here.

We practice together, get support, set goals, and figure out our next steps. Since we've been doing this for almost two years - the library of replays is RICH.

My whole sense of what it means to do this work is changing.

What does it mean to make my work visible for the people that it's for?

I used to have these really... I don't know, automatic, I guess, answers to that. Starting by using the common marketing channels THEN then let's get creative about how we do this and let's really listen to our truth and values about how we do this...

But in our explorations on these calls in the last few years, so many interesting questions have been asked.

So many weird and amazing ideas have been considered.

And I keep feeling myself being pulled out of all of my usual ways of doing things - instead of starting with the "usual way" and then putting a creative spin on it...

What else is possible?

And noticing how the question "What else is possible?" often comes out of a capitalist mindset. Like how can we dream BIGGER and make MORE money and have MORE impact on MORE people?

And I feel that inner resistance to it. Like "fuck you this is enough" I do not have to always reach higher and dream bigger.

AND

Now I feel like... well what ELSE is possible... outside of what whole paradigm of BIGGER BETTER MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE? Outside of the whole paradigm of the usual methods of putting our work out there?

I've been in DEEP reflection and reconfiguration this year.

Divorce in mid-life is the most dramatic starting-over I've ever experienced.

And as hard as it is, it's also been such a gift in terms of forcing me to re-evaluate so many things which and creates space to re-evaluate other things.

And now I am re-evaluating this.

What else is possible?

Outside of ANY known framework for what marketing is supposed to look like.

Excited to explore this with you on today's call.

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your Dream Status Report or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

If you're not a member - find out more + join us here!

I was re-reading my Dream Book and it was SO weird.

I mean yes - I haven't bene using it really consistently in the last few years because of [reasons] and now I am really excited to get back into it so I started by re-reading it.

What was shocking is how I was talking about my dream - it just does't reflect how I feel about it now.

It felt like it doesn't reflect ME now, at all. And I kept re-reading and trying to figure out what I could still work with... And then I realized it was futile.

And I wrote this page: START THE FUCK OVER.

It felt so freeing to just LET GO of everything and start fresh.

Sometimes this is really good to do! Sometimes the things you've learned and the ways you've grown stay with you in the new adventure...

And sometimes it's a way of avoiding the hard stuff, like if I just let it go and start fresh maybe the hard stuff won't fine me in my "new" process?

We can't always know for sure.

But when you FEEL LIKE you really want to start over, I think starting over is the right thing to do.

What I mean by starting over:

Permission to disregard everything I have in my journal. Crossing out everything that doesn't feel relevant in the Table of Contents and putting my new pages in there. (I have said before, my Table of Contents are often a huge mess!)

If I run out of space on the Table of Contents page, I could glue a new piece of paper over it to start fresh.

Then, go through the Dream Book checklist from the top and re-do the pages completely.

And most importantly: TAKE MY TIME

The content you get in the first month of Dream Book is pretty dense. The questions may seem small but you are setting clear intentions and creating a container for your process in the Outer Work, Inner Work and Dream Work of making this thing happen.

Re-doing these pages is really good! Each time you do them for the same dream you get a bit clearer. If you've been working with this dream for a while, and you re-do Dream Book, you will usually notice things you haven't noticed before.

So I do encourage people to start over whenever they feel like they want to start over. If you are doing it just to avoid the hard stuff... the hard stuff will find you in the new Dream Book, so you're not really avoiding anything by starting over.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your Dream Status Report or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

If you're not a member - find out more + join us here!

On Fridays I do these "Dream Status Report" prompts to help me have more clarity, momentum and groundedness on my path.

There are journaling sheets for doing this! These are available for everyone, not just membership members. Download them here.

I had such a good week.

We had some huge rain storms which put out a lot our huge forest fires! We didn't have a smoke day all week and I went for so many gorgeous bike rides and I felt that amazing way I feel when I am consistently getting enough movement.

I am working on my 2 new projects and just feeling so inspired and happy AND working slower than I ever have. After all this time of resisting the need to slow down this week I luxuriated in it.

My dream keeps wanting me to know that I AM WRONG.

Like - the assumptions I make about what I need to do are wrong, creative dreaming is an ALCHEMICAL process. Things shift and change as you BE WITH them.

There is still a part of me who automatically thinks I need to work harder or smarter or something when my dream says... nope. There is this other option that you can't even see right now. Keep going on this path and you'll find a mushroom to eat or a potion to drink that will change things so dramatically you won't believe it.

I am re-starting my Dream Book and also doing that soooo sloooooow.

I re-read the whole thing this week and was like "WHAT?" I thought I picked up the wrong journal and maybe this was from a few years ago but sure enough, this was my current Dream Book. It just felt like it was written by a different person.

This is partly because this year I have been experimenting with doing Dream Book in a planner, and I have that huge 9x11" daily planner I've been using for that, alongside the huge daily planner for the Year of Hope - so a LOT of journaling is happening outside of the official Dream Book.

And partly because divorce brings a lot of change. Besides everything else that is happening.

I am so happy to see my dreams and my self changing in ways that I don't recognize things I wrote earlier this year.

My focus for next week: re-start Dream Book. Spend some time with those initial pages where you really define the dream and the dream self and look at the obstacles, etc. Having that all written out makes a HUGE difference.

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your Dream Status Report or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

If you're not a member - find out more + join us here!

Usually I wake up on my own without an alarm but this morning I woke up because my cat Bear was meowing so incessantly I thought I must have slept in.. but it was still 30 minutes until his normal breakfast time. 

But I got up, got his breakfast for him, and went back to my bedroom because I was still sleepy.

It’s a rare, cool morning without smoke in the air so I opened the window, lay down and appreciated the fresh air. Soon, Bear finished his breakfast and joined me.

And I was like… why go out for coffee with my laptop like I’d planned when I could be here, enjoying the cool breeze with my amazing cat?

I thought about dealing with traffic and the noise of the world and whatever “get up and go” I still had in me just vanished.

I used to get up on a gorgeous morning like this and be EXCITED to get out there and enjoy it. 

I miss that.

AND there are benefits to how I’ve slowed down, and work from home on my own more.

And today I knew that it would actually be good for me to get out. So I decided to push myself a bit, and take a longer bike ride through forested river trails to get to a quieter coffee shop with a huge window that overlooks a small meadow.

I’m so glad I did.

My brain changes in a coffee shop! A fresh hot mug of coffee and a seat by a window and…. I can think more clearly.

I’m so proud of the work I did this morning.

Then on my way home the wind was against me and I was cycling hard and got to that point where (I don’t know, is it endorphins?) my body just changed. I felt elated.

I’m so glad I did that. It feels like a kind of metaphor for creative dreaming. 

We aren’t always going to feel like showing up and taking risks and forcing/pressuring ourselves is not the answer… but how can we hold our desire to show up just as strongly as we hold our resistance?

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your Dream Status Report or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

If you're not a member - find out more + join us here!

The relationship between my dreams and money is really weird right now. The ways they used to relate to each other are changing and I don't know where we're at anymore.

This makes sense! Late stage capitalism has changed how money works! We all need to adjust and it's really hard to find the bandwidth to really process that.

So for few months now this idea has been brewing: to do a Creative With Money Late Stage Capitalism Update.

Creative With Money is one of my most BELOVED courses.

It took me FIVE YEARS to figure out how I wanted to do a class on money. And when I did the original Creative With Money it felt so right!!! I was so proud of this program...

But the five years I worked on it were 2007 - 2012 and the world has changed so dramatically since then - and the truth is, these ideas don’t land the same way here in late-stage capitalism.

So to start the process of updating this beloved program, I decided to DO the Creative With Money class to help me sit with and process what's going on in my relationship with money.

YIKES!!!!!

First I cringed about some of the content... and then I felt a ton of GRIEF because I put so much love and care into this class.

It’s heartbreaking to see beloved creations “turn sour” for lack of a better term.

So I’ve been sitting with all of the feelings that come out of that heartbreak while asking myself... how could I update it so it feels helpful for these times?

And I am starting to get excited about that.

And as I've been working more with the Creative with Money content - it's actually not THAT cringe.

I mean I cringed while listening to the recording.... but then I had a really helpful experience in the first meditation. I've been sitting with that and having moved on to the second part yet (it's a three part class).

And I'm starting to see how to approach this work in a way that honours everything that is happening... the stress of the world AND the incredible magic and power that live in you.

Creative With Money: Late Stage Capitalism Update is coming this fall!

It's going to be a 3 month class. (So the content will be dripped out over 3 months and not available to do all at once like it is now)

I will update the content so that it feels relevant for where we’re at today and makes space for possibility. And change the workbooks to journal kit style, where you cut and paste the prompts and do the journaling in your own journal.

I am not adding MORE content - I am slowing the process down to make more space to explore, process, plant seeds and see how they take root.

My plan is to have the first month ready in mid-September and then add a new module mid October and mid-November.

Excited to explore this with you!

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your Dream Status Report or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

If you're not a member - find out more + join us here!

There actually isn’t a such thing as “being ready” because the path won’t look like you think it will so there isn’t a way to be ready.

But choosing to do the thing and then holding onto that choice will help you FEEL ready enough to begin.

Once you begin - that’s when you figure out HOW.

Not before.

I CHOSE to offer Dream Book 2026: Showing up for yourself, your dreams and the life you want to create.

I knew I wanted it to be a playful and simple way to show up for your dreams. Like a companion to Dream Book, or a thing to do on its own.

I know I wanted it to be IN A PLANNER and the planner has a page or section for every day of the year and in this way it helps hold space for our process and then over the course of the year we fill that planner with DREAMS.

That’s all I knew when I announced to people in the membership that this will be thing, starting January 2026.

That’s all I needed to make the decision.

I’ve wanted to do this kind of thing for years, so I had a lot of ideas swirling around but nothing concrete.

Once I fully chose to do it and said I would do it... that's when I sat down and gave myself 1.5 hours to brainstorm what this could look like…

WHOA.

I had more ideas than I thought, I was much more ready than I thought.

But if I hadn’t made the decision to go ahead with it regardless, I think those ideas would still be swirling around in my head and I would be seeing this as a "someday" project.

(More details to come about Dream Book 2026! I am also working a "Late Stage Capitalism" update to the Creative With Money program.)

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your Dream Status Report or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

If you're not a member - find out more + join us here!

On Fridays I do these "Dream Status Report" prompts to help me have more clarity, momentum and groundedness on my path.

There are journaling sheets for doing this! These are available for everyone, not just membership members. Download them here.

This is so embarrassing.

I keep coming here on Fridays, doing these prompts, and coming to the same conclusion.

I keep thinking I should just GET IT ALREADY and not need to keep giving myself the same advice.

This frustration with the process is not helpful but it is real.

On the New Moon call in the meditation I came face to face with this OCEAN OF FEAR that I have about my dream.

I feel like I activated the ocean of fear but I know that's not what happened... I just finally looked it in the eye.

It FEELS so big because I have walked right up to it.

THIS IS WHAT INTENTION SETTING DOES.

It invites clarity about the our inner and outer stucks and obstacles.

It creates space for us to see these things for what they are, to process our feelings about them, and ultimately to find our way THROUGH them.

I'm just at the part where I am really/finally noticing how BIG and DEEP these fears are - ocean really is the right metaphor.

I have so much understanding and experience with this. That doesn't seem to help make it feel any less scary.

One neat thing that came out of the Dream Status Report Prompts this morning:

There is the part of me who is afraid of the fear.

And then there is this part of me who is afraid that I can't handle the fear. Like, this is a separate part.

Most of the time, I have the fear, the part of me who is terrified... and also the part of me who knows I'll get through it. This is just something I have from all these years of doing this work. And this is something I offer to people in the membership... I know you'll get through it too, as long as you keep showing up.

Well, that part of me, for this situation, was just gone.

Isn't that weird?

I'm just sitting with how weird this feels. Where did this part of me who trusts myself GO? Why did it leave NOW? This is hardly the scariest thing I've ever done.

And then when I sit with that it's like... no, she's here. She's a mermaid swimming on the other side of this huge wave I am facing down.

Oh. This is how it feels to be healing, growing and creating in this dystopian world.

Everything feels heightened. So the part of me who trust the process FEELS 100% gone when she's actually just on the other side of this wave.

Every time I sit with how intense everything feels right now I come to the same answer... slow down. Give yourself more space to process.

So, as I said in the beginning, I got the same advice from doing these prompts as I usually do:

My dreams need more ATTENTION from me.

Which seems ridiculous because I literally turned them into JOB!!!!

But it's also 100% true.

It's completely reasonable that I have been getting lost in distractions. It's like all summer I've been in this balancing act of being present and distracting myself.

And I can be embarrassed that I still haven't found balance.

Or I can keep showing up and working on it.

Honestly, this being embarassed feels like maybe another level of distraction?

Does it matter how many times my dreams have to say HEY PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!!!?

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

Come to the forum to share your Dream Status Report or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.

Get your next Dream Book lesson or get a weekly journaling + alchemy kit.

Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.

Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.

If you're not a member - find out more + join us here!