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

​Get this week's journal prompt here.​

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

I know I shared a photo of this page a little while back but I'm back in this place.

A lot of the reasons why I have felt SO distracted lately is that I actually feel SO vulnerable and don't want to feel it.

And in trying to avoid this intense feeling of vulnerability - I end up needing to avoid a lot.

I have to avoid hope itself. I have to avoid my dreams.

Sometimes it IS all too much and we need a distraction. And then sometimes it's hard to find our way back out of distraction.

Right now: I'm starting to appreciate the sensation of vulnerability in my body.

There is a certain amount of vulnerability it takes to put yourself out there the way I do with my work. I've been doing this full time for almost 15 years so I have had some time to work though that and find ways to be with the vulnerability.

But as the world changes so quickly, it feels vulnerable in new ways.

And then at the same time my dreams are telling me that this work is more relevant and important and needed than ever... and I feel called to be a little MORE visible with my work and that adds in new layers of vulnerability.

So it's a lot to work through. You might think 15 year of experience would make it easier but that's not the case right now, lol!!

The August New Moon Call is Wednesday!

Call details are here.

If you're not a member and want to do this on your own - get the New Moon Intention Setting Ritual Kit!

 

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

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

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

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

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

​Get this week's journal prompt here.​

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

I've been sharing photos of my Year of Hope journal every Monday with the new prompt and I don't have a new photo this week.

I love how helpful that routine is - a bit of structure to support my creative process.

But to be SUPPORTIVE, a structure has to include room to support what is actually happening. Today I just don't have a photo or a page I feel interested in taking a photo of.

Maybe ideally I'd have a photo that I felt excited to share but here I am without one so... I don't want to force myself to get a photo and I don't want to not do a post.

Just noticing this, the different ways of holding a structure for a creative practice.

I am looking through pages I wrote in my Year of Hope journal about how we can't stay hopeful when we are heavy with unpressed feelings.

This was a big them for Another World Is Possible: Showing Up For The Future You Want To Create which is still on my mind.

It's like hopelessness is a quicksand that is under everything right now. It wants to pull us under.

I mean, I'm sure hopelessness doesn't actually have wants, hopes and dreams itself. But it sure feels like it wants to pull us all under!

And I think the rule with quicksand is to not struggle with it? Because all that movement makes you sink faster?

Because that's definitely the rule for hopelessness and all of the heaviness we feel right now.

Don't fight it.

Figure out how to make space for it.

Figure out what you need when you feel heavy.

Yesterday I embroidered.

During Another World Is Possible: Showing Up For The Future You Want To Create we talked about how creative work is helpful but that getting set up to do a project can be inaccessible in the moment, so being prepared is so important.

So I left my embroidery project, with the little bag of all the things I need with it, on my coffee table instead of having it "kind of away" in my embroidery box on my shelf where it has been languishing for about a year.

Because technically it was ready to go, but in those moments where I feel heavy or foggy, I am not thinking of it. So I need it to be sitting there where I can see it.

So I picked it up. Fifteen minutes later I felt so much better.

There is something to be said for - doing a repetitive thing with your hands is good for calming your nervous system. There is something to be said for - creative projects are good for the nervous system.

There is a LOT to be said for accepting that there is a heaviness to these times, to acknowledging how it's impacting our minds and bodies, and making space to figure out what to do about that.

Membership members: if you haven't yet, make time this week to watch the replay from Another World Is Possible: Showing Up For The Future You Want To Create

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

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

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

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

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

​Get this week's journal prompt here.​

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

This is recurring theme in my Year of Hope journal.

Hope is on the other side of grief.

Hope is on the other side of anxiety.

Hope is on the other side of rage.

Etc, etc, etc.

This regular reminder that the kind of hope I am looking for can't be found in ignoring, avoiding or numbing the hard stuff.

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

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

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

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

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

​Get this week's journal prompt here.​

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

At some point hope has to become action.

We all see it in the US with the Republican politicians who offer thoughts and prayers after school shootings and refuse to take action on sensible gun legislation.

Here in Canada our politicians keep saying they want to respond to climate change and protect us from climate collapse… but we need to keep building MORE pipelines (and passed a bill to override Indigenous consultation to put new pipelines through Indigenous territory quickly) and extracting all we can… to fund the green economy of the future.

At some point real hope requires real action.

If you cannot or will not back up your hope with action - it’s worthless.

It’s very easy for us to see this in our politicians and other scenarios…

… it’s harder to see it when it comes to our own dreams.

But that’s where my Year of Hope daily journal practice has landed me now.

Hope isn’t just…. like a nice feeling or idea. It needs legs. It needs to have the power to act or else it becomes something else.

Holding onto hope for something but not taking any action to support it turns toxic.

When it comes to issues like climate change and the fascist takeover of your government and watching democracy crumble before your eyes… of course these things feel “too big”. Of course any steps you might be able to take feel like too little.

But taking them matters.

Same thing with our dreams.

I’ve been in this weird intersection of getting a divorce I didn’t see coming, while turning 50 and suddenly not being so sure about who I really am or what I really want, while my closest neighbours are becoming fascists and launched a trade war that threatens to become a war war as in they want to take us over, while being self employed during a chaotic economy, while checking the air quality monitors to see if it’s ok to go for a bike ride because wildfire season is completely out of control in my province (in a place where floods are usually the bigger problem!), while worrying about all of the wildfire evacuees, while being terrified about the ongoing genocides, while trying to re-discover myself as an artist in all of this.

And most days it’s easier to just say… this is too much. I don’t know what steps to take but if I did I’m sure they would be too much. So what if I just don’t.

But the NOT DOING adds up over time just like taking little steps add up over time.

This is just really hitting me.

THE

NOT

DOING

ADDS

UP

OVER

TIME.

And the doing… well it doesn’t even matter how big the steps you take are, it doesn’t matter how relevant they feel or what the immediate results are.

Doing creates movement. Doing creates possibility. Doing builds the path that leads to the better future.

(Not to be confused with over-working, pushing, striving, etc. There is a balance.)

Let's work together to figure out what little steps we can take!

A Better World is Possible: Showing Up For The Future You Want To Create is happening this Wednesday!!

Healing Circle + Community Spell * June 30 1pm Central * Live on Zoom, replay provided

From Existential Dread to Hope and everything in between.

This is: Space to sit with everything that is happening and tend to your feelings about it all and move towards knowing how you want to show up for the future you want to create - either in your own life or in the world at large or both.

This is the work right now and I am so grateful to get to do this work in such an incredible community.

Call details are here. <-- this is for all membership members. If you're not a member - this call is worth joining for! Join here.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

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

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

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

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

​Get this week's journal prompt here.​

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

I am over half a year in to exploring hope. I love this.

I went through a period where I struggled to fill this journal. I am now filling pages several days ahead!

It's all a part of it.

Right now what's coming to me is how much COURAGE it takes to be hopeful

And then how much COURAGE and HOPE it takes to dream.

We can't just... wake up and do this work.

There is all of this foundational work we do to even begin to feel ready to show up.

And it's amazing that we keep doing it.

The July New Moon Call is tomorrow!

Call details are here.

If you're not a member and want to do this on your own - get the New Moon Intention Setting Ritual Kit!

Next week: A Better World is Possible: Showing Up For The Future You Want To Create

Healing Circle + Community Spell * June 30 1pm Central * Live on Zoom, replay provided

From Existential Dread to Hope and everything in between.

This is: Space to sit with everything that is happening and tend to your feelings about it all and move towards knowing how you want to show up for the future you want to create - either in your own life or in the world at large or both.

This is the work right now and I am so grateful to get to do this work in such an incredible community.

Call details are here.

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

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

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

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

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

​Get this week's journal prompt here.​

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

SHOWING UP.

That's it.

You can be an absolute mess, but SHOW UP and BE IN THE MESS.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

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

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

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

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

​Get this week's journal prompt here.​

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

Have I really ✨NOTICED✨ this part of me who has been fighting so ferociously for hope?

This is a whole theme for me lately in my journaling: noticing places where I am NOT giving myself credit for what I AM doing, and focusing more of what I am NOT doing that I wish I WAS doing.

And I was feeling like I wasn't as hopeful as I wish I was and then suddenly this thought came to me and I knew it needed it's own page in the Year of Hope journal.

And ferocious really is the right word.

I, and all of us, have every reason to NOT be hopeful.

Any little way we try to hold onto hope is FEROCIOUS.

We deserve a LOT of credit for this.

To recognize how heavy it is to try to hold onto hope right now. To hold onto dreams and art and healing and believing in ourselves.

It feels like such a relief to notice this part of me who has been so diligent and consistent and yes FEROCIOUS about holding on to hope.

And at the same time it feels like an acknowledgement of how HARD this is right now, which validates the fact that maybe even though I am fighting FEROCIOUSLY, I am not going to win every single battle.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

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

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

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

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

​Get this week's journal prompt here.​

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

Hope says you have to be true to yourself in order to access me.

The page before this page journal starts with: I WANT TO BE A WILD MESS.

I was feeling like I keep needing to pack up my mess, or zip up my mess, and put on a mask of "normalcy" to engage with the world and I just didn't want to. I wanted to go out into the world as a wild mess.

This wasn't that long ago but I already don't really remember exactly what this was about but I do remember the feeling.

I WANT TO FEEL LESS CONTAINED.

And also

I JUDGE MYSELF FOR BEING A MESS SOMETIMES.

And moving into this place of being willing to stop judging and start loving this part of me.

And just navigating how it feels to manage increasing inner chaos amidst increasing outer chaos.

And it can feel like there is no space for hope, in all of that.

But then this next page was about how hope DEMANDS authenticity. And how I can't really get near hope if I am not being myself, if I am distancing myself from parts of me or not processing my feelings or staying present.

And it all kind of makes sense.

Also it felt like... hope is always there for me. It's up to me if I am able to access it, and the times when I can't - that's ok. It's not like my ability to connect with hope in the future is damaged.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

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

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

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

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

​Get this week's journal prompt here.​

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

Bear the Life Coach wanted to offer his thoughts on practicing hope. And I’m so glad he offered, because I think he’s a master.

The other day I went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. It was about 1:30. He ran over to his bowl, then turned around and looked at me, to say “feed me”.

I said “ARE YOU CRAZY? It’s the middle of the day!”

He knows it’s the middle of the day and he knows he gets dinner every day at 5 and yet every time I go into the kitchen he is so freaking hopeful about getting a treat.

And it’s true that if I am getting a snack, and if a part of it is something that he would like, he’s getting a little treat.

But it’s also true that more times than not - there isn’t anything for him. 

But he keeps hoping. And he keeps showing up.

And he doesn’t get pissy with me when there is no snack. He just goes back to whatever he was doing.

His level of hope just stays steady no matter what the outcome.

I’ve been thinking of hope less as a feeling and more as a direction. I want to keep moving in the direction that hope would send me in, regardless of how I am feeling.

Hopelessness wants me to just give up on anything good. Or wait until things feel easier.

Hope asks me to keep moving.

When the outcomes are not what I hoped for, this can get painful. It feels heavier and heavier to keep moving in the direction of hope.

That's how it feels but... actually it GETS heavier and heavier IF I am not processing the pain that comes up when the outcomes are not what I'd hoped for.

AND YES sometimes this is just too much and we need a break. Absolutely. And I need to look at: where do I need more support or a new approach, so that I can deal with the heaviness?

So this week I am trying to call on the spirit of Bear’s never-ending hope for a treat.

 

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

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

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

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