Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
On Fridays I do my Dream Status Report which is a series of prompts I use every week to help me have more clarity, momentum and groundedness on my path. You can do them with me (Dream Book members: come post yours in the forum!)!
I know doing the same prompts every week can be annoying sometimes but this is magically clarifying. The repetition helps you go deeper into the process and makes it easier to LEARN from your process as you go, and the apply those learnings right away.
Here are the prompts:
PART ONE: (sometimes these can stay the same for months at time, sometimes they change often)
My dream is:
I want it because:
When I have it I will feel:
PART TWO:
Invite your dream in (using the Dream Lab practice) to help you with the rest of the prompts.
PART THREE:
My goal/wish/intention for this New Moon is:
Last week’s focus was:
What happened in the last week?
What am I learning/How do I feel about this?
What do I need now?
What does my dream need now?
Taking all of this into account, my focus for the next week is:
My Dream Status Report for this week:
PART ONE:
My dream is: Being the artist + writer I want to be. Feeling really alive. I already have it AND it's an always-work-in-process... right now there is a lot shifting around how much/what kind of art I want to make and working on creating more nourishing/robust/lively local creative community.
I want it because: This is hard to answer. I just want it.
When I have it I will feel: The same as now - ALL the feelings 🙂
My new moon intention: Treat this transition time I'm in as sacred. (New Moon call was so good this month!!)
PART TWO: Invite your dream in (using the Dream Lab practice) to help you with the rest of the prompts.
I hear the words "this vibrant life" and feel a warmth in my chest.
PART THREE:
Last week’s focus was:Be where I am AND appreciate all the new possibilities opening up.
What happened in the last week?
The Holding Space for Conflicting Feelings call happened and it was so good! I'm so happy to add that to our library of inner work practices.
There's been a major medical issue happening for a family member that I won't talk about online, but has been causing immense stress for Joseph and I as we navigate our breakup.
So really, I did what I could with this week. I took excellent care of myself - I love this time of year eating fresh local veggies. I am listening to my nervous system about where to slow down. I am BEING where I am while noticing all the new possibilities opening up, like looking ahead to my new life.
What am I learning/How do I feel about this?
I've never handled a break-up this well before, I am really proud of myself.
What do I need now?
Same as last week: just to be where I am. SEE my new future opening up without rushing towards it. Processing all of my feelings very deeply as an act of self care and growth.
What does my dream need now?
My dream is glowing about that last sentence: Processing all of my feelings very deeply as an act of self care and growth.
Taking all of this into account, my focus for the next week is:
Processing all of my feelings very deeply as an act of self care and growth.
Dream Book 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.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.
I don’t know what to do today.
But I AM having a lot of feelings, so I went to the Inner Work section of the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy.
I noticed the practice for working with disappointment and knew that is something I need AND I am not ready. I felt a definite full body NO. That’s a deep practice which will be helpful when I’m not feeling so raw.
The thing that called me for today was: Qualities
I haven’t been using the weekly kits (though I want to start using them again) so I just picked the quality I want:
soothing
And did the Qualities Activator meditation with it. I stopped at the journaling part, I just did the short meditation with the quality.
Soothing came in as tears. My body shaking. Intense crying.
And I was like “No this isn’t what I wanted”
But then also “Oh yeah tears are healing. This IS soothing. This IS a release”
So I sat with it and started to feel soothed.
Dream Book members:
Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.
Get your next Dream Book lesson.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
Sometimes life is messy and hard.
One of my step-children has been in the hospital for the last week. We had to delay the end of moving my husband's stuff out of my place. We had to delay giving each other space away from each other. It's a mess.
And my first reaction is to want to create space for myself to protect my dreams, protect the things that are important to me. Like - section off my life and keep this mess isolated.
And trying to do that, today in my Creative Dream Practice, has been so frustrating.
My frustration is a sign with flashing lights saying "NO! THIS IS NOT THE WAY!"
The flashing lights are pointing me down a path where I let everything be a mess right now. And let MYSELF be a mess.
So, how do I practice my dreams when I'm a mess?
Oh wow, as soon as I asked that question I had the answer:
- Ride my bike to the park with my tablet.
- Get a coffee and something delicious like a chocolate croissant. (I have been eating SO nutrient dense which is important and supportive and also a treat would be so nice!)
- Just focus on the drawings for the guided journal project - I know what I'm doing with that, I don't need to use a lot of mental focus to figure anything out right now. JUST ENJOY IT
Dream Book members:
Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.
Get your next Dream Book lesson.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
Last week's Dream Status Report brought me the following focus: BE where you ARE while appreciating the new possibilities that are opening up"
Two things about that:
- This is what ALL creative dreaming is! Staying present in your current life WHILE building the path to what's next. Sometimes this is easier, sometimes this is harder.
- When doing meditation + journaling, especially in a dedicated Creative Dream Practice, it becomes easier to find the answers you need. Knowing the answer and ACTING ON IT are two really different things.
So here I am figuring out how to do this thing.
On top of the things I have shared about what's happening in my life, another big thing happened which I do not want to share. I'll just say it adds a layer of stress and complication to a stressful and complicated situation.
OF COURSE the more turbulent your life is, the harder it is to stay present in it, especially at the depth of emotional presence needed to do creative dreaming. And OF COURSE this means that this stuff is wayyyy easier for some people that others. The more intersections of privilege you have, the easier it is.
I am where I am. How do I want to do this this week?
Starting with meditation: Sitting With Uncomfortable Feelings (using that technique from the 1 hour class we did)
And then whoa...
I don't need to figure out how to focus on what I want, because those feelings are there too. Underneath the feelings I don't don't want to feel - which means I can't access them if I am avoiding my feelings - are my dreams and desires.
The big dreams are still there but there is a new more immediate dream:
Healing Fall and Healing Winter.
Two seasons of focusing inward, creativity, healing, space, rest, quiet. Acclimating to my new life.
Collecting ideas for things I want to do when spring comes.
Every book I have read about divorce says it's at least 1-2 years to "feel normal" again (NOT that "feeling normal" is a goal for me, lol) and I accept that this will be a long process. So I don't mean I'll be HEALED by spring, and of course when spring comes I may decide I want healing spring and healing summer too as far as that goes.
Just that right now I want to focus on these next two seasons as healing time, which just makes me thing/feel different about this time.
And it leads to one important thing:
MORE CREATIVE PROJECTS. Art journaling but also embroidery, painting, just... MAKE STUFF. Would be good to brainstorm some projects, and get materials. Like I know I want to do embroidery but, what? Get patterns and colours picked, get all the threads I need, so I am ready to go.
I am really inspired by this sweatshirt pattern which includes instructions for appliquéing whatever you want on the sweatshirt - like instead of sports teams that are usually there. How fun would it be to put affirmations or qualities you are working on on a sweatshirt? Slow the fuck down! Powerful, Creative, Magnetic.
I want that ALIVENESS and HEALING of really being in my creative flow. I have so many work projects I want to do, and I want SO MANY personal projects also ready to go.
OK so now I how HOW to "be where I am and appreciate the new possibilities that are opening up". Make more space for creative projects including having plans + materials ready to go.
Dream Book members:
Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.
Get your next Dream Book lesson.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
I'm offering these live Co-Dreaming (Meditation + Journaling) calls every Monday.
I started doing these calls to help us all keep showing up no matter how messy things get because have you noticed how messy the world is right now?
And together we've turned it into this really beautiful community dreaming together. I'm so grateful for everyone who is showing up and Co-Dreaming with me. This is so special.
Dream Book members:
Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.
Get your next Dream Book lesson.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
On Fridays I do my Dream Status Report which is a series of prompts I use every week to help me have more clarity, momentum and groundedness on my path. You can do them with me (Dream Book members: come post yours in the forum!)!
I know doing the same prompts every week can be annoying sometimes but this is magically clarifying. The repetition helps you go deeper into the process and makes it easier to LEARN from your process as you go, and the apply those learnings right away.
Here are the prompts:
PART ONE: (sometimes these can stay the same for months at time, sometimes they change often)
My dream is:
I want it because:
When I have it I will feel:
PART TWO:
Invite your dream in (using the Dream Lab practice) to help you with the rest of the prompts.
PART THREE:
My goal/wish/intention for this New Moon is:
Last week’s focus was:
What happened in the last week?
What am I learning/How do I feel about this?
What do I need now?
What does my dream need now?
Taking all of this into account, my focus for the next week is:
My Dream Status Report for this week:
PART ONE:
My dream is: Being the artist + writer I want to be. Feeling really alive. I already have it AND it's an always-work-in-process... right now there is a lot shifting around how much/what kind of art I make and working on creating more nourishing/robust/lively local creative community.
I want it because: This is hard to answer. I just want it.
When I have it I will feel: The same as now - ALL the feelings 🙂
My new moon intention: Treat this transition time I'm in as sacred. (New Moon call was so good this week!!)
PART TWO: Invite your dream in (using the Dream Lab practice) to help you with the rest of the prompts.
My dream is a blue sky with white clouds, and then this rainbow coloured... art? lights? patterns? in front of it. It's shifting, like something new is coming into being. It feels like hope and possibility.
PART THREE:
Last week’s focus was: Exceptional self care.
What happened in the last week?
I really did do EXCEPTIONAL self care.
Last week I shared that my husband and I split up and I wrote "obviously it's been some time coming". But actually it wasn't. It was really good for 8.5 years and then there was one month where everything fell off the rails and then it was suddenly clear that our relationship as it was could not continue, we would be better as friends. And it's still a shock to me how quickly that happened.
It's always easier to practice creative dreaming when the rest of your life is calm, because creative dreaming can bring up so much stuff. But it's not possible to live your life to the fullest AND have it always be calm.
So I am really proud of the ways I am looking to the future and noticing the new possibilities and opportunities opening up to me now WHILE ALSO making space to process all the feelings that are coming up.
(Which reminds me: the Holding Space for Conflicting Feelings call is next week!)
What am I learning/How do I feel about this?
Still feeling ALL the feelings - which includes lots of good ones!
What do I need now?
Just to be where I am. SEE my new future opening up without rushing towards it.
What does my dream need now?
Oh! Now the rainbow pattern is lights - and I remembered Nuit Blanche coming up which is my FAVOURITE. It's a night of art shows all over the city, all night (not that I stay out late, lol) with lots of outdoor installations that light up. I love to ride my bike around seeing everything. My dream needs that INSPIRATION and JOY.
Taking all of this into account, my focus for the next week is:
Be where I am AND appreciate all the new possibilities opening up.
Dream Book 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.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.
I woke up thinking about Creative Dreaming While Your World Is Falling Apart. This is the title of a guided journal I am imagining writing, and maybe I will one day.
Because I've been sharing my daily posts and maybe it seems like I am going on like nothing has happened, but I'm definitely not doing that.
Separation is emotionally volatile and I want to FEEL my feelings and process them and move THROUGH all of this, and not be stuck in it. AND I don't want my whole life to be this.
So - I focus on what I want to focus on when I am at my best. Mornings are my best time, I am SUCH a morning person. So I wake up, meditate, journal, get exercise, do my Dream Work, do my work work, work on creative projects.
Some days all of that inspires and energizes me and I stay pretty upbeat all day. BUT I am more tired than usual, my body is achy, I get overwhelmed more easily - there are all the signs of grief.
Some days I wear out my energy for the day early on.
So - after focusing on what I want to focus on first thing, then I focus on self care. What do I need? More water, nutrient dense foods, time with friends, time alone, journaling, feeling my feelings, hot epsom salt baths, lots of reading of things that feel helpful, stretching, re-arranging the Dream Loft - it does feel good to spread out.
It feels like a way of creating bubbles in my life that hold space for things. Holding space for my dreams and needs and creative projects while also holding space for grief and the process of separation. Of course the bubbles collide sometimes, but most of the time, this feels good - there is space for everything and over time, my new life will grow out of the separation process. This is easier to trust when I am showing up consistently for the dream work.
Dream Book members:
Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.
Get your next Dream Book lesson.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
Today in my practice I am meeting with the soul of my business. I'm doing this as my daily practice right now as I get into "fall vibes" and am getting more focused on finishing the guided journal project, which also leads to a ton of other projects. And yes I need more money because of the divorce but I feel really calm and trusting about that part.
I am doing this as a daily practice to get more aligned with the soul of the Creative Dream Incubator to help me make the right decision because there are So Many Decisions to make about this project.
In my last post, the soul of my business asked me to make pro and con lists about a big decision, and those lists ended up being SO easy and SO helpful.
I decided: DO THE EASY THING RIGHT NOW.
I remembered: no one step is written in stone! I can do it the easy (I mean not easy but easiest) thing now and switch up to the other thing at any time.
So today what I want is: good vibes, for lack of a better term. I am doing creative work on the project (editing, which means editing artwork mostly, and sometimes re-drawing the journaling prompts if I can see a way to do it better). I want to be in the flow, loving what I am doing, and getting things done.
In the meeting with the soul of my business:
OMG so good!
The soul of my business appears with the boxes as it has been, but now it's a female figure and has wings and she steps out of the boxes and is just huge. She says "We are going to have some fun!"
My body starts to sway, I am really feeling this energy of being in the flow. I ask my questions about how to approach this project today and see the soul of the project: a campfire, but magic. It offers WARMTH for your creative dream process and WARMTH can be sometime different each time.
I stayed in the meditation a while, it all just felt so good.
And now I know what to do today.
Dream Book members:
Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.
Get your next Dream Book lesson.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
Today in my practice I am meeting with the soul of my business.
Last week this was so good and it felt like a thing I need to do more regularly. I LOVE this recording, the first part of the meditation is soooo healing. I remember doing it that way because of all the stuff that gets sparked in working with our businesses, and it feels soooo good to use it.
It's similar to last week, a bunch of boxes piled together that are alive - like a box robot.
But it's bigger. The boxes are less chaotic.
It doesn't take a genius to see the boxes are representing the actual boxes in my home with my husband's things packed in them. And he's been picking up a car load every day after work and the pile is becoming less chaotic and I have more and more space. (By the time I post this the boxes will be gone and his furniture moved and I'll be in the process of making it "feel like mine" again)
The soul of my business - I am focusing on the head at the top of the boxes - is warm and loving and welcoming. It's happy to see me.
You are giving me space to grow, with regular visits like this.
Good! This is what I want. Not growth for growth's sake, but right-sizing.
I'm actually deeper and more expansive than you think. The growth I am speaking of is not just in one direction. Like it's not just about more followers or more money.
OK that's reassuring. It felt a little off to think you are focused on growing, because that is so toxic to have growth as the only goal. It's why the air has been smoky here for weeks and my lungs and throat hurt.
Right, so it's more "I am becoming more alive". Your visits nurture me in good ways.
These visits nurture me in good ways too. I have been experimenting creatively and exploring SO MUCH these last few years. My struggles with peri-menopause, looking at ancestral trauma and the ways capitalist culture impacts my "work ethic" and distorts my relationship with my own needs and really - who do I want to be while the world falls apart? This has been such important work for me. I appreciate the space you gave me to do all of this - actually I feel NURTURED by my business not just financially but in all ways. The ways I show up for Dream Book HELPS ME FIRST. I am so grateful to have this.
I've been growing in that time too. My potential has been expanding and deepening. And everything is getting more creative and free.
Creative and free. I love it. So my questions, about this journal, you know what I am thinking, right? Should "creative and free" be the qualities we follow to answer the questions? Because one option feels this way and one does not. BUT the one that does not - is it easier? Would it make more money? Do these things matter?
Now the robot has hands too, not just a head on a stack of boxes. It, though it feels like a she now, she raises her hands to shrug like "I don't know"
Is this a case where it's like - it doesn't matter which way I go?
It's not that it doesn't matter. It's just that it impacts YOU more than ME.
OK that's weird, isn't it though? Because I thought it would impact you - like I am building a path to a new future here, aren't I?
Yup, that happens either way. None of these decisions are FOREVER babe!!!!
So I can do what is easiest right now. OR I can do what feels most creative and free right now.
Yup! This is one for YOU to journal about. Make a pro and con list of each of them. In your imagination, really put yourself into each situation and see which way feels best. This is still a very early step in this new path, there's LOADS of time to re-configure as we go. It's more important that we DO SOMETHING than that we DO THE RIGHT THING. (Which you know, you tell this to people all the time)
OK will do!
Dream Book members:
Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.
Get your next Dream Book lesson.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are or use the Dream Lab if you're not sure where to start.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls. Make a plan to join us live or catch a replay.
Note: This is a post about my daily practice with my Creative Dreams - in these posts I often link to the tools, courses and processes I use which are only available to Dream Book members. If you're not a member, find out more + join us here.
I'm offering these live Co-Dreaming (Meditation + Journaling) calls every Monday.
I started doing these calls to help us all keep showing up no matter how messy things get because have you noticed how messy the world is right now?
And together we've turned it into this really beautiful community dreaming together. I'm so grateful for everyone who is showing up and Co-Dreaming with me. This is so special.
Dream Book members:
Come to the forum to share your thoughts or start a conversation about whatever you're working with.
Get your next Dream Book lesson.
Go the Library of Creative Dream Alchemy to find a practice that fits for where you are.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.