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. Now I do my reports on the printable journaling sheet instead of on the computer, which I did for YEARS. I LOVE THIS. It just feels different on paper and I love that I have a growing stacks of Dream Status Reports sitting on my desk.
Lots of grounding this week.
After a few really difficult months adjusting to medication, I FEEL BETTER. My brain is working pretty consistently! I feel like I am finding the ground beneath me. This is so good.
I'm starting to figure out a program about HOPE for 2025 and the structure of it changes every day right now as I brainstorm, which is pretty normal for my creative process.
But I am realizing that I haven't created a year-long program since before the pandemic. Before my peri-menopause got bad. Before my marriage ended. Before I turned 50. It's like - I am in such a different place in so many ways, HOW DO I CREATE A PROGRAM NOW?
It's a lot to explore! I AM LOVING IT. I am slowing down and going deeper, in so many ways.
🦄⚡️Creative Dream Incubator Weekly Coaching Call is today!!
Hope to see you there - or catch the replay over the weekend! Call details + replays are here. And after the call I'll start a thread in the forum to share your plans for the week and as a space for accountability and support.
If you can't be there live but have a question or there's something you are struggling with, send me an email this morning and I'll discuss it on the call and offer you some suggestions for things to do.
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.
I had a different post ready to go for today, but in light of this week's election results in the US it didn't feel right.
For the last week and a half I have been focused on HOPE.
I have been brainstorming a "hope practice" to add to the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership for 2025. Because hope is the foundation for all dreams.
This felt so relevant and important, even before the election results when I actually thought Harris would win.
Now it feels vital.
Without hope, there is no hope.
Without hope, there is no possibility of change.
Without hope, nothing new can be created.
And hope can be surprising easy to practice.
Meal prepping some mason jar salads is hope.
Buying that journal is hope.
Making space in your life for your dreams is hope.
Asking myself... what can I do to support myself in having a more optimistic mindset is hope.
Looking around in your community to see who needs some help is hope.
And most importantly right now, making sauce to feel your actual feelings is hope.
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.
Well I wrote this before knowing the results of the US election. I'm sure I won't be delightfully focused on the outer work today! This is a lot to process. BUT the outer work I am working on is called 2025: Year of Hope. A practice for cultivating hope. And since hope holds space for so many other good things, you can play along with a quality of your choosing. (It will be VERY simple because hope doesn't want to complicate anything, but even a simple and tiny hope practice can nurture things in big ways)
I feel like I have been wandering the desert of dream work and inner work, mostly inner work, for so long and here I am... like a mirage in the desert, lol!
I have so much clarity AND enthusiasm for outer work.
And I am not running into an inner block speed bump every 10 minutes, which is how things have felt for a long time.
Partially - this is because the hormones I started in September are starting to work! My body and brain are starting to function consistently and I am SO grateful for this.
And partially it's that we go through times of INTENSE and TOO MUCH inner work and then at some point, if you keep showing up, you hit a part where things are working better and you have some momentum in the outer work. Also SO grateful for this.
I am creating a new program for 2025 for the Creative Dream Incubator membership about HOPE and I can't wait to share more about it.
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.
Today I am meeting with the soul of my business, using the meditation from the Creative Business Incubator course. I want to ask it about this new project idea I have for 2025.
This did NOT go AT ALL how I thought it would!
I ask it about my project idea and I just feel like it says… You have already decided to do this on your own.
That feels uncomfortable. But... OK I see that. AND. I do want to collaborate with you. I feel I have been, but in ways I don’t see or understand.
Yes, I have been collaborating with you. I have different needs and preferences than you do.
Does this idea take your needs and preferences into account?
It’s more important right now to take YOUR needs and preferences into account. You’ve had a difficult time, and you need what you need to feel like you’re back on solid ground.
Oh. What I am looking for from you is a guarantee that this will give me the outer results I want.
Yeah, that’s not what I am here for.
I sit with this.
It’s not like I don’t care about your needs, as I said. It’s just that… this isn’t what I am here for.
What are you here for?
To BE the Creative Dream Incubator. To be a force for midwifing dreams into existence on this plane.
OK but… and I understanding right… you are not from this plane?
No, I am from the plane that the dreams come from.
Oh, you are helping from that side, too.
Yes, you don’t understand all that I do.
Is what I am doing getting in the way of what you are doing?
Sometimes, yes. But that’s due to the differences in our planes.
Oh, it’s like I couldn’t always do what you need because that would not take my needs into account in a way that would be destructive to me.
Yes, exactly. We work well together. Me on this plane, you on that plane. Everyone’s dreams in this plane. Everyone in that plane.
OK but what about the external outcomes I want? Where do I go for support on that, if not to you?
To get the external results you want you need to use your resources. I am one of them.
Am I using you properly as a resource?
I think you should be more honest about why you are doing this meditation and what you want from me.
Hmmmm. Shit.
You can do this.
Well I appreciate that I don’t feel like you are shaming me, you are just stating that I am maybe a little conflicted inside about what my goal is here….
I am doing this because I want your blessing for this new idea.
You don’t need it. You are an independent, free and creative person. Follow your ideas.
I am doing this because I want you to tell me HOW to do this in a way that guarantees that I get what I want from it.
Yeah, I’m not a genie or a magic wand.
Right.
What you want to get from this is 100% valid though. I support this. It’s just - you’re looking for validation and guarantees from me, I can’t give either of those.
Ok I can validate this idea. I do like that I checked with you to see if it seems like a terrible idea to you.
(And then I remember a meeting I had with my business about some classes I was teaching that paid really well but my business was like “I won’t stop you but no I don’t like it” and I see how those classes didn’t do anything FOR MY BUSINESS but I enjoyed doing them and they did make me good money that I needed - so it was right for me to do them AND it was right for the soul of my business to not be into them. We have different needs, we don’t have to agree on everything)
This isn’t like those classes, right?
Right, I’m happy you are happy about this. It’s not like I think we need this particular thing. There are lots of ways for me to shine my purpose into the world. You are the one doing the creative and practical work, so those parts need to be interesting to you. This idea seems like it fits the bill.
I am still a little perturbed by how the soul of my business is not being more reassuring. And recognizing that this is coming from the part of me who seeks external validation, who wants something/someone outside of me to make me feel safe, secure, like everything will be ok. These things are all my job.
Is there a way that you, the soul of the creative dream incubator, would change this idea if it was all up to you?
Oh that’s a good question! Sitting back, looking at what this project hopes to accomplish and how it fits in with what is already happening in the membership… yes this feels needed, there are other ways to do it but there is nothing wrong with this way.
You came here looking for my blessing on this?
Yes, and to kind of disaster-proof my process with this as much as possible.
I don’t think it will be a disaster. It might not be as successful as you hope, but it might be more! This idea seems solid, you are reflecting on past wins and loses, what kinds of approaches have and have not worked for you, what feels needed and relevant now… both for you personally in your process with how you will deliver this AND in terms of business stuff.
OK I feel reassured. There are no guarantees. But I am going to give this my best shot.
And I feel like I FELT the part of this that feels important for the soul of my business - the essence/quality that it would add to the Creative Dream Incubator membership - and I will hold onto that as a special part of this project.
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 I get a new Creative Dream Mantra from the journaling + alchemy kits that are a part of Dream Book. This week I got: My creativity is without limits
Use the meditation for the weekly mantras to dig in deeper to the mantra, or put your hands on your heart and take five deep slow breaths and repeat to yourself:
My creativity is without limits
Notice where this lands in your body, what thoughts and feelings get sparked.
There is no right or wrong way to react. But your actual thoughts and feelings can tell you something about what you need right now.
If My creativity is without limits feels good and encouraging, hold it with you this week. Look at problems, questions, stucks and obstacles through this lens and see what ideas it brings.
If it brings up some discomfort - that’s your stuff to work on.
Your creativity actually IS without limits. Both in terms of whatever art you want to create and in terms of how you create your life and what is possible for you.
The places where you FEEL limited are pointing you to the things you need to work on.
To do that work, in the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership we’ve got the un-sticking station and the library of inner work practices. If you’re not sure what practice to use, you can email me, or post in our forum, let me know what’s going on and I will make some suggestions for tools you can use.
What comes up for me:
First I notice that I drew this with two hands holding a broken heart... I remember thinking about the healing power of creativity when I was drawing this. And now here I am, with a heart that is broken but healing.
I've been doing so much journaling lately - painting and drawing and processing my feelings. It feels SO healing. Divorce is so intense, and it's such an incredible opportunity for healing. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by this but lately I feel really grateful to be where I am.
And I am feeling that LIMITLESSNESS of creativity. Not like it's pushing me to want to "be bigger", just enjoying this sense that there is nothing in my way.
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.
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. Now I do my reports on the printable journaling sheet instead of on the computer, which I did for YEARS. I LOVE THIS. It just feels different on paper and I love that I have a growing stacks of Dream Status Reports sitting on my desk.
Lots of LEARNINGS this week.
Just from spending a lot of time journaling, reflecting, processing... I started to connect some MAJOR dots between "places where I feel stuck" and "places where I am acting out a pattern from childhood".
Like WHOA this is a thing from childhood I hadn't even really noticed until this week, and suddenly it's like... maybe this is the root of all the things that don't quite feel right.
It's so interesting how this happens... things start to feel more "not right" which feels like we are going in the wrong direction, but actually we are GOING TOWARDS CLARITY.
Always always always always follow the thoughts + feeling that come up when you work with your dream. They matter. They are showing you something. It could get uncomfortable along the way but they are leading somewhere really good.
My focus for next week is: devotion and trust.
What my Dream Status Report showed me that right now it's important I don't WORK or EFFORT for my dream, that I BE DEVOTED. Which could look like work at times... but feel completely different.
I have some ideas for a daily practice of drawing my dreams... excited to play with it.
🦄⚡️Creative Dream Incubator Weekly Coaching Call is today!!
Hope to see you there - or catch the replay over the weekend! Call details + replays are here. And after the call I'll start a thread in the forum to share your plans for the week and as a space for accountability and support.
If you can't be there live but have a question or there's something you are struggling with, send me an email this morning and I'll discuss it on the call and offer you some suggestions for things to do.
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.
Creative Dream Q+A time! If you have questions to add to this series, let me know! If you prefer to watch/listen I'll post a video of this on Instagram and Facebook today.
I’m Canadian, I am not in the US but election stress is coming up a lot on my group calls.
And a lot of countries are politically stressful right now. The state of the world is brutal and this stress impacts us and we need recognize that and take care of ourselves accordingly...
AND we have to hold onto our ability to hope for a better future.
If we can’t see a better future, we can’t participate in creating it.
Creative Dreaming is a practice, a skill, a muscle that gets stronger the more you use it. This is the time!!
And I know it’s hard.
But it’s actually our only option.
We have to find whatever little ways we can to hold onto the light, to hold onto a sense that there is a future worth working for.
Adjusting to some new medication, I am in the heaviest depression I have ever experienced. And this morning I had headphones on and I’m listening to A Beautiful Chorus to try to fill my brain with something optimistic and beautiful, and my cat was watching me and he looked like he was ready to play, so I started dancing.
At first it felt ridiculous, like here I am just feeling so heavy and depressed, dancing in this really exaggerated way to entertain my cat, but a few minutes in, I started to actually feel good. My cat is running around the room, just loving this and I’m dancing wildly and at the end of the song I stop, out of breath, and I could feel my blood pumping, I could feel ALIVE.
That’s why I go for bike rides too. I’m not feeling all that alive unless I intentionally create that sensation for myself.
Creative Dreaming is a practice. Being optimistic about the future is a practice.
It’s really hard right now and it’s more important than ever that we keep practicing.
And when it comes to politics, we need to practice TOGETHER. Democracy needs the participation of the people in order to survive. Voting is not participating, voting is bare minimum.
Using some of your time, energy, money towards creating the future you want to see can help with the stress. Doing what you can to change things always feels better than just sitting there waiting for disaster to strike.
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.
I had "Dream Book time" and didn't know what to do - like nothing was really "in process" so I was kind of stumped.
(Once you've done the 2 years of Dream Book lessons, you get the "Dream Book oracle" which shows up in the menu in the sidebar on the Dream Book page - clicking it will take you to a random Dream Book process or lesson)
So I went to the Dream Book lesson checklist - since this is a new Dream Book I am still at the beginning with it. My next thing was: The Un-Sticking Station.
This page is meant to give you space to start exploring using the Un-Sticking practice to get unstuck... of course I use this practice all the time so I don't really need this page. But I wanted to create an Un-Sticking Station page to explore my relationship with Un-Sticking, in relationship specifically to the dreams I am working on now.
It's important to follow these bits of inspiration or insight that come up as a part of our process, "Oh I would like to..." Whatever it is, DO THAT. Find out where it leads!
You Build The Path By Walking means any step counts.
So, I don't know where I am going with this. I was listening to my intuition about what I wanted to put here, with he circle and the items around it (heaviness, sadness, this never works, self doubt + obstacles) and then the lines between them... and suddenly the Un-Sticking Station felt like a hammock or something... it would HOLD ME. Hold me in the truth - being present with these obstacles WHILE ALSO being present with the deeper truths of what I am capable of.
This feels good. And very much unfinished.
The other page is purple now because I was putting purple in a different journal, too much paint plopped out of my tube, and I try to keep the paint as thin as possible in these journals, so I was looking for another page to put the extra on, and this felt right. (I have a lot of paint pens which can write over paint so I can still journal on this page)
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.
I started a new Dream Self Page in my Dream Book for "being deeper in my creative and spiritual practices". I want to feel more creative and alive and I don't really know what this looks like yet.
This feels like an important part of my other dreams and also like a dream in itself, so I wanted to explore this version of me who is really DEEP in the practices. This version of me seems to NATURALLY get into her practices and not get distracted by other things the way I have been lately.
I started the page by giving in a title and put the date in the corner and... nothing.
I was a little annoyed with myself for putting the date in, because then I could see how long it had been without me coming back and doing anything with it.
At the two week mark, I started journaling about how it felt that I am so stuck with this. That this dream self seems so far away from me. I felt like I had failed... but then I journaled about how hard it's been to adjust to this medication I am on and how really - I AM DOING MY BEST.
And then I started thinking about how it doesn't matter what it looks like - I am doing AMAZING because I am showing up. It's fine to just bitch in your journal about how stuck you are, and doing so is so much better than avoiding your journal because you are stuck.
Then I started working on the Dream Self and it was amazing, it felt like I was really getting in touch with his part of me.
Then I started a list of things that can help me be this version of me more often.
And I noticed that I am doing a lot of these things, and there are ways I can be better at supporting myself, and new things to add to the mix.
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 I get a new Creative Dream Mantra from the journaling + alchemy kits that are a part of Dream Book.
This week I got: I take bold action in service to my dream.
Use the meditation for the weekly mantras to dig in deeper to the mantra, or put your hands on your heart and take five deep slow breaths and repeat to yourself:
I take bold action in service to my dream.
Notice where this lands in your body, what thoughts and feelings get sparked.
There is no right or wrong way to react. But your actual thoughts and feelings can tell you something about what you need right now.
How it lands for me:
First, it feels like an invitation. Then I immediately reflect on: am I being BOLD enough?
But really, ANY action is BOLD when it comes to your dreams.
And often, any action, even the tiniest little thing, actually FEELS bold because you're stepping out of "what is" and creating space for "what could be"
So, yes, I am being bold enough. We all are.
And then, I feel this wave of supportive energy. Like my actions are building a foundation that I can relax into.
Is relax the right word?
Like - I can trust myself to keep doing what I need to do, because I AM doing what I need to do. I am taking bold action in service to my dream. So this is bold action in service to my healing and self care, too.
It feels like an invitation and encouragement to KEEP GOING.
How does it land for you?
If I take bold action in service to my dream feels good and encouraging, hold it with you this week. Look at problems, questions, stucks and obstacles through this lens and see what ideas it brings.
If it brings up some discomfort - that’s your stuff to work on. To do that work, in the Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership we’ve got the un-sticking station and the library of inner work practices. If you’re not sure what practice to use, you can email me, or post in our forum, let me know what’s going on and I will make some suggestions for tools you can use.
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.