YOU ARE WORTHY OF YOUR WILDEST DREAMS
FEELING WORTHY of your dreams is magic. It's healing.
CLAIMING YOUR DREAMS is saying: This is the world I want to help create. This is what I believe in. This is what is important to me.
When we cut ourselves off from even dreaming of what we want to dream of (and we ALL do this in different ways) we stunt possibilities for the whole world.
There is no value in denying your dreams.
Though it's SO EASY to feel not good enough because dreams are so VULNERABLE.
FEELING WORTHY of your dreams isn't something you naturally have, or don't have. It's a thing to cultivate.
Do this with me!
FEELING WORTHY of your dreams Zoom class and healing circle is happening March 30 at 1:00 pm Central (North America). Replay provided (I am doing this one mostly for the replay - to have this healing circle available to all members right in those moments when you feel not good enough)
It's open to all members of Dream Book.
YOU ARE WORTHY OF YOUR WEIRDEST DREAMS
The call to conform is so powerful and invisible. We don't even notice all the ways we censor ourselves in order to fit in.
The other day I talked about how you are worthy of your BIGGEST dreams, I think it's even more important to feel worthy of your WEIRDEST dreams.
All the ways your heart's desires stray from the mainstream point to your unique power and magic.
You're not a cookie cutter you're a living breathing mystery.
Everywhere you try to fit in you cut yourself off from your own magic.
GET WEIRDER.
FEELING WORTHY of your dreams Zoom class and healing circle is happening March 30 at 1:00 pm Central (North America). Replay provided (I am doing this one mostly for the replay - to have this healing circle available to all members right in those moments when you feel not good enough)
It's open to all members of Dream Book.
YOU ARE WORTHY OF YOUR BIGGEST DREAMS.
We all have a ceiling on what we think is actually possible for us, and that ceiling isn't about reality it's about our own self concept, which is completely malleable.
Though I don't believe we should be constantly pushing on that ceiling in the name of "dreaming bigger".
It's that we have a mental concept of "right size" "too small" and "too big" and sometimes our dreams push up against that, and so we try to shrink our dreams into what feels do-able.
But your dream is your soul speaking to you.
So, instead of trying to shove it into a smaller container that fits with your current sense of what is possible for you, how about you listen to what it's actually saying?
You are worthy of your BIGGEST dreams.
I'm not saying "get out there and work your ass off and make it happen" I am saying: how about giving yourself permission to want what you want? To give yourself space to consider... what do you REALLY want?
Yes, you live in a world that is hostile to dreams. Yes, compromises may need to be made. Yes, the world will judge and belittle your dreams and ask you who are you to think you can do this?
Your dream is your soul calling you towards your true self. There is magic and power in this.
And there is a big difference between going after your dream and landing on a compromise, and making compromises about what you will ever allow yourself to dream about.
Your dream is here to heal and grow you. But it can only work it's magic if you accept it.
FEELING WORTHY of your dreams Zoom class and healing circle is happening March 30 at 1:00 pm Central (North America). Replay provided (I am doing this one mostly for the replay - to have this healing circle available to all members right in those moments when you feel not good enough)
This call is open to all members of Dream Book.
I started my business doing coaching and workshops, but I quickly learned that what I really wanted to do was start an ongoing membership group to support people in the ongoing work of bringing their creative dreams into their daily routines.
These little daily steps are so small they seem insignificant and like why even bother? but then it suddenly hits you all the ways they are adding up and becoming something much greater.
I think turning your creative dreams into a daily practice is the most magical, healing and expansive thing anyone could ever do and I am currently working on a new workbook all about it.
I'm hand drawing the whole thing, so it's a very slow process, but I am thinking about sharing the pages on social media as I go.
When I finished university with a degree in fashion design and started my career as a textile artist, what I really wanted to do was make things that made people believe in themselves, and their dreams.
Partially because I was desperate to believe in myself and my dreams.
Partially because there were times when I DID believe in myself and my dreams and when I had this feeling, it was everything, and I wanted to share it.
I had a lot of passion and desire as well as creative skills and talent.
I did not have ANY sense of how to make my dreams work in a practical, financial way. Nor did I have any support, mentors or role models for that.
But I didn't give up. I followed my dreams on a weird and winding road (which includes becoming an accredited spiritual teacher and having my clients refer to me as their "life coach" and not knowing what that meant) until I was 36, which is when I quit my last job (in 2010/2011) and made the Creative Dream Incubator my full time job and dream come true.
Even through a worldwide pandemic, inflation and late-stage capitalism, my business has been stable. I'm so happy that these days my dreams DO work in a very practical and financial way.
And I do want this for everyone.
I spent the first 10 years of my career with the Creative Dream Incubator working very closely with people and developing as many programs as I could. Then I took everything I learned about WHAT ACTUALLY WORKS and put it into one thing: Dream Book.
Dream Book is a sturdy container for growing your dreams. It offers support and guidance while holding your own intuition in the driver's seat. Because all of your answers are in YOU, but most of us do need support and space-holding to FIND those answers - and then to summon the courage to act on that inner knowing.
Dream Book is what I needed 26 years ago as a starving artist. And it's what I still need, and use, every day as I continue to explore, heal, grow and create.
I just walked 30 minutes to one of my favourite coffee shops.
It's a bakery with a wood fired oven, so it's toasty warm in here all winter, and smells amazing. Off to the side is a little coffee shop with windows along both walls letting in so much sun, and the whole place is full of plants.
Between the heat and the sunshine and the plants it really is an epic place for journaling on winter mornings. (When the weather is nicer I prefer outdoor spots)
I'm sitting at a bar along the window, with a fresh quiche tart (red pepper and feta) and a really good cup of coffee.
Today's the day, Slow the f*ck down! BE as powerful, creative and magnetic as you ARE is happening this afternoon.
I have an almost-daily meeting with the soul of my dreams. Last summer it sent a really clear message one day: Slow the fuck down!!!!!!
I was like "Wow I don't think you have ever sworn at me before"
And my dream was like "This is the perfect language to convey the intensity with which I want you to slow down."
And I was like "OK, I guess" but I didn't really get it.
Then the next day the message was "BE as powerful, creative, and magnetic as you ARE" and over the next week or so it became clear that these two messages worked together.
Here's the thing: I was already moving slower than I was comfortable with. I was moving slower than I wanted to. I was moving slower than I see everyone around me moving.
So I didn't see how this message applied to me.
But the soul of my dreams is this energy force that includes my own soul purpose and potential, everything my heart desires, and all the ways I need to heal and grow to be able to move towards any of this. It has never steered me wrong.
So last August, I created the "slow the fuck down! BE as powerful, creative and magnetic as you ARE" journaling + meditation invitation. I journaled and mediated on this them every day for 30 days and shared this on my blog, and invited everyone to do it with me.
This theme still pops up inside Dream Book.
I've been surprised by how many members are finding their dreams also telling them to slow the fuck down.
Since then, I have continued to work with these messages when they come up. Some of the things I've learned:
1. This thing where I like to go for a walk or bike ride FIRST THING in the morning and then do some coffee + journaling - it's vital for my wellbeing. The voice that says "Maybe skip all that today, you have a lot of work to do" is always wrong.
2. Just because I was moving way slower than the people around me, and waaaaayyyyy slower than I was raised to move, still doesn't mean I am moving slow enough!
3. I carry a lot of generational trauma around working hard. It's very heavy in my body.
4. Me, moving slow, enjoying my life, pursuing whatever the fuck I feel inspired to pursue - this is my ancestor's wildest dreams for me. At one point I got in touch with one particular ancestor, I don't know who they were, but I could feel all the joy they felt about my life and were cheering me on to be even happier.
5. I started working on a passion project: embroidering my own clothes. I have been making my own clothes for a long time, which brings me a lot of joy, but embroidering my own clothes is next-level. I did not anticipate the joy and healing I would receive from this.
6. I wore one of my embroidered dresses to therapy and showed my therapist and she said "Wow! I have so many questions!" and we ended up having a really deep and intense therapy session around embroidery and how I am re-claiming my creative spirit and some of my original creative dreams as a young person fresh out of university.
I feel so optimistic about the world right now.
As the systems we have lived inside collapse, something so much better is ready to be birthed.
Slowing down is a form of dis-connecting from the culture we live in, so we can re-consider our values and needs, and create whole new ways of being.
I am so thrilled to be doing this work.
I hope you'll join me today for Slow the Fuck Down! Be as Powerful, Creative and Magnetic as you ARE.
It's happening at 1:00 Central (North America).
But the replay will be amazing too. On our last live call we had a conversation about this - some people had been re-listening to old calls and realizing that there is a potent magic found in the replays that is not on the live calls. Just like there is a different kind of magic on the lives.
When you are BEING as powerful, creative and magnetic as you ARE - what will change in your life?
The reason why "slow the fuck down!" is a part of "BE as powerful, creative + magnetic as you ARE" is because the FIRST answers that come to us are usually not the BEST answers.
As a coach, I don't even try to hold space for finding the best answer right away. I hold space for being in the discomfort of not having the fast or comforting answer.
When you slow way down, give yourself more space, tend to the discomfort that arises when you do that, you find yourself in a space with a completely different set of options.
You are in so many different patterns and routines. Many of them are completely unconscious to you. Yes, I know that you've done LOADS of inner work and still, even YOU have a lot of unconscious programming running. We all do, but those of us who have done a lot of healing can sometimes assume that "we've done the work" and then stop noticing where we're still in unconscious patterns.
That's why this work is so important.
You are worthy of finding the absolute best answers for you.
You are worthy of BEING your most powerful, creative and magnetic self.
You are worthy of creative play and healing and slowing growing delightfully into it - not hustling or shaming yourself for not being further ahead.
Let's do this. In 2 days!
Slow the fuck down! BE as powerful, creative + magnetic as you ARE is a community spell/Zoom class happening February 28 (Tuesday!)
I’ve burned a lot of bridges in the last few years and I don’t regret a single one of them.
In the summer of 2020, I wrote a blog post about how hopeful I was feeling after attending the Justice 4 Black Lives Winnipeg rally, and I how proud I was of my step-daughter, who had been one of the organizers.
I received an angry response from an American woman telling me that BLM was a terrorist organization and she couldn’t believe I would support “that kind of thing”. I didn’t just delete her email from my database, I made sure she would not be able to sign up for my emails or offerings ever again.
As I have written about the complexities of doing business as a settler Canadian on stolen land, working in an industry that has deep deep roots in the white supremacist movement, and wanting, through my work, to offer something hopeful and good and useful - not just to white settlers but to everyone - I have received so many responses asking me to please “stay in my lane” and just write about dreams and creativity and inspiration (as though we dream in a vacuum and not in the world!) (as though our creative dreams are not political!).
I regret none of it.
You can never BE as powerful, creative and magnetic as you ARE if you are not doing what you can to live your values. Every time you shrink and bend to fit in and not rock the boat you weaken yourself.
I mean, you don’t need to be rude or aggressive about it. But if you have been socialized as female in this culture, politely but clearly speaking your truth and holding your boundaries can FEEL rude, or aggressive, and people will definitely accuse you of these things.
Everywhere where you don’t do what you can to live your values weakens you. If you feel guilt about not recycling or driving a gas guzzler when you have values around taking good care of our planet, if you freeze up when people talk about racism - our bodies know when we’re not in integrity with ourselves and will keep sending signals.
***Note I keep saying “doing what you can to live your values” in recognition of the fact that we live in a world that makes this hard! You don’t have to “be perfect” and we all have to make compromises to survive in this world. I’m saying - don’t ignore your internal nudges, look at where you can be in integrity with your values.
You just VIBE DIFFERENT when you’re doing what you can to live in tune with your own values.
And you cannot BE as powerful, creative and magnetic as you ARE if you are living out of tune with your self.
So, even though plenty of people have been upset with me, I regret none of this because of how good it feels to do what I can to live in alignment with my own values and because of how this draws like-minded people to my work.
Since I’ve started speaking out, I have drawn like-minded people into Dream Book and we have THE BEST conversations about all of this on our group calls. We help each other figure out how to live our values in a world that is always pushing us to conform to patriarchal, white supremacist, colonial capitalist values.
Slow the fuck down! BE as powerful, creative + magnetic as you ARE community spell + zoom call is happening Feb 28.
Together we can free ourselves of all the ways this world dims our light.
Continued from last week's journal prompt on slowing down...
Where is it SCARY for you to slow down?
I talk a lot about the the oppressive systems we live in, like capitalism, colonialism and white supremacy (which includes ableism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia).
I talk about them because these are external forces that make it harder for all of us to BE our authentic selves and pursue our dreams. NOT talking about them leaves them as these invisible forces which means we are powerless against them.
Talking about them makes them visible. Once you can see them you can stop them from stopping you, you are no longer powerless.
A lot of approached to healing focus on “Don’t be negative!” and “Don’t blame anyone or anything, take responsibility for your life!!”
But by not being able to “blame” whatever was responsible for terrible things that happened to you, it's easy for YOU to take the blame yourself for the way those things impacted you. THIS CREATES SHAME, THIS DOES NOT CREATE HEALING. It means the impacts of those things will continue to impact you.
The word “blame” feels so loaded, but there is nothing wrong with assigning responsibility to the responsible parties.
I don’t blame the government or my parents for the state of my life.
But my eyes are open on my healing journey.
Which means: I don't blame MYSELF for all the times I failed. By acknowledging that certain things made certain things hard for me, I acknowledge the truth, I make space to process my feelings, and I free myself of the ways that these things impacted me and I empower myself to make a different choice.
This is healing. And you’ve got to SLOW WAY THE FUCK DOWN before you can access it.
So - let's not avoid the places where slowing down is scary. If the thought of slowing down feels appealing but scary, if you have a lot of stories about why you CAN'T slow down - let's acknowledge all of that so that it doesn't turn into an invisible internal obstacle.
Let’s make magic together
Slow the fuck down! BE as powerful, creative + magnetic as you ARE is a community spell/Zoom class happening February 28.
Together we can free ourselves of all the ways this world dims our light.
It’s OK if it gets awkward is a mantra I have used in my work for years.
I started using it because I saw that almost all growth includes an awkward stage, and I wanted my people to be ready for it. It’s ok! Don’t make the awkwardness mean something about you or your dreams. Don’t let it stop you.
It’s ok if it gets awkward. It’s ok if it gets awkward. It’s ok if it gets awkward. It’s ok if it gets awkward.
I say it over and over again but people still freak out when it gets awkward. Even when we agree, in theory, that it’s ok if it gets awkward, we don’t quite extend that to ourselves.
And the thing is, when we don’t allow ourselves that awkward phase, we end up shutting down the whole process.
We kill our dreams rather than be awkward out in public, or even in the privacy of our own journals!
I used to think that it was the discomfort of the awkwardness that drove this. But now I see it’s a function of living in a supremacist culture that indoctrinates all of us into it’s values.
Looking good means something in this culture. Looking like you have your shit together means something in this culture. Even when you are literally choosing between LOOKING LIKE everything is fine and actually feeling thrilled and free and excited about your life.
This is so messed up! So I’ll keep saying it: it’s ok if it gets awkward.
In fact, it’s great!
Awkward means you’re not following the status quo. You’re trying something new. You’re following inspiration. You had an idea that might be genius and you won’t know unless you try.
You literally cannot get to your dream without taking some awkward steps. You are literally choosing between getting awkward or killing your dream.
Please, make the right choice. Take care of the part of you who freaks out about being awkward. Do the inner work to soothe your fears and bring healing to the places in you that would choose conformity over doing what is true for you.
You cannot BE as powerful, creative and magnetic as you ARE if you are afraid of being awkward.
Slow the fuck down! BE as powerful, creative + magnetic as you ARE community spell + zoom call is happening Feb 28.
Together we can free ourselves of all the ways this world dims our light.