I did a LOT of journaling today, going in circles with my resistance, and was going to share it and then... decided not to.

It's so messy and hard to follow that I don't think it's helpful to share.

I think it's more helpful to say that some days, "showing up" is so messy that you think you're doing everything wrong. But you're not.

Sometimes you are actually coming up against the internal patterns that need to shift for you to be able to do the thing you want to do.

And this is valuable work!

But some of those internal patterns are so deeply engrained you can't actually see them.

You just... push up against them. And they push up against you. And it's like... everything feels like it's falling apart.

But everything is actually IN PROCESS. This is the process of you moving towards the dream.

You just have to work through this thing first.

Even though you can't quite see it yet.

How could this NOT be messy?

I feel like I am in the middle of so many transformational journeys at once and I don’t know which way is up.

And the work is NOT to figure out which way is up ASAP.

The work is NOT to understand what is happening.

The work is ONLY to keep showing up and sitting with whatever is there.

Setting an intention, claiming a dream - this puts you in the process.

Showing up moves you through the process.

The process is an absolute fucking mess sometimes. There isn't another way to describe it.

If you are REALLY confronting your limiting beliefs, unhelpful patterns, all the stuff you learned from dominant culture about who you are and what you are supposed to want - well some of the work is MESSY.

Some of the work feels good!

Some of the work is inspiring!

Some of the work moves you forward exactly how you wanted to move forward.

But those parts are not more valuable than the hard parts.

And everything happening in the world can add another layer of stuff to the mix.

So I want to encourage you to meditate and journal MORE. Check in with yourself!! EXPRESS all the stuff swirling inside! Even if it's all messy and weird and nothing makes sense - maybe ESPECIALLY then.

This IS the work that will move you forward. This IS what healing and growth look like sometimes.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

Do the Hello Day Energy Clearing + Intention Setting Practice (from Dream Book 2026)

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

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

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

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

My heart is so full.

I am sitting down to do my Dream Status Report for this week. To check in with myself and my dreams and what I need and what my dreams need, for the coming week. I try to do this on Sundays, and write about it, to remind you to also take a few minutes to check in with yourself and your dreams.

Yesterday I went to an all day workshop/ceremony for spring. It was led by Indigenous knowledge keepers who are also artists, we did ceremony together and they shared teachings about Indigenous protocols for making art, and teachings for this time - early spring.

And, specific to people who live where I live, Winnipeg, Canada, how this is the time of BREAK UP. Our rivers and lakes were literally frozen. We walk and drive on them all winter. Now they are starting to melt and as they do, the ice breaks up and floats down the river and it's very dramatic and beautiful for a few days.

I guess I am doing a season-change report along with my Dream Status Report. If you want to do some of this with me:

What's been frozen that is ready to break up and float away?

What new possibilities may be flowing in?

I had such a beautiful winter this year - how do I want to bring the gifts of this winter into spring?

This week I feel like I am stepping into NEW territory with my creative dreams.

There's a very small current of fear of like "Are we sure we are ready to step into NEW? We don't really know what it IS, given that it's NEW"

And I think in the past that little current of fear has co-existed with larger currents of "OH THIS IS SO EXCITING" and "I WANT THIS SO BAD I'M HAPPY TO TAKE A RISK"

But right now the larger current is "I TRUST MYSELF"

This feels amazing.

Also, I am moving slower than I ever have in my life and this is MAGIC.

It feels so much easier to trust myself when I am moving so slow.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

Do the Hello Day Energy Clearing + Intention Setting Practice (from Dream Book 2026)

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

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

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

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

Meet my new sketchbook/journal: GRIEF ANGER RAGE HOPE 2026.

This is the one I mentioned the other day.

I started this because I wanted a place to put my thoughts and feelings about everything that is happening.

I wanted to fully EXPRESS all of this, somewhere separate from the journals I am dreaming in, while also recognizing that this is "a part of the journal stack" for 2026.

It felt like a MIRACLE that I already had this nice big sketchbook still in the plastic wrap. (It's a Leuchtterm 1913 like my other notebooks, but this one is art paper so it stands up better to painting)

Of course a lot of people who journal have a stack of empty notebooks too, and know that it's not a miracle, lol. But still, that feeling of already having the exact notebook I need to start a new journaling project! Love it!

I started this journal to MAKE MORE SPACE for all the feelings I am having about the world.

I also wanted to name each and every fucked up thing that is happening that is upsetting me.

I wanted more space to express the feelings that are stirred up in me.

This feels like the most sane way to move through 2026.

And the magic is that when we make more space to express ourselves (even in the safety of a notebook where no one else ever needs to see it) we DISCOVER NEW WAYS of connecting to ourselves and our truth.

We find new ways to LIVE our values.

We find new ways to create more of what we want to see in the world. Like: re-arranging your schedule so you can take more naps, writing a book, starting a community garden, making activist art, redecorating your home to be more of a peaceful haven....

Whatever it is, when you take the time to LISTEN MORE DEEPLY to yourself, you find gifts.

And we need those gifts.

So: WE ALL NEED TO MEDITATE + JOURNAL MORE!

Obviously the Creative Dream Incubator guided meditations and journaling processes are filled with so much magic to help you be able to create more of what you want in your life that I think everyone should do these...

But you don't need to do this in any particular way.

You just need to sit with yourself. Take a breath. Notice how you are feeling. Notice what that feeling needs. Tend to yourself.

And put it on paper. Or on your phone if digital journaling is your thing. Get it outside of your head.

This is the only way to find YOUR way through all of this.

If you don't meditate and journal at all - this is the time to start.

If you already do it - find a way to do more.

 LET'S DO THIS TOGETHER!!!

We are Co-Dreaming/Co-Working today on Zoom! I hope to see you there!

There is SO MUCH MAGIC in doing this with others. Sitting and dreaming together and talking about all the things that come up for you and not being alone in it all.

Even on the replay! Having the replay going while you do your own meditation and journaling CREATES SPACE for you to go deeper into your own process.

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

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

If you're not a member - 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.

Do the Hello Day Energy Clearing + Intention Setting Practice (from Dream Book 2026)

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

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

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

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

I am at one of those monumental moments on the path to a dream.

I cleared space in my schedule. I have the supplies I need. There is nothing stopping me.

I can… do the thing. 

So what am I doing? Drinking coffee and cruising the internet, lol.

Thinking about how I am almost out of milk and should I go for a walk to get some or put in my next grocery order right away, and if so, then I need to figure out some meal plan stuff so I know what else I need…

And then I stop and think about the miracles and hard work that got me to this place, where I HAVE A WHOLE DAY TO FOCUS ON THIS THING.

And ask myself if I want to use this precious day for scrolling and meal planning.

No… but….

This is ALWAYS a scary place to be.

Nothing stopping me. No excuses. Just me and my dream…

It’s kind of like a creative dream vacuum where the lack of external obstacles draws in every doubt, fear and bit of resistance we have.

So what am I going to do about it?

I did put down my phone. I picked up my laptop to write about it. Because when I can’t DO THE THING, writing about why I am not doing it really does help get to a place of doing it!

So, Andrea, what is the problem? Why aren’t you starting?

I don’t know where to start.

That is a good point! You don’t actually have a plan for that, do you?

Nope. Just all these ideas for things I want to do, no thoughts on how to START doing any of them.

So how about we write down all the ideas, and then put them in order?

Well that’s logical but I'm afraid I would leave something out, and that thing left out would be THE THING I am supposed to do first, and then everything will be messed up.

Wow, you really don’t want to start, hey?

I do, I just want to start RIGHT. This means so much to me, I want to get it right.

Oh honey. 

I know, you don’t have to say it. There is no such thing as getting it right and if there was, it sure wouldn’t happen as the very first step of this project!!! 

Right, but let’s VALIDATE your feelings. Remember CREATIVE DREAM ALCHEMY: you work with the thing that is there. It sounds like the thing that is here is how very important this project feels for you. Maybe we start with something that acknowledges what this means to you?

Oh that’s a good idea. But what is that?

My eyes fall on the new sketchbook I started late last week. 

Oh, maybe this new sketchbook is actually… this seems crazy but… maybe it’s the sketchbook for this project? 

Why would that be crazy?

Because I started that sketchbook for a very specific reason and I didn’t see, like not even a little bit, how that reason is quite connected to this project.

So the new sketchbook is definitely not a part of this new project.

Yes. No. I mean!!!!!! They were two totally separate things, but now that I am here, figuring out how to start, I am starting to see how they are actually the same thing. They DO work together. There's more than I have the words to share here just yet, but the sketchbook is about making space for my grief/anger/rage/hope about everything that is happening, like space to name every thing that is upsetting me and space to express every upsetting feeling in detail... all in the name of validating that THIS FEELS WRONG because THIS IS WRONG and... the main point... visioning a future that is RIGHT. Where all life on this planet is treated as sacred. So the sketchbook was place for my own process and the art project is where I create from different thoughts and feelings from the process. And now it's like - oh of course this sketchbook is a part of this art.

So then yes, it seems like listing project ideas as a way to start feels so… logical and meaningless in comparison to the deep meaning and soul that is actually in this project. And also the breadth of it - there is SO MUCH ART COMING. We need a way in that matches that depth and breadth.

Yup.

I just sit with this for a few minutes.

Something inside me, that feels like a part of my soul, is getting really excited.

I feel like I am on the right track. I can’t just…. start. Like turning on a machine and pumping out art.

There is something else that needs to happen, to honour how deep and important this project feels to me.

I’ve been thinking a lot about technique. I’ve been doing projects to practice, to get my embroidery skills back to where they used to be, knowing that this will bring back my beading skills should they be a part of this too. I’d been learning lino printing and collecting printing inks for textiles, which feels like a part of this AND... I just don’t know how they fit together. There is so much experimentation to be done in terms of technique.

But that’s not the art.

My eyes keep landing back on that sketchbook.

I think that is the only place to start.

By journaling about my intentions for this project.

And then journaling/brainstorming ideas for ways to begin the art?

No that doesn’t feel right….

Oh! Journaling/brainstorming ideas for what I want the process to be like. That’s the way to start!!!

If I get myself into the process, then the art will emerge from that.

WOW!!!! I can’t explain how exciting this feels to be at this place, ready to begin, and to see a way to begin that honours everything I feel about this project.

PS: that photo at the top was taken many hours after I wrote this - evidence that I journaled, brainstormed, and found my way in. I am doing new experiments about how to bring my other experiments together.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

Do the Hello Day Energy Clearing + Intention Setting Practice (from Dream Book 2026)

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

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

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

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

I'm going into my practice today thinking about how PRESENCE is the most powerful tool for transformation that we have.

For a while now, when I meet my dream, I keep getting messages around ROOTEDNESS. Be more present. Be more rooted. Relax into it. Look for ways to be more open and receptive to it.

Lots of SLOWING DOWN and BEING WITH.

The work of GETTING ROOTED is what most of us need right now to properly tend to our art and creative dreams.

So it feels obvious that anyone who is holding space for people to heal, create and grow in the world as it is today needs to be as deeply rooted as they can be... and then look for ways to go deeper.

But what seems less obvious is that PRESENCE is actually a tool for CHANGE.

Over the years I have heard, when people hear about my work "Oh that sounds nice but I'm in a place where I need to be really PRESENT, you know? Not thinking about the future or pushing and working hard, I want to just really be here and enjoy the moment"...

And I just smile and say "Well it's not for everyone" but if they asked about it, I'd say:

Your dreams are not in the future, they are here in the present.

They are in your heart and soul right now, in fact they are a sacred part of you. They are here to guide you.

(If I was being REALLY honest, I'd also say that the reason why we tend to "not want to dream" is more about being afraid of our feelings, because to be present with our DREAMS mean to be present with all parts of us, including the hard parts, and most new age/holistic wellness approaches to "being in the now" involve so much spiritual and emotional bypass that of course they can't get in touch with their dreams.)

Being "in the now" does not place you outside of time. You are still moving through life. You can move to re-create the same situations you have over and over or you can move to create new ones, but we are never actually standing still.

When you are really present with yourself, where you are, you see that this includes your dreams and when you simply MAKE SPACE for that...new possibilities emerge. You never need to leave "now" to get to a dream.

Dreams can require hard work and risks, yes. How we choose to engage with those parts of the process are 100% up to us though. We can move more slowly. We can make the work more enjoyable. We can dream up whole new ways to do things that don't feel like risk and hard work! And we can break those risks down smaller and smaller and smaller.

We NEVER need to bypass our needs, safety and preferences to make a dream happen.

That's a belief we do get from living in this culture, and, if left unquestioned, it will impact your life in a negative way.

When we're REALLY listening to ourselves, which is most of what a Creative Dream Alchemy practice is, we know when to do what and how to do it. And when we don't know - we listen some more.

A lot of what we think of as "making our dreams real" is all tied up in the capitalist dreams we get sold in this culture about what we are suppose to want and what we should be willing to give up to get it.

My work is in opposition of all of that.

Your actual dreams are in opposition to all of that.

And your PRESENCE is the most powerful tool for transformation that you have.

Last week when I was talking about how you don't have to stay calm in these troubling times... I was talking about how POWERFUL you are when you are PRESENT with reality.

Which doesn't mean being upset all the time! It does mean tending to your feelings and listening to yourself about what you need. And honouring the boundaries you know you need.

So, I am here, so grateful that my dreams keep pushing me to root in more deeply. Make more art. Meditate more. Scroll less. I even started a whole new art journal that I'll share about soon.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

Do the Hello Day Energy Clearing + Intention Setting Practice (from Dream Book 2026)

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

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

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

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

I am having such a lovely weekend.

So I am kind of excited to do my Dream Status Report for this week. I do the this practice (or try to!) every week because a consistent practice of reflecting + noticing is a HUGE part of how we figure out how to get to our dreams. There is so much to learn from our own process, from looking at what happens when we get an intention and try to show up for it.

We are really in the ALCHEMY of it and allowing the healing, growth and change that our dream is calling us towards, when we do what we can to really notice and BE WITH what's happening in our own process.

As I reflect on last week and dream on next week, one question comes up:

How am I RECEIVING my dream?

What am I doing to actively BE in a receptive state?

This feels like the thing to carry with me this week.

I mean this in two ways: first literally being receptive of my dream arriving in my life.

But also being receptive to LISTENING to my dream about what it really is.

For a while now it's felt like... as the world changes our dreams will likely change too.

We need to stay open to this.

Our dreams are a creative and spiritual response to the world we live in - so as the world is changing so much, our dreams may change too.

It's easy to hold onto a dream, even when it wants to change, and to not notice how tightly you are holding on.

Am I doing that? Holding onto a dream that wants some space to change? Yes, it feels like I am in some ways but I can't quite put my finger on it.

When I REALLY sit with it...

It feels like my dreams are not quite what I think they are, and like I am trying to hold them into something smaller and more logical than they actually are.

It feels really uncomfortable to sit with this. I'd like some predictable dreams/goals to work on!

But I've been meditating on this a lot and it's getting really trippy...

What we allow ourselves to dream about and how we allow ourselves to dream about it are both HUGELY culturally informed. The part of us who makes these decisions is rooted in the world we live in.

So much of the ugly rotting roots of our culture are currently being revealed, which impacts culture itself. Culture is changing quickly.

So this creates an opening, a space where we can hear our dreams without so much of culture's influence.

For me, I am hearing this as new directions to take my art, new goals for my art, and a new sense of myself as an artist.

And it's so much weirder and bigger than what I think I want.

My dream is asking me to engage with my dreams - which means engage with my creativity and my soul and my self - in different ways than I ever have.

So if the part of me who has made these decisions about my dreams is rooted, in a particular way, in the world I live in.... what would these decisions looks like if I allowed a part of me who is more deeply rooted in soul to be in charge?

Which is not at all black + white like that. A lot of the ways we are rooted into the culture we live in are so unconscious. And a lot of the ways we are rooted into soul are also unconscious!

But if I could strip back another layer of cultural conditioning what would that mean for my dreams?

This feels important to listen to.

It's not what I had planned to be my focus for this week, but after this reflection... it feels like the thing I need to focus on this week.

So I am making space for these explorations this week, I want to do lots of Hello Day and Dream Lab meditations. I want to make art WITHOUT trying so much to decide what it is - I want to let the art tell me what it is and let me show me something new about who I am even.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

Do the Hello Day Energy Clearing + Intention Setting Practice (from Dream Book 2026)

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

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

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

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

I am still thinking about all the things that were shared during our New Moon call on Tuesday ...

And about how we balance the reality of what we are facing and the reality that our dreams, creativity and healing still really matter?

Of course there is no “right way” to navigate any of this, we all need to listen to ourselves about our right way. And then keep listening.

(I had such a great discussion about this yesterday with my friend Chris Zydel from Creative Juices Arts. The LIVE aspect of it didn't go as planned, but you can watch the video here)

I’m just so grateful for the people who keep showing up to dream with me.

To meditate, reflect, journal and dream together.

To set intentions and then BE IN THE MESS of what happens as we practice holding these intentions even with everything happening in our own lives and the would at large.

And I’ve been sitting with my experience from our New Moon alchemy meditation.

It was really weird… my intention turned into an octopus, all these tentacles reaching into me and then kind of pushing ME out of me, like the octopus intention wanted to take over.

And then the tentacles started to turn into roots, rooting in.

And it was like “you need to root into who are are becoming and shed all the things that are in the way of that becoming”

Which is, in one way, what we’re always doing as we grow.

But, in another way, this felt intense on a level I haven’t experienced before.

I felt this in my body, my old self being pushed out to make room for the new.

So yesterday I drew it out in my journal and wrote about it some more, which helped me see new ways I can support this shift.

Healing/shifting is one thing. HOLDING ONTO IT so you can LIVE FROM IT is a different thing.

That’s why all of my work is about helping you stay in process, to keep practicing, and to practice more often. This is the work that roots the healing and shifts in place.

So, I am working on it. I am practicing.

Maybe I will just keep drawing this intention turning into an octopus and taking over my body, every day, until I really understand all parts of what it is asking of me.

I said recently that I want more space to BE WEIRD.

I think I am succeeding, lol.

I just want more space to really BE WITH whatever is happening in me, and express it more fully.

This intention-turned-octopus seems to have things to teach me and I want to show up to learn.

When we try to hold intentions in a more logical/linear way, when we focus on getting the outcome we want as fast as possible, we can miss out on all this healing and growth and joy that can come from being more deeply in process. Letting it get weird is so healing.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about everything that was shared on the call.

I am always looking at “what’s happening in the group” and “what are my dreams telling me” and “what is the soul of the Creative Dream Incubator telling me” about adding new stuff to the membership.

As someone said on the call "Here I am, trying to dream in a difficult world"

And I was wondering… do we need a group call on hopelessness? But now that I have thought about it- no, I don’t think so.

What we do need is a reminder that we have a 14 minute Meditation for Sitting With Hopelessness which is really great for when you’re IN IT.

And we have an Alchemy Meditation for Holding Hope In Your Body which is such a healing practice, I feel like this is what helped me put myself back together in my divorce, and create a new foundation to dream new dreams from.

There is also Hello Day: Energy clearing and checking in with yourself. This is really THE PRACTICE for these times - giving yourself space to know how you’re feeing and what you want and need. The meditation also has stuff in it for SEEDING FUTURE POSSIBILITIES FOR DREAM WORK in the times when dreaming feels like too much. That's what Dream Book 2026 is for - holding space.

Having a practice and showing up consistently means having space in that practice to be where you are.

It’s ok if you don’t feel super excited to DREAM BIG right now, it’s still worth practicing sitting with yourself, shoring up your resilience and self belief, making space for processing and healing and all of this good stuff.

This IS the work that tends the soil where new dreams will bloom.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

Do the Hello Day Energy Clearing + Intention Setting Practice (from Dream Book 2026)

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

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

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

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

I am going LIVE on FACEBOOK with my friend, intuitive painting goddess Chris Zydel, today at 2:00 Central.

We’re going to talk about why your dysregulated nervous system is NOT the problem.

I am doing this from my personal Facebook account - you can send me a friend request here and I'll accept it, you can also watch the video there if we're not friends, it will be public.

We mean absolutely no shade to anyone who wants to regulate their nervous system or is out there doing good work helping others regulate!!

What we want to talk about is how “YOU NEED TO REGULATE YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM” is being used prescriptively, as though it is the ONLY answer to what is happening in the world.

It’s not.

Chris and I believe in the wisdom of our bodies, including our feelings.

And we believe in the magic and alchemy of BEING WITH WHAT IS.

If you are dysregulated - that’s your body’s wisdom. Let’s listen to it.

YES we want all the self care right now. YES we love understanding how our nervous systems work and how to help ourselves stay calm.

But we don’t go into this work with a “one size fits all” approach that says that regulated is better than dysregulated.

In the venn diagram of “existential dread” and “dreaming a better future into being”…

ALL of the magic is in the intersection.

BEING WITH what is there always includes being with dreams, magic - your real POWER to create what you feel called to create.... alongside "all the feels".

TENDING TO the existential dread and intense feelings we’re all feeling helps you be able to connect more deeply to your magic. Trying to avoid it DULLS your magic.

I think this will be a fun conversation, and the replay will be on my Facebook when we're done.

(I have a free journaling kit for existential dread! Get it 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.

Do the Hello Day Energy Clearing + Intention Setting Practice (from Dream Book 2026)

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

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

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

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

Today is our New Moon Intention Setting ritual for March.

(Members: get the call details here <--- the replay will be on that page a few hours after we're done)

I've been reflecting on the intention I set last month because I didn't do it. Not just that I tried and wasn't successful... I didn't really try. I didn't DO anything with it.

And I've been wondering why.

(Members: get the zine for sitting with questions here)

That photo above, me holding my planner/journal open to a page that says THIS IS A SACRED PROMISE TO MYSELF is a reminder of what New Moon Intention Setting Ritual is all about.

This is a SACRED PROMISE we make to ourselves, to show up for ourselves.

It's not about goal setting or achieving, there is something much more important happening here, in this process of, month after month, REALLY sitting with ourselves and REALLY listening about how to navigate the next month

So, if I believe that my deepest truth was to do this particular thing this last month... why didn't I do it?

Which is a question that reduces this whole process down to black and white. You said you'd do this. You didn't do it. You failed.

Not the best question to sit with, but it's the one I had.

It opened up a few different "cans of worms" of thoughts and feelings...

And I followed all these different rabbit holes...

Just to remember the things I already knew.

It's NOT RELEVANT if you achieve your goals or not each month, the only thing that matters is that you stay in the process over time.

There is SO MUCH HAPPENING when we set intentions in this way. So many layers of inner and outer healing, shifts, growth, magic.

We have to stay in the process long enough to let the alchemy do it's thing.

And while we're in the process, we have to treat ourselves as living human beings whose needs, energy and capacity fluctuate.

And mostly: that this work is VITAL and SACRED and NEEDED right now.

I am doing exactly what my soul tells me is the right thing for me to be doing at this time.

And I am inviting others to do this work with me, to hold space for them to know and live their own truth in the same way.

The magnitude of this made me cry.

The fact that I didn't quite "hit my goal" this month felt so inconsequential in comparison.

And then I realized... it's not true that I "did nothing" with my intention this month.

I held onto it. I wrote about it every week in my Dream Status Report practice. I thought about what to do with it each week.

I INCUBATED IT.

And then this Sunday when I did my Dream Status Report practice... I actually did get an idea for HOW to do this thing.

I feel ready to do it now!

There are ways to work with intention that are helpful and ways that are NOT helpful.

It's SOOOO important that we HOLD ON to our dreams right now. It's equally important that we lower our expectations of ourselves. We can't push and over-work to get there. We can't steamroll our actual feelings to think positive about it and be confident.

We need to be IN PROCESS. In the alchemy. Letting things morph and change and heal and grow. We can HEAL, CREATE and MAGIC our way there.

We can't judge what we do or don't do in a given month - and it's not even relevant in the long term! What we need to focus on is STAYING IN THE PROCESS.

It IS helpful to dig in there and look around HONESTLY about why you didn't. Do you need more support? A different approach? To face a big fear? What would be helpful?

It's not helpful to RUSH your dreams.

It IS helpful to look at ways to give yourself the support you need to keep dreaming LONG TERM.

It doesn't matter if I accomplish this thing in 4 weeks or 4 months or 4 years.

It matters that I DON'T LET GO of it because our dreams are sacred, our dreams are showing us our path and we deserve to make space for them in our lives.

I hope to see you today on the call! Or if you work with the replay do feel free to share your thoughts in the forum.

If you're not in the membership, you can get the New Moon Intention Setting Ritual Kit to do this on your own!

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

Do the Hello Day Energy Clearing + Intention Setting Practice (from Dream Book 2026)

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

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

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

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

I share my own Creative Dream Alchemy practice on my blog + often link to the tools I use which are only available to Creative Dream Incubator Membership members. If you're not a member, those links will take you to the sign up page to join us!

I am THINKING ABOUT my Dream Status Report for this week.

I encourage us to all do this every week or so. I try to write about mine every week to remind you to do yours!

I have a lot of resistance to doing it this week. So I've been thinking about all the reasons why I don't actually need to do it. And I can come up with lots of reasons... AND... the more I think about it the clearer it got: I was IN resistance.

There was something I didn't want to face.

The WHOLE THING about Creative Dream Alchemy is to face the thing that's actually there.

We dance in so many ways in so many circles trying to avoid the thing that's actually there. We look too far ahead of where we are and try to take those steps and end up falling flat on our faces, or we say "Oh I'm not ready for that yet" and do nothing.

All of your POWER and MAGIC are related when you face the thing that is ACTUALLY there.

AND this is a practice. It's hard.

We all avoid the things we want to avoid, and a lot of this avoidance is unconscious so it can take time, and attention and, mostly, PRACTICE.

So the thing is, to actually DO my Dream Status Report for this week, I'd have to face the thing I am avoiding.

GROAN.

I thought about this most of the day yesterday.

I've had some health problems for the last 4-5 weeks. We can't predict the future but I have every reason to believe this is temporary. It's something that I've always had, there are not a lot of treatment options. It comes and goes so I've been waiting it out.

And that's fine when it's short term.

But 4-5 weeks in, "waiting it out" starts to look like "avoiding how I feel about this disabling thing that is happening to me".

And I didn't notice when it shifted, you know?

So, to reflect HONESTLY on how last week was, in order to do my report and know what is best to focus on for this coming week... I would have to include ALL of what happened last week which would include the health problems and how they impacted things which would have to include how I feel about them.

This slowly dawned on me over the course of the day yesterday.

ASIDE: This is what I mean by how POWERFUL and TRANSFORMATIVE this kind of practice is. It directs your thinking to what needs thinking on and helps create space for the breakthroughs you need. I would not have kept exploring this thing so deeply if I didn't have the consistent Dream Status Report Practice within the Creative Dream Alchemy Practice. These structures HOLD SPACE for your process.

Suddenly I felt like I was sitting on layers of calcified feelings.

And I could no longer sit on top, I need to BE IN THEM. I sunk into all of the sadness and frustration and fear about what's happening with my body.

I panicked. I cried.

And then I started to feel lighter.

It was like I could feel the ground beneath me again.

That all these feelings had been gathering, collecting, building underneath me. Kind of forming a block between me and.... well, me.

It was so HONOURING OF MYSELF to acknowledge all of these layers of feelings. It helped me come back to myself.

And I hadn't noticed how this accumulation of unfelt feelings was impacting my vision.

So often I say, about all of the things I teach, it doesn't matter that you "do the thing" perfectly or answer the prompt in a linear way. It matters that you dive in and be with what is there.

So, "working on my Dream Status Report for this week" looked like noticing my resistance to it, thinking about why it might be there, circling it for a bit, then finally noticing all these unfelt feelings, feeling them, and re-connecting to myself.

No I haven't even looked at the prompts yet, lol.

But this has been SOOOOO helpful already.

And yes - now I will make anther cup of coffee, sit down with my Dream Book 2026   planner/dreamer and do my prompts.

Creative Dream Incubator Coaching Membership members:

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

Do the Hello Day Energy Clearing + Intention Setting Practice (from Dream Book 2026)

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

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

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

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