This week I am drawing my Dream Meetings. I feel really excited about this new practice - I mean not a new practice, but a new commitment to do in this way, by drawing it out.
And I'm sharing them here to invite you to do this too - if you're in Dream Book use the Dream Lab, if not just sit with your dream for 5-10 minutes as a daily practice just to see where it leads.
I don't know where this is going for me, but I feel excited to keep taking little steps with this to see where it leads.
My dream is this thing deep inside of me that is changing.
It feels like the external complements of the dream I had been working with are fading away, and this new energy is there and I don't know what it all means right now but it feels really good to give it space.
I was thinking about how when we are more externally guided, like most people, there is always a next goal, always a thing to be looking towards.
But when you listen to your inner wisdom for guidance for how to move through life, there will be times of no answers, no goals. Times of rest and renewal and letting things incubate and grow.
I am doing a lot right now in terms of other work, re-building systems and structure, I am doing and creating, making space for this dream work practice of being with an incubating dream feels so healing.
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 which is what I am using for my dream meeting drawings.
Check out the calendar of upcoming calls.
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.
This week I am drawing my Dream Meetings.
My first dream meeting, my dream was a flat pancake and I felt... deflated.
At the same time, I was just really feeling the magic of journaling.
Then I went for my bike ride to the park, had some coffee, called my dream back in and now it's like...
I have opened a can of worms.
My dream is not actually my dream. The thing I've been thinking of as the biggest element of "my dream" is not actually my dream. It's a thing I want, but my DREAM...
My dream is different from what I thought.
Things are shifting.
The "new" dream meeting was me floating in the magic of being in congruence with myself.
Drawing this felt like a healing.
I am so excited to see what happens tomorrow.
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 - 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'll be doing these live Co-Dreaming calls every Monday until Aug 28.
Watching these videos all summer WILL get you seeing, and feeling, your dreams in new ways.
The replays will all be on my blog. If you want to attend live, register here to get the Zoom details.
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!)!
Over the year I've gotten a lot of push-back from people who don't want to do the same prompts every week. I know it's annoying somethings but I promise - this is magically clarifying. The repetition helps you go deeper into the process.
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 and everything this entails. Having a less dramatic creative process (like less battling self doubt and more happily humming to myself while I write and draw). Doing more creative projects for fun - like having short bits of creative play mixed into my days more often. And how I feel in my life in perimenopuase and beyond.
I want it because: This is what feels most enticing and interesting to me. I'm also noticing how BEING who I feel I AM is important for my mental health. I feel so strongly - a better world is possible and our dreams show us the way there.
When I have it I will feel: Just a little more ME, more energized. More stable/sturdy. Excited about the new work I am doing.
My new moon intention: My intuition sent me an almost-scary message about being more clear about something. LOL that was vaguely written, but I am being more clear with myself, it's not something I'm ready to share about.
(Re-reading this and noticing how I have dropped this practice over the last week. To explore on today’s New Moon Intention Setting call!)
PART TWO: Invite your dream in (using the Dream Lab practice) to help you with the rest of the prompts.
My dream shows up as… well nothing, at first. I just feel SO STRONGLY how I haven’t been doing this practice as much as I wish I was. And then I also feel like I want to be doing the version of this practice where I also meet with the soul of my business, more often. I mean - when did I get out of this habit anyway?
Then my dream shows up as a cloud of light, with arms, that hugs me from behind. “Dear, there is so much you want to do! You’re at that part of your journal project where your creative energy is all diverted into the project. That’s all.”
OK. But I actually am CRAVING this practice, I want to DRAW MY MEETINGS (I mean drawing like a 3 year old, very quick little sketches) with the souls of my dream and business, EVERY DAY!
My dream is cheering for this idea and it feels like it’s not upset that I haven’t been connecting as much - it is always connected to me.
PART THREE:
Last week’s focus was: Explore structure more deeply. What kinds of structure would be helpful now: for my ongoing journey of putting my work out there, and for the journal project (I did get great advice about that last week, keep exploring where that leads) and what else in my life needs more structure?
What happened in the last week?
Sometimes I wonder why I keep picking focuses when I don’t follow through in the ways I wish I did.
BUT/AND sometimes I don’t know CAN’T KNOW ACTUALLY how long a thing will take to work through, and this is a form of intention setting that can shift things even when I don’t follow through.
BUT/AND it does show how I do need more structure! I haven’t been using my planner and that’s usually where I would track those kinds of things. It’s so wild! Before 2020 I would NEVER not be using my planner but since 2020 I come and go from it. When I miss weeks, I go back later and make art on those pages, which is fun too.
BUT YES it’s time to be more consistent with the planner. Also, I’ve been thinking about not making a planner for 2024, and making some undated ones instead because that would make it easier to just use it when you want to use it. Also I really want a smaller planner, not full printer pages, and I could make them in different sizes (using the disc binder I can make them any size! I forget this!) and different formats. Maybe I will play around with that - brainstorming ideas would help me figure out what kind of structure will be most helpful for me right now.
But to answer the question, lol, I really was working on structure and “how do I support myself in doing what I want to do” specifically - making more time for art - the handwriting + artwork of the guided journal I’m working on. It’s not just having the TIME but being in the right space.
What am I learning/How do I feel about this?
I feel like I am muddling through it all. I always dream of figuring things out easily and in some kind of logical order so I take clear, simple, consistent steps that always feel like progress. LOL I mean OMGLOL I have coached enough people to know that this is never how it works.
What do I need now? To use my planner and keep exploring how I can set things up to help me do what I want to do.
What does my dream need now?
I want to say it needs me to get organized, lol, but actually it’s saying it would love it if I was more accepting of being where I am, and that the process is messy. Can we enjoy the mess? I am also getting the sense that my dream thinks it’s boring to clean up messes. Hmmm
Taking all of this into account, my focus for the next week is:
Explore structure - so excited we’re going to do this as a group in the forum next week. USE THE PLANNER.
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.
Yesterday, which started as a cyclone of uncomfortable feelings, ended up being amazing. I got EIGHT PAGES DONE in the Creative Dream Journal I am working on. EIGHT!!! I think four was my record in one day before this, it's been very slow going.
(I mean - hand writing the pages, and doing the art, which includes editing my ideas, shifting things around, etc)
And when I look at the pages - my heart just beams. I am so happy with this, I get that "this is what I am here to do" feeling.
Those big uncomfortable feelings do get dredged up when we work with our dreams.
Tending to them is a part of the work, otherwise you can't make any moves that would dredge the feelings up, and you end up caged in by the avoidance of the discomfort.
(Though a part of me is thinking: DISCOMFORT?!?! That's a very tame way to describe how it feels. It's agonizing and of course we want to avoid it!!!)
Yesterday a little discussion started in our Dream Book forum about STRUCTURE.
It's something I am working on in my practice, and since a few people were also into exploring it - we're going to do that together next week. (I'll share about it in the daily posts with prompts and ideas and we'll explore together in the forum - how do we help each other create and maintain the structure we need to show up in the ways we want to show up?)
There are so many practical physical aspects of structure. And then there are all of the inner aspects. It's all a lot to sort through.
I had a big breakthrough about a really practical aspect of: how do I make it easier to show up consistently?
I like to work in coffee shops, and at a particular park near me. Technically, the park is a bar patio in a park, but there's a coffee shop and bakery open in the morning and hardly anyone there, it's perfect.
One thing is that I am very picky about WHERE I go, which is partly because I am a sensitive person and the vibes need to be right but also, and I can't believe I just noticed how important this is - I need a TALL table and stool.
With a tall table and stool, I can journal, write and draw for hours.
Sitting at a lower table, eww no I can't.
This spring, when the snow melted and the park people put the tables and chairs out on the patio at the park I like - initially they put cafe tables and chairs under the trees I like to sit under and I saw that and thought "my whole summer is ruined". Like, I just can't sit at a lower table. I was so relieved when they re-arranged and put the tall tables and bar stools under "my trees".
Anyway, with all of this.... why did it not occur to me that my desk and chair at home are essentially what I think of as "low tables" in coffee shops and never sit at?
Like, I need a standing desk and a stool! This makes my body feel good sitting at the table and encourages me to show up in the ways I want to. I want to be a person who does TONS of art and journaling. Having the right physical set up for this is one form of structure.
So yesterday I ordered an adjustable standing desk. And I saw a stool I like I'm going to check out at Ikea this weekend.
And I feel SO EXCITED.
SO MAGICAL to notice this, and be able to do something about it.
PS: The July New Moon intention setting and coaching call is on Friday! Get the call details here.
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 - 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 am upset this morning. Really upset.
I’m going to try to use the Un-Sticking Station to help myself feel better.
Hey, upset feeling, can we talk?
Upset feeling is a cyclone. Spinning behind my forehead, in my jaw. I start crying.
I’d like to help you.
Cyclone pauses. How? I thought I would have to just blow and blown until I got winded.
I think we have other options. It’s hard for me to have you cycling around inside me. How is it for you?
I feel completely out of control. This isn’t what I want.
OK. Ummm, I don’t know how to slow down a cyclone. I would like to offer you love, how can I do that? How do you want to be loved?
Cyclone starts crying. I don’t think anyone has ever tried to love me. I don’t know how to be loved.
OK, I am going to hung you then.
I imagine that I am hugging the cyclone. I start crying for this part of me who doesn’t know how to be loved.
Cyclone, I love you. Can you feel that? I feel for you, spinning out of control and not knowing how to stop, not knowing how to get what you want. You are precious and lovable.
The cyclone stops (!)
Now it’s a worm.
This feels like progress… but then the worm is just lying there. Like going from being stuck in a flight response to being stuck in a frozen response.
I offer the worm love through warming… I put a blanket on it, I bring in a fireplace and light it, I make a cozy little den. I put out some plates of snacks and a pot of tea.
I pet the worm, now it’s the size of my cat. I sit down beside it.
I don’t think I am frozen, I am resting.
Oh. That’s good.
How do you feel?
Well, like a cyclone has gone through me, I guess. I feel like my edges are frayed. My head hurts a little.
What do you want?
I want to make a drink, get on my bike, and go to the park with my tablet and draw and write and listen to music. I just worry I am too sensitive for the world right now. I am still crying a little, so…
You feel stuck?
Yeah.
What if there is no rush? What if you work towards that plan?
Oh wow that feels like relief.
What would you do, to help yourself get ready to do what you want?
Ice pack on my eyes. Meditation. Have breakfast. I can see myself feeling better then.
OK then let’s do it!
Cyclone/worm - thank you, I love that I started out trying to help you and then you ended up helping me. This is beautiful.
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 - 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 in my dream status report my dream pointed to me needing to explore structure. Then during our Monday meditation, again, structure.
Yesterday my dream said: Have more fun! Having more structure will help you have more fun!
And that's true, structure helps me feel less overwhelmed in general. Good structure also helps me do more with less effort. So let's explore...
It's hard to think about structure and not think about 2020 swooping in and destroying all of the structure I had.
It's hard to think back to the details of that, because it feels so uncomfortable, but at the same time I do feel happy where I am as my 2023 self, who wouldn't exist in this way if 2020 hadn't gone the way it did. So it's like all these conflicting feelings come up as I think back to then.
And I think that's why I've just "kind of muddled through" and not gotten really specific and intention about how I want to re-create structure now, because just thinking about it sparks so many conflicted feelings which feels overwhelming.
For some reason, probably the magic of time is a big part of it, having conflicting feelings about this feels ok this morning.
Do I want to try and re-build the structure I had, as well as I can, making adjustments for the ways I have changed?
Or do I want to focus on where I am now, and build something totally new?
So interesting!
I definitely want to build something new.
AND I definitely don't want to leave behind all the things I learned - pre-pandemic, I had spent YEARS working on creating the routines and habits that would serve me the best.
Ummmm, sitting with these conflicting thoughts, making space for the feelings that come out each one, the answer starts to feel really obvious.
List the things that were working for me in 2019.
For each one of these, write about how my 2023 self would do this.
early wake up
bike ride or walk (I already know where I am going when I wake up, I am usually packed, so I just get up and get going)
long morning in a coffee shop: journaling for the first hour, then laptop productivity time
everything I am doing planned is out in project management app
Monday morning is about planning for the week and checking in with all projects. I had lots of lists.
the details of my admin tasks were mapped out more clearly
Hmmmm, this is weird.
This is mostly stuff I am still doing. I mean, not the LONG mornings in coffee shops and not the same "productivity time". I have fewer lists, etc, but in a general, slower sense, I am doing these things.
Why has it felt like I have NONE of the structure I used to have?
(sitting with this)
Oh. It's my RELATIONSHIP to structure.
It just hit me.
The way an external event came in and destroyed all the structure I had. I still feel in a bit of a freeze response about that.
I'm going to stop here for today and let this sink in a little.
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 - 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'll be doing these live Co-Dreaming calls every Monday until Aug 28.
Watching these videos all summer WILL get you seeing, and feeling, your dreams in new ways.
The replays will all be on my blog. If you want to attend live, register here to get the Zoom details.
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!)!
Over the year I've gotten a lot of push-back from people who don't want to do the same prompts every week. I know it's annoying somethings but I promise - this is magically clarifying. The repetition helps you go deeper into the process.
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 and everything this entails. Having a less dramatic creative process (like less battling self doubt and more happily humming to myself while I write and draw). And how I feel in my life in perimenopuase and beyond.
I want it because: This is what feels most enticing and interesting to me. I'm also noticing how BEING who I feel I AM is important for my mental health. I feel so strongly - a better world is possible and our dreams show us the way there.
When I have it I will feel: Just a little more ME, more energized. More stable/sturdy. Excited about the new work I am doing.
My new moon intention: My intuition sent me an almost-scary message about being more clear about something. LOL that was vaguely written, but I am being more clear with myself, it's not something I'm ready to share about.
PART TWO: Invite your dream in (using the Dream Lab practice) to help you with the rest of the prompts.
My dream shows up as a big star in the sky with rainbows shooting out from it.
And it feels like CLARITY and CERTAINTY, things I have not been feeling so much lately.
I sit down and ask the star to shine its light on me. I feel like clarity and certainty exist, my dream is holding them for me, and it’s fine that I don’t feel that way right now. I feel tired and foggy and tired of feeling foggy!
I wonder if this light can clear fog and resistance, which is what I think is feeding the fog?
Suddenly the star has a hand, and it’s holding its hand over my head, shining every colour of the rainbow onto me. The threads of rainbow colours beam down, and then move around and hug me. I feel a big “It’s ok to feel how you feel, sweetheart"
PART THREE:
Last week’s focus was: Take good care of myself, honour my capacity, and stay present with my dreams. I know how I feel when I am ALIGNED. Focus on feeling this way more often.
What happened in the last week?
This week I started to feel grounded about the free weekly calls I am doing! This is a total “follow your dream’s advice and do the thing, you don’t have to feel ready” kind of situation. It’s not even like I haven’t done tons of free classes it just feels like the landscape has changed and it’s felt awkward to get into it.
I am so wildly immensely grateful for everyone who has shown up and participated on these calls. It’s the community that makes them magic and I wasn’t sure how that would be without our safe private container.
Though in all honesty, it’s not like a lot of people will watch these - getting people’s attention online is soooo hard so it’s just the people who really align with what I’m talking about who will even begin to be curious about watching. But it feels different to have a thing be “out there” and I am so grateful to not be out there alone on this one.
I am crying as I write this, mostly from allergies which are really bad today and I am sitting outside but it also feels really emotional. I am so grateful for the people that the Creative Dream Incubator has drawn in. And the last… umm 6 years (yikes!) I have felt so conflicted about calling new people in and this is the thing I need to work on now and I can remember to draw on the magic of what we already have going on.
Arghugh! I see why I feel so foggy, I am in an uncomfortable part. I am moving through it, I do see an end in sight, but it’s uncomfortable and so the resistance/fog does creep in.
What am I learning/How do I feel about this?
I do feel uncomfortable and being uncomfortable, lol! But I also feel proud of myself, for making the commitment that my dream asked me to make, and sticking to it. I know the discomfort, and the things that happen as I work through it, are a part of the process and I do feel good about the whole thing. I do feel like by the end of summer I will have a whole new relationship with how I put my work out there. One that feels grounded and stable in an unstable world. That’s the dream anyway 🙂
What do I need now? Permission to BE IN THE PROCESS and not have it all figured out, to not be exactly where I want to be in terms of my habits and work flow and celebrate the little steps I am taking.
What does my dream need now?
It’s smiling and raining down rainbows on me. Just stay with it, honey. And do keep working on organization and structure, like we’ve been exploring.
Taking all of this into account, my focus for the next week is:
Explore structure more deeply. What kinds of structure would be helpful now: for my ongoing journey of putting my work out there, and for the journal project (I did get great advice about that last week, keep exploring where that leads) and what else in my life needs more structure?
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 know we all know this.
And I know we ALSO can feel like… but if a thing is REALLY GOOD it will find its audience, it will find commercial success.
Our culture tells us that the people who have really big financial success are actually more gifted than those who don’t have it.
It’s called meritocracy. It’s a way of justifying the huge gaps between the ultra rich and everyone else. It’s a way of keeping us obedient to capitalist values.
The truth is, we’re all gifted. We’re all unique. And one person having more commercial success than another person does not make them more gifted. It makes them more celebrated by capitalism.
And people use that “celebrated by capitalism” as evidence of being exceptionally gifted.
It happens ALL THE TIME in the life coaching and wellness industries. You think the people who are the most famous and make the most money are the best healers.
They’re not.
And that’s a fucked up measurement system. Especially when you’ve been in this business long enough to know what happens behind the scenes of those businesses that make all that money.
We need to find all the places, in us, where we allow money to determine worth, and clear them.
We need to root more deeply into our own values, and not the capitalist values that the world wants us to live by.
And the next time you see someone telling you their huge income as a way of saying that their work and ideas are more valuable than everyone else’s, you need to think about not listening to them. We don’t have to keep holding this system up.
And when you stop believing that “because so and so makes money money it means they are better” then you can stop believe that you are not good enough.
How celebrated by capitalism your work is is NOT an accurate measurement of how valuable and needed your work is.
Capitalism allows millions of people to starve while a few use billions of dollars to blast themselves off into space. It’s a fucked up system. I know we all need money, but is being celebrated by this fucked up system really a good goal to aim for?
This post is inspired by the inner work I’ve been doing for the last year - starting with the Slow the fuck down! BE as powerful, creative + magnetic as you are class. And then using the Un-Sticking Station process on ALL of the different thoughts and feelings that were unearthed in that class. It’s been a long journey but I love how clear I feel right now, that I have unearthed big chunks of these things from my inner world.
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 - 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.