Photo by Sparks Reliance on Unsplash

We're all plugged into systems - ways of being, ways of thinking, ways of feeling, ways of doing - that are not in alignment with our values.

This is just a part of what it means to be alive at this time.

There's the dream that we can just rise above. Just don't focus on the hard stuff. Be happy and free.

This is what the Life Your Best Life Industry has been selling for so long. The idea that we can change our thinking about ourselves, go after our dreams, and that this contributes to making the world better.

And I have felt that way in the past.

Feeling good about making money and then using that money to support the things I want to see in the world.

Feeling like that's somehow enough to transform entrenched systems of patriarchy, white supremacy and colonialism in our capitalist society. And not learning enough about how these systems actually function to know, for sure, what it would take to transform them.

AT THE SAME TIME

Of course I believe that every dream made real contributes to making the world better.

HOWEVER

When talk about dreams, I am talking about something very specific. I am talking to listening to your inner truth. FOLLOWING your inner truth. Living your values, in a meaningful way.

I'm not talking about winning the lottery and buying a Greek island and living happily ever after. Or building a 6 figure online business in 3 months.

I am talking about something much deeper - which of course can result in big businesses and Greek islands but more often is not so flashy.

The work it takes to hear your heart's desires and act on them is the work that grows you.

No one like to grow up. No one likes to take responsibility. Everyone likes to avoid discomfort.

And - in general - this Live Your Best Life Industry is going shallow when we need to go deep. Spiritual by-pass instead of growing up.

Manifesting big bucks instead of sitting honestly with our feelings, our behaviour, the state of the world and what we might be able to contribute to improving it.

We need to do better.

Because you are a part of the earth. So your true heart's desires are not going to contribute to climate collapse.

Living your values would have you actively supporting a livable future for everyone.

You are a part of humanity. So your true heart's desires don't contribute to the oppression of other humans.

Living your values would have you caring about everyone having a good life, not just you and yours. Living your values would have you looking for ways to show up and BE the change.

But we're so tangled up in colonial ways of thinking, in unconscious white supremacy, in capitalism, that these systems are infecting our dreams and making us feel discouraged and like the idea that a society where EVERYONE has EVERYTHING they need is preposterous.

It's not.

We need to get free. Truly free.

Not by thinking positive and letting go of everything that holds us back.

By making space to really hear our deepest inner truth, to really hear what our hearts are calling us towards - beyond all the ways we've been brainwashed by colonization and capitalism - and then getting our lives into alignment with our deepest inner truth.

AKA by creative dreaming.

This is one of the paths that lead to a better world.