Today I had an impromptu treat date with my youngest daughter, Amity. We spent an hour sitting in the sunshine drinking coffee (for me), a salted caramel milkshake (for her) and sharing a delicious brownie. Outside in The Garden Yard, one of my favourite cafes in Grantham, we just sat and talked and she brainstormed ideas about what I should be when I grow up. It was lovely, and sweet and all the good things about being a parent. We connected well and after being locked down for so long it felt like a mini-holiday in a beautiful creative space. I decided that no matter what I end up doing, I'm going there often to dream and plan and feel creative and inspired.
I started chapter one in the Your Dream Life Starts Here book by Kristina Karlsson. Not surprisingly, the first chapter is about dreaming and she suggests that dreaming should be a discipline in life, like yoga or exercise. I hadn't thought of it this way and I certainly haven't made a practise of dreaming about my life in a non-rational way. Her advice, "Turn off your rational mind."
My quote for today is from the book, "Imagine you can do whatever you want to do and have whatever you want to have. To be whoever you want to be. You are not constrained at all by what your parents think, what your friends think, what your partner thinks, what anyone thinks. You are totally free to just be you - to be your best self and to dream without any limitations about what you want for yourself, for those you love and care about, and for the world. Let go of everything you thought you could or couldn't do. Cast all doubts and all constraints aside and give yourself the gift of dreaming." (p. 30)
It certainly didn't come naturally to me. I got out my ultra-fine point sharpies (got to be colourful) and paper and started the first question. 1. What would you do if you knew you could not fail? Ahhhh, I've seen this question before and tried to answer it but only in my head - I've never tried writing anything down before. I couldn't come up with anything to write. My first words on the page were I DON'T KNOW! After I wrote I DON'T KNOW in blue sharpie my brain did start to generate some other ideas, Karlsson asks 23 questions and I journaled about all of them. I filled four pages of A4 paper with ideas and it was exhausting! I also managed to spill my drink all over the beautiful book which was very sad. Apparently I now need to ruminate on the questions all week and keep coming back to them and adding ideas as they pop up. If anyone fancies joining me dreaming, she has a video and a downloadable dream list on her website. I'd just like to say that I'm not getting paid to advertise this book. I wish I was lol but I don't even know how to do that yet so just sharing because I think it's a pretty awesome book.
After all that writing and thinking I feel a bit like I just drank a 20 oz coffee and have caffeine coursing through my veins. Will I figure out how to "turn off my rational mind." Well that certainly sounds like a Karen-esque thing to do. Perhaps this will be easier than I thought.
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