Tag Archives: dreams

If You Dare Nothing

Posted on by
7 
If You Dare Nothing
by Louise Gallagher

If life were a poem
would you dare
to dance on rainbows?

If life were a song
would you dare
to sing the morning awake?

If life were a canvas, 
would you dare 
to paint the sky vivid green?

And if life were a story
would you dare
to paint your dreams alive?

If in your life you dare
nothing,
ask yourself, Why Not?

This past Sunday marked a milestone in my life; I mustered the courage to sing in front of a group of over 150 people.

This wasn’t just a spontaneous act. It was the realization of a dream I had nurtured for nearly two decades. Seventeen years, to be precise. And while it may have taken me longer than I initially thought, I’m reminded that the timeline of dreams is less significant than the perseverance to pursue them.

At the age of 16, I had a taste of the spotlight when I won second place in a talent contest. My big brother, ever the protective sibling, perhaps feared that success might go to my head. So, as we walked home after my performance, he sought to ground me with a reminder: that in his eyes, I couldn’t sing, and to him, I appeared as nothing more than a silly little girl. He even went so far as to suggest that the audience were on his side and thought so too..

I tried to brush off his words with laughter and feigned indifference. “I’m going to sing regardless,” I defiantly claimed. But internally, I was shattered. His words held weight, and I retreated from singing in public.

Four decades would pass before I would confront that memory again. Seated in a seminar room on a Sunday morning, I watched another trainee stand up and sing in front of an audience. I wasn’t listening to their skill or pitch. I was mesmerizedby their bravery.

And in that moment, a dormant dream reawakened. I wanted to reclaim my voice, not for the sake of singing perfectly, but to heal that wounded young girl’s spirit and prove to her that she is worthy of her dreams.

So, on this past Sunday, in the Discovery seminar room where I had encountered my shattered dream almost twenty years ago, I sang. I sang not for validation but as an act of personal liberation. It was a triumphant stand, my declaration of independence, against a belief that had held me back for so long: the mistaken notion that I didn’t deserve to see my dreams realized.

My song that day? The very one I sang all those years ago – Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.”

It was a full-circle moment, symbolizing that while perspectives change over time, dreams – when pursued – can truly come full circle.

Take Action – my word for 2020

Posted on by
8

Sunrise on the river through frosted glass on the deck

I took down Christmas yesterday. Finished off the task I’d begun the day before, carefully wrapping and placing decorations into tubs, labelling each tub to ensure it is easier next Christmas to set it all up again. Hauling out the tree for the ‘Tree Tossers’ to come and pick up.

I love the spaciousness that happens inside our home, and my being when Christmas is all putaway.

I love the lights and glitter, the twinkling of the tree at night, the holly and cedar branches, the adornments on tabletops and ledges.

I love it all.

And then….

I grow weary of the clutter, the needles falling, the having to move this and that to create space for everyday living.

This morning, when I walked into our living room it felt light and airy. Like the new year really has begun and the clutter of the past is now cleaned up.

Which I hope it has as my dream last night was rather prescient.

In my dream…I was kidnapped, but I wasn’t. There were lots of people around whom I knew and the only thing keeping me where I was, was the ruler tucked into my hair. It had antenna attached to it which acted as an electronic tracking device.

Lots of people there knew me and they all felt sorry for me. Which I absolutely detest. People feeling sorry for me. And, while they knew where I was, they didn’t want to tell me because, apparently, no one ‘out in the world’ knew where I was.

I didn’t know where I was either. I think it was New Zealand. C.C. was in the US somewhere. I’d lost my phone and couldn’t remember any numbers so couldn’t call, which wasn’t possible anyway as the kidnapper had the only phone. But I kept thinking I needed to call, if only I knew the numbers.

It wasn’t a scary dream. More a wake-up and get creating kind of dream. A ‘stop vacillating about what you are doing and just do it’ kind of message.

It was definitely a dream that confirms the power of the word that has found me for 2020.

It’s two words actually. Take Action.

I didn’t choose them. In fact, I kept trying to make it something else. Like ‘Transformation’ or ‘Divine Goddess’ or ‘Creativity’. All of them felt contrived like I was thinking them into being. Take Action kept resonating. In meditation. Writing. Even my dreams.

And so, it is my guide, my compass, my true north for 2020.

And as I ponder its essence I gain clarity on my dream. I often hold back from taking action because I hold myself captive to the idea that my creative expressions are not as valid as someone else’s. Or, that they only have relevance to me. Or, they’re just not perfect yet.

To simply ‘Take Action’ means to let go of looking for some secret release or answer. It means to trust in my creative urgings calling me to simply be present with my birthing of ideas into the world — without judgement, purpose or explanation.

I think it’s what my dream was telling me — stop holding myself captive to what I think I need to measure up to, stop fearing what others think or might say, stop making excuses for not diving in and just do it. Just ‘Take Action’.

Here’s to a year of living into, breathing with, and acting out my word for 2020.

Here’s to a year where I ‘Take Action’ on setting myself free of expectations, checklists and boxes!

Care to join me?

 

 

 

 

Fear is the Opportunity to Awaken

Posted on by
4

Front Cover

I am practising the art of “begin again“.

For years, I dutiflly wrote my ‘morning pages’, the art of writing it out every morning as proscribed by Julia Cameron in “The Artist’s Way”.

For years more, I let it go.

I loved writing my morning pages, but… but… but…. Blogging. Busyness. Basically telling myself I didn’t need to, kept me off the habit of my morning pages.

Unscripted time welcomed me back. Particularly as I don’t have a deadline in the mornings in which to get it all completed. I only have… time in its endless flow.

I have begun again.

This morning, as I sat and wrote, I invited my mind to stop ‘forming thoughts’ and to simply let whatever thoughts were swimming about in my head become visible on the page. The words formed and I smiled as I saw the theme emerge: Believe.

Yesterday, as I sat in my studio and created simply for the sake of creating, a booklet created itself. Its theme:  Believe.

Everything is connected to everything.

For much of my life I feared ‘dreaming’. Feared planning my own life built on my own dreams because… well there are a whole lot of deep psychological roadblocks that formed as little speedbumps when I was a child and kept getting built bigger and bigger as I encountered life’s challenges and disappointments.

Needless to say, countless hours of therapy, breath work, group work, writing it out, talking it out and self-actualizing it out have diminished the roadblocks. Now they’re simply speedbumps that are easy to navigate as long as I consciously drive with my intention to live fearlessly in this moment gripped firmly in my hands, heart, mind, body and spirit.

The 9-to-5 was perfect for someone afraid of dreaming. It gave me a destination. A plan. A purpose. It gave me structure.

Set free, I met my fear opening up in my morning pages. At its root, my fear of dreaming.

And I smile.

Fear is the opportunity to awaken.

My fear lives in my mind. I am in control of what I feed my mind. Healthy, empowering thoughts, or garbage.

My choice.

I’m choosing morning pages, bright sunlight and a steady diet of clarifying my dreams so that I can create the structure that will support their fruition.

It’s an exciting journey. I can feel it in my bones, my blood, my body.

And I smile again. I’m obviously into the 3 B’s this morning.  (Yup! I do amuse myself!)

I’ve put the book I made on the desk beside my computer. It is my reminder to believe. In me. Life. Possibility. And in that belief, to follow my dreams, my heart, my desire to create. My desire to make a difference in this world by inspiring others to connect with their creative core and express themselves freely.

I don’t know what the outcome will look like, and that’s okay. For now, I am allowing what is percolating to bubble up and become expressed, however it chooses to be expressed.

In that expression, I am creating clarity. With clarity, purpose follows. And in that inspiring space, my dreams will follow and I will follow my dreams.

Namaste.

 

 

 

Dream big. Live large. Be inspired.

Posted on by
11

dream big copyPassion.

There was a time when I thought passion was reserved for lovers. That only people involved in an intimate relationship knew what passion was.

I love it when I’m proved wrong!

Passion is what I strive to step into every day — even on days like today when the skies are grey and the sun is hiding!

Passion is the force behind my dreams. It’s the energy behind getting the most out of my life, every moment of every day. It’s my life source.

Passion keeps me committed to awakening every morning with a song in my heart. It lightens my spirit and drives me to courageously step forward throughout the day asking myself in everything I do, “Does this create more of what I want in my life, or less?”

Passion fires me up.

Some time ago, while creating a dreamchart of my “Ultimate Life”, I asked myself, what can I do in this moment to inject passion into my dreams.

The answer was easy. Remind myself of my purpose — to touch hearts and open minds to set spirits free. In a nutshell, to live an inspiring life right now. That means, to quit looking at tomorrow as the time I’ll be perfect, or have everything I want or need. It means, to stop thinking about doing it tomorrow — but rather — getting to it today!

When I’m passionate about me, I’m passionate about my life and everyone and everything in it. I live, breathe, exude my passion.

When I’m on fire, my world lights up and I take off and soar through every moment, confident, positive, convinced in my right to claim this place, right where I’m at, as my rightful, deserving place under the sun.

When I’m passionate about me, I step into the moment of being all I’m meant to be and let go of wishful thinking, yearning and pining for a better tomorrow. When I’m passionate about me, I live in this moment being completely, absolutely accepting of who I am because I know, I’m one powerful woman living the life of her dreams, right now.

Do you know your passions? Are you passionate about you?

Some questions you can ask yourself to understand your passions are:

1. What do I love to do for other people?
2. What is it people tell me about me that makes me feel proud, happy, that makes my heart sing?
3. What do I do that makes time stop? Makes me lose all sense of time?
4. What do I love doing most in the world?
5. Am I happiest helping people or creating things that help people?
6. Do I have special gifts or talents that I love to share? What are they?
7. If I can’t think of any special gift or talent I possess — if I did have one, what would it be?

Sit quietly, ask yourself these questions and write down your answers. Don’t judge what you write, just write down what comes to you. Let the answers flow. Don’t worry about punctuation. Grammar. Spelling. Just write it down. Don’t let your inner critic stifle your creativity. Flow.

Once you’ve completed the questions, look for the pattern in your answers. Look to find what speaks to your heart.

For me, I love to help people find their purpose, their passion, their inner beauty.
I love it when people tell me I inspire them.
Time stops for me when I’m writing, and painting.
Anything creative makes time stand still as I immerse myself in the joy of what I’m doing. I love writing, painting, creating.
For me, I’m happiest creating things that help people, bring joy to them. I love creating words that sing to people’s hearts, that ease their pain, and ignite their thinking.
I love to share my writing. My words. My spirit.

See, it’s easy. Go for it. Let your thoughts flow. Let your imagination soar. Get creating.

Everyone has passion. Everyone has a purpose. Everyone has dreams. Living the life of your dreams is the gift you give yourself when you free your mind of the untruths that would keep you from being inspired by the beauty and wonder of you!

Dream big. Live large and be inspired to create the life of your dreams.