In The Empath’s Journey, I talk about a series of related dreams I had while I was right in the middle of birthing the book. The dreams went like this.
In one of them, a heavily pregnant woman who was almost about to give birth was pedaling a bicycle uphill. She was trying desperately to get to the hospital located on the hilltop. And obviously, she was exhausted! Minute by minute, as she got more and more tired, she felt more and more hopeless.
This was just one dream in a series of “pregnant women” dreams I had during this time.
Another one went like this. The setting was an ancient bath. Another pregnant woman, about to give birth, was standing naked amidst the heat and sweat. She was having terrible labor pains but was surrounded by a circle of women who were there to help her give birth.
These and several similar dreams showed up for me over the course of a few months. When they first appeared, I was a bit obtuse. I was a little distracted in my daily life and did not get this hint from my dream world.
In my day-to-day life, I was a little lost. It had been a while since I did my last writing workshop in San Francisco. Here, in the South Bay area (which is an hour and a half from the city), I didn’t know any other writers and artists. I was bang in the middle of Silicon Valley and surrounded by engineers and other techies.
After taking several writing workshops in the city, at some point, I had decided that I didn’t need to workshop anymore. What I needed was to blog, then write a book and put my work out there. Those were the next steps.
But while this was all true and good, I didn’t pay enough attention to the fact that now that I wasn’t going for a workshop or writing classes, I no longer had a way of meeting like-minded people. I discounted the importance of community and thought I could do it all alone.
So, now, here I was, attempting to write a book without having enough emotional support.
As my dream world was saying, my idea had come to full-term, but I was having difficulty letting it come through me. My dream world was trying to talk to me in pictures.
In some dreams, it was commenting on my current condition, where I was trudging along all alone and getting exhausted. In other dreams, it was showing me a different possibility.
It was possible for me to give birth to my creative idea surrounded by people who were supporting me. There would still be the pangs of pain, the messiness, the feeling of being out-of-control that every birth brings with it. But there wouldn’t be that terrible feeling of loneliness and the sense that I had to do it all on my own.
In this sense, writing a book is very much like having a baby. In the end, you give birth alone. But you still need a midwife, a doula and someone to just hold your hand. You need people who support you, who are helping you, who can tell you what you might expect.
It took me a while, but I finally got the hint from my dream world. I started going for a writing group that met in a cafe just to write together (no critique was given.) As soon as I started doing this, this dream series disappeared into thin air.
It had done its job. It had fulfilled its purpose.
This dream series also sealed my faith in working with my dreams.
There was something inside my psyche that was wiser than my day-to-day self. There was a part of me that observed my daily life and could make helpful suggestions.
It’s the part of us that is beyond words and speaks in the language of pictures and images. If we only listen to it, it has things to tell us. If we only listen to it, it will help us create.
What do you feel about this?
Are you an artist – a painter, a dancer or a writer — trying to make something without the support of community? What might you need right now that could support your growth? What’s the missing ingredient that could change everything?
Might it be a meetup group, a friend who serves as an accountability partner, a class where you meet like-minded people, a coach who helps you untangle the knots in your creative process?
What is it that you need right now?
Tune in to your own body and let yourself feel the pull of your different options. See which one is calling you. There’ll be some that don’t sound that great, some that are neutral and some that actually make you feel excited and energized.
Go where the energy is!
That’s the first step to creating a support system that can help you navigate the messy, vulnerable, exciting, strengthening process of bringing your creative babies into the world.
You are the channel. Create a structure that supports you.
And then, you can let things flow.
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