I've been forming this for a couple of months now, jotting it down piece by piece on scraps of paper, in my journal, in emails to friends. Little reminders for when I forgot or lost my way. Those tiny moments I couldn't find the faith for myself or my dreams, or I didn't know where to head on my path. I wanted to write this for myself, for what I needed to hear from myself. And now I want to share it with you, for all the artists, writers, photographers, mamas, healers creators, spiritual dreamers, poets, musicians & magic-makers who might need some affirmation, some praise, some loving words. We all go to that place of fear. What's important is finding the feet & the path to travel to the next place.

10 Ways To Fly Beyond Creative Dream Frustrations & Fears
1. Let's play a little game I like to call Poignant Perspective.
Inside you, there is a whole world of brilliance and beauty. Imagine the incredible inner terrain that is you: the great oceans of love, the mountains of achievements small and massive already made, the fields of wildflowers singing your name, the rose gardens dedicated to you in your honour.
This whole big amazing world inside you. Try not to focus all of your attention on the little overgrow lot that needs some tending to. Remember, there is a whole world of rainbow beauty inside you.

2. Write yourself an ancient love letter.
Imagine you have long, silky grey hair, whispy, in a braid. In your eyes, there sparkles a kind of wisdom, joy and compassion that can only be found after eighty years on this dear planet. Imagine this precious part of your self, remembering you as you were, smiling gently, sending you love back across the distance. Let this graceful, gorgeous Grand-Mother guide your hand, and write you a letter of all the things you need to know & remember.

3. Comparing is So Last Millenium Baby
Dearheart, you were born on one special moment, one incredible day, one amazing year. Nobody knows the breaths you have taken, all the steps of your journey you have taken since the first. Yes, you are the rarest mosaic of all - a rich & incandescent tapestry enwoven with all the love, lessons & life only you can know & share. Rare tapestries are not meant to be compared in a flea-market-of-the-soul dearheart, and neither are you.

4. Trust in the Universe
Baby, it's got a big & beautiful plan for you so majestic & wide that you can't even dream it right now. Trust. All will be well. You are loved. All will be well.

5. Expand your vision of reality
Those five words have been swimming about in my head for a while now, reminding me:
Expand.  E x p a n d .   E   x   p   a   n    d.
Expand your vision of what is possible. What is not true for you, is true for others, and it can be yours if you want it.
Sit in silence, and feel the parameters of your brain. Take a deep breath in, and widen the space your mind inhabits. Widen and expand until you know that what you desire is absolutely, unequivocally possible.
Inhabit a new world of Possibility.

6. Check-in at the Creative Dream Lost Baggage Counter
Use the moment of blah, of blankness, of silence to check-in with your creative dream. Is it exactly what you want? Is your current dream the truest expression of your gifts?
This is one my love reminds me of often. I'll be telling him how frustrated I am and he'll say simply: "Is this what you really want? Is this what you were born to do? If there was only one thing you could do with the rest of your life, what would it be?"
 
7. Whose thoughts are the most important?
Are you waiting for the outside world to approve of you or your dream?
Does it matter more what others think of you & your dreams, or is it you?
Meditate for 100 breaths.
See what you find inside.
 
8. A Plan For The Journey Forward
Do a business plan - but not just a business plan. A plan for your greatest soul's desire. A map towards your truest heart's expression & your dream lifestyle.
Plan it. Put it out there in the universe. And find out the path forward, seeing the trail on your newly defined map.
 
9. Time To Be Held
Hold your dog/cat/bird/animal/mama earth. Let them love you, and remind you of every single way you are perfect.

10. Everything You Need, You Have
Don't take this list for gospel. Right your own. Your own divine, wise, brave wisdom is the Gospel for your life.
Inside you is an incredible Goddess, waiting to help you along your way. What does she want to say to you?
All the answers you need are already inside. Write your very own list of Creative Dream Flight. You are the best expert on you.
You are a Goddess. What do you want to say to the world?

All my love & support,
Leonie

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Hola Divine Hotties!

I release regular inspiration newsletters filled with
~* art & creativity
~* photography dreamings
~* stories of living a sacred life

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Three years ago, I started my Things To Do This Life List.

It amazes me how so many of my miracle~dreams have come true, some without even knowing... revisiting this list encourages me to remember what makes my soul juicy and how I want to be in this world.
Go on~ Dream BIG and Create your own :)

Leonie's list of THINGS TO DO THIS LIFE

1. Have a midnight picnic
2. Paint my nails bright purple
3. Have a bicycle with streamers on the handlebars
4. Have henna painted on the palms of my hands - Done.
5. Read tea leaves
6. Learn how to say "thank you" in six languages. - Done.
7. Play Bingo in a Bingo hall.
8. Scuba dive
9. Handglide - I've sky-flied on a wire, which is close... 50% there.
10. Wear a lot of bangles on my wrists so I can make music when I *sashay* - Done.
11. Swim with dolphins - I was so close to doing this in Adelaide...
12. Spread happy graffiti/street stickers - Done.
13. Photograph project of street art - Done.
14. Hold the hands of my beloved on a beach and say *I do* while looking intensely into his eyes
15. Begin & finish my second gratitude journal
16. Finish reading "Women who run with the Wolves"
17. Read "Mists of Avalon" - 50% read, and I think that was all I needed to read, so I am marking this as Done.
18. Read a Henry Miller book
19. Finish an Anais Nin book
20. Have a book launch
21. Write silly and insightful sayings on t-shirts and wear them - Done.
22. Paint like a goddess - Done, and will do for the rest of my life.
23. Watch "What the Bleep Do we Know" - Done.
24. Watch the Qaatsi trilogy - Don't feel the burning wish to anymore.
25. Record a full length song
26. Dance on a table
27. Design my own sticker series
28. Feel truly enriched, uplifted and satisfied by my career. Touch other's lives with my work. - On my journey there!
29. Get published by a publishing house
30. Paint a photo frame - Done.
31. Have a big treasure chest of artsy goodies - Got the goodies, not the chest.
32. Make an altar - Done. This is so much a part of my life now.
33. Cook a creme brulee
34. Play a magical April Fool's Day trick
35. Get an eyebrow ring - Done. And I loved every part of it - getting it, having it, letting it go.
36. Rockclimb - Half done. I rock climb wherever I go, but I want to try out a rockwall.
37. Have bright blue hair
38. Canoe/Kayak on Lake Burley Griffin - Done. I've been sailing on it twice, and hilarious fun ensued.
39. Go to a Sacred Heart Gathering at Uluru - Done. And it was incredible.
40. Howl at full moon - Done.
41. Learn the dates for star signs off by heart - Do I really want to do this anymore?
42. Get a tattoo - Maybe after I am thirty or past my second saturn return.
43. Do an art portfolio up with photos of all my works - Done. And it looks awesome.
44. Learn Tibetan Buddhist meditation
45. Dance on a beach at night
46. Have a LeoniePaLooza - I've had many of them now. :)
47. Sleep under the stars again
48. Hike for three days
49. Eat noodles again at a streetvendor stall in SE Asia
50. Have a hammock.
51. Own a blue car - Done. Aurora the Blue Jeep has joined our happy family!
52. Add to this list
53. Change my name to Leonie Cougar Mellancamp Allan {or not} - Done. I chose Not. :)
54. Dress in disguise - Done.
55. Get so flexible i can bend my head to my knees
56. Work in a bookstore
57. Perform a rain dance - Done, and it worked! Also performed a stop-rain dance.
58. Wear a grass skirt and a coconut bra
59. Get a professional dress-ups photo taken (dressed up like another era) - I was so close to having this happen in a little German town in South Australia, but they'd just closed!
60. Baptise a baby
61. Find a signature perfume scent - Done. My signature scent, I have realised, is no perfume ~ just the sweetness of my hair, the breath of wind around me, and occassional swirls of essential oils. My beautiful friend Angel said to me the other day "I love your smell Leonie. I have a pair of your socks that even smell like you!" I think I realised then my perfume quest was over... my signature scent is me. :)
62. Create a dreamboard - Done.
63. Watch a foal being born
64. Marry myself - Done. I love this so much. Best thing I ever did for me.
65. Give birth
66. Find a song that sings about a Leonie
67. Have no idea about what I'm going to be doing for a year
68. Tell a stranger they look beautiful
69. Give a spontaneous hug to someone I wouldn't usually.
70. Cut and polish a rock
71. Make a plaster cast of my breasts & belly and paint it
72. Belly dance in blue - Done.
73. See a buffalo - oh my god! Done! I loved this so very, very much. I didn't realise it was on my To Do List until just now!
74. Take photos of the red dirt of the Grand Canyon against a blue blue sky.
75. Gondola. Venice.
76. Meet SARK.
77. Paint rocks
78. Paint with ochre rock dust
79. Create my own set of oracle cards - In the process of.
80. Delve and acknowledge the wisdom of my authentic and ancient self - I do, and forever more will do.
81. Drink tea made from loose tea leaves - Done.
82. Make a necklace - Done.
83. White water raft
84. Ride a horse again - Done. And I will again and again.
85. Lead a womens circle - Done.
86. Run a sacred creative retreat - Done. It was AMAZING. And I thought I wouldn't do this for years and YEARS... but I did, and it was divine, blissful, tranformational. More than I could have ever imagined.
87. Submit a book proposal - So achingly close to this!
88. Appear in a SARK book - Done. RAR!
89. Go to India - Done. Wow. I travelled around India with my beloved, two sisters and Mum. Adventure of a lifetime!
90. Walk the Camino trail
91. Go to Tibet
92. Read all the books in my bookcase
93. Go to Maccu Piccu
94. Write a book
95. Stay at an ashram in India for a couple of months.
96. Be an apprentice to a Wise One.
97. Enjoy every single day of my life.
98. Live in the country again.
99. Go to a world music/alternative music festival
100. Paint a wall mural
101. Do things just for me.
102. Be in the SageWoman magazine (illustration, article or review)
103. Hold workshops all around the world
104. Hold a workshop with my friend Donna
105. Meet* Doreen Virtue, Julia Cameron or Oprah. Or all three.
106. Set up a healing retreat
107. Be Leonie. - I love being Leonie. I am SO good at it! DONE!
108. Sell a painting to someone in Asia, Africa and South America. (Then I would have a painting in every continent!)
109. Have a neighbourhood progressive dinner.
110. Publish a range of greeting cards.
111. Go to Tasmania with my lover.
112. Return to Uluru.
113. Meet Brooke Medicine Eagle.
114. Go to a residential spiritual retreat.
115. Create a photography website.
116. Have a solo art exhibition - Done.
117. Bushwalk in the Australian Alps.
118. Travel the NSW South Coast.
119. See James Taylor in concert.
120. Photograph a sublime band for their CD. - In the making.
121. Do The Gift.
122. Go to Japan.
123. Go to the Goddess Conference in Glastonbury.
124. Visit the Nan Tien Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in the Southern Hemisphere. - DONE. It was so beautiful visiting this place with my beloved.

May we all know our dreams are possible,
with love and light,
Leonie

* Books can be our best friends, our inspirations, our wisdom jewels and our delights. They nourish us deeply. It's time to nourish Mama Earth for providing us with all the paper in those books! Have a tree planted for every book you buy at Eco-Libris.

* Make your adventures to discover the world a healthy thing for the world too! You can make your flights carbon neutral here.

* Instead of birthday and Christmas cards or presents you feel you *should* buy for friends and family~ why not gift them with a good feeling? You can gift them with the pleasure that a third world community has just been changed by being given a business loan, animals, tools, water or education. You can gift Hope through Oxfam Unwrapped Australia, UK and American websites. Plus, it feels kinda fun to tell someone you bought them a goat for their birthday.

* Become a lender to an entrepreneur in a developing country to help them fulfill their dreams. You can become a lender to change lives through Kiva.

* Planning a wedding, and don't know what to have as those bags of sugared almondy thingies? I say give them a little bag of seeds, and a card that says a tree has been planted and named in their honour. What a beautiful emblem of your growing love that could be!

* The energy saving version of Google: Blackle

* Become a part of a heart shaped forest at Tree Nation

Got ideas and ways to save the world? Email me at leonie@gmail.com and I'll add them!

With Mama Earth love,
Leonie

Walking around in the land of creating can feel quite like an adventure hunt in a mystical, magical world. Some days it is joyous & exciting, some days it is a little overwhelming and scary. Where to go next? How? Why? When? Navigating the unknown territory is definitely a journey of the soul.

It always feels like such a gift when I find books and websites that share treasure maps and stories from the Creative Frontier.
Here are my favourite treasure maps. Blessings on your creative and soulful trail-blazing. May you birth out your Dream~Miracles into this world.

Books
The Shortest Distance between You and a Published Book by Susan Page
The SEED Handbook by Lynne Franks
The Medicine Woman's Guide to Being in Business With Yourself by Carol Bridges
Make Your Creative Dreams Real by SARK

Printing
You can self-publish your own books, photo books and comic books using Lulu.com and Blurb.com.
For cheap, gorgeous and fun business cards, try the mini-cards from Moo.com.

Websites
Crafting for cash by Kathy Cano Murillo
Publishing your own book by SARK
How to start as an illustrator by Keri Smith
Seven steps to getting published by Keri Smith
How to make a living doing what you love by Keri Smith
Inexpensive adventures for leading an artistic life by Penelope Dullaghan
The Superhero Guide to creating a creative business by Andrea Scher