- Anne-Louise Harbutt
Unlock Your Dreams to Journey Towards a Life You Love
How often do you dream? I don’t mean the life-like stories that play out when you are sleeping. I mean how often do you dream about the life you want to create? Time when you can take yourself off to a place of limitless potential, a daydream of all that is possible for you.
As children we have the most vivid imagination. We can be anyone, do anything. We can put a crown on our head and be a princess. Sit in a large cardboard box and fly to the moon. Lay a table of tiny cups and saucers and anyone in this world, or any other for that matter, can come for tea. There are no adult restrictions or limits, children just live in the world they want to create.
It is said children are here to teach us and with their ability to create their own reality, I believe they are.
When was the last time you took some time away from your desk, away from your laptop and allowed your mind to wander off into the life you want to create?
Perhaps you hesitate to do this because the disappointment of coming back to your current reality feels too strong or you have a deep knowing of all that is possible for you and it feels so overwhelming because you don’t know where to start. Or, maybe you don’t even know what you want.
I remember sitting in a hotel back in 2013 feeling scared and excited, relying entirely on my intuition that I was in the right place doing the right thing. I was part of a coaching mastermind and it was the very first time that I had invested in myself. During one of the sessions the coach asked us to write a list of our desires. We could write anything at all, there were no limits. You could literally write your dream life. That was the assignment.
Yet, I sat there like a student in an exam hall who had just read the first question of the exam paper and had the sickening realisation that they had fully revised the wrong section of the syllabus. My pen was poised, the page was blank, and so was my mind.
What did I desire!?! It had been so long since I had asked myself that question. In fact, I am not sure I had ever asked myself that question. There I was in my early 40s unable to write a single desire on the paper in front of me.
When had life become so much about everyone else, everything else? When had I stopped believing what I wanted was important? Honestly, I didn’t know but in that moment, something shifted in me, and I allowed myself to open up to the possibility that I wanted a different life than the one I had. A life where my feelings and thoughts became a priority to me.
Spend some time in childlike wonder and dream of a life you love. A life that lights you up and makes you feel alive.
Over time I began to realise that the more I put myself first; the more I prioritised my needs and emotions, the happier I became. I had so much more to give those I loved. I was more present with my children, no longer trying to simultaneously juggle cooking the dinner, responding to an email, and playing a game of giant snakes and ladders. I found time for conversations with my husband, not just a quick peck on the cheek, a catch up of who was taxiing which child to where, and a hope you had a good day. But conversations that felt connected, a reminder of the love we felt for each other, and a genuine enjoyment of each other’s company. Something we hadn’t found time for since the children were born.
I was getting more done in my business than ever before and more jobs achieved at home because I had so much more energy. It felt so bizarre that putting myself first and allowing myself to be a priority meant that all these people I held dearest to me were getting so much more, so much more of ME. And I didn’t feel the heavy drain of feeling responsible for everyone and everything.
I know putting yourself first can feel strange, especially if you’ve spent most of your life doing the complete opposite. It can feel selfish, unnatural even, but trust me it works for you and everyone around you.
I invite you to take a moment to feel into your desires. Your true desires, not what you feel you should have or what you think you are allowed - or even what you used to desire, but your truest, deepest desires. Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and give yourself permission to dream.
What do you want? How do you want to feel as you go through your days? What are you doing? Where are you living? How are you being? What are you doing? Who is in your life?
Make sure these are your soul desires. Longings that give you goosebumps and make you feel expansive when you think about them. Don’t focus on the ‘how’ it will happen but on the way it is going to make you feel. It is this energy that is going to help bring that desire into your reality.
One recent desire I had was to take my daughter to Barcelona. Barcelona is one of my favourite cities and I wanted to share my love of it with her. My daughter will be 19 years old in a couple of months and is about to experience a life away from home. Before she moves away I wanted to make some memories of special mother/daughter time. When I was thinking about manifesting that desire, I thought of her and I linking arms as we ambled down La Ramblas, grabbing coffee and cake in a local cafe, admiring the eclectic exhibits in the modern art museum, sharing tapas, drinking cocktails…I visualised it all. And every part of being with her made my soul sing.
If I had focused on attracting in the money to do all of the above, I don’t think it would have happened. The money didn’t give me goosebumps, the experience did. The experience was a soul desire.
So grab your pen and journal and give yourself permission to daydream. Spend some time in childlike wonder and dream of a life you love. A life that lights you up and makes you feel alive. Because, my gorgeous one, it is all there waiting for you in your imagination.
TLDR: The article encourages you to embrace daydreaming and self-prioritization to unlock your true desires and create a fulfilling life. It highlights the importance of dreaming about the life you want to create and putting yourself first to achieve happiness and provide more to those you love.
Anne-Louise is an Intuitive Spiritual Mentor, host of The Soul Living podcast and a Soul Truth channel. She empowers women to feel so connected to their true self and their soul that they feel more lit up and alive than they have ever felt before. Connect with Anne-Louise at @annelouise_spiritualwellbeing and annelouiseharbutt.com
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