Today, let's listen to our impulse to release what is no longer serving us to make way for new shifts in identity.

Watch today's video here » https://youtu.be/L52aFJBr7o4

Create space for your creative expansion with our daily 10-minute sessions for free at https://intentioninspired.com/artist

__________

TODAY'S INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON:

Shifts in taste and perception frequently accompany shifts in identity.

One of the clearest signals that something healthy is afoot is the impulse to weed out, sort through, and discard old clothes, papers, and belongings.

By tossing out the old and unworkable, we make way for the new and suitable.

A closet stuffed with ratty old clothes does not invite new ones. A house overflowing with odds and ends and tidbits you’ve held on to for someday has no space for the things that might truly enhance today.

When the search-and-discard impulse seizes you, two crosscurrents are at work: the old you is leaving and grieving, while the new you celebrates and grows strong. As with any rupture, there is both tension and relief. Long-seated depression breaks up like an ice floe. Long-frozen feelings thaw, melt, cascade, flood, and often overrun their container (you). You may find yourself feeling volatile and changeable. You are.

Be prepared for bursts of tears and of laughter.

It is important to know that no matter which form your growth takes, there is another kind of change, slower and more subtle, accumulating daily whether you sense its presence or not.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 83)

get the book » http://mattprindle.com/the-artist-way-book

__________

TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

I trust my perceptions.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

Open your closet. Throw out—or hand on, or donate—one low-self- worth outfit. (You know the outfit.) Make space for the new.

__________

TODAY'S QUOTE:

"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult."

– SENECA

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

What is one physical item you are ready to let go of that is no longer serving you?

Share in the comments below👇

Today, let's lose our vagueness about our self and our life situation to become available to the moment.

Watch today's video here » https://youtu.be/dli_zDhkuEY

Rediscover your beautiful, creative self with our fun, loving community of intentional seekers: https://intentioninspired.com/artist

_________

TODAY'S INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON:

People frequently believe the creative life is grounded in fantasy.

The more difficult truth is that creativity is grounded in reality, in the particular, the focused, the well observed or specifically imagined.

As we lose our vagueness about our self, our values, our life situation, we become available to the moment.

It is there, in the particular, that we contact the creative self. Until we experience the freedom of solitude, we cannot connect authentically. We may be enmeshed, but we are not encountered.

Art lies in the moment of encounter:

we meet our truth and we meet ourselves; we meet ourselves and we meet our self-expression. We become original because we become something specific: an origin from which work flows.

As we gain—or regain—our creative identity, we lose the false self we were sustaining.

The loss of this false self can feel traumatic: “I don’t know who I am anymore. I don’t recognize me.”Remember that the more you feel yourself to be terra incognita, the more certain you can be that the recovery process is working. You are your own promised land, your own new frontier.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 82)

get the book » http://mattprindle.com/the-artist-way-book

__________

TODAY'S INSPIRATION:

My life is an ongoing work of art.

__________

TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

Time Travel: Remember yourself at eight-years-old.

What did you like to do? What were your favorite things? Now, write a letter from you at eight to you at your current age. What would you tell yourself?

__________

TODAY'S QUOTE:

"All the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life."

– M. C. RICHARDS

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

What is one piece of advice your eight-year-old self would give you right now?

Share your insights with the Intention Inspired community » https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's find the clarity we need for constructive change by letting go of ambiguity, illusion, and misconceptions.

Watch today's video here » https://youtu.be/bxerUbytNlk

Start The Artist's Way journey from the beginning: https://intentioninspired.com/artist

________

TODAY'S INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON:

The process of identifying a self inevitably involves loss as well as gain.

We discover our boundaries, and those boundaries by definition separate us from our fellows. As we clarify our perceptions, we lose our misconceptions. As we eliminate ambiguity, we lose illusion as well. We arrive at clarity, and clarity creates change.

As we notice which friends bore us, which situations leave us stifled, we are often rocked by waves of sorrow. We may want our illusions back! We want to pretend the friendship works. We don’t want the trauma of searching for another job.

Faced with impending change, change we have set in motion through our own hand, we want to mutiny, curl up in a ball, bawl our eyes out. “No pain, no gain,” the nasty slogan has it.

And we resent this pain no matter what gain it is bringing us.

“I don’t want to raise my consciousness!” we wail. “I want ...” And thanks to the morning pages we learn what we want and ultimately become willing to make the changes needed to get it. But not without a tantrum. And not without a kriya, a Sanskrit word meaning a spiritual emergency or surrender. (I always think of kriyas as spiritual seizures. Perhaps they should be spelled crias because they are cries of the soul as it is wrung through changes.)

We all know what a kriya looks like: it is the bad case of the flu right after you’ve broken up with your lover. It’s the rotten head cold and bronchial cough that announces you’ve abused your health to meet an unreachable work deadline. That asthma attack out of nowhere when you’ve just done a round of care-taking your alcoholic sibling? That’s a kriya, too.

In twelve-step groups, kriyas are often called surrenders.

People are told just let go.And they would if they knew what they were holding on to. With the morning pages in place and the artist dates in motion, the radio set stands half a chance of picking up the message you are sending and/or receiving. The pages round up the usual suspects. They mention the small hurts we prefer to ignore, the large successes we’ve failed to acknowledge. In short, the morning pages point the way to reality: this is how you’re feeling; what do you make of that?

And what we make of that is often art.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 81-82)

get the book » http://mattprindle.com/the-artist-way-book

_________

TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

As I work on my life, the work of my art emerges.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

Use your life pie (from Week One) to review your growth.

Has that nasty tarantula changed shape yet? Haven’t you been more active, less rigid, more expressive? Be careful not to expect too much too soon. That’s raising the jumps. Growth must have time to solidify into health. One day at a time, you are building the habit patterns of a healthy artist. Easy does do it. List ongoing self-nurturing toys you could buy your artist: books on tape, magazine subscriptions, theater tickets, a bowling ball.

_________

TODAY'S QUOTE:

"'Stop talking, stop thinking, and there is nothing you will not understand.'"

– SENG TS'AN

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

What is one self-nurturing practice/tool/toy that has been helpful for you in healthfully reparenting your artist child?

Share your insights with the Intention Inspired community » https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's begin sorting through the differences between our real feelings and our official feeling.

Watch today's video here » https://youtu.be/QoehX5z1l1I

Access the full journey for free and join our supportive community of intentional seekers: https://intentioninspired.com/artist

_________

TODAY'S INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON:

Working with the morning pages, we begin to sort through the differences between our real feelings, which are often secret, and our official feelings, those on the record for public display. Official feelings are often indicated by the phrase, “I feel okay about that [the job loss, her dating someone else, my dad’s death, ...].”

At the root of a successful creative recovery is the commitment to puncture our denial, to stop saying, “It’s okay” when in fact it’s something else. The morning pages press us to answer what else.

In my years of watching people work with morning pages, I have noticed that many tend to neglect or abandon the pages whenever an unpleasant piece of clarity is about to emerge.

Over any considerable period of time, the morning pages perform spiritual chiropractic.

They realign our values. If we are to the left or the right of our personal truth, the pages will point out the need for a course adjustment. We will become aware of our drift and correct it—if only to hush the pages up.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 79 - 80)

get the book » http://mattprindle.com/the-artist-way-book

___________

TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

I am true to my self.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

Environment: Describe your ideal environment.

Town? Country? Swank? Cozy? One paragraph. One image, drawn or clipped, that conveys this. What’s your favorite season? Why? Go through some magazines and find an image of this. Or draw it. Place it near your working area.

___________

TODAY'S QUOTE:

"Eliminate something superfluous from your life. Break a habit. Do something that makes you feel insecure."

– PIERO FERRUCCI

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

Look at one situation in your life that you feel you should change but haven’t yet.

What is the payoff for you in staying stuck?

Share your insights with the Intention Inspired community » https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's honor the rest required for sustainable growth.

Access the full online journey for free: https://intentioninspired.com/artist

Watch today's video » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kQPns4ysTM

_________

TODAY'S INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON:

Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one step back.

Remember that and be very gentle with yourself. A creative recovery is a healing process. You are capable of great things on Tuesday, but on Wednesday you may slide backward. This is normal. Growth occurs in spurts. You will lie dormant sometimes. Do not be discouraged. Think of it as resting.

Easy does it is actually a modus operandi. It means, "easy accomplishes it." If you hew to a practice of writing three pages every morning and do one kind of thing for yourself every day, you will begin to notice a slight lightness of heart.

If you do one nice thing for yourself a day, God will do two more.

Be alert for support and encouragement from unexpected quarters. Be open to receiving gifts from our channels: free tickets, a free trip, and offered to buy you dinner, a-new-to-you old couch. Practiced saying yes to such help.

More than anything else, experiment with solitude.

You will need to make a commitment to quiet time. Try to acquire the habit of checking in with yourself. Several times a day, just take a beat, and ask yourself how you are feeling. Listen to your answer. Respond kindly. If you were doing something very hard, promise yourself a break and a treat afterward.

Yes, I am asking you to baby yourself. We believe that to be artists we must be tough, cynical, and intellectually chilly. Leave that to the critics. As a creative being, you will be more productive when coaxed than when bullied.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 74-75)

_________

TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

I embrace and allow the stillness I need to grow.

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TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

This week, take an hour to follow your inner compass by doing an artist-brain activity and listening to what insights bubble up.

Each of us has an inner compass. This is an instinct that points toward health. It warns us when we are on dangerous ground, and it tells us when something is safe and good for us. Morning pages are one way to contact it. So are some other artist brain activities—painting, driving, walking, scrubbing, running.

_________

TODAY'S QUOTE:

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open."

– Martha Graham

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

How will you nurture your inner artist today?

Share your insights with the Intention Inspired community » https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's restore those parts of ourselves that we've abandoned for fear of hurting others.

Explore the full Artist's Way online community journey for freeeeeee at https://intentioninspired.com/artist

Watch today's video » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2LY4Ugw6Hg

_________

INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON:

Many blocked people are actually very powerful and creative personalities who have been made to feel guilty about their own strengths and gifts.

Without being acknowledged, They are often used as batteries by their families and friends, who feel free to both use their creative energies and disparage them. When these block artists strive to break free of their dysfunctional systems, they are often urged to be sensible when such advice is not appropriate for them. Made to feel guilty for their talents, they often hide their own light under a bushel for fear of hurting others. Instead, they hurt themselves.

A little sleuth work is in order to restore the persons we have abandoned—ourselves.

When you complete the following phrases, you may feel strong emotion as you Retrieve memories and missed placed fragments of yourself. Allow yourself to free-associate for a sentence or so with each phrase.

My favorite childhood toy was …

My favorite childhood game was …

The best movie I ever saw as a kid was …

I don't do it much but I enjoy …

If I could lighten up a little, I'd let myself …

If I weren't too late, I'd …

My favorite musical instrument is …

The amount of money I spend I'm treating myself to entertainment each month is …

If I weren't so stingy with my artist, I'd buy him/her …

Taking time out for myself is …

I am afraid that if I start dreaming …

I secretly enjoy reading …

If I had a perfect childhood I'd have grown up to be …

If it didn't sound so crazy, I'd write or make a …

My parents think artists are…

My God thinks artists are…

What makes me feel weird about this recovery is…

Learning to trust myself is probably…

My most cheer me up music is…

My favorite way to dress is…

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 52 - 53)

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TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

I am a very powerful and creative artist.

__________

TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

How have others enlivened your inner artist?

List five people you admire. Now, list five people you secretly admire. What traits do these people have that you can cultivate further in yourself?

List five people you wish you hadn't met who are dead. List five people who are dead whom you'd like to hang out with for a while in eternity. What treats do you find in these people that you can look for in your friends?

Compare the two sets of lists. Take a look at what you really like and admire—and look at what you think you should like and admire. Your shoulds might tell you to admire Edison while your heart belongs to Houdini. Go with the Houdini side of you for a while.

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TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

What is one quality you really like and admire about someone else?

Share your insights with the Intention Inspired community » https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's explore some rules that are useful in dealing with any form of criticism.

Join the Intention Inspired fam on this journey: https://intentioninspired.com/artist

Watch today's video » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfegasX38bA

_________

INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON:

It is important to be able to sort useful criticism from the other kind.

Often we need to do the sorting out for ourselves, without the benefit of a public vindication. As artists, we are far more able to do this sorting than other people might suspect. Pointed criticism, if accurate, often gives the artist an inner sense of relief: "Ah, hah! So that's what's wrong with it." Useful criticism ultimately leaves us with one more puzzle piece for our work.

Useless criticism, on the other hand, leaves us with a feeling of being bludgeoned. As a rule, it is withering and shaming in tone; ambiguous in content; personal, inaccurate, or blanket in its condemnations. There is nothing to be gleaned from irresponsible criticism.

You are dealing with an inner child. Artistic child abuse creates rebellion creates block. All that can be done with abusive criticism is to heal from it.

There are certain rules for the road useful in dealing with any form of criticism.

1. Receive the criticism all the way through and get it over with.

2. Drop-down notes to yourself on what concepts or phrases bother you.

3. Jot down notes on what concepts or phrases seem useful.

4. Do something very nurturing for yourself—read an old good review or recall a compliment.

5. Remember that even if you have made a truly rotten piece of art, it may be a necessary stepping-stone to your next work. Art matures spasmodically and requires ugly-duckling growth stages.

6. Look at the criticism again. Does it remind you of any criticism from your past—particularly shaming childhood criticism? Acknowledge to yourself that the current criticism is triggering grief over a long-standing wound.

7. Write a letter to the critic—not to be mailed, most probably. Defend your work and acknowledge what was helpful, if anything, in the criticism proffered.

8. Get back on the horse. Make an immediate commitment to do something creative.

9. Do it. Creativity is the only cure for criticism.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 72 - 73)

_________

TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

I proactively decern when criticism is useful.

_________

TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

Make a list of friends who nurture you.

That nurture (give you a sense of your own competency and possibility), not enable (Give you the message that you will never get it straight without their help). There's a big difference between being helped and being treated as though we are helpless. List three nurturing friends. Which of their traits, particularly, serve you well?

_________

TODAY'S QUOTE:

"The words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels."

– Hazrat Inayat Khan

_________

TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

What is one trait from a nurturing friend that serves you well?

Share your insights with the Intention Inspired community » https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's learn when and where to seek out the "right" type of criticism.

Join our supportive community of recovering creatives: https://intentioninspired.com/artist

Watch today's video » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U2Jh6HR9H0

__________________

INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON:

We don't make art with its eventual criticism foremost in mind, but criticism that asks a question like "how could you?" Can make an artist feel like a shamed child. A well-meaning friend who constructively criticizes a beginning writer may very well and that writer.

Let me be clear. Not all criticism is shaming.

Does this mean no criticism? No. It means learning where and when to seek out right criticism. As artists, we must learn when criticism is appropriate and from whom.

As artists, we cannot control all the criticism we will receive.

We cannot make our professional critics more healthy or more loving or more constructive than they are. But we can learn to comfort our artist child over unfair criticism; we can learn to find friends with whom we can safely vent our pain. We can learn not to deny or stuff or feelings when we have been artistically savaged.

Art requires safe hatchery.

Ideally, artists find this first in their family, then in their school, and finally in a community of friends and supporters. This idea is seldom a reality. As artists, we must learn to create our own safe environment. We must learn to protect our artist child from shame. We do this by diffusing our childhood shaming, Getting them on the page, and sharing them with a trusted, non-shaming other.

By telling our shame secrets around our art and telling them through our art, we release ourselves and others from darkness. This release is not always welcomed.

We must learn that when our art reveals a secret of the human soul, those watching it may try to shame for making it.

We must be very firm with ourselves and not pick up the first doubt.

We simply cannot allow the first negative thinking to take hold. Taking in the first doubt he's like picking up the first drink for an alcoholic. Once in our system, the doubt will take on another doubt — and another. Doubting thoughts can be stopped, but it takes vigilance to do it. "Maybe that critic was right . . . . " And, boom, we must go into action: "You are a good artist, a brave artist, you are doing well. It is good that you did the work . . . ."

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 69 - 71)

__________________

TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

I am a brave artist. I am doing well. It is good that I did the work.

__________________

TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

Habits: Take a look at your habits.

Many of them may interfere with your self nurturing and cause shame. Some of the oddest things are self-destructive. Do you have a habit of watching TV you don't like? Do you have a habit of hanging out with a really boring friend and just killing time (there's an expression!)? Some rotten habits are obvious, overt (Drinking too much, smoking, eating instead of writing).

List three obvious rotten habits. What's the payoff and continuing them?

Some rotten habits are more subtle (no time to exercise, little time to pray, always helping others, not getting any self-nurturing, hanging out with people who belittle your dreams). List three of your subtle foes. What use do these forms of sabotage have? Be specific

__________________

TODAY'S QUOTE:

"I have made my world and it is a much better world than I ever saw outside."

– Louise Nevelson

__________________

TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

What is one small healthy habit you can replace with one of your rotten habits today?

Share your insights with the Intention Inspired community » https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's recognize how we've been wrongly shamed and how that affects our creative process.

View today's full session: https://intentioninspired.com/artist

Watch today's video » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7LW4rENLTI

__________

INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON:

Those of us who get bogged down by fear before action are usually being sabotaged by an older enemy, shame.

Shame is a controlling device. Shaming someone is an attempt to prevent the person from behaving in a way that embarrasses us.

The act of making art exposes a society to itself. Art brings things to light. It illuminates us. It sheds light on our lingering darkness. It casts a beam into the heart of our own darkness and says, "See?"

Art opens the closets, airs out the sellers and attics. It brings healing. But before a wound can heal it must be seen, and this act of exposing the wound to air and light, the artist's act, is often reacted to with shaming.

For the artist who endured childhood shaming—over any form of neediness, type of exploration, any expectation—shame may kick in even without the aid of a shame–provoking review. If a child has ever been made to feel foolish for believing in himself or herself talented, the act of actually finishing a piece of art will be fraught with internal shaming.

A lifetime of this experience, in which needs for recognition are routinely dishonored, teaching a young child that putting anything out for attention is a dangerous act.

Often we are wrongly shamed as creatives.

From this shaming we learned that we are wrong to create. Once we learn this lesson, we forget it instantly. Buried under it doesn't matter, the shame lives on, waiting to attach itself to our new efforts. The very act of attempting to make art creates shame.

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 44 - 49)

__________

TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

There is no shame in my struggles.

__________

TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

List five childhood accomplishments.

(straight A's in seventh grade, trained the dog, punched out the class bully, short-sheeted the priest's bed).

And a treat: list five favorite childhood foods. Buy yourself one of them this week. Yes, Jell-O with bananas is okay.

__________

TODAY'S QUOTE:

"We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other people's models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open."

– Shakti Gawain

__________

TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

What is one way you can nurture the parts of your artist child who has been shamed today?

Share your insights with the Intention Inspired community » https://intentioninspired.com

Today, let's take a small step in the direction of a dream and watch the synchronous doors fly open.

Start The Artist's Way journey from the beginning: https://intentioninspired.com/artist

Watch today's video » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-UZlfgiEUA

__________

INSPIRATION FROM JULIA CAMERON:

Life is what we make of it.

Whether we conceive of an inner god force or another, outer God, doesn't matter. Relying on that force does.

Is it any wonder we discount answered prayers? We call it a coincidence. We call it luck. We call it anything but what it is—the hand of God, or good, activated by our own hand when we act in belief of our truest dreams, when we commit to our own soul.

When we answer that call, when we commit to it, we set in motion the principle that C. G. Jung dubbed synchronicity, loosely defined as a fortuitous intermeshing of events.

Back in the 60s, we called it serendipity. Whatever you choose to call it, once you begin your creative recovery you may be startled to find it cropping up everywhere. Don't be surprised if you try to discount it. It can be a very threatening concept.

I have learned, as a rule of thumb, never to ask whether you can do something. Say, instead, that you are doing it. Then fasten your seatbelt. The most remarkable things follow.

In my experience, the universe falls in with worthy plans and most especially with festive and expensive ones.

I have seldom Conceived a delicious plan without being given the means to accomplish it. Understand that the what must come before the how. First, choose what you would do. The how usually falls into place itself.

We like to pretend it is hard to follow our heart's dreams.

The truth is, it is difficult to avoid walking through the many doors that were open. Turn aside your dream and it will come back to you again. Get willing to follow it again and the second mysterious door will swing open.

Take a small step in the direction of a dream and watch the synchronous doors flying open.

Seeing, after all, is believing. And if you see the results of your experiment you will not need to believe me. Remember the maximum "leap, and the net will appear."

(The Artist's Way, 2016, p. 62-66)

__________

TODAY'S AFFIRMATION:

As I leap, the net will appear.

__________

TODAY'S CREATIVE EXERCISE:

Describe your childhood room.

If you wish, you may sketch this room. What was your favorite thing about it? What's your favorite thing about your room right now? Nothing? Well, get something you like in there—maybe something from that old childhood room.

__________

TODAY'S QUOTE:

"Did you ever observe to whom the accidents happen? Chance favors only the prepared mind."

– Louis Pasteur

__________

TODAY'S JOURNAL PROMPT:

What is a small step you can take today in the direction of a dream?

Share your insights with the Intention Inspired community » https://intentioninspired.com