Our Waking Dream

What happens when we give ourselves enough room to fully feel the heartbreak, fear, anger, grief—all of it? Does the heart have a natural pathway back to joy?

Do our lives actually make room for that process? And when we do process what we’re carrying, does it move and reconcile—or do we find ourselves recycling the same feelings and stories again and again?

In this episode of Our Waking Dream, spiritual strategist and leadership mentor Coco Swanson prepares us for the Leo New Moon Solar Eclipse on August 12 with new journal inquiries and embodied practices for emotional healing, expression, and release. We explore how to create daily pathways for our emotions to move, how sound and movement can support emotional processing, and how even envy and comparison can become information about what our hearts long to experience and express.

This eclipse begins a powerful six-month reset of the heart. Because healing our hearts isn’t only about releasing pain. As old wounds reconcile, we create more room for joy, passion, creativity, courage, authentic self-expression, imagination, and purpose.

Journal inquiries:

Does my life create enough space for my heart to fully feel, process, and reconcile what it experiences?

When difficult emotions arise, do they move through me—or do they keep recycling?

What sounds, movements, environments, people, or practices help me feel safe enough to feel and express what I’m feeling?

Who do I compare myself to, and what might that comparison reveal about something I long to experience, express, or develop?

Don’t chase purpose. Build the conditions where purpose naturally grows.

If you’d like support with whatever you’re navigating, I host a free live Solutions Lab every other Sunday from 12–1 PM PT. Bring whatever is alive—we’ll work through it together.

cocoswanson.com/solutions-labs

#LeoNewMoon #LeoSolarEclipse #EmotionalHealing #HeartHealing #OurWakingDream

How does your life begin to change as your heart softens and heals?

On July 26, the Lunar Nodes shifted into Leo and Aquarius, beginning an 18-month journey that will continue through March 2028.

In this episode of Our Waking Dream, leadership mentor, somatic expert, and visionary Coco Swanson explores what it means to consciously heal and integrate the places where the heart has learned to close—through rejection, comparison, heartbreak, invisibility, fear of being seen, or simply forgetting who we are. Every time an old wound is reconciled, more energy becomes available for joy, creativity, courage, imagination, and contribution.

As the heart softens, imagination expands. New ideas emerge. New relationships form. New possibilities become visible. This episode introduces simple practices for building a life filled with moments that naturally heal the heart, nourish the imagination, and create the conditions for purpose to unfold over the next 18 months.

This week’s journal inquiries:

• When my heart softens and heals, what begins to change?

• What naturally brings me joy? What have I loved for as long as I can remember?

• Who comes alive in similar ways? Who inspires, nourishes, and expands my imagination?

• If I keep feeding my heart and imagination over the next 18 months, what might become possible?

I entrain all parts toward my greatest joy and service.

If you’d like support exploring these practices, Coco Swanson hosts a free live Solutions Lab today from 12–1 PM PT. Bring whatever is alive—together, the group explores practical ways to navigate life’s challenges with greater clarity, connection, and possibility.

cocoswanson.com/solutions-labs

#OurWakingDream #Leo #Aquarius #NorthNode #SouthNode #HeartHealing #Imagination #Purpose #Astrology #EmbodiedLeadership #EmotionalIntelligence #PersonalGrowth #Leadership #SolutionsLab

Where have you unknowingly handed your power to someone or something else?

If your imagination were no longer consumed by what’s broken, what would you create?

We are in one of the most significant astrological turning points of the year. As the lunar nodes begin a new 18-month journey through Aquarius and Leo, an Aquarius Full Moon joins Pluto opposite Jupiter, alongside a sky full of powerful transits inviting us to rethink power, purpose, relationships, and the future we’re creating together.

This week on Our Waking Dream, leadership mentor, somatic guide, astrologer, and spiritual strategist Coco Swanson explores what this extraordinary moment asks of us. Our outrage often reveals what we love.

Our inner dialogue becomes the atmosphere we live inside of.

Journal Inquiries

• Where have you unknowingly handed your power to someone or something else?

• What feels most broken or unjust in your life, your family, your work, or the world? What does it reveal about what you deeply love?

• If your imagination were no longer consumed by what’s broken, what would you repair, restore, protect, or create?

• What small shift could you make today to create more care, honesty, generosity, or healthy boundaries?

• How can we become living examples of the cultures we’re longing for?

If you’d like support navigating these questions, join me for today’s free Solutions Lab from 12–1 PM PT. Bring whatever’s alive, and we’ll explore it together. We gather every other Sunday. cocoswanson.com/solutions-labs

#AquariusFullMoon #PlutoInAquarius #NorthNodeInAquarius #SouthNodeInLeo #AstrologyPodcast #LeadershipDevelopment #SomaticLeadership #EmotionalIntelligence

What naturally leaves you feeling more resourced than when you began?

What happens when we suspend analysis long enough to begin studying what genuinely resources us?

What happens when we commit to creating gentle containers for vulnerability so we can begin practicing following our hearts?

Right now, a rare relationship between Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus creates an exceptionally supportive window for peeling back the layers of conditioning that keep us from living authentically. What if we listened more deeply to our heart’s desire, practiced following even the smallest nudges, and allowed our authentic nature to ignite the unique contribution we’re here to make?

In this episode of Our Waking Dream, leadership mentor and spiritual strategist Coco Swanson explores the relationship between authenticity, vulnerability, and heart’s desire. Together we explore journal inquiries, embodied practices, the difference between fear that protects us and fear that accompanies growth, and how creating gentle containers for vulnerability can help us practice following our hearts with greater courage and compassion.

Perhaps authenticity isn’t something we become. Perhaps it’s what remains when we begin peeling away everything we’re not.

To join upcoming free Solutions Labs and receive new podcast episodes, practices, writings, Leadership Studio teachings, and offerings, visit:

https://cocoswanson.com/solutions-labs

Who have you frozen in time from their worst moment?

Conflict hurts. People disappoint us. We disappoint each other. And sometimes, long after the conflict itself has passed, we continue carrying the resentment, rehearsing what happened, gathering support for our side, and seeing the person through the lens of the worst thing they did. What happens to our relationships, our families, our workplaces, and our world when we keep doing this to each other?

Mercury is retrograde in Cancer from June 29 through July 23, offering an opportunity to look again. Not only at how we communicate, but at the emotional history shaping how we perceive. Where has an old hurt become a lens? Who are we still seeing through the eyes of resentment? What might change if we took the space we genuinely need to feel safe, did the inner work to release what we’re carrying, and allowed ourselves to see with fresh eyes?

In this episode of Our Waking Dream, leadership mentor and spiritual strategist Coco Swanson explores resentment, forgiveness, emotional responsibility, conflict resolution, boundaries, and the relationship between our emotional state and our perception. Together, we explore boundaries as the sacred space we sometimes need in order to heal, the difference between taking space and building a case, and a somatic practice for moving anger, frustration, and resentment through the body before deciding what a conflict means.

Forgiveness doesn’t require us to abandon discernment. Seeing someone’s humanity doesn’t mean removing a boundary we still need. But perhaps we can stop freezing ourselves and each other in our worst moments. Perhaps we can take responsibility for the emotional baggage we carry, let some of it go, and become curious about what we might see through the lens of love.

To join upcoming free Solutions Labs and receive new podcast episodes, practices, writings, Leadership Studio teachings, and offerings, visit:

https://cocoswanson.com/solutions-labs

How’s your heart these days? Open? Hopeful? Tender? Guarded? Scared? Contracted? And how can you tell?

How could any of us make it this far through life without learning to protect our hearts? Heartbreak, rejection, grief, disappointment, criticism, and loss leave their marks. We learn to guard ourselves, seek approval, compare, hide, perform, or dim our own light. Yet what happens when those protections begin to soften? What becomes possible when we feel safe enough to love, create, forgive, play, take up space, and live more wholeheartedly?

As Jupiter begins its journey through Leo, the astrology offers a year-long invitation into the terrain of the heart. In this episode of Our Waking Dream, leadership mentor and spiritual strategist Coco Swanson explores the shadow and illuminated expressions of Leo, how to recognize when the heart is opening or closing, and practices for healing heartbreak, letting go, reclaiming joy, and expressing more of who we authentically are.

Together we explore wholehearted living, emotional healing, self-expression, creativity, comparison, forgiveness, courage, joy, and what it means to become the caretaker of our own heart. Because perhaps our hearts are meant to break and renew. Perhaps healing is not about avoiding heartbreak, but learning how to return, again and again, to the center of love.

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#JupiterInLeo #Astrology #EmotionalHealing #WholeheartedLiving #SelfExpression #PersonalGrowth #HealingJourney #SpiritualGrowth

Who’s tired of feeling like every disagreement becomes a battle? Whether it’s with a partner, family member, friend, colleague, or even yourself, conflict has a way of making us feel certain, defensive, and disconnected. But what if conflict isn’t the problem? What if it has something to teach us? What if the very places we feel the most activated are also the places with the greatest potential for growth?

As Mars conjuncts Uranus in Gemini, we’re invited to examine how we communicate, how we respond when we’re emotionally triggered, and whether we’re willing to make room for perspectives beyond our own. In a world that often rewards certainty, this week’s astrology asks something different. What happens when we choose curiosity instead? What changes when we take responsibility for our own emotional triggers before trying to change someone else’s mind? The quality of our relationships is often downstream from the conversations we’re willing to have and the emotional baggage we’re willing to clear.

In this episode of Our Waking Dream, leadership mentor, spiritual strategist, and astrologer Coco Swanson explores emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, communication, nervous system regulation, healthy relationships, and practical tools for transforming conflict into connection. Together we explore how to recognize emotional triggers, slow reactive communication, build bridges instead of walls, and discover why conflict may be one of life’s greatest teachers.

To receive future podcast episodes, writings, embodiment practices, and invitations to upcoming free Solutions Labs, visit:

cocoswanson.com/solutions-labs

What kind of atmosphere follows you into a room?

Culture isn’t something reserved for workplaces, governments, or social movements. It’s present in the conversation we have with ourselves when we make a mistake. It’s present in the way families handle disagreement, the way friendships hold joy and grief, and the way teams navigate pressure, change, and conflict. Whether we realize it or not, we are participating in culture all day long.

As Cancer season begins with Jupiter & Mercury at the final degrees of the sign as well, themes of care, belonging, emotional wellbeing, and support are illuminated. We are invited to take a closer look at the environments we are helping create. Do people feel heard around us? Do they feel safe enough to tell the truth? Are we feeding criticism, gossip, and assumptions, or practicing curiosity, appreciation, repair, and understanding? The quality of our relationships is often downstream from the culture we repeatedly practice together.

In this episode of Our Waking Dream, leadership mentor and spiritual strategist Coco Swanson explores cultures of care, from the culture within ourselves to the cultures we build with friends, family, partners, communities, and colleagues. Together we explore communication, emotional wellbeing, belonging, conflict, appreciation, support, and the small daily practices that shape the quality of our relationships and lives.

Because culture is not hypothetical. It is the atmosphere we repeatedly create together.

To receive future episodes, practices, writings, and invitations to upcoming Free Solutions Labs, visit:

cocoswanson.com/solutions-labs

Is self-care central in your life?

Because you are very central in your life.

How have your needs changed in the past season or two? Not what you needed a year ago. Not what worked before burnout, heartbreak, illness, parenthood, menopause, success, failure, or change. What do you need now? And do your habits, relationships, boundaries, and daily rhythms reflect what you know about yourself?

As the Sun enters Cancer and Chiron settles into Taurus, the Summer Solstice invites us to examine the foundations that support our lives. Our nervous systems. Our emotional health. Our physical wellbeing. The environments we create. The cultures of care we build with the people around us. Because what nourishes us in one season may not nourish us in the next.

In this episode of Our Waking Dream, spiritual strategist and leadership mentor Coco Swanson explores self-care, transitions, and the importance of building a life that supports the person you actually are now. Together we explore a simple self-care audit that helps reveal what is nourishing, what is depleting, and where small adjustments may create more support, resilience, and ease.

Because we can only centralize something once we recognize it as a priority.

And because care isn’t something we fit into our lives.

It’s something we build our lives around.

To receive new episodes, practices, writings, and invitations to upcoming Complimentary Solutions Labs, visit:

cocoswanson.com/solutions-labs

What baggage are you ready to put down?

A heartbreak. A disappointment. A betrayal. A misunderstanding. A story you’ve told so many times it has begun shaping how you see yourself, another person, or the future.

As we move toward the Gemini New Moon on June 14 and continue navigating Uranus squaring the Nodes, we’re invited to examine not only what happened, but the interpretations, judgments, assumptions, and emotional weight we’ve continued carrying long after the event itself has passed.

In this episode of Our Waking Dream, leadership mentor and systems strategist Coco Swanson explores surrender, forgiveness, inherited patterns, emotional baggage, charged memories, and the possibility of perceiving an old story from a wider vantage point. Together we explore a series of practices designed to help release what no longer belongs in our hands, reclaim energy from the past, and create space for a new future.

Because sometimes freedom arrives not when the past changes, but when our relationship to it does.

To receive new episodes, practices, writings, and invitations to upcoming Complimentary Solutions Labs, visit:

https://cocoswanson.com/solutions-labs