Calling back our dreams
my personal tips to reconnect with the dreams we’ve lost
Happy Friday dear ones! In this letter, I’ll talk about…
✍️Why dreams get lost and how to call them back
🧭 Journaling prompt to help you rediscover and reconnect with your dreams
🎁 A new moon cycle coming your way: new moon intention free journaling page
📖 Calling back our dreams
In continuation of Winter themes, let’s explore dreams today. With dreams, I mean what we would like to accomplish and what we would like for ourselves, our lives, and everyone in it. Yes, we have nighttime dreams too, but we’ll leave that one for another time.
In the previous post, we touched on core values, and I explained a bit about how I never was conscious of my own core values let alone feel confident about them. I discovered when core values are vague, dreams become vague too.
In the vagueness of values and dreams, they tend to disappear - or hide - over time.
But why are dreams that important?
I feel there are mainly two ways to get “moving” in life. One is the survival mode, making sure we stay alive and the other one is dreams. The first one needs to be checked before we can move into the other one.
If we stay in survival mode for too long in an unhealthy manner, we become stagnant. In my experience survival mode happens due to external or internal factors or a combination of both. We are not meant to stay in survival mode for too long. This process is set in motion to create change and thus survive. Once we are out of the woods and are in a state of homeostasis we can allow dreams to take the lead and help us further in the creation of change and becoming unstuck. Dreams are what spark the will to stand up and move even further, to create, to act, and thus to make change possible so we keep on flowing.
Dreams can help us maintain hope while in survival mode, inspiring and motivating us to come out of this state at some point. However, if we stay unnecessarily in survival mode for too long, dreams will evaporate from the ground up to the sky in search of someone willing to work with them.
I feel like many of us are kept in an unnecessary survival state and this is reflected in the way we live in the world today. The hustle culture, combined with the noise of external expectations, leaves us in a never-ending state of stress - and thus in survival mode - ensuring there is no room for our deepest dreams to come alive. Instead, we are fed with “plastic dreams”, ones that are sometimes almost impossible to realize, while keeping us in the rat race, and burning us down.
In a world full of responsibilities, obligations, “shoulds” and “musts”, we are most likely to conform, leading us to forget the sparks that once lit up our imagination, feeling disconnected from ourselves and each other, uninspired, feeling stuck while performing routines that no longer serve us, and can become even unhealthy at some point.
So, how do we get our dreams back?
In this letter, we’ll explore practical tools and creative practices for calling back our dreams, reconnecting with them, and reigniting our inner flames that may have been extinguished over time. This journey will be translated into the following:
Checking how you want to feel
Paying attention to what you don’t want (anymore)
Looking at the people who inspire you
Making new & full moon collages
Journaling with the moon
Making your own inspirational journal
Being in nature
Using lots of journaling prompts to get you digging for your dreams
Majestical Jasmin via Pexels
🌈1. The power of tapping into how you want to feel
Our dreams aren’t just about goals and achievements. Our dreams are a reflection of how we want to feel. So, we - you and I - need to start exploring the way we want to feel right now.
Journaling prompts:
Write down: “How do I want to feel in my daily life?”
Some examples might be: peaceful, creative, adventurous, connected, or purposeful.Write down three to five emotions that resonate most deeply with you.
By shifting the external focus to an internal one, we’ll start to focus on how we want to feel and thus not how others (society, environment, family, and friends) expect us to “feel”. Once we know this, we can compare it to the external world, and if they don’t match change is required.
🌈2. Listing what you don’t want
Sometimes this one is easier than the first one! So, if you feel unsure about how you want to feel, feel free to start with this part first.
By writing down what you don’t want (anymore) you can ask yourself: What do I want instead?
Journaling prompts:
What I don’t want in my life anymore
Example: I don’t want to spend the rest of my life on a 9 to 5 job (which is more like an 8.30 to 6 pm job nowadays) five days a week leaving me depleted and with almost no room for myself. So, what do I want instead?
Once you have an answer, ask yourself “Why do I want …….”
By digging deeper into the why, we allow ourselves to get to the root of how we want to feel.
Also, understanding what you don’t want will help you set boundaries and steer clear of situations or habits that drain your energy.
Create a list of things, situations, or habits that feel misaligned with your desired emotions.
Brainstorm supporting ways to start releasing the elements of your list or ways to create boundaries for yourself.
For example: if a cluttered space makes you feel overwhelmed and you don’t want this in your life anymore (clutter = how it makes you feel), commit to tidying one area of your home each week.
🌈3. The people who inspire you: learning from their light
Think about the people you admire most. These could be role models, mentors, friends, or even public figures. What draws you to them? Often, their characteristics, actions, and values mirror the qualities you want to cultivate in your own life.
Journaling prompts:
Create a list of three to five people who inspire you.
For each person, note:
What they do or create.
Their standout characteristics (e.g., kindness, resilience, creativity).
What you believe/think they value most.
How can you integrate these qualities and values into your own life?
By exploring those who inspire you, their lives, and their qualities, we get to explore a bit more of ourselves. Sometimes it’s easier to see in others what truly matters for us than to find it all alone navigating our own inner landscapes. In this way, we start to get a more visible roadmap, instead of getting lost in our own inner woods and weeds (which can be a scary place to be…).
🌈4. New & full moon collages: a visual path to your dreams
Without asking too much or expecting too much of ourselves, just collaging under the new and full moon can be an excellent and fun way to start listening to the softest whispers and furthest corners of ourselves.
What you need:
A bit of time: at least one hour alone and undisturbed.
Magazines and or a laptop/telephone to search images online and that is connected to a printer.
If you use a laptop or telephone make sure you have a printer and print paper ready.
A journal.
Scissors and glue.
Optional: washi tape, ephemera, or other decoration elements
What to do:
Search for new & full moon dates. You can do this online or you can subscribe to Letters from a WeatherVane, where I send only via email all important moon dates before a new moon cycle starts.
Start gathering images (and words) from magazines or online that speak to you most at that moment.
With glue and scissors start adding all your images onto paper, and thus into your journal.
⭐️ Tip: don’t overthink the process, just allow your intuition to guide you.
🌈5. Free writing during new & full moon
Pair your collage-making practice with free writing to deepen your connection to your dreams.
Just free to write whatever is in your mind, body, and soul and/or write your observations from your collage.
What catches your attention?
Why?
Write for 10–15 minutes without censoring yourself. This practice can uncover hidden dreams, desires, fears, or insights.
🌈6. Creating an inspirational journal
An inspirational journal is just that: a place where you add everything that inspires you.
You can translate everything in this letter into an inspirational journal if you want to.
What you need:
a notebook or journal.
Inspirational images, pictures, quotes, texts, or anything that inspires you and awakens an inner spark.
You can use your journal chronologically adding everything that inspires you or you can create sections in your journal for example:
Image tracking: Record images that resonate with you.
Quotes and affirmations: Add words that uplift you.
Vision pages: Paste your new and full moon collages.
Free writing: your new & full moon writings for example.
⭐️ Tip: browse through your inspirational journal often, preferably once a day.
🌈7. Spending time in nature: being in the source
Being outside and spending time alone in nature has so many health benefits and these healing benefits will, in time, help us call our dreams back without taking too much effort.
Instead of telling you why this is so important and so powerful, I’ll just tell you to find out for yourself!
Find the time and green space - for those in the city, a park with trees and green will work just fine - preferably daily, but otherwise one to three times per week and when it isn't too busy or noisy. Spend time walking or sitting down and just be there with yourself and by yourself.
It’s so simple, yet so powerful!
⭐️ Tip: bring your journal & pen with you, and…
See what catches your eye. Journal about this: What is it? And why does it stand out? What is this telling you?
What emerges from within you while you are there in nature? What images, people, situations, words, colors, emotions, and thoughts are starting to float in your mind and heart?
Don’t overthink, just write!
🌈8. 7 journaling prompts to call back your dreams
What do I want to create during this new moon phase?
What am I ready to celebrate and release during this full moon phase?
What would my ideal day look and feel like?
What does the best version of myself look like?
What is one small step I can take toward a forgotten dream?
If I could create my dream life without limits, what would it look like?
How can I use my journal to stay connected to my aspirations?
Can you hear the soft whispers of your dreams calling you back?
What you call, calls you too
By exploring how you want to feel, releasing what doesn’t serve you, learning from those you admire, and using tools like moon collages and inspirational journals, you can reignite your inner light and design a life full of purpose and joy.
Your dreams are your birthright. They’re not distant or unattainable—they’re waiting for you to notice them, nurture them, and bring them (back) to life. So start today! Pick up a journal or notebook, gather some images for a collage, or simply sit with this question:
“What would make my soul feel alive TODAY?”
I grew up with this beautiful Spanish saying: “Donde hubo fuego quedaron cenizas” which literally translates to “Where there was fire, ashes remain” = feelings will remain in the form of ashes because nothing ever gets destroyed. Energy doesn’t get destroyed, it is only transformed. And this is the case not only for ourselves but for our dreams as well.
🎁That time of the mo(🌝)nth
Letters from a WeatherVane’s subscribers have received this new moon journaling page 👆 already in their email inboxes.
Don’t forget to check your spam box, if you don’t see it right away.
If you want to explore more of yourself and Cyclical Living combined with journaling, make sure to subscribe - it’s free! - and you’ll get access to The Library where this page and all other free journaling pages shared previously here on Substack are stored.
🌬️Sending you magic & healing your way,
-Vane
*all typos in this letter are on purpose