Your perfect day: an exercise to turn your dreams into reality

Do you love dreaming big, but then feel like those dreams have to be tucked away for "someday"? Today, I invite you to pull out your dream canvas and splash it with the vibrant colors of the present. 

In this Thursday Thread, we call back to the previous episode with Molly Ruland, who brought her island dreams to life by moving to Costa Rica. Instead of waiting until retirement, Molly took the leap and island hopped now (doubling her business revenue in the process!) 

What Molly was capable of achieving can easily feel so far away for most of us – but the truth is that it's often only a few decisions away. One of the first decisions we need to make for our dreams is to choose to feel our dreams as if they have already happened. 

In this short episode, I walk you through an exercise to do exactly this. Happy dreaming, unicorn! It's time to welcome all your wildest wishes into your reality.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Hi and welcome to Untethered with Jen Liss, the podcast that's here to help you break free, be you and unleash your inner brilliance. I'm your host, jen, and in this episode we are going to talk about how to create your perfect day and make it an actual reality. Let's dive in. Hey there, unicorn, it's Jen. Welcome back to the podcast for this Thursday thread. It's a Thursday thread.

Speaker 1: 0:38

We are threading out a little piece from the episode with Molly Ruland on Tuesday. So Molly is a business owner. She has a podcast company called Artcast Media. She helps people create really successful podcasts, really helps people with their businesses. She builds websites. It's not just podcasting. She does all kinds of things to support business owners. So if you aren't connected with her, go back to the episode, listen in. She had lots of really supportive and helpful things to say and I would suggest connecting with her If you're somebody who has what feels like a messy business. She really helps people to bring their businesses together. So really really smart business woman.

Speaker 1: 1:24

But one of the things that Molly has done that's so fascinating, that really interests people and really interests me as well, when we talk about living our most brilliant untethered life is that Molly up and moved to Costa Rica a couple of years ago, while still maintaining and actually doubling the income of her business 200%. She grew her business since that time, so she has been really successful while actually creating her real dream life. She decided that she didn't want to wait until she was retired in order to do this move that she wanted to do, partially because she had this thought like what if I get there and it's not even what I want and I've waited a whole 15 or 20 years to go and live this life? And then what if I get there and I don't love it? Well, she's getting to live it now and love it now, and then, if she decides she doesn't like it, she can move somewhere else. So she has decided to do it now, and one of the things that Molly suggested doing is creating a perfect day exercise, going through and following through on this exercise. So I thought today we would talk about what that is, why you would do it, and we'll actually go through doing it together. Now I have done this exercise many times and found it incredibly helpful, but also found it incredibly challenging because. But also found it incredibly challenging Because here's the deal it sounds wonderful to create your perfect day, to dream up your perfect day, to write down your perfect day, to craft it, to dream it up, to make it real.

Speaker 1: 2:56

And yet our mind is not cool with it, because your perfect day can feel so far away from what we are living now. It's actually not, but it can feel so far away to your actual nervous system, to your brain, to your thoughts, to the thoughts that you were having every single day. It can feel really far away. And so when we sit down and we do this exercise, the mind can start to say things like well, you know, you can't have that, absolutely not. That's ridiculous. No way could you move to Italy. No way could you make $600,000 a year. No way could you impact the world by being a billionaire. No way could you fly around on your jet, whatever your dreams are, no way could you have a dog. Your husband will never let you have a dog. No way could you up and dog your husband will never let you have a dog. No way could you up and travel for work. You have kids. That would make you a terrible mom.

Speaker 1: 3:50

All of these thoughts that our brain will have when we sit down to write that exercise. So I want to say is that's normal, it's okay. You're going to have some of those thoughts because that's what the brain does, because your mind and your body and your nervous system right now wants you to be exactly where you are. Even if it's not your perfect day that you actually dream of, it is the perfect day to your current mind and body and nervous system. It is not the perfect day to your heart and your soul, but it is the perfect day to all of those very physical things in this very physical reality. So what we do by doing this perfect day exercise is you begin to train your brain, you begin to train your body, you begin to train your nervous system and do what we call in breath work but I mentioned to Molly, it's called titration. You take little, tiny sips so that you begin to open up your mind and your body and your nervous system to the possibility that this could actually be real. And in fact it is real and I can experience it right now and I can feel it right now. And then 3D reality starts to become real because you're actually able to handle it.

Speaker 1: 5:08

If your nervous system can't handle it, you can't have it. It's like if somebody won the lottery and all of a sudden, you got a million dollars and it just disappears out of nowhere. Well, that's because you don't know how to handle it. You weren't prepared to handle it, you didn't have the structures, you didn't have all of the things that you needed. If you knew that a million dollars was coming, you would probably get an accountant, you would probably get somebody to support you with your finances, you would probably start to look into some of the things that you need to have when you have that much money. That's what we do when we start preparing for things, and so then, when the money comes in, it's like, okay, I have all the support and I don't freak out and just spend it. It's not just gone because I have support, I have relationships, I have structure. So that's why this is so important that we start to do this exercise now, that we start to practice this exercise now, so that we can see the chatter of the mind and reassure it.

Speaker 1: 6:02

Yeah, I hear you. I hear that you feel like it's not possible. What if it is? What if it was? What if I did? What if we did? What would it feel like? What would it be like? We start to open up the crack of possibility.

Speaker 1: 6:18

Curiosity is love. Curiosity allows. Love allows your nervous system to expand. Fear contracts so it tightens, it makes smaller. So anytime that we're in that state of fear and that state of can't and that state of no, no, no, that's not safe, you're going to contract. So we want to move into curiosity, which opens the door.

Speaker 1: 6:41

So let's plan your perfect day, let's do this exercise together. If you can't close your eyes, if you can't be here and be quiet and dive into this, you can come back to it. You can listen to it now and kind of play along a little bit and listen in to really, really deeply engage in this exercise. I recommend that you take 10 minutes for yourself to come and do this with me. So if you want to pause or if you want to listen in now and come back and do it later, you can totally do that. I do recommend that you take, if and when you are ready I'm going to have you take a seat or lie down, either way, just let yourself be supported, get yourself in a stationary position, nice straight back, whether you're laying down or sitting up, and take a nice big inhale in filling up your belly, really feeling the expansion of the belly as you feel that air, maybe feeling that the chest has risen a little bit too with the expansion of that air, and then exhaling completely out through the mouth, closing down your eyes if they aren't yet, and just bringing your awareness to the breath itself, noticing the breath as it flows in and out, the rise and fall of the belly, the rise and the fall of the chest, noticing we're not trying to manipulate our breath, we're just noticing the breath as it flows in and out. Be bringing your awareness to the cool sensation of the air moving in your nostrils, the warm air as it flows out. Beautiful. Now we are going to begin to move through the most magical, perfect day that you have ever experienced.

Speaker 1: 9:12

So waking up, opening your eyes on this absolutely magical day, and as you open your eyes, what are you seeing In the room around you? What is there? What are you seeing In the room around you? What is there? Where is the light pouring in from? Is there light? Are you in a blackout room? What does it look like? What are you feeling? What does the actual bed beneath you feel like? Maybe you're waking up on a couch, maybe you're on a bed, maybe you're on a hammock? Where are you? Where are you waking up on this most perfect day? What does it feel like? What does it look like? What sounds are you hearing? Are there any smells? Can you actually taste the air? What does it smell like? What does it smell like? What does it taste like?

Speaker 1: 10:33

Taking a big, deep breath in as you wake up on this perfect day, letting yourself sit up when you're ready, looking at the clock what time is it? Are you even looking at the clock? Do you care? Getting out of bed, getting up? What do you do? What is the very first thing you do on this most perfect, most glorious, magical day? And watching yourself as you move through, all senses engaged, feeling the sensations of touch, the smell, what you're seeing, what you're hearing. Let yourself move through the actions of this perfect day. What activities are you doing? What activities are you doing? Who are you with? What are their reactions? Look at their faces. Are there animals? Are there people? Is there no one? Are you all alone? What does your perfect, magical day look like?

Speaker 1: 12:07

Taking moments as you move through this day to breathe it in into the nose, feeling the expansion of appreciation, of gratitude for these experiences that you're getting to have on this perfect day Exhaling, settling into it, letting yourself feel it, letting yourself really be there. What does it feel like? What do you see? What do you see? What do you know? That's it, if you notice any chatter of the mind, just allowing yourself to feel back into where you are on this perfect day.

Speaker 1: 13:07

What is the next thing that you do? Where is the next place you go? Do you go anywhere at all? What do you get to see? What do you get to do there? You go, letting yourself be there. And as this day begins to draw to a close, as the sun is setting, where are you? What time is the sun setting on this perfect day? Do you watch the sunset? What do you do after the sun has set? How are you closing down this beautiful day? How are you closing down this beautiful day? How do you tuck yourself in? What time are you tucking yourself in? Do you let yourself stay up late? Do you tuck in and call it a night early so that you can get a beautiful night's sleep? You get to choose.

Speaker 1: 14:32

It's your magical day, beautiful, witnessing yourself, feeling yourself, closing your eyes for that final moment of awareness of this day, moment of awareness of this day, closing them down and, as you do, saying thank you, maybe placing a hand on your heart in gratitude for getting to experience the magic of this day and really memorizing this feeling. Asking your heart to memorize this feeling right here, knowing that you can come back to it anytime you want to, taking one final big inhale into the nose, feeling that sensation, that gratitude, that love and appreciation expand through your body, memorizing On your exhale, releasing it out into the universe, coming back slowly into the here and the now in your body, bringing a gentle smile to your lips, remembering the feelings of that perfect day, the magic of that perfect day when you're ready, maybe giving your fingertips a little rub on the cloth beneath them if they're still on your chest, maybe giving them a wiggle, wiggling your toes, gently rolling the ankles or the head, slowly bringing your awareness back fully into this body when you're ready, blinking your eyes open and making eye contact with something in the room. There you go, bringing yourself fully back into this present time now, with your eyes open, remembering once more those feelings, that love, that gratitude, bringing it into your body even now. Thank you so much for your willingness to participate in this activity, letting yourself go there, letting yourself experience that perfect day. It's a gift, not just to yourself, but a gift to the world Letting yourself step into the possibility of what is truly here for you, that magic that is possible.

Speaker 1: 18:11

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If there is something that you gained from it, I encourage you to share it with a friend who might also need, want or love experiencing and love experiencing their perfect day. If you really enjoyed it and want to share it with all your friends, take a screenshot of the episode itself. Share it on social media. You can tag me I'm untethered Jen on Instagram. You can find the link in the show notes. Thanks again for listening. It truly means the world to me that you would go through this exercise and be here with me. You just keep shining your magical unicorn light out there for all to see. I'll see you next time. Bye.