Write and Collage Your Way to Living the Life of Your Dreams
Learn how to connect to your innermost dreams through writing and collage. In this interview, Lisa Hammond, author of “Permission to Dream Journal: Write, Collage and Play Your Way to Living the Life of Your Dreams” talks about journal writing.
Commitment: What inspired you to write a book that gives people the chance to "write, collage, and play" their way to living the life of their dreams?
Lisa Hammond: As I traveled around the country doing Dream Big workshops I often used the technique of collaging to help women connect with their passions and dreams. The women at my workshops LOVED doing this! Often I couldn't get them to stop! They wanted to keep playing and collaging. So I knew right away this would be a great tool for people.
Commitment: Can you tell us about the role journaling and creating collages had in helping you to achieve your dreams? What did you discover about yourself when you used journaling and collage?
Lisa:
It is something I am very passionate about. I have always kept either a journal or a blank book to doodle ideas in or created vision boards and it is ultimately what led me to my meaningful work. As I reflected on stacks and stacks of journals I had written and collaged in over the years a sense of clarity emerged.
Commitment: What is collage? How can a woman use this medium to connect with their innermost dreams, and how do you think this activity helps make dreams a reality?
Lisa: Collaging is something I have done innately for as long as I can remember. When I was a little girl I used to cover the walls of my bedroom, as a teenager I used to make posters, when I got a little older I used to make what I called affirmation boards.
Now the term vision board or dream board is very popular, but I have been doing this for decades in blank books and on blank walls. And there is a lot of power to it. We really do attract to ourselves the things we visualize most clearly.
Commitment: What tips do you have for those who purchase your book and find it hard to journal and uncover their dreams? How can they have fun with this book, and make it a great experience?
Lisa: I think the joy in this is that there is no right or wrong way to go about it. That is why I created the Permission to Dream journal as a way to play. Not all of us are writers, and there is something about writing the inevitably leads to censoring.
However, when we collage, we are free to cut and paste whatever our heart truly desires.
Commitment: Can you tell us about your Dream Big workshops? What do you teach women during these workshops?
Lisa: First I teach them that dreams can be messy--we make a mess. And for some women that can be a scary thing. So we have loads of fun just getting out the markers and scissors and glue sticks and magazines and making a big mess as we cut and paste and collage. It is a blast to see the women let loose!
Then I help guide them through the process of learning what resonates with them. It is so much fun to watch them see their inner passions unfold on the pages and hear the aah haas! The light bulbs really start to turn on.
A theme will ultimately emerge. And real change can start to happen for them, they can start to create the life of their dreams. The journal becomes their road map.
Commitment: Through doing these workshops, what do you think holds most people back from living their dreams?
Lisa:
I used to think it was fear, but after doing so many workshops I am learning that for many women, we have just gotten lost along the way. Somewhere between the laundry and the to-do list we got lost.
Women especially have completely forgotten what their dreams were and the journal helps them remember what it was they were passionate about, or helps them find a new dream to get excited about. Permission to Dream is about discovering who you are now and what your dreams are, even if they are buried under the laundry--we can find them again!
Commitment: Why do some people get stuck in situations they never really wanted, while the things they dream of don't seem to be within their reach?
Lisa: We have to take time to carve out space to make our dreams come true. We have to put ourselves on our own list, nobody else will do that for us. And women aren't very good at that yet. The good news is, we can learn how!
Commitment: If someone came to you and said, "I dream of taking my family to Paris for a vacation next summer" what steps would you suggest they do to make this dream a reality?
Lisa: Say it out loud often, make it so! Tell everyone, so they can hold your feet to the fire. Create a lot of visuals to remind you of your goal and put them where you can see them often. Make an action plan and then DO IT! There is an entire section in Permission to Dream about travel because I am passionate about it.
To Purchase The Permission To Dream Journal click here.
About the Author: The Permission to Dream Journal (Conari Press, October 2008) is designed to help readers discover their dreams and to aid them in achieving them.
As the founder of Femail Creations and the booming home-party business, Barefoot Parties, Lisa Hammond brings her own success and wisdom to readers with the Permission to Dream Journal, along with quotes from other great role models like Oprah Winfrey, Dolly Parton, Helen Keller, Eleanor Roosevelt, and others.
In this one-of-a-kind journal, sections include Remember Your Dreams, Building Your Dreams, and Living Your Dreams. Each section begins with a wish list and various prompts like “What is your craziest dream? What would it take to accomplish it? Make a to-do list. Put your passions at the top of the list,” followed by blank pages for Dream Doodles and Creative Collaging.
The Permission to Dream Journal sets out to motivate readers not only to dream, but to make their dreams happen on their own terms.
Ms. Hammond is the founder and CEO of Femail Creations. She is a past recipient of the Small Business Person of the Year Award as well as the National Association of Women Business Owners Woman of Distinction Award for Woman Entrepreneur. She is the author of Dream Big, Stepping Stone Cards, and the Permission to Dream card deck. She lives in Las Vegas.
