#639: The Big Picture

A lot of us have carried forward.

An energy, a feeling, a way of being that was stamped into US in 2020. And it was all about stop, go inside, close your doors, put your mask on, and especially delay and defer. Delay and defer. Like everything, right? We're delaying weddings and delaying holidays with family, we're delaying vacations. Defer, delay until some later date. And in the short term, that's great. But when you start practicing an energy over and over and over, a way of thinking, a mindset, a set of behaviors, it starts to become entrenched. It's who you are. And I think one of the biggest things that we're all gonna be facing really soon is coming back out of that and saying, no, I'm no longer on hold. And this is what my life looks and feels like. So it's not enough to plan your year long goals, you know, for this year we're in now, you need to plan longer than that because this year we're all still fumbling around in deferment and uncertainty, not knowing when it will end. I want us to go beyond that because that is where you can almost feel that energy break. It just lets go and you're rolling again, you're flowing again. You're living a juicy, juicy life.

Flow Dreaming.

It'S a show where we talk about the power of your mind to change your world around you, to literally affect the fabric of your reality. We talk about this feeling of hope.

And joy and relief.

And that is what being aware of your flow does. It gives you a feeling of power again in your lives.

Breathe.

I'm Summer McStravik and welcome to another.

Episode of Flow Dreaming.

Welcome, Everybody. It's Summer McStravik and wow, here we are, episode 639 and woo. Boy, do I have some catching up on to do with you all. So let's start with that. We'll just do some gossipy gossip here for a little bit and then we're going to jump into the big picture. So this year, you guys may have noticed, I paused my podcast. I hit the pause button for the first time in 16 seasons. That means 16 straight years of weekly podcasting. And I meant to just pause it for a month and then it became, well, just do it this summer. And then it became, oh my God, it's December and I've just taken six months off and I had a lot of thinking to do about this. And, you know, partly I realized, well, the podcast podcast culture has changed and I'm adapting to a new world and my Message is changing, and Flow Dreaming is changing. And I realized, well, I'm changing, and somehow I'm not sure what to say. And I thought I could talk about all the things I've already talked about 638 times. And I realized I don't want to talk about those things. I've talked about them. I want to talk about new things. I want to look around. I want to spend some time out there in the woods with my little backpack on. The woods of life, the woods of exploration, the woods of myself, my soul, my spirit, my work, my family. And I want to pick up some new things, some new ideas. So that is exactly what I've been doing this last six months. And I may be fumbling around for a bit. You may be hearing new things from me, going in places and talking about topics I haven't before. And I want you to know that when you review this whole history of the Flow Dreaming podcast, you can access the first couple seasons, the first few hundred episodes actually, by becoming a premium subscriber. It's stupidly cheap. It's $2.99 a month. And the way you do that is you either download the app from the App Store, there's an option there. I have two apps, by the way, so be sure to get the one that says radio on it, or you can go to my website and go to the podcast page. But what you'll notice in those seasons is that a lot of it was about what flow is, how to use flow. We did Flow Dreaming just every episode. I talked with people, hundreds of people, thousands of people through the years who'd call in because I was recording it live, broadcasting live, and you got to see flow in action, how I would use it with these people, how I'd use it with you. And then the show shifted again. I began doing lots and lots of interviews. I went into a phase where I just said, I just want to find as many facts and perspectives as I possibly can. And I interviewed physicists and shamans and scientists and thinkers. And then the show shifted again. I brought out MI School. I brought out a culmination of many of my teachings, and I began to teach from that kind of extrapolating and sharing a little more. And then the show shifted again. So you can see over the course of all these years what it's like when you take a curiosity or a concept and you fully explore it and you allow it to change. You allow it to move into whatever new places, whatever new levels it wants to go in. And believe me, the Urgency, the feeling is so strong to want to keep it the same, to want to keep it to what I know or knew. And there's fear around every new evolution, every new rebirth, every new change to it. There's fear around that. I even thought, maybe it's time to close this entire podcast down and open up a brand new one, start fresh, really let myself have new thinking. And then I thought, well, maybe because you're afraid to just evolve this one again, maybe you're afraid that people won't follow what's going on there. So this is all the thinking that I have had in the last six months, in the last year, even. And, yeah, a lot of this comes from the fact that our world's changed so much. Something that had been brewing in me, these questions, this need to shift and change. And I've done so in other areas of my life, too. I can share those in future shows. But the fact is, 2020 caused a lot of us to go inward. When you can't go outward, you go inward. And we were all brought inward in a most extraordinary way. And I'll do a show about that. What did you find when you were in there? But today we're looking at the big picture. And the big picture for me means not just how am I changing myself, how am I stepping back out again of being inside? Big picture means where am I going not just this year, but in three years, five years, 10 years? And why would I want to look that far forward and craft and shape myself with thoughts that far forward when I don't even know when the next six months are going to bring me? Well, there's a really, really good reason for that, and we're going to get.

Into it in this particular episode.

So a couple more changes before we dive in, you guys. I got a puppy this year. I did. I got a puppy. And so you'll hear some changes to my office. If I have to interrupt this show or, excuse me, this recording, it's probably because he has learned how to open up doors. He's a very smart boy. He's half husky, half German shepherd. This little boy is like 10 months old now and 85 pounds. And, yeah, he's learned how to open up every single door in our house. We've actually had to replace, you know, door levers with actual knobs that he can't twist. Smart, smart little puppy dog. And you might hear him shaking his collar in the background. And I'm just not even going to bother to edit all those out because, hey, this is My life. You hear my kids, you hear my husband out there. Sometimes the tinkling of dishes in the dishwasher, which seems to carry through walls. The. So just be aware of that in case you hear any interesting noises. It's probably Mr. Ozzy.

His name is Oz.

Ozzy. That's what's going on. So that said, a little background here on what you're experiencing. Welcome to the world of flow dreaming. If this is your first episode, oh my goodness, you're thinking, I have so much to catch up on. My God, what's been going on here? Don't worry about it. Just dive right in with me. When I think of the big picture. And the reason that my mind has been circling around this lately is that many of you know I've had a group called Born to Make for the last year to two years. And the emphasis of this group has been especially on how to create something in your life, how to build or make something using principles of physical action, inspired action, as well as non physical energy, your emotion, your heart, your intention, your flow. And we focused pretty strongly on this with recorded flow dreams throughout the years. Many, many little discussions and talks and techniques and little workshops and classes and so on. And as I was putting together the material for them this month, I realized one, I was going to talk to them about the big picture. That's what we're working on. And then I thought, geez, so many more people than just them are going to want to hear this too. So partly I'm addressing today's episode to you. If you're in Born to Make, and I want you to think in terms of the big picture, not just in your heart and your life, but specifically into your make. What are you creating now? Why don't we just look a year ahead? Why aren't we just looking at our present year and saying, well, here are the goals I have and here's what I want to have happen, here's the money I want to make, and here are the new relationships I want to develop, et cetera, how come I'm asking you to go so much further ahead? Because frankly, it sounds kind of counterintuitive, right? If you're coming out of this major interior space this year of asking yourself, where have I been and I can't go anyplace and I can't see anybody, and how can I build something? How can I make something spectacular? How can I grow my career in this climate or fall in love and meet someone new and date in this environment, right? All of these questions and Then you say, now you want me to go five years ahead? Yes. Here's why. So many of us, I felt I've been speaking with you. I've been doing my private sessions, working with my, with my, you know, my clients and my friends. So many of us are dragging last year with us on our backs. I look at them like, you know, Santa Claus has big sacks. Well, imagine if Santa's, instead of dragging this big sack of toys, Santa's dragging this giant sack of last year, last year's energy. And as we look into the months ahead, here's the feeling. I mean, check in with yourself. Ask. Here's the feeling. I don't really know when this will end. I don't know when I'll be able to get a vaccination. I don't know if I'll want to get a vaccination. I don't know when my workplace is rehiring again or when they're going to ask us all back in the office again. I don't know when the kids are going back to school. I don't know when I'm going to be able to go meet with my friends and have, you know, ladies wine night again. I don't know when I'm going to be able to go to dog park and talk with strangers closely without masks on and have a good time and just feel like I trust people again. I don't know when. I don't know when. See, this is a buildup, right? This is an emotional buildup. It's centered on safety. It's centered on our need to focus on keeping ourselves and each other safe and alive. But it means that if you're planning, if you're planning two months down the line, three months down the line, you might be feeling like, no, I can't do that yet. Every time I've planned in the last year, it's gotten blown up, you know, it hasn't worked. It's gotten, you know, throttled and stopped again. So I'm not going to do that. This means that energetically and emotionally we've got to kind of fool our minds right now. And we've got to say, all right, fine, you're not going two months ahead, you're not going three months ahead. You're not even going six months ahead. Because you know what? Once you get back out there, you know, it's going to take some time to rev up again. I always use this image of that old fashioned train, that big old steam train. We've got one here at the LA Disneyland. Gosh, are they even open at the Disneyland here in la? It's this big old fashioned steam train. It's one of my favorite rides. I mean, it's such a lame ride. It circles the park. And you know, you get to see this one section has dinosaurs. That's just been my favorite since I was a kid. Right. And the big black steam train. Chug, chug, chug. You know, steam coming out. I think to myself, they keep that thing running constantly because it's harder to get a thing running than it is to keep it going, right? It's like, just like with your car, it's harder. You use more juice turning the darn car on than you do just keeping it at idle on a stoplight. Well, our lives are the same way. And we've all got to turn back on these big cars, these big engines, these big trains. And it's going to start with an exhale. It's gonna start with this big collective exhale of gradual relief and testing, you know, licking our fingers and sticking them to the wind over and over, not yet fully accepting. It's okay now, it's all okay now. And when you start to feel that exhale, I know we're going to want to feel it like a match has been lit, the gun at the race has been fired to and run. But it's probably not gonna feel like that. It's gonna be a gradual exhale and gradually that train will get going again. And what this means is you can expect it may take you month one, month two, month three, month four. It may even take you up to a year to reach that same inner level of capacity that you had before. And I want you to be prepared for that because I don't want you disappointed in yourself. Now you may go much faster, you may be chomping at the bit, just like, let me out of here, let me go. I am ready. I've. I've had all. It's like having holding back a pack of crazy dogs in the park. You know, like they just want to go ahead and I'm holding them back and, and boom, out we go. Maybe that's you. But a lot of us, you know, on today's episode are for the ones who are saying, I thought I'd be rolling back in pretty strong and boy, it's like four months later and I'm just still picking up. So this is why I want us to stretch further out, because I want you to stretch so far out where you reach the point, the time inside yourself where you Feel you absolutely know. This is where I have fully come back. This is where I have fully revved up. This is where I have once again reached that beautiful capacity for life, for juggling things, for social, for going out, for going to work. I've come back. I've come back. And remember, you're not gonna come back the same way that you left. Time passes and we change and we've all been really, really altered by this change. So you won't come back the same way. You will come back in a different and beautiful way. But you will come back. And there is a moment if you check in and I'd like you to do that with me right now. Just check in. This is a little mini technique, right? It's the way I teach in me school and in my new program coming out teaser, it's called Flow on. And if it's not out already, it's going to be out super soon. Look for it, open your emails. Anyway, here's a technique. Check in right now, feel ahead. When do you think in your life? Ask yourself, is it in a few months, six months, a year? Two years, three years, four years, five years? Where is that moment when you feel like I'm back to normal? We're back to normal. I got all caught up on all those things. We all had Christmas in July, finally booked that plane ticket to see some family again, finally took that vacation that was deferred for the last 18 months, two years, finally went back into work, finally got a raise, back on track, kids are back in school, adjusted. I'm back into my good health routine, taking care of myself, got my hair done. Where do you feel that?

That is pretty darn sure.

I'll tell you.

For me, I absolutely know for sure.

Roughly three to five years. And that seems crazy long, I know. But remember, I expect a ramping back up period. I expect a period where I'm looking and learning about my new self, my changed self, my changed family, my changed world. So what I'm looking for is not just a return to general normalcy that's coming a lot closer. I'm looking for that point where I have fully exhaled and say, ah, yeah, it is sweet again. I am good. We are in the buttercream icing again in life. That's the feeling. And I know it could come sooner. But in three years, I know, I know I'm gonna have that. So for me, I'm thinking about 2024. What a crazy number. I mean my brain can't even handle 2024 when I say it feels like super space age and Star Trek. Ian. 2024. Oh my God, I can't even believe we're alive in 2024.

Shouldn't we have flying cars by now?

But that's the point that I feel. And you have a point in you. Call it a number, call it a sense of few years from now, but this is your big picture. This is where when you think about it and feel it, there's really nothing holding you back. There's nothing saying I have to repress and stay back and be safe and defer all that has gone. And instead you're in it. You're thick in it. You're drinking life, you're experiencing life. Your relationships have been rebuilt, they're stronger than ever. New ones have flowed into you. You're feeling happy, your body is back in motion again. Maybe you're exercising. You've lost that weight that you gained all of that. That's the point that if you want to be flow dreaming on anything, if you want to be programming your future planning your is the point that I want your mind and your heart fixed on. That is the North Star for you right now, for all of us, not just this year, a couple years down the road. Think about it in a big picture way. Where do you want your state to be, your city to be? Where do you want your country to be in a couple of years? And we all can feel like, yeah, I want my country, in our case, I'm speaking about the U.S. i want my country on a strict path of healing. I want it on a path of reconciliation and acceptance and admiration and love for each other. Where did all those feelings go? I want that back. And I feel like in a few years we can start tasting that again. There's a lot, see, that I can feel at that point. That's easy for me to feel at that point. And maybe that's the, the key here. It's gotta be a point where it's easy for you to feel a no brainer, a duh. Yeah, of course, feeling not one where I'm struggling and it might be happening and I'm in the midst of it. I don't want that. I want the done deal. I want it done for you at that point. It's just there. Because that is where the bulk of your emotional power is sitting right now. It's sitting three years in the future, five years in the future. Isn't that strange? And yes, of course your power is always immediately in the present because you're choosing to feel this way right now, but that when you cast your mind ahead, is where it all just feels so perfect and right and easy and flowing. And I really want you to recapture that feeling again. And I want you to bring it from there to here. Bring it from that future point to your present point. Bring it from your future point to your present point. Now. What things should we put here? This is where I start to have a lot of fun with it, Right? Oh, my gosh. I have all my students doing exercises, we're writing things, looking at our future selves, etc. But you can do a little of it right now, too. Just think about this. I know that I really want to build up my friendships and my family circles again. I know that they've been hindered in ways that I'm not even aware of. I know that I saw some friends and we stayed six feet apart, and I realized it feels awkward. When did the awkwardness come in? And I realized that's gonna have to be undone a couple years from now. It's been. It's been completely undone. We're back, and we're built up stronger than ever. I know, too, that I feel myself feeling so balanced in a few years. My pace is strong. It's humming. It's not too pushing, it's not too quiet. And that's something that's come to me because I've realized over the course of last year that my pace had been so strong and so hard for so long that when it got checked and cut back, I fumbled. I was like, what do you mean? You know, if you're a guy running with a football and suddenly someone says, stop, you say, but my legs just want to keep moving. And then I realized my legs were tired. And so I wanted to let my legs be tired and realizing going forward, there's a pace that I'm looking to achieve, and I know I'll have achieved it by then. Something beautiful that quarantine taught me. I'll have want to have paid off many things in a few years, and I'll have done so. That's another thing. Quarantine brought to me, this feeling that, hey, I don't like being as vulnerable as I've been. I don't like being as stretched as I've been in some ways, because I've been building, building, building, which has been a good thing. And it's brought me a lot of beautiful things in my life, in my family, in my work. But I also like that feeling of being able to hunker down and be Safe and not worry about stuff, take that time away. And so I realized, yeah, I want to have a lot of things paid off by then. That'll be a nice de stressor for me. So I'm going to put that into my three to five year future. Ditto for my body pandemic pounds. My friends, yes, I have them. Three to five years, that feels like a good, easy time to gradually get back to where I want to be.

To who I want to be.

So that's going in there too. Last thing I'm putting in. And I'm sharing these with you because I want to stimulate you. Maybe you're going to say, yeah, me too, I want that one too. The last thing is kind of a weird one, but I want a beautiful, engrossing, totally soul fulfilling hobby. Something that just I can pour myself into. I can just lose my time in, of course, my flow dreaming. But because that's become more of a practice and just part of me, I'm looking for something creative and expressive and maybe it's writing. Maybe I'll just end up writing and writing and writing and have three or four or eight books out by then. Maybe it'll be something else. Maybe I'll take up batik or sewing, I don't know. But I feel myself doing it and it feels infinitely pleasurable. And there's more around my family and wishes and feelings I have for them and my kids in college and so forth. But all of this is going into the big picture. Who I am, who I'll be. So as we wrap up this episode.

Today, I'd like you to feel this.

Person, this being that you are not going to do a long, long flow dream. Because yes, I have recorded a flow dream, the big picture. And it is or will be soon available to you either as part of a playlist or by itself. I haven't quite decided yet, but it will be there if you go to my website and search the big picture or just look for those new playlists. But this is a feeling that I.

Want you to taste right now.

Sort of like that exercise where I asked you to find that point where it all feels easy and it's all come together and it's absolute and there's no doubt in your back. You're fully back and you're back better than ever. Well, this becomes a flow dream. This becomes the basis. And if you don't know what a flow dream is, go to my website. I have a free kit download. It explains everything to you. But in short, it's A technique similar to meditation, similar to guided visualization, but it relies on deep, strong, powerful emotion and a sense of flow, perfection, rightness, forward movement and understanding that every moment in time, what we are is what our flow and our future is reading from us. So change what we are right now, and your future changes in response.

So close your eyes with me and relax and release your body. Drop your shoulders, let go, and you feel this point. Allow yourself to go there in your mind, in your heart. Look ahead, far ahead, as if you're standing in a beautiful desert landscape. And there's cactus and sands and washes and beautiful bright flowers. And the sky is low with the evening. The stars, it's orange and purple, deep, velvety purple. High up, filled with stars. It feels good here. It feels soft and glowing and it feels rich. It doesn't feel empty at all. The desert is waking up as the sun dips. And the energies are starting to flow from everything. From every plant, from every insect, from every bit of sand. The energy oozes up, floats up and flows up. A light that flows around you, that flows through you as you glide effortlessly forward in this place. It is so beautiful. And it takes you right there to that point where everything is back. You are back. You are back. You are back in all ways. You are richer than ever before, healthier than ever before, more loved and more connected than ever before.

And you found your way back.

And it wasn't that difficult. It happened rightly and well and easily.

And this place that you're in is beautiful and unique and different.

It's not the same place, but it's still gorgeous. You feel that, and it feels good. And you accept it. And you know it to be true. And hold that feeling. Hold it even now. This is you as you come back, turning from flow, opening your eyes.

There.

That beautiful touch, that moment. That's what we're looking for.

Even if you didn't see all the.

Images.

There was a moment you could.

Have touched, felt it, felt that person, felt yourself.

Experience the joy, the sense of relief.

The everything is okay here. That person, that you, that's your North Star.

Remember it. Play this again and again if you need to, to get there, but just remember it.

All right, my friends, this is going to wrap up today's episode.

And thank you for welcoming me back, for asking me to come back for your emails and your notes and your messages that you've sent to me saying, where's your podcast? I really appreciate that. And again, look for that flow dream, the big picture or the playlist that.

I've put it in.

Because this is what I want for you. I want this feeling for you and.

For all of us.

All of us around the whole world. My loved goes to you all and I will see you again soon for yet another episode of Flow Dreaming.

That's a wrap for today, but if you want to keep things going, then download my free Flow Dreaming apps. That's right, there's two of them. The first app allows you to listen to this podcast anywhere you want on your mobile device, as well as search and favorite episodes. The other app hooks you up with my Manifesting Store, which includes an oracle to help you see what direction you most are in need of right now and advice. You can also sample all kinds of Flow Dreams and put together a library of your own. So to find these apps, just search Flow Dreaming in itunes or on your Google App Store.