✉️Newsletter: 5 Tips From Mirka: Allow Yourself to Start Dreaming About Your Montessori Dream

Dear Montessori colleagues and friends around the world, hello!

No matter the cold weather, helping you Make Your Montessori Dream Projects Come True continues to be The Theme of my work these days. And the honest truth is that it is also the theme of my nights because I am so excited I can hardly sleep. And when I sleep, I dream about your projects :). 

On Monday, the mentoring group of Montessori “dreamers and doers” met for the first time. We are women from the US, Mexico, Argentina, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Indonesia, Austria and Cyprus. We met at 4 o’clock in the afternoon of Central European Time, which for the US participants was 6:30 am, and which was midnight for our dear colleagues in the Philippines and Indonesia! Amazing, right? 

I will not share anything specific about the projects we are working on just yet, but do look forward to hearing about them because every single one of those projects is rather exciting! Schools are going to be opened, Montessori training centers, programs for parents and more… 

As a mentor to this amazing group of women, who want to bring Montessori to their communities, I intend to help each of these projects with networking and gaining social media following. So, once we are ready, I will share with you about each project and how you can support it. 

And because I continue to think about all of you who also have Montessori dreams and you have not yet set out on the journey of making your dreams happen, here is some encouragement in the meantime, before I find a way to help you too. 

5 Tips From Me: Allow Yourself to Start Dreaming About Your Montessori Dream

Is there a little idea in your head hoping to get your attention and start growing?
Perhaps you feel you may have a little hunch or you feel a little tension, but you are not ready to step out of your comfort zone?

Here are some useful, simple and safe strategies to help you allow yourself to dream a little.

1. Stop In Silence And Listen To Yourself
   Dreaming about a project doesn’t mean you suddenly have to start something really big, take out a loan, or hire employees… Doing that out of nothing would be really hard, if not impossible. But, if you do have a tiny idea in your mind if you feel a little pull toward something…starting to dream about it only requires you to:
   Stop. Be silent. And listen. Just that.
   Let your thoughts flow in and out, while your eyes are closed and while you breathe, let your mind wander and your heart speak. This is the first step.
2. Build Your Confidence
   To allow yourself to dream (and later realize that you actually can achieve your dream), you have to believe that you can. If you are not sure you deserve to dream about a project and that you deserve to achieve it, why would you even try? That’s why you may need to examine your self-confidence and work on it a little.
   How can you go about that?
   Try to remember a time when you succeeded in doing something you wanted to do. Surely you can think of several stories like that. It can be something really simple like you baked a great cake though you never have done it before. Make a list of your successes, however small, and look for patterns in them. What is it about you that helped you succeed? What is it you are good at? Are you good at something???? You are, of course you are!!! Acknowledge it. Stand in front of a mirror and say to yourself: “I am good at baking cakes though I have never done it.”
   Use this as your source of inspiration and motivation. You can dream and you can achieve!!!!
3. Imagine
   Now, you can let yourself imagine your dream project.
   Maybe you imagine yourself starting a mommy and me group, or a Montessori bookshop, or a consulting service to schools, or you want to become a Montessori guide.
   Visualize your dream. Take the time and do it. Dream. Picture it. Pay attention to how you feel. Where are you in your dream? Who is with you? What are you doing?
   Use this little practice to start understanding what it is that you may want to do and how you feel while doing it.
4. Acknowledge Your Fears
   You will feel good and excited. But you may also feel fear.
   You may think: What if I start working toward my dream and I fail? What then?
   If this is what you are thinking, it may be helpful to try to shift your mindset or perspective.
   Here is a thought for you to think about:
   Growth and learning are more important than your success or other people’s opinions.
   The journey toward your dream is important, not the end goal.
   And the people you will meet on the road and the good you will bring to the world.
5. Enjoy the Dreaming
   Dreams help us imagine the life and the future that we want.
   Right now you are “here”, in your current place and time.
   And, you want to be “there”, you want to live your dream.
   Feeling the tension between “here” and “there” is good.
   It works like a rubber band.
   You only need to allow yourself to dream and things will start happening. Do it and see :).
   I hope this helps a little :). I am with you, my dreaming friends.