I was recently interviewed for an article featuring a local business. I explained that the name of my business, DreamWeaving Way, was inspired by the idea that we have choice—and, with any luck, there’s a bit of magic sprinkled in with that choice.
But I didn’t always feel this way.
My mother was French, and my father was Greek. Neither spoke the other’s language, but they did speak the language of love—after all, they call them the Romance languages, right?—and we grew up in a fiery environment.
It may sound strange, but I never realized I had a choice. Sure, I could choose chocolate or vanilla when we were getting ice cream, but that seemed to be about the extent of it.
And certainly, I didn’t think I had a choice about who I loved. It was all about attraction, and the rest of the story be damned. Not exactly the best formula for healthy relationships!
So it was a real game-changer when, in my 30s, I worked with an amazing therapist named Sheila. I don’t remember the exact words she said, but I do remember this: I walked into her office believing I didn’t have choices, and I walked out knowing that I did.
It was astounding.
I became aware that, moment by moment, I could choose to think a certain thought. I could allow my mind to go in one direction or gently guide it in another.
Within two days, my outlook on life shifted significantly, and soon after, I left the relationship I was in.
Freedom!
Joy!
Many years later, this came to me in meditation and inspired my business name:
Moment by moment
Step by step
You weave the fabric of your life.
You were designed for joy and freedom.
Now, I know there are times when it may not seem like we have a choice.
I’ll never forget a question posed to Marilyn vos Savant in Parade Magazine: Are we really the masters of our fate?
Her answer began with, “More often we feel like the mistresses of it…”
And to cite an extreme example, we know that even under the worst imaginable conditions, there remains the ability to choose. Viktor Frankl discovered this while imprisoned in a concentration camp—that even there, one could choose one’s response.
Choice doesn’t always mean we can change our circumstances immediately. It doesn’t mean life won’t hand us heartbreak, challenge, or surprise.
But it does mean that within you–always!–there is a quiet, powerful thread of freedom.
And when you begin to notice it, even in small ways, something opens.
Moment by moment.
Step by step.
You are weaving.
Here’s a 3-Minute Tiny but Mighty Practice to help you find and choose peace and love:
🌿 Find a seat that feels comfortable and let your body settle. Close your eyes if you can, and take three slow breaths.
🌿 Now gently bring to mind something small that feels mildly stressful or irritating. Not overwhelming, just real. Notice your first automatic reaction, no judgment, just awareness.
🌿 Next, gently bring to mind something that brings you peace, joy, or gratitude while keeping the stressful response on the screen, side by side.
🌿 Look at both of your circumstances and take 3 deep breaths.
🌿 Now begin to focus on the peaceful moment while making the stressful moment smaller and smaller. Open your heart to the feelings associated with that moment. Allow yourself to feel them in your entire body.
🌿 Keep going until the stressful moment is completely gone and all that is left is your peaceful moment.
🌿 Let your nervous system register this peaceful, joyful alternative choice.
🌿 Notice: there is space here.
There is agency here.
🌿Take one more breath and gently open your eyes. Even the smallest shift is a thread.
And you are always weaving.
Why DreamWeaving Way?
DreamWeaving Way takes its name from a beautiful phrase that came to me during meditation: "Moment by moment, thread by thread, you weave the fabric of your life. You were designed for joy and freedom."
DreamWeaving Way was founded to support others in consciously weaving their life with greater awareness, healing, and connection. Always knowing we have choice and autonomy. We can weave and design our lives ourselves. Even when times are tough, and we feel stuck… We can make choices.
DreamWeaving Way was about bringing people's dreams into reality, always remembering that we are inherently designed for joy as part of life’s larger fabric. Everyone deserves peace, joy, harmony, and happiness.
What makes DreamWeaving Way unique is my blend of integrative therapeutic bodywork with nature-based healing practices. My practice thrives at that beautiful intersection of science, intuition, and lovingkindness.
Spirituality and spiritual practices have strong roots in science.
Many people feel strongly one way or the other, and many feel the two do not mix. But science always supports spirituality, and spirituality continues to be confirmed by science. Combining all of these leads to powerful healing and life transformation.
Joy and Freedom as Design: Reclaiming Our Inherent State
“You were designed for joy and freedom.”
For many, this concept may feel foreign and unrealistic. But, at the end of the day, this isn’t some aspiration that we need to work towards every day… It’s simply hardware in our DNA. Beneath all the conditioning, the societal pressures, and the difficult experiences, we are fundamentally wired for these states.
Joy and freedom aren’t some mountain we have to climb; we don’t have to put in the hours every day; we don’t have to earn them. They are completely natural to us, like the unwavering blue sky hidden behind temporary clouds. All of life’s challenges, traumas, and ingrained patterns can obscure this truth, making us forget our fundamental design.
After years of heartbreak and struggle, it makes sense that we have come to believe we are meant for struggle, for constraint, for a perpetual striving that often leaves us exhausted rather than liberated. The world would have us believe that we have to earn our happiness.
But we don’t…
Recognizing our profound ability to choose (even if it's just choosing a different thought, a different interpretation, a different response) becomes the very act of reclaiming this birthright. Every conscious choice, no matter how small, is like untangling a knot that has bound our spirit.
It's not about forcing joy or demanding freedom, but about aligning ourselves with the current that already flows through us. When we actively choose moments of presence, moments of self-compassion, moments where we gently guide our minds away from worry and towards possibility, we are not creating joy and freedom from scratch. We are simply remembering, uncovering, and stepping back into what we always had inside of us.
This realignment is potent, allowing us to weave a life that resonates deeply with our truest, freest, most joyful self. Every human deserves this, and every human has this inside them, simply waiting for them to make a different choice.
Reflection Questions:
Think about a time in your life when you felt you had no choice. Looking back, can you identify any small, internal choices you did make, even if they were just about your response or perspective?
What is one area of your life where you feel stuck in a thought pattern, and what might it look like to gently guide your mind in a different direction?
Considering the idea that you are "designed for joy and freedom," what is one small, active choice you can make today to reclaim a thread of that inherent state in your life?