Today I want to share with you one of the resources that started it all: Andrea Scher, and more specifically her Mondo Beyondo class, a six week self-paced ecourse “full of powerful stories, exercises, secret missions and audio interviews — all designed to help you clarify your deepest dreams and begin to make them real.”

How the course works: You get an email each weekday that links you to that day’s lesson, with weekends “off” to catch up, contemplate, further connect with your classmates. The platform Andrea currently uses for the course, Ruzuku, allows course members to post responses directly to that day’s offering, and to communicate with each other through comments. And yet, you don’t have to. You can take the course, gain all the good without ever adding to the larger group discussion. It’s totally up to you how you want to participate. The Ruzuku platform also has the added bonus of making the course available to you even after it’s over, and Andrea also provides other ways for members of a session to keep in touch. I have made many friends that continue to be encouraging and supportive of my dreaming process, as I am to them, and I often return to the lessons for a refresher on the practice.

This course fundamentally shifted the way I approach my life, the way I see myself. When I first found Andrea’s blog, I was searching, knew that I had abandoned myself and my dreams but didn’t know how to find my way back. I was instantly drawn to her and what she had to offer, and signed up for my first session of Mondo Beyondo the same month I started this blog. I have since taken Mondo Beyondo Dream Lab, Superhero Photo, Cultivating Courage, and been a teaching assistant for Mondo Beyondo twice. I was also lucky enough this fall to take an in-person weekend workshop with Andrea. She has become a dear and valued friend.

For me, Andrea Scher has been the sun at the center of a universe of amazement and goodness, the shiny middle that all the other bright and precious things orbit around. She invited me to expand my idea of what was possible. She encourages me, is kind and honest. She is constantly admitting the things that are hard and messy, while still pointing out what’s beautiful and precious.

Having been in Mondo Beyondo a few times now, what I’ve noticed is that people come to the course from all over the place, in their lives and the world. Some people don’t know what their dreams even are, some had dreams but they don’t seem to fit anymore, some are afraid to even let themselves dream, some don’t feel worthy of their dreams, some are afraid to try and maybe fail, some think it’s too late for their dreams, some know their dreams but don’t see how they’d be possible in the context of an already full life, some know their dreams but don’t know where to even begin to make them come true.

This course has room for all of these perspectives. And Andrea says it best in the course description that while this course encourages you to dream bigger, in the end it’s not about dreams coming true.

It’s about who we are becoming in the pursuit of our dreams. Are we becoming the most alive version of ourselves? The bravest, most authentic expressions of who we are? That’s how our dreams serve us. They tell us who we are and who we are becoming. They pull us toward a version of ourselves that inspires.

I confess, the first Mondo Beyondo list of dreams I made seemed utterly insane. It had things on it like “meet Brene’ Brown,” “have an audience of 1000 for my blog,” “become a yoga teacher,” and “meet and be friends with Andrea Scher.” That sounds crazy, right? And yet, most of those things have already happened, and the one that hasn’t will be starting this coming weekend when I begin yoga teacher training.

What I learned through this course is having the dream is ultimately the only thing you need to start making it come true. Getting clear about what you want most, about what you value, is what clarifies the steps you need to take to get “there.” With what I learned in this course, I am able to form new dreams, get clear about what I want, stick with them and be flexible as they evolve, and either embody that dream or move on to a new one. I can manifest things for myself that I wasn’t able to even imagine before. I have the courage to try.

I have taken so many ecourses in the past two years. I often joke that it’s like I earned another graduate degree, a curriculum of my own design. Out of all those courses, Mondo Beyondo made the biggest difference, had the most impact.

And lucky, lucky you, kind and gentle reader: the next session of Mondo Beyondo starts on Monday, January 6th, and Andrea is offering a special deal, bring a friend for free! I know lots of people who took the course with a significant other, friend or sibling, and it seemed to be a good experience for them.

I adore Andrea, and am so grateful for her work, her truth and her light, which have been of such great benefit to me as I stumble along. Even if taking a course with her doesn’t work for you right now, I encourage you to check out her website, read her blog, follow her on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, or read her Self-Compassion Saturday post. She is the embodiment of “something good.”