We used engineering to design the garden, social science to conduct community surveys about mental health, and chemistry to make amazing smelling soaps to sell.
We also used something called Dragon Dreaming, a process created by John Croft and Vivienne Elanta. Dragon Dreaming has four main parts: Dreaming, Planning, Doing, and Celebrating. To begin, we think about our dragons. We can think of dragons as any of our doubts, insecurities, or challenges we individually or collectively face. It's important to know our dragons. We can either run from them or we can embrace them and use them to help us dream and achieve! Do you have any dragons that make you afraid of achieving your goals?
Every step of this process is super important.
Dreaming helps us creatively define our goals. One of the most important parts of this stage is sharing our dreams, as well as our "Aha!" moments, so that we don't get stuck dreaming. Sharing can help ignite the dreams of others, too.
Planning, especially with others, helps us collectively identify what is necessary to achieve our goals. It is important not to get caught up in "analysis paralysis". Instead, this is the time to throw out everything that comes to mind and later narrow down to what is necessary. It's also important to recognize how crucial it is to receive feedback from people from all walks of life. Sometimes in American culture, we are taught to be very independent. Sure, we can do great things on our own, but doing great things within the community can help our actions have a lasting, positive impact. Sharing can lead to innovation, and making a healthy, sharing community helps to build a healthier world!
Doing involves, well, doing, but in a way that is fulfilling.
