Kiki’s Big Dream Experiment - Week 3 - Vivid Dreams
Week 3 of Kiki’s Big Dream Experiment
Hey Dreamer,
Today marks the end of Week 3 of Kiki’s Big Dream Experiment - the end of my third step on this journey.
For those of you who have been following my content, you will know what I mean when I say that this gives me a third toy to play with in my Rule of 3 framework.
For those of you for whom this idea is new - fear not - I will explain this concept in my reflection below.
An astute observation I have made so far with my themes is how they mirror this triad of past-present-future: Letting Go is managing emotions tied to stories of the past, Seeking Knowledge is an act of trying to make sense of the present, and Vivid Dreams are what make up visions of the future.
So, where does this leave me with the upcoming Week 4? I guess I’ll find out!
My content this week has felt far more conjoined than I felt about last week’s. That is perhaps because the theme itself is broad, and magnificent. Each piece represents a different idea of Vivid Dreams, and that is the connection between them. I felt like last week’s posts were all over the place - the feeling of constantly chasing answers you can’t quite catch. Perhaps that is the difference.
Chasing answers leaves you wondering if you’re going in the right direction. Letting your intuition and dreams lead the way means you can enjoy the moment you are in. It is the difference between seeing 7 doors and trying to decide which to walk through, versus walking through one only to realise that the journey leads you through all 7 anyway, just at different times.
Before I dive too deep into philosophy, let’s take a look at this week’s content.
Mon · 20th Oct:
Podcast Episode on Spotify - Episode 3 - Vivid Dreams - In this episode, I explore one topic across three lenses - journaling - in a slight departure from normality. That is because the topic of journaling is important to me, and I wanted to share how it’s not just writing in a notebook
Tue · 21st Oct:
Newsletter on LinkedIn - Vivid Dreams and Paralyzing Fears · October 21st, 2025 - A reflection on the absurdity of how businesses constantly aim to make money, yet only thrive when focused on the people they so often ignore
Stream on Twitch - KBDE 💥 Borderlands 4 - Part 3 - Week 3’s Borderlands 4 stream
Video on YouTube - KBDE 💥 Borderlands 4 - Part 3 - A recording of my Twitch livestream of Borderlands 4
Wed · 22nd Oct:
Board on Pinterest - KBDE - Week 3 - Vivid Dreams - A collection of pins linked to my content for Week 3
Thu · 23th Oct:
Post on Substack - How to Dream Big - My perspective on what dreaming big means and how you do it, and why it involves making your visions as vivid as possible
Live on TikTok - KBDE #3 - Vivid Dreams- A personal and interactive discussion of the topic of Vivid Dreams
Video on YouTube - Kiki's Big Dream Experiment - TikTok Live - Episode 3 - Vivid Dreams - A recording of my TikTok Live on the theme of Vivid Dreams
Fri · 24th Oct:
Post on Instagram - The Wild Unknown - A poem I wrote which speaks to a lot of ideas - a very raw expression of vivid dreams I experience
Live on TikTok - KBDE Tarot #1 - Letting Go - A TikTok Live dedicated to providing tarot readings for viewers, related to the theme of Letting Go
Sun · 26th Oct:
Blog on my Website - Kiki’s Big Dream Experiment - Week 3 - Vivid Dreams - My wrap-up post for the week
Inspiration struck me this week as I decided to scrap Discord for the moment, and utilise a former expression of creativity that I quite enjoyed - doing tarot readings on TikTok Live. While I already have a TikTok Live entry where I discuss my theme of the week, the focus for this second series is to relate my reading process to a singular theme to show that tarot is a versatile tool - and that the meaning is what you make of it.
Just today, I thought to write a reflection on this too, to show the cards drawn, and how they can relate to the theme. Out of respect for individuals who shared personal questions and stories with me, I am not publishing my tarot recordings - that is why a written reflection is going to be done instead. I will continue my series and new posts until I catch up and weave them naturally into my week.
Reflection on Week 3
Rule of 3
As promised, here is my explanation of the Rule of 3. It is a framework I developed that encompasses several components, but is really quite simple to employ.
I described this on Substack as: there is at least one creative solution that links every idea to a manifested reality.
In more straightforward terms, it means that every problem has a solution rooted in creativity. How this works is first by identifying the internal idea and the external blocker - what thought in your head is the dream state of reality you want to bring about, and what is the barrier that stops that from occurring?
The conflict between internal and external can be circumvented by attempting creative solutions until a pathway is formed that goes around, breaks, or dissolves the external barrier to allow that idea to be brought into reality.
The triad of internal-external-creative forms a conceptual plan - a triangle - an arrow pointing towards the future. That is the framing of the problem.
The next element is in identifying the solution, and this comes with trial-and-error. Some problems have clear solutions which can be found online, through past experience, or by speaking to a professional. But what of new problems where there is no answer? This is where the trial-and-error comes in.
My Rule of 3 also says to pick an idea to try as the solution - and do it three times. Ideally, under different circumstances, so you can experiment with different variables. Once you have 3 pieces of data, you can assess:
What worked?
What didn’t work?
What did you enjoy doing?
What did you not enjoy doing?
What did you learn?
From there, you can create a 4th attempt by combining your learning and the positive experiences of the first 3 attempts - and continue in this fashion - with each attempt framed as an experiment in order to learn from the experience.
There is an ebb and flow to the Rule of 3 - where action creates space for inaction to provide answers.
Let’s look at an example - one that I tried myself!
For my podcast (shameless plug), I had to find a solution for how best to record it. My phone was the obvious answer, but the question was how should I record it on my phone?
I tried:
Using an external microphone
Using Bluetooth headphones
Using the phone’s microphone
Each method gave me different results, and required a different setup. I found that the external microphone was too much setup because of the extra wires. The Bluetooth headphones were patchy at catching my voice correctly when I started a recording. The phone’s microphone was consistent, and meant I could prop it up on a stand and treat it like an industrial microphone, so I could sit comfortably on my chair.
So now, I do exactly that - prop my phone up and press the record button!
Part of the experiment was telling myself that the audio quality issues were not significant enough to warrant having to rerecord entire episodes, just to maintain consistent audio - and that allowed me to run the tests while still producing my weekly episodes.
The Contradictions
In the past few weeks, I have been exploring Taoism, because many pieces of media I came in contact with led me to explore that belief system. It is full of contradictions and paradoxes - but that is what is so fascinating about it! Life is full of contradictions - yet we still manage. Right?
Taoism is a belief system that says there is no rulebook, there is only flow. Everything is in constant flux, and since we know that the only constant in the universe is change, we can use that to our advantage. It is the difference between swimming with the ebb and flow of waves so you don’t tire yourself out, versus trying your hardest to reach the shore yet becoming exhausted. These ideas very much reveal themselves when you start to give in to the vivid dreams.
When you dream, you are creating a reality in your mind that does not yet exist - because you are not inhabiting it. The contradiction is in trying to embody the feelings and emotions of that dream state in your waking hours, so that it becomes really easy to feel that dream within arm’s reach. It starts to feel so real that by the time you achieve the dream, life doesn’t feel any different.
Because you’ve learned to embody the state of already having achieved it!
It’s not about chasing the dream - it’s about acting as if it’s already reality. There is certainly an element of delulu about it, of woo-woo. The magic is that it works only if you believe that it does. That belief takes work because, as well as requiring action, it requires you to manage the fear and doubt that creeps in every day that passes, where the dream feels still far away.
Trusting the process is essential, because paradoxically, you only truly achieve it when you no longer need to achieve it.
Shadow Work
Shadow Work is a term used for self-reflection with the goal of integrating your trauma, fears, and subconscious undesirable negative beliefs into your conscious being. The purpose is to help you recognise that ingrained beliefs come from stories you tell yourself from the experiences you’ve been through. It is not about saying that trauma did not occur - it instead reframes it to focus on the strength you embodied to get through trauma.
I have been doing a lot of self-directed shadow work over the year because I realised that I had been searching for purpose through what others expected of me - what society expected of me. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life being “told” what to do. I started Kiki Dreams Big as a way to uncover what I want and manifest it, and to then help other people find what they want, and to lead them on a journey to realising it.
This week allowed me to connect many dots together, which helped me on this journey. Last week, I was Seeking Knowledge and felt lost - this week, I was thinking of Vivid Dreams and felt on the right path. The contradiction is right there!
Takeaways from Week 3
My takeaways for Week 3 are as follows:
Inspiration comes from everywhere: The piece that stands out to me most this week is my poem, The Wild Unknown. I felt immense pride in having written this piece. It was a spark of an idea that appeared during the week, but only truly formed as I sat down at my laptop and the words seemed to fall out of me. I realised that my interest in tarot, poetry, symbolism, numbers, connections, and metaphors all combined into a rich tapestry that was only possible because I chose to take the small moments of my day and find beauty within them.
The 1% increments build up invisibly: I wrote my poem, The Wild Unknown, in an hour - but it was more than that. I physically wrote it and prepared it for Instagram in an hour, but it would be arrogant of me to claim that it was not because I spent hours, days, weeks practicing my craft of poetry through the daily poetry I wrote. Four months ago, I couldn’t imagine writing something I felt such pride and perfection in, because when I started to write poetry, I felt clumsy. The skill developed passively while I was too consumed by the outputs I was worrying about.
Enlightenment is a journey: Understanding of the true nature of reality comes from understanding the self. Look at us! We are incredibly vain, and so sure we know everything, yet that is our biggest weakness as humans. Letting Go of the idea that we know everything gives us space for Seeking Knowledge, so that the paths to our Vivid Dreams appear out of nowhere. Each destination feels like the end, but that is an illusion, and it’s why achievement feels empty when you actually get there. The journey is the reward!
If something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t: I started Kiki’s Big Dream because I didn’t know what I wanted. I couldn’t explain what it was, but there was this inner knowing that seemed to be seeking an answer I couldn’t articulate or understand. That inner knowing is intuition. Intuition is that part of our subconscious that is building the path towards our dreams and tries to drive us in the right direction with body signals, intrusive thoughts, and powerful emotions. It’s this inner knowing that keeps you moving when you think you’ve found a solution. Follow it.
If something feels right, it is: Conversely, knowing that something is right is about how it feels. Forget the correct words, or perfect grammar, or rules. Those are illusions meant to control you. Do what feels right - because it’s your truth. Incorporating shadow work ensures that the truth you follow is yours, and not somebody else’s - part of that is realising that the you you are today is not the you you will be in 5 years, but it is the best version of you so far. Every day is a step along the path, so trusting that it’s right is knowing that it’s right based on the information you have so far.
Introducing Week 4 of Kiki’s Big Dream Experiment
Dream for Week 4:
My dream for Week 4 is to start confronting the difficult ideas.
With the tools and strength I have developed already, I know I can withstand the hard truths. I know it will be difficult. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it. I am putting my faith in contradictions. Action creates intention, and inaction provides enlightenment. It is yin and yang. It is how I become who I dream of becoming.
Theme for Week 4:
While focusing on the takeaways from Week 3, and my dream for Week 4, I shuffled my tarot deck. Once I felt ready, I stopped and drew…
6 The Lovers
Union, Desire, Joy
Two Canadian geese are mates for life, traveling partners within an expansive sky.
The Lovers card is a welcome sight in any reading, as it suggests a beautiful and strong relationship on the horizon.
Yes, you’ll experience all the thrills of desire and romance, but meanwhile you’ll be building a solid foundation together.
The Lovers honor and respect each other, and with that they can go anywhere.
If you’re already in a relationship, it’s time to be grateful and nourish this rare and precious gem.
I can’t say that I expected to see 6 The Lovers - I’m quite intrigued by this card. The immediate imagery makes me reflect upon my relationship, of course, but upon further pondering the idea, I can see how it extends to a desire to connect with others. As RuPaul always says, “If you can't love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else!” - this is exceptionally true! We must start with loving ourselves.
I want to explore the theme of Desire this week, to see how we all associate it with romance, but it extends to a deeper instinct within us to feel love.
Keep dreaming,
Kiki <3
