Reclaiming the Power to Dream

Why liberation begins when we allow ourselves to want more

Good morning.

Before we begin, I invite you to pause—truly pause.

Place your hand over your heart—not as a performative gesture, but as a sacred reconnection.
Let your breath soften and stretch beyond the shallow inhale of survival.
Let your body remember it was made for more than urgency.

Now, ask yourself—gently, honestly, without judgment:

What do I truly desire?

Not what the world has taught you is acceptable.
Not what capitalism has reduced to measurable goals.
Not the dreams you’ve edited for the comfort of others.

But the longing that lives deep within you—
The one your liberated self has whispered when the noise quiets.
The one that survived the conditioning.
The one that aches not because it’s broken—but because it’s ready to bloom.

This question is not small.
It is an invocation.
It is the beginning of a return to self—a homecoming.

Because to reclaim your desire in a world that asks you to numb, to hustle, to settle—
That is a radical act of liberation.

---

The Politics of Dreaming

Let’s name it clearly and unapologetically: Dreaming is a political act.

Supremacy culture doesn’t just limit our external freedoms—it infiltrates the most sacred parts of us. It colonizes the imagination. It tells us:

• Desire is dangerous.

• Rest is laziness.

• Joy is frivolous.

• Abundance is unrealistic.

We’re taught to be “reasonable,” to “stay grounded,” to “know our place.”
To dream only within the boundaries that oppressive systems deem acceptable.

But we were never meant to live inside cages we did not choose.

Dreaming is not indulgent.
Dreaming is not escapism.
Dreaming is how we survive—and how we build what comes next.

---

When Desire is Dismissed

I know this truth intimately.

I grew up in a space and time where dreaming beyond survival wasn’t just discouraged—it was dangerous.
Where abject poverty drew the borders of our imagination, and anything beyond that was seen as fantasy or foolishness.

We weren’t meant to see past the block.
We weren’t meant to dream beyond our “lot in life.”
We were told—both directly and through culture—that this was it.

“Don’t get your hopes up.”
“Life’s not fair, get over it.”
“Just be grateful for what you’ve got.”
“People like us don’t do things like that.”

These are thought-terminating clichés—weapons of supremacy culture disguised as wisdom.
They aren’t meant to inspire reflection.
They’re designed to shut you down.

What’s wild is the contradiction.
The same systems that tell us to “stay in our lane” also bombard us with bootstrapping propaganda:
“If you just work hard enough…”
“No excuses.”
“You have the same 24 hours as Beyoncé.”

Supremacy culture sets us up for cognitive dissonance—on purpose.

When I used to write on Medium, I had a whole series on dissonance, because it showed up everywhere.
And when you understand what dissonance actually means—a lack of harmony—and realize we are vibrational beings, constantly attuning to one another and to the rhythms of life… it hits different.

Disruption, confusion, and disconnection aren’t just psychological tactics—they're energetic ones.
They keep us from harmonizing with our own desires.
They keep us from syncing with community.
They keep us out of rhythm with our joy.

Supremacy doesn’t just oppress the body—it distorts the song of the soul.

And yet…
Desire persists.

Even in the harshest conditions, a quiet whisper remains:
There is more.
You are more.
This life could be different.

Allow me to be that whisper for you today.

Your desire holds divine intelligence.
It’s not greedy.
It’s not selfish.
It is a sacred, ancestral, intuitive call home.

It reminds you that you are meant for more than burnout.
More than obligation.
More than systems that do not recognize your full humanity.

And it’s through that desire—unapologetic, unedited, unashamed—that we begin to write new music, dream new dreams, and re-enter the rhythm of liberation.

---

Liberation Begins with Desire

Liberation doesn’t only happen in protest or resistance—it blossoms in the quiet reclamations. In the moments we dare to want again.

Because desire? That’s one of the first things supremacy culture steals.
It teaches us that longing is dangerous. That dreaming is naïve. That satisfaction must be earned—and even then, only in rationed doses.

But here's the truth I want you to carry close:

Liberation is not just about rejecting what harms us.
It’s about reclaiming what heals us.
What connects us. What restores our rhythm with the sacred.

Reclaiming the right to dream boldly.
Reclaiming the right to want deeply.
Reclaiming the space to imagine ourselves and our communities as whole, worthy, and wildly abundant.

Because when we give ourselves permission to dream beyond the boundaries of oppression, we don’t just change our lives—we begin to rearchitect the entire system.

That imagining? That is the revolution.

---

Wanting More Is a Holy Act

Let’s be clear:

Wanting more does not make you selfish.
It makes you awake. aware. alive.
It means your soul is still attuned to the frequency of joy.
Still open to the possibility of softness, of enoughness, of thriving without justification.

Desire is not in opposition to gratitude—it is born from it.
Desire is not a threat to humility—it is a declaration of aliveness.

You cannot build a liberated life while denying your longings.
You cannot dismantle oppression while internalizing its limitations.

Your dreams are not just valid—they are vital.

---

Dreaming Dismantles Supremacy Culture

Every time you reclaim your right to desire, you loosen the grip of the systems that have tried to shrink you.

You confront the paternalism that says you don’t know what’s best for yourself.
You unlearn power hoarding, by reclaiming your own agency and autonomy.
You disrupt perfectionism, by choosing to dream before you have all the answers, all the approval, all the evidence.

This is not theory—it is transformation.

Every sacred longing you honor becomes a seed of possibility.
A tender, powerful disruption.
A prayer made tangible.

And I want you to have the tools to nourish that emergence.

✨ Download the pay what you can E-book: Dismantling Supremacy Culture: Understanding and Overcoming Its 15 Pillars at: www.desireebstephens.bio

---

Reflections to Reclaim Your Right to Dream

Take a few moments this week—uninterrupted, sacred—to journal, reflect, or speak aloud:

• What do I desire that I’ve been too afraid to name?

• Where have I been shrinking my dreams to protect or please others?

• What would it feel like to honor my longing as sacred—not shameful?

Let these reflections meet you gently—not as pressure, but as possibility.

---

A Prayer for the Ones Emerging

May this be the season you return to your desire without guilt.
May you reclaim your dreams, not as distant fantasies—but as blueprints for liberation.
May your wants be holy.
May your longings lead you home.
And may your dreaming be the fire that ignites everything you’re becoming.

You deserve more than survival.
You deserve to hope, to imagine, to be held in dreams that honor your becoming.

Let us begin again.

---

Nature’s Reminder: Emergence Is Sacred

In this season of spring, the earth herself becomes a mirror to our liberation.

Buds break through frozen ground.
Petals unfurl without apology.
Roots stretch deeper even as branches reach higher.

There is no rush. No shame. No hesitation in becoming.

The soil does not shame the seed for needing time.
The flower does not apologize for blooming again.

Nature shows us that emergence is not a flaw—it’s a rhythm.
The sacred rhythm of becoming.

Right now, everything around us is daring to grow. Daring to reach. Daring to bloom again after a season of quiet. And just like the earth, you too are allowed to come alive in new ways.

Your dreams are your seeds.
Your longing is your sunlight.
Your becoming is rooted in something older, deeper, and wilder than the systems that try to contain you.

So what if you let yourself be like the seed—
Small, buried, and yet already holding the entire blueprint of the forest inside?

What if this is your season to sprout?

An Invitation to Go Deeper

If something in you stirred—if you felt the resonance in your body, your breath, your being—I invite you to join us as we deepen this work:

Become a paid subscriber to receive exclusive liberation lessons, guided practices, and sacred community.
Explore free and paid resources at www.desireebstephens.bio
If finances are a barrier, please reach out. Scholarships are always available — email: Scholarships@DesireeBStephens.com

A Song for The Journey: “I Am Light” by India.Arie

Gentle. Grounded. Unapologetically expansive. This song is a return to self—an anthem for the soul’s quiet insistence that we are more than what we’ve survived. Let it hold you as you reflect, journal, or simply breathe. Let it remind you that your light, your dreaming, your becoming...is sacred.

Coming Up for Paid Subscribers:

April 2 – Expanding Beyond Survival Thinking

Unlearning the mindset that tells us enough is too much.

Survival teaches us to shrink—to make do with less, to fear desiring more, to equate “enough” with extravagance.

But what if enoughness isn’t excess—it’s your baseline?

In this next deep dive, we’ll explore:

• How supremacy culture wires us for lack and scarcity

• The internalized guilt that arises when we begin to want differently

• Practices to gently shift from survival-based thinking to liberated expansion

• Affirmations, somatic reflections, and community ritual for reclaiming enough as your birthright

This is more than mindset work—it’s nervous system healing. It’s decolonized desire. It’s permission to take up the space your dreams require.

Let’s keep dreaming forward—together.

This is not just a movement.
This is a reclamation. A rhythm. A becoming.

In solidarity and liberation,
Desireé B. Stephens, CPS-P
Educator | Counselor | Community Builder
Founder, Make Shi(f)t Happen