“Holding every rule as breakable is a healthy way to live as an artist. It loosens constraints that promote a predictable sameness in our working methods. … As you move away from familiar rules, you may bump up against more hidden rules that have been guiding you all along, without your knowledge.” -Rick Rubin
🔔 Freedom is my 2026 guide word, and it has fostered seeing my creative work from new perspectives and discover hidden rules I have imposed on myself.
Because of multiple surgeries and two major medical diagnoses, I decided early on this year to soften (to free myself) with regard to writing projects and deadlines: Imagining a kaleidoscope of what freedom could be.
Creativity + routines have been a saving grace; habit-stacking and keeping my right brain planning practice simple and doable.
“True spaciousness of the soul is having the will and courage to experience things as they are.” -Christine Valters Paintner
As a slow way of resuming, I have been making weekly ✂️ zines to chronicle the past two weeks of my living.
Adding the weekly markers from the September download, collage, daily jots, painty expression and quotations.
- And, I decided to make a lunar zine companion on the new 🌑 moon.
- Ko-fi patrons, I shared a download link here. 😊
The September guide words [growth & redemption] have already resonated deeply, serving as a gentle reminder of how doubt is part of knowing.
These first two weeks of September have been brimming with questions for the purpose of knowing myself more fully. As I settle back into a more regular schedule, I continue to name my 🎢 doubts and challenges as entries.
But I am also seeing my [growth] and the many different ways we have experienced [redemption] … processing all of this as an act of faith and hope. 📿
❤️❤️❤️ I saw this lovely, though-provoking post and I hope you would her prompts:
- Is creativity something you lose?
- Does it just get quiet when life gets loud?
Braveheart, when does your creativity get quiet? What “hidden” rules have prevented your creativity? How often to you make space for expression? And … if you have “lost” your creative time, what is ONE simple way you could express yourself today?
✅ Right brain chronicles (jotted notes, 🌈 color vents, ✂️📐 collage and 🖊️ doodles of our 💭 ponderings and 🗓️ dated mental wanderings) are the data + a map of our living, serving as a tangible record of:
- questions and 🪄 wishes
- keywords and phrases 📝
- daydreams and nighttime dreams 💤💭💤
- what we feel and think 🙃😐😣😜
- what we want to experience ❤️
- what we need to foster our well-being ♻️
- what we want to discover and learn about 🧠🤓
- sky meditations + phases 🌙 (everything cycles)
✅ Right brain chronicles can become a sacred 📿 space for 🌀 processing what we need and desire—space where we 🔎 observe and process the data of Life; and to ♻️ empower us to make 📊 choices (and prioritize) what matters most to us. ❤️
“All of these experiments are like free throws. You have nothing to lose.” -Rick Rubin
In 111 days we will be celebrating 🎆🥳🎇 Day One of a brand new calendar year: full of Day Ones, discoveries and opportunities, lunar 🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑 cycles and 🍂🌨️🌷☀️ seasons!
- Braveheart, I like to practice teeny, tiny creative ✂️ bursts (like making zines) and 🔢 counting days (and celebrating 🎇 new Day Ones—because any 📆 day can be a ✅ Day One). 😊
- I also like to envision what I want to experience in the future via letters to myself. 💌
✅ It is helpful to set aside a specific ⏰ amount of time when we are in a season of challenge and in-between or while waiting for a specific life 🔁 change or ❤️🩹 recovery.
This is a way to 🫶 hold space + envision during the waiting ⏳⌛ time. I will be adding my “dear me…” templates to my September journal booklet:
Thank you kindly for your presence here.
I appreciate your interest and support.
~love & good wishes~
Artist’s Statement 😊🔮🔎📝🖌️🎨❤️📊
❤️ Braveheart, as the Creator/Artist of Right Brain Planner I am ever-grateful to have the opportunity to share my creative work online + support other creators! 🎉 For almost 20 years I have had the privilege of sharing my art and writing about right brain planning while also hosting kindred 👭🏽💞👭 communities. ✨ I consider it an absolute delight to continue this portion of my creative work (even as I retire from full-time work).
This is possible, in part, by {you} and your presence here. ❤️ But also because of the support of my Ko-fi patrons and the other member/subscriber communities I host.
If you already have your own system of creative journal-planning, but are interested in financially supporting my creative work, you may do so by making a donation:
- Make a one-time contribution in any amount via [this link]. (Thank you!) ❤️