“Being blocked and being lazy are two different things. The blocked artist typically expends a great deal of energy—just not visibly. The blocked artist spends energy on self-hatred, on regret, on grief, and on jealousy. The blocked artist spends energy on self-doubt.” -Julia Cameron
➡️ For 2026, I am rereading a chapter from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron and providing a free download of themed art cards on a monthly basis (on the third Tuesdays).
“Finding it hard to begin a project does not mean you will not be able to do it. It means you will need help—from your higher power, from supportive friends, and from yourself.” -Julia Cameron
📙 Chapter 9, “Recovering a Sense of Compassion” invites us to face the internal blocks to creativity. Re-parenting ourselves by learning tools to dismantle emotional blocks and support ourselves.
“Recovering from artist’s block, like recovering from any major illness or injury, requires a commitment to health.” -Julia Cameron
✅ The September guide words [growth & redemption] have already resonated deeply, serving as a gentle reminder of how doubt is part of knowing.
“Remember that art is process. The process is supposed to be fun. For our purposes, ‘the journey is always the only arrival’ may be interpreted to mean that our creative work is actually our creativity itself at play in the field of time. At the heart of this play is the mystery of joy.” -Julia Cameron
🩵 Braveheart, it is vital that we remember that “our creativity itself [is] at play in the field of time”—our tangible and intangible expression within the ⏳⏰ minutes, hours and days—and that is where we find our joy. 🎇
“Once we admit the need for help, the help arrives. The ego always wants to claim self-sufficiency. It would rather post as a creative loner than ask for help.” -Julia Cameron
💁🏻♀️ Habit stacking and zine-making is the focus for September. The content download is about [habit stacking] + I am sharing about the zines I am making, like this lunar 🌙 zine. 😊
“Most blocked creatives have an active addiction to anxiety [that prevents] the drudgery of small and simple steps in the right direction.” -Julia Cameron
🩵 Braveheart, this anxiety is reduced when we join with other 💕 creatives—and realize that what we are dealing with is common—part of the 🔁 process of living and can be overcome 🙌 with support and practice (habits + trying over and over).
Braveheart, we can co-exist with our anxieties within a creative practice. Our emotions are 🏷️ messengers, so keeping 📝 notes serves us. 💖
“I was surprised to feel so relaxed and seen…” | open and authentic | “I have learned to simply resume (without shame)…” | stronger together | motivation to create | warm & welcoming
Creativity 🦄🗃️✂️🖌️📐🎨🖌️ is one of the ways we can co-exist [and] move through [and] learn 📯📝✨📖 during times of 😜😝🤣🤪😭😩 angst, anxiety and uncertainty. 📝📥This is why having some form of creative 💢 scaffolding in place is beneficial. 🗓️📊📈🦋✨
What does all this have to do with right brain planning?
The principal goal of Right Brain Planner is to foster a daily-ish practice of [being present] + [seeing and evaluating] the details of our living by compiling a visual chronicle as a safe place to check in with ourselves. 💖
- Examples of how to pause + check in with ourselves: copy a quotation from something you are reading; snap a photo of the ☁️💙☁️ sky while noticing its details; pull an oracle 🃏 card and reflect on its meaning within your life; jot notes about your day, your 🪄 wishes and/or your 🚨 vents; a quick 📝 chronicle of the moon phases and weather on a monthly 📆 calendar; a one-line journal … there are lots of possibilities, Braveheart. 😊
The focus in developing a right brain planning practice is to see our living as ongoing—a timeline [days within years; years within a lifetime].
- To resist the urge to allow a “bad day” or a “bad week” to become a filter—a lens—that limits our ability to hope and live differently.
- Easing away from a performance-based valuation of self-worth; cycling like the moon and exploring so-called irregularity (stops and starts) as a cycle of wholeness.
Right brain planning is an opportunity to allow our journals to be our “planners”—elevating expression and desires over expectations and shoulds. Space to tell our stories.
Right brain planning is a way to prioritize our well-being, and to devote time and attention to what we need. And remembering that creativity is the about getting something down as a way of referencing [it] by devoting our attention, listening and chronicling.
- Use the art in the download below + playing 🃏 cards or cardstock to create ✂️ cards to use as prompts + reminders for your creative practice:
Thank you kindly for your presence here, Braveheart. 💗
I appreciate your interest and support.
~love & good wishes~
⭐️ I am an artist and curator; I am one who communicates with color, found words and collage, inky marks and doodles as I cycle like the moon (as my calendar), chronicling oracles and abiding with the sky as a meditation.
Artist’s Statement 😊🔮🔎📝🖌️🎨❤️📊
⭐️ I host creative communities, safe spaces for gathering and sharing. I choose love and creativity for coping with the ongoing challenges of this world and I go to work—not because everything is fine but because I believe art heals.
❤️ 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. (Thank you!) 💗 But also because of the support of my Ko-fi patrons and the other member/subscriber communities I host (via their presence, input and paid subscriptions). 🫶
- 💁🏻♀️ Other ways to support my work: ❤️ continue to read this blog + follow me on Instagram. 📲
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!) ❤️