“When we resist what [creativity] might show us or where it might take us, we often experience a shaky, out-of-control feeling.” -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).
“What I know, but have to keep reminding myself, is to float, not flail. Flailing is seductive. Flailing gives you something to do. It creates the sensation of agency, even when you have none. Floating requires something far more difficult from me: to breathe, to stop fighting the water, to trust that it might hold me. Right now, I am here.” -Suleika Jaouad
📙 Chapter 10, “Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection” invites us to search out the toxic patterns we cling to that block our creative flow. Re-parenting ourselves by “knowing yourself as an artist…acknowledging which of these [issues] you abuse when you want to block yourself” (Julia Cameron).
“We begin to sense our real potential and the wide range of possibilities open to us. That scares us.” -Julia Cameron
✅ The October guide words [survive & thrive] have led to insight regarding the wide range of possibilities open to me going forward, the vitality of “floating” and the details of avoiding self-imposed blocks to my creativity.
“Blocking is essentially an issue of faith. Rather than trust our intuition, our talent, our skill, our desire, we fear where our creator is taking us with this creativity.” -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. 🎇
“In striving to clear the way for our creative flow, we must look at our work habits very clearly.” -Julia Cameron
“If you really have no ⏲️ time, you need to make some room.” -Julia Cameron
💁🏻♀️ October begins a new quarter of possibilities + creative benevolence.
The Ko-fi downloads for October include “Prompts for Review and Pondering” with the invitation to devote some time to considering what you wanna be, what you wanna experience.
🫂member comments and testimonials:
“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 (and/or lunarly) practice of [being present] + [self-compassionately seeing and reviewing] 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. A safe 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.
downloads
- To keep a time ⌛⏳⌛ log that will enable you to determine how you are filling in your days, keep a daily list journal or use this template.
- Use the art in the download below + playing 🃏 cards (or print on 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!) ❤️