“As women we call upon our intuition and instincts in order to sniff things out.” -Clarissa Pinkola Estés
“Art can trigger surprising responses that can open the spirit. It all starts with listening to the Spirit and then a journey begins, to invite people onward toward creation of beauty, wholeness, and healing—even our enemies.” -Makoto Fujimura
Stillness, listening to the Spirit and slow-reading: how I would describe this season of my creative practice. This year has been given to accepting what cannot be changed (relationally and physically), recovery and new wellness rituals.
- This has been an emotional process. It feels like emotion stacked on emotion, as the present includes revisiting the past, as well as accepting that I am in the final season of my earthly transformation.
“Death spreads all over our lives and therefore faith must be given to see through the darkness, to see through the beauty of the ‘valley of the shadow of death.'” -Makoto Fujimura
➡️ To see the beauty, yes. ❤️ The most Divine beauty “is in the brokenness, not in what we can conceive as the perfections, not in the ‘finished’ images but in the incomplete gestures” (Makoto Fujimura).
- This is where we must abide with Spirit, listening … trusting in Divine guidance.
“The best of the arts, then, probe through our senses to the ‘memory and desire,’ hovering between life and death, despair and hope.” -Makoto Fujimura
In his book, Art Is, Fujimura asks generative questions; he points out that art makes us “aware of our world, full of wonderment and sorrows.” 💗💔❤️
This awareness invites a cyclical return to art, to our creativity, for processing but also for a dedicated time for listening.
“In our liquid time, art needs to become the aroma of bacon and eggs. It is not the art of the novel, but the art of the familiar that awakens our memory of the core essence of our lives, to the morning of our twelfth birthdays.” -Makoto Fujimura
In Chapter 3 of Women Who Run With The Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estés speaks of the women who are raised in families that are not accepting of their gifts, who set off on tremendously big quests in order to gain approval. Approval that never comes.
“We have to leave the chorus of detractors and plunge into the woods. There is no way to both stay and go.” -Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Art, especially for these women (from families that rejected them), helps to console and heal from the wounds of being overadaptive and denying their capacity.
“The act of making art is both scary and healing. Art brings light to places that have remained dark. Art brings perspective.” -Julia Cameron
“Women who try to make their deeper feelings invisible are deadening themselves. The light goes out. It is a painful form of suspended animation.” -Clarissa Pinkola Estés
What does this have to do with right brain planning?
🎁 Every day is a gift. Simple chronicles of the details (thoughts, events and emotions) of our days is a way to cope + know ourselves + map 🗺️ our ❤️ desires.
📊 Tracking (and reviewing) our 💭 thoughts and routine activities [along with whatever has our ⚠️ attention] reveals our beliefs and values—and helps us to discover meaning and the details of our ♻️ rhythms.
Showing up for ourselves on the 📄 page—along with setting aside ⏰ time and space on a regular basis for both tangible and intangible processing is how we come to identify our desires + get 🔎 clarity.
- Everything is an opportunity. ❤️ Everything we have experienced, lived and loved, questioned and lost is a part of our wholeness.
- Right brain planning is a practice that invites us to devote ⏰ time and 🔎 attention to expression and a dated chronicle of our personal data (highs, lows and in-betweens) to assist us in our ongoingness.
- This includes notes from slow-reading books about creativity, self-discovery and healing.
And, Braveheart, there is enough time and space and energy for our dreams and desires, wishes and want-to’s, and our ❤️🩹 healing (even when we doubt all of that).
Our dreams take time. Without some type of visual chronicle to serve as a “map”—as well as a reminder and directive—the timelines of our desires and experiences become jumbled. What matters most becomes ignored and forgotten.
RECENT UPDATES
gratitude | July guide words + resources | summer art | every beat of the heart 🫀
Right Brain Planner is a collection of lunar + seasonal prompts and journal-planning ideas to encourage self-compassion and review, reflection and expression, discovery and healing.
Braveheart, we learn by doing: we discover details about ourselves through chronicled observation 👀✍️📔 because everything we experience is data. 📊
Data is value-neutral; it is neither “good’ or “bad”—it is merely information to use for our choices, intentions and conclusions. Remembering this helps us to live free from judgment and shoulds.
Thank you kindly for your presence here.
I appreciate your interest and support.
~love & good wishes~
❤️ 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 (via their presence, input and paid subscriptions).