Minding my own business saves me so much time.
Miley Cyrus
A part of my creative process is listening (taking notes and learning from) to podcasts and documentaries. This particular interview hit so many different life-giving points for me, it deserves its own post here.
- I greatly admire the way these two women have experienced the worst of the world and chose to tend to their mental health and overall well-being.
- This particular segment is especially meaningful and affirming of choices I have made in my life.
Your worth is not measured by what others think of you but by what you know about yourself.
My decade of serving on staff for federal, state and municipal leaders included the proverbial burn of being in the public eye. It was essential that I trust myself, and remain true to myself in the midst of false charges and defamatory comments.
- Yes. It was destabilizing and hurtful.
- But those years taught me invaluable lessons.
- Lessons that eventually enabled me to endure (survive and rise above) trauma, false charges and defamatory comments from my own family. 💔⛓️💥❤️🩹❤️
- I learned the hard way how to stop chasing (or waiting on) people who don’t actually want to be in a relationship with you.
- People are going to believe whatever serves the story they are telling.
- That is why it is futile to attempt to edit the stories they tell.
When you think this pain is all you deserve, you are right. You are the only one that can decide how long you will walk in hell.
Shannon L. Alder
Over twenty-years ago, cancer literally saved my life. It’s timing rescued me from the “hell” I was living on-repeat.
It was also my transition away from the most heart-retching time of my life into an amazing (and healing) fullness.
- The experience reminded me to love myself first, then love others (Mark 12:30-31). ❤️
- At that point of my life I realized I had become confused about the Divine order of love.
The next ten years were transformative.
Those years included art therapy, working as a hospice volunteer and spiritual director; eight years of physical therapy (to regain my mobility); meeting my bonus daughter; the birth of my first grandchild; and a life-changing friendship.
It was the birthplace of Right Brain Planner:
A “planning” system focused on creativity, intuition, big-picture thinking, feelings and emotions, and the ease of change and fulfillment via baby steps.
Braveheart, right brain planning is how I chronicle + envision 📊 my living 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.
- It is how I learned how to “mind my own business” and to both co-exist and overcome the brokenness in my life—at a pace that was doable for me. ❤️
- Right brain planning is how I now define alchemy:
Right brain planning is how I was able to process so-o many difficult life events, and how I guided myself to let go and move on … breath-by-breath—invested in community and with the practice of self-devotion (the theme for June).
- Because we have a negative bias, and routinely don’t remember our lives accurately. Leaving us with undue shame and self-loathing.
create with me | field notes | why journal?
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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).