“Creative blocks are intelligent manifestations of the creative process trying to reorient you in the direction most suited to your soul. . . . Nothing can release a creative block except a true movement toward yourself.” -Michele Cassou
Today is day 28 of reading + journaling about this prompt: What if it all works out?
- In addition to focusing on specific daily actions, I have also been involved with a course focused on meeting uncertainty with openness + curiosity; focused on exploring the reality that life doesn’t have to be met with constant vigilance.
- This week I started rereading, Welcome Home: A Guide to Building a Home for Your Soul by Najwa Zebian.
“By breaking down all the obstacles in your way, you will turn your roadblocks into bricks that form the construction of the road.” -Najwa Zebian
I am in need of a new perspective, an inner recalibration. I recognize this because I am in the midst of a very slow time; I am [holding space with resistance] as a practice … 💁🏻♀️ because I have learned that feeling slow is a clue that [I am processing something].
- Thematic 100-day practices are the ideal time to recalibrate, to process, to recover as sense of identity while slow journaling. To pay attention + make connections.
Resistance is not to be ignored or conquered. Resistance is an invitation to wait + discover …
But, true confession, I tend to resist my slowness; I loath grief-related, moody times when feelings roll in and cloud my clarity, and seemingly block my progress and creativity.
“Self-love is loving yourself exactly as you’d love the person you love the most. And that love actually feels like love and looks like meeting your own needs.” -Najwa Zebian
Right brain planning (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 chronicle 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
Our right brain chronicles can become a sacred space for processing what we need and desire—space where we observe and process the data of our living to make choices (and prioritize) what matters most to us.
- My chronicles (which includes this blog) 😉 are also like mapping my way through slow times, times when there are a lot of unknowns and yet—Life goes on.
- “Art is also a survival strategy….as important, spiritually, as breathing or eating” (Jerry Saltz).
Jerry Saltz refers to impostor syndrome is “the price of admission to the House of Creativity” and emphasizes that “your life is part of your work”—that your artist mind is always working.
“Start working as soon as you wake up.” -Jerry Saltz
As soon as I wake up (and after I stretch and hydrate) I am in my studio meditating, journaling and/or reading.
- This morning I started 🎧 listening to the second section How to Be an Artist by Jerry Saltz which begins with “How to Actually Begin: An Instruction Manual for the Studio.”
- Timely inspiration for me as I feel wandery and currently uncertain about starting points.
“The studio should be a place of [no shame] where you are open to surprise and humiliation—where you are never afraid of silence. … Where you sit sometimes for hours, letting your mind drift.” -Jerry Saltz
Braveheart, how are you? How are you coping and evolving? What are you giving your time and energies to? What has your attention?
🗓️ For March, the themes for Ko-fi resources are [attention] and [100-days]—because it is always nice to have options. 💁🏻♀️ And just for fun, I added in some 🌈 rainbow ✂️📏🔖 art prompts and quotations.
- For 2026, I am focused on weekly and monthly reviews as a way to remind myself of the sequences, resources, themes and prompts that foster my practice.
- March download
“Journaling helped me map out my pain and understand it. It helped me understand what shaped me to be who I am today. It helped me give myself permission to question the life I’d been living and start writing the life I want to live.” -Najwa Zebian
Braveheart, consider this your 💌 invitation to journal as a way of mapping your way through your present circumstances, processing past realities and future desires.
“The only way for the pain to go away is for you to take ownership of your healing the same way you did of your pain. You are the leader of your life. Remember that. Don’t let your power go by feeling so helpless in your own life.” -Najwa Zebian
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.
⭐️ 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. 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!) ❤️