[Getting] people to actually sit down and confront it and to write it, you don’t have to write a lot, but you have to first of all just acknowledge it and put it into words.
James Pennebaker
James Pennebaker birthed expressive writing after his research demonstrated the toxicity of secrets. Based on his research, even 2-minutes of writing can be beneficial for clarity and healing.
In [this podcast], James Pennebaker, PhD, of the University of Texas at Austin, talks about why expressive writing can be good for mental health and how to try it.
- He also discusses his research on language use, and how analyzing the words that people use in their daily lives can offer insights into their emotions, motivations, and personality.
Braveheart, part of the challenge to being more aware of what we need and want is that we simply do not know.
- Expressive writing can help with self-awareness.
There is also the matter of the letting go of what is familiar (habits and relationships, and the parts of ourselves that have served us for such a long time).
Our right brain planners (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 our:
- questions and wishes
- daydreams and nighttime dreams
- keywords and phrases
- what we feel and think
- what we want to learn about
Our right brain planners 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.
Get started with your version of a right brain planner, and allow your journal to be your planner.
- When we journal we are in expression mode: [being] mode; flow, creation and personal liberty.
- Planning mode is more about “shoulding” ourselves and ought-to’s; [doing] mode.
💗 Download the insert with the 2025 lunar phases + monthly tabs—and the 2025 Right Brain Planner themed quotations to use in your “planner” at no charge:
The 2025 Right Brain Planner theme is:
[Chapters 📖 The Magic of Your Story Unfolding]
Life is the story you tell yourself. But how you tell that story—are you a hero, victim, lover, warrior, caretaker, believer—matters a great deal. How you adapt that story—how you revise, rethink, and rewrite your personal narrative as things change, lurch, or go wrong in your life—matters even more.
Bruce Feiler
Dear Braveheart, thank you kindly for your interest in right brain planning! ♥
💗 Just in case you missed my video post: I hope you will join me via a new temporary 📱 Instagram account: @collageplanning
P.S. I shared about choosing a “planner” + the elements of my 2025 planner set-up [here].