New Year…Open up your right brain!
I have taken some time to reflect and give myself some self-care over the past few months. As we approach the second month of 2025, reflecting seems like an appropriate thing to do. The new year always seems to be a new start or a new beginning. I don’t know about you but for me this past month was hard. So many people are going through crises and all of the tragic events that have occurred, seems to make the world a hard place to be in right now. When I feel like a need some time to reflect or re-center, I increase my self-care.
For me, self-care this year so far has been about setting firm boundaries, not apologizing, taking adult time outs to read, cook or unplug from my phone. I have also started an art journal. I was on LinkedIn and saw a post about an art journal and was instantly hooked. I have a blank sketch book that I bought at the start of 2025 and every weekend I have been creating in my art journal. The beautiful things is, there are no rules! You can write words, draw, paint, cut out pictures, print pictures and/or just be present with your feelings. I have found that this art journal is a way for me to reconnect with my right brain and be creative. I have created a space in my house that is my art/creative corner. I have all of my art supplies in one place, and they are easy to get to. I have an art desk that I bought after Christmas and a table to spread out my ideas. This year seems to be about rediscovering my creative side and opening up my right brain to feel and allow myself to be creative. The creativity of an art journal has been a nice outlet for me to process my feelings, dreams, grief and worries.
Our right brain differs from our left brain with creativity, imagination, insight, emotion, music and art being the center. It is also where our dreams generate, where our sleep wake cycle occurs and personality traits of intuition, creativity and emotional sensitivity lie. You may hear the right brain be referred to as the “creative brain” or “artistic brain.” Both the right and left brain work together to process information and perform complex tasks. It can be said that people with right brain dominance pursue careers in art, music or psychology. I feel like I do so much analysis in my job, which is mostly left brain dominant, that my right brain has become less dominate in some ways. My art journal has become an outlet of healing and has opened up new neuro pathways for my right brain to once again find some balance.
I encourage you to find an outlet for your creativity and increase your self-care through right brain activities.
