Has it all been done before?
In the past week I spoke to two people, one a friend and one a coaching client, who were struggling with their creativity in similar ways. Both questioned: Why Bother? Hasn’t it all been done before? Haven’t all the stories for songs been written a million times? Haven’t all the books been written? There’s nothing new to write, or paint, or express.
Those who know me know one of my favorite sayings: “There’s always something new under the sun!” (which, yes, you’ll find on products at www.cafepress.com/UPositive).
So, it got me thinking again, about the “why bother?” And, yet again, it seems that the answer lies in my favorite place: the distinction between the right and left hemispheres of the brain; the logical vs the creative/emotional.
It’s true, things have been done before: The facts of things, the statements, the specific expression of emotions. So, sure, the Left Brain convinces us that there’s nothing new to express so the Right Brain might as well go back to sleep.
But that’s not the whole truth. What makes creativity so powerful aren’t the facts that are expressed, but the particular way of expressing the facts.
For instance, I can read a book about right vs wrong written by a theologian. My reaction would most likely be, hmmmm, interesting. I’d put the book down and be on my way. Or, I could read a book about vampires, where the choice of right vs wrong is extremely complicated in a fictional way, and I’ll be fascinated, and I’ll finish the book and put it down and wander around for days mulling over the choices of right vs wrong.
My left-brain friend (unnamed here), can read the same two books, throw the vampire one in the recycle bin and wander for days reviewing the theologian’s version.
We’re so individual that different approaches to the same topic reach into us each in different ways. To get to our hearts and souls, to create even the potential for change and growth in each person, there must be choices in reaching us. What works for me won’t work for my brother, or my friend, or you. Or maybe it will.
It’s the way you express your creativity, your individual voice (or motion, or color combination, or brush stroke) that is of utmost importance, not the plot line, or the brand of your toe shoes, or being able to draw a straight line.
That’s a long way around to saying that it’s essential that every person with an urge to create does so, in their own style. Because your creation has not been done before, ever, and never will be done again because it’s you that makes it new and fresh and unique.
(For those who are religious, another argument: If you believe that God created the world, then you believe that everything that exists was created in those first seven days. The only new thing to do is to recombine the elements God put on the Earth for us to “play” with.)
So, to everyone, create away!!
--Batya
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
The Care and Feeding of Self: Depression Type
A few weeks ago I went through what I thought was a depression, and by the second day of it, it scared me a lot. I’m not usually a depressed person, but now and then and in February, I get a day or two, like most people do. It’s my depression, it’s very familiar, and I know just what I need to get out of it within 24-48 hours.
It made me think about the different kinds of depressions. We have an overall term, but the style of depression is just as important as the overall diagnosis. And I think they need to be treated differently.
Of course, there’s the bio-chemically caused depression, which really requires medication to get everything in balance. This tends to be hereditary, and long-term.
There’s the hereditary weakness toward depression, also, which is set off by external circumstances, but becomes depression as opposed to anything else, because there’s a bio-chemical weakness in that direction.
There’s also what I call the nurture-heredity depression, which is that we learn patterns of response to external stimuli from our parents. If one of our parents tended to respond to stress by becoming depressed, we are more likely to do so, also. You might need medication to help break through this so that you can make different choices with your responses to stressors. If it becomes a long-term and continuous response to your circumstances, then medication helps even more.
Situational depression is unavoidable at times. It’s a temporary depression, brought on by sad things in your life, or a string of sad things, so that you’re overwhelmed. It’s more than one load of brown stuff hitting the fan fairly continuously. There’s often a sense of frustration and anxiety that accompanies this depression. While medication can be helpful, most of the climb out of this type requires stepping back, taking some deep breaths (away from the fan), and determining the best action strategy to change your response to your situation, and/or the situation you’re in. Cognitive/behavioral therapy and/or life coaching and goal setting are extremely helpful.
Let’s not forget the good ol’ SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Like all living things, humans need sunshine, and deprivation of that sunlight affects most of us to some degree by February, and some of us to a greater extent throughout the winter. Full-spectrum lights can help, as can therapy and medication to deal with the issues dredged up during the longer hours of darkness in the winter.
Of course, the depression that comes from the low swings of bipolar disorder has its own attributes, and can be quite debilitating for those who suffer from it. Medication is essential to help balance your biochemistry, and therapy, again, helps you deal with the issues raised as well as manage the ups and downs of the disorder on a behavioral level.
And then there’s the Out of Balance, or Brain Vacation Depression, which is what I had.
My depression scared me this time because it had a different quality than my usual depressions, and because I didn’t recognize it. For the first time ever, I experienced anhedonia: lack of hope, emotion, intention, desire, pleasure of any sort. There was a great nothingness that I faced: it couldn’t be argued with, cajoled, threatened, or bribed. I would start off with the thought, “time to wash a dish or two” and find myself on the couch with a vampire novel or a nap instead, not quite realizing how I’d gotten there. I read about a book or more a day (a pleasure I give myself for a day or two now and then) until I’d gone through both of Laurell K. Hamilton series (Anita Blake, vampire slayer; Merry Gentry, Fairy Princess), both of which are brilliant and I highly recommend (in order because character development is outstanding).
This wasn’t “Batya’s Depression.” I really was scared.
The first thing I did on Day 2 of it was call my doctor and go in for a blood test, just to be sure it wasn’t caused by a physical problem. The second thing I did was call my sometimes-therapist and schedule appointments (it took about 3 weeks, 2x a week, and I am very thankful to her for seeing me that way). The third thing I did was take antidepressants (the first time in my life, since I don’t usually have long-term depression), but I stopped taking them after two weeks when I felt myself pulling out of the worst of it.
What happened, it turns out, is that my brain (both right and left hemispheres) needed a vacation, and since it didn’t see me packing a suitcase for the Bahamas, it decided to go on one by itself. Which explains the disconnect between thinking and not-doing. Between the last two years at the clinic and the house problems, which were continuous stress and burnout, and the year of positive stress of building my business and learning new things for it, my brain was just tired. September was the celebration of the business and all that I’d accomplished to date, some celebrations with my family of origin (with our own dance and ways of showing love), and the economy of America going haywire…my brain decided to quit for a while.
Reading, for me, is a taking-in. It’s like meditation, and it feeds some deep part of me. In a way, yes, it’s escape, and as such, a vacation from the everyday. I suppose for some people, looking at art or watching movies might provide the same relief.
In my job, and in developing my business, giving is the key. And I love it! It’s who I am, how I can most deeply express myself. I love both psychotherapy and coaching as what I do. So my depression wasn’t at all about wanting to do something else or changing a large part of my life. It was simply about restoring of the giving out/taking in cycle.
What a relief! I’m very thankful to the people who supported me as I went through this, and who had patience with me during this time. Luckily, it only lasted three weeks, and I’m learning to be a little more tender to myself, to keep my activities more balanced: lessons I’ve always told my clients. Hmm. Maybe I should record my sessions and listen to myself!
I’m back now, refreshed, eager, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed, with lots of energy to jump back into all the blogging, newsletter writing, seminar leading, promotion, client contact, and everything else it takes to keep my business and my life up and running. I’m writing fiction again, eating healthy, and back to being Batya. Feels good!
Have you experienced any of these depressions? How have you conquered it? I’d love to hear from you!
--Batya
It made me think about the different kinds of depressions. We have an overall term, but the style of depression is just as important as the overall diagnosis. And I think they need to be treated differently.
Of course, there’s the bio-chemically caused depression, which really requires medication to get everything in balance. This tends to be hereditary, and long-term.
There’s the hereditary weakness toward depression, also, which is set off by external circumstances, but becomes depression as opposed to anything else, because there’s a bio-chemical weakness in that direction.
There’s also what I call the nurture-heredity depression, which is that we learn patterns of response to external stimuli from our parents. If one of our parents tended to respond to stress by becoming depressed, we are more likely to do so, also. You might need medication to help break through this so that you can make different choices with your responses to stressors. If it becomes a long-term and continuous response to your circumstances, then medication helps even more.
Situational depression is unavoidable at times. It’s a temporary depression, brought on by sad things in your life, or a string of sad things, so that you’re overwhelmed. It’s more than one load of brown stuff hitting the fan fairly continuously. There’s often a sense of frustration and anxiety that accompanies this depression. While medication can be helpful, most of the climb out of this type requires stepping back, taking some deep breaths (away from the fan), and determining the best action strategy to change your response to your situation, and/or the situation you’re in. Cognitive/behavioral therapy and/or life coaching and goal setting are extremely helpful.
Let’s not forget the good ol’ SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Like all living things, humans need sunshine, and deprivation of that sunlight affects most of us to some degree by February, and some of us to a greater extent throughout the winter. Full-spectrum lights can help, as can therapy and medication to deal with the issues dredged up during the longer hours of darkness in the winter.
Of course, the depression that comes from the low swings of bipolar disorder has its own attributes, and can be quite debilitating for those who suffer from it. Medication is essential to help balance your biochemistry, and therapy, again, helps you deal with the issues raised as well as manage the ups and downs of the disorder on a behavioral level.
And then there’s the Out of Balance, or Brain Vacation Depression, which is what I had.
My depression scared me this time because it had a different quality than my usual depressions, and because I didn’t recognize it. For the first time ever, I experienced anhedonia: lack of hope, emotion, intention, desire, pleasure of any sort. There was a great nothingness that I faced: it couldn’t be argued with, cajoled, threatened, or bribed. I would start off with the thought, “time to wash a dish or two” and find myself on the couch with a vampire novel or a nap instead, not quite realizing how I’d gotten there. I read about a book or more a day (a pleasure I give myself for a day or two now and then) until I’d gone through both of Laurell K. Hamilton series (Anita Blake, vampire slayer; Merry Gentry, Fairy Princess), both of which are brilliant and I highly recommend (in order because character development is outstanding).
This wasn’t “Batya’s Depression.” I really was scared.
The first thing I did on Day 2 of it was call my doctor and go in for a blood test, just to be sure it wasn’t caused by a physical problem. The second thing I did was call my sometimes-therapist and schedule appointments (it took about 3 weeks, 2x a week, and I am very thankful to her for seeing me that way). The third thing I did was take antidepressants (the first time in my life, since I don’t usually have long-term depression), but I stopped taking them after two weeks when I felt myself pulling out of the worst of it.
What happened, it turns out, is that my brain (both right and left hemispheres) needed a vacation, and since it didn’t see me packing a suitcase for the Bahamas, it decided to go on one by itself. Which explains the disconnect between thinking and not-doing. Between the last two years at the clinic and the house problems, which were continuous stress and burnout, and the year of positive stress of building my business and learning new things for it, my brain was just tired. September was the celebration of the business and all that I’d accomplished to date, some celebrations with my family of origin (with our own dance and ways of showing love), and the economy of America going haywire…my brain decided to quit for a while.
Reading, for me, is a taking-in. It’s like meditation, and it feeds some deep part of me. In a way, yes, it’s escape, and as such, a vacation from the everyday. I suppose for some people, looking at art or watching movies might provide the same relief.
In my job, and in developing my business, giving is the key. And I love it! It’s who I am, how I can most deeply express myself. I love both psychotherapy and coaching as what I do. So my depression wasn’t at all about wanting to do something else or changing a large part of my life. It was simply about restoring of the giving out/taking in cycle.
What a relief! I’m very thankful to the people who supported me as I went through this, and who had patience with me during this time. Luckily, it only lasted three weeks, and I’m learning to be a little more tender to myself, to keep my activities more balanced: lessons I’ve always told my clients. Hmm. Maybe I should record my sessions and listen to myself!
I’m back now, refreshed, eager, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed, with lots of energy to jump back into all the blogging, newsletter writing, seminar leading, promotion, client contact, and everything else it takes to keep my business and my life up and running. I’m writing fiction again, eating healthy, and back to being Batya. Feels good!
Have you experienced any of these depressions? How have you conquered it? I’d love to hear from you!
--Batya
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thanksgiving
Yesterday, on Turkey Day, I was thinking about the meaning of Thanksgiving. It’s great to have a day of awareness of the bounty that we have, individually, as families, as a culture and a country. It think it’s important that we do some thanks-giving every day: choosing a minimum of three good things that happened that day and saying Thank You every night. There are some religions that have morning prayers that give thanks for the obvious things: thank You that I’m a woman, or thank You that I’m a man; thank You that I have another day to live and woke up this morning from my sleep.
My thoughts went back to the history of Thanksgiving, which has evolved into everyone eating a too-big meal with family and friends. This is a wonderful thing, and certainly reminds us of that first Thanksgiving, when the hungry Pilgrims were invited to a feast by the local, long-term inhabitants.
But it wasn’t just about a big meal back then.
The Native Americans, who knew this land and how to find and grow food on it watched these strange newcomers as they struggled, disconnected from the ways of the soil and air and water available here, trying to eke out a living on unfamiliar ground. They saw them try to bring their old habits into this land. These newcomers didn’t look like them or sound like them or dress like them or pray like them. The Native Americans, without trying to change these new people, offered them not only a table of food one day, but friendship, companionship, and guidance in how to live off their land. And the Native Americans didn’t try to convert these Europeans, or make them learn their language, or wear their clothes. They held out a hand, offered to share, offered friendship and assistance to the aliens who had left hardship and prosecution behind and sought freedom and opportunity on the shores of Turtle Island…America.
Maybe this is what we need to remember about Thanksgiving.
--Batya
My thoughts went back to the history of Thanksgiving, which has evolved into everyone eating a too-big meal with family and friends. This is a wonderful thing, and certainly reminds us of that first Thanksgiving, when the hungry Pilgrims were invited to a feast by the local, long-term inhabitants.
But it wasn’t just about a big meal back then.
The Native Americans, who knew this land and how to find and grow food on it watched these strange newcomers as they struggled, disconnected from the ways of the soil and air and water available here, trying to eke out a living on unfamiliar ground. They saw them try to bring their old habits into this land. These newcomers didn’t look like them or sound like them or dress like them or pray like them. The Native Americans, without trying to change these new people, offered them not only a table of food one day, but friendship, companionship, and guidance in how to live off their land. And the Native Americans didn’t try to convert these Europeans, or make them learn their language, or wear their clothes. They held out a hand, offered to share, offered friendship and assistance to the aliens who had left hardship and prosecution behind and sought freedom and opportunity on the shores of Turtle Island…America.
Maybe this is what we need to remember about Thanksgiving.
--Batya
Friday, October 24, 2008
Goals and Depression, Mood Swings, ADD, OCD, etc.
Lately, a lot of people have been mentioning their frustration with Goal Setting. Sometimes they’ve read a popular book on the topic and tried to follow the suggestions in it. Sometimes they’ve visualized and listed their goals. Or even determined the steps and added them to their to-do lists for a few weeks.
And then nothing happens. Except frustration.
“There’s too many things to do. I’ll never get there.”
“I don’t have the energy.”
“I start something and get distracted; then I do the other task and get distracted again.”
“I just can’t find the focus to get much done.”
For one thing, if you get out of bed in the morning, go to work, take care of the kids, cook a meal---you’re getting things done. You’re taking steps toward your goals. Often, we forget to add the “ordinary” activities to our goals lists. “Continue being a good parent.” “Maintain my home.” “Make a living.” These are ongoing goals. Include them in your list.
Secondly, most of the material on goal setting presents a cookie-cutter approach that works for many people, but not all people. Often, you need to take the information in the books/seminars/classes and remold it to your own needs. In fact, finding your own style of accomplishing steps to your goals is included in part in many of these books.
Third: most approaches are tailored to people who are already functioning fairly well.
But what if you’re not functioning all that well to start with? What if you’re depressed, or anxious; what if you have severe mood swings, or have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder?
The most important step here, if you feel you really are suffering, is to see a doctor and get some medication to break through the biochemical side of your illness.
Then, you need to reassess your immediate goals. Yes, you want to do the long-term, 10- and 5-year visualizations, but I’d say, tuck them away in a safe place for later reference. Instead, concentrate on short-term goals. What would you like to accomplish in the next three months?
When you’re depressed, or suffering from any mental health problems, three months becomes a long time, subjectively. So start with three months, then work back to one month, one week, and today. Take it, as they say in the 12-step programs, one day at a time. Be sure, however, to write up your list of do-able steps, and set up your calendar so you can keep track of your accomplishments.
Here’s an example if you’re depressed. For those who are severely depressed, just getting out of bed can be a major accomplishment. Start with simple things, maybe one a day. On your way to the bathroom, open the curtains and let light in. It’s been proven scientifically that lack of light adds to depression; addition of natural light helps relieve it. Get out of bed and get dressed. Do not wander around in your nightgown or pj’s all day---even if you’re staying in the house. hoose one activity to accomplish each day. Make sure you acknowledge yourself for each small step you take.
For those with ADD (attention deficit disorder), you might want to choose a task and break it up into very small activities. Pay attention to your attention: can you focus for 15 minutes at a time? Only 10 minutes? Or five? Make each task into minitasks that take that amount of time to accomplish. Instead of exerting energy trying to focus longer (and then beating yourself up for failing), train yourself to return to the next step of a larger task. For you, choosing two or three tasks for a day, each one broken up into mini-tasks, and rotating from one to the next---and back again (that’s the trick for success!)---will allow you to get more accomplished.
I’m writing an eBook that addresses these issues in more detail. The working title is: The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for People with Depression, Anxiety, Mood Swings, ADD, OCD, and more. It will be available at the beginning of 2009. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more, please email me at Batya@UPositive.com., or visit www.UPositive.com.
If you have stories about your own frustrations and successes attaining your goals, feel free post here, or send me an email.
--Batya
And then nothing happens. Except frustration.
“There’s too many things to do. I’ll never get there.”
“I don’t have the energy.”
“I start something and get distracted; then I do the other task and get distracted again.”
“I just can’t find the focus to get much done.”
For one thing, if you get out of bed in the morning, go to work, take care of the kids, cook a meal---you’re getting things done. You’re taking steps toward your goals. Often, we forget to add the “ordinary” activities to our goals lists. “Continue being a good parent.” “Maintain my home.” “Make a living.” These are ongoing goals. Include them in your list.
Secondly, most of the material on goal setting presents a cookie-cutter approach that works for many people, but not all people. Often, you need to take the information in the books/seminars/classes and remold it to your own needs. In fact, finding your own style of accomplishing steps to your goals is included in part in many of these books.
Third: most approaches are tailored to people who are already functioning fairly well.
But what if you’re not functioning all that well to start with? What if you’re depressed, or anxious; what if you have severe mood swings, or have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder?
The most important step here, if you feel you really are suffering, is to see a doctor and get some medication to break through the biochemical side of your illness.
Then, you need to reassess your immediate goals. Yes, you want to do the long-term, 10- and 5-year visualizations, but I’d say, tuck them away in a safe place for later reference. Instead, concentrate on short-term goals. What would you like to accomplish in the next three months?
When you’re depressed, or suffering from any mental health problems, three months becomes a long time, subjectively. So start with three months, then work back to one month, one week, and today. Take it, as they say in the 12-step programs, one day at a time. Be sure, however, to write up your list of do-able steps, and set up your calendar so you can keep track of your accomplishments.
Here’s an example if you’re depressed. For those who are severely depressed, just getting out of bed can be a major accomplishment. Start with simple things, maybe one a day. On your way to the bathroom, open the curtains and let light in. It’s been proven scientifically that lack of light adds to depression; addition of natural light helps relieve it. Get out of bed and get dressed. Do not wander around in your nightgown or pj’s all day---even if you’re staying in the house. hoose one activity to accomplish each day. Make sure you acknowledge yourself for each small step you take.
For those with ADD (attention deficit disorder), you might want to choose a task and break it up into very small activities. Pay attention to your attention: can you focus for 15 minutes at a time? Only 10 minutes? Or five? Make each task into minitasks that take that amount of time to accomplish. Instead of exerting energy trying to focus longer (and then beating yourself up for failing), train yourself to return to the next step of a larger task. For you, choosing two or three tasks for a day, each one broken up into mini-tasks, and rotating from one to the next---and back again (that’s the trick for success!)---will allow you to get more accomplished.
I’m writing an eBook that addresses these issues in more detail. The working title is: The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for People with Depression, Anxiety, Mood Swings, ADD, OCD, and more. It will be available at the beginning of 2009. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more, please email me at Batya@UPositive.com., or visit www.UPositive.com.
If you have stories about your own frustrations and successes attaining your goals, feel free post here, or send me an email.
--Batya
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Definition of "Goal"
While reading Dan Miller's excellent book, 48 Days, I once again came across the accepted definition of "goal," which is, simply put, A goal is a dream with a timeline attached. Recently, a coaching client asked me a similar question: Don't all my goals need time determinations?
I've been thinking about that. For a while, I'd accepted that definition, but something just didn't feel right. Today, sitting on the sand in Long Beach, NY, I realized what my problem with it was.
Attaching a time determination to a goal is left-brained, and only half the story.
Sure, having a time for your goals in mind: 5 years, 6 months, etc. and then adding the smaller steps to your weekly and daily list of do-ables is essential. Especially for charting, and for the left brain.
There's a danger, though, in defining a goal as attached to a time limit. What happens when life intervenes and you miss your deadlines? Have you failed at your goals? Obviously, the answer is a resounding "no." If you renegotiate your timeline, does that mean you're redefining your goals? Again, I'd say "no."
So I don't think a timeline is the definition of a goal.
I think the definition of goal is:
Once you have the commitment, the timeline, the do-ables, the actions within the reality of your days, weeks, and months are all tools to use to get there. And commitment is as much a right-brained activity as it is left-brained. Commitment is a whole-brained approach to defining "goal."
I'd love to read your thoughts and responses to this redefinition of "goal."
--Batya
I've been thinking about that. For a while, I'd accepted that definition, but something just didn't feel right. Today, sitting on the sand in Long Beach, NY, I realized what my problem with it was.
Attaching a time determination to a goal is left-brained, and only half the story.
Sure, having a time for your goals in mind: 5 years, 6 months, etc. and then adding the smaller steps to your weekly and daily list of do-ables is essential. Especially for charting, and for the left brain.
There's a danger, though, in defining a goal as attached to a time limit. What happens when life intervenes and you miss your deadlines? Have you failed at your goals? Obviously, the answer is a resounding "no." If you renegotiate your timeline, does that mean you're redefining your goals? Again, I'd say "no."
So I don't think a timeline is the definition of a goal.
I think the definition of goal is:
A goal is a dream with commitment attached.
Once you have the commitment, the timeline, the do-ables, the actions within the reality of your days, weeks, and months are all tools to use to get there. And commitment is as much a right-brained activity as it is left-brained. Commitment is a whole-brained approach to defining "goal."
I'd love to read your thoughts and responses to this redefinition of "goal."
--Batya
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Improved Memory
NEWS
The Creativity Empowerment Celebration for the launch of UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching on Friday was great fun! In spite of the Nashville gas crisis, which did keep a few people away. The rest of us shared good conversation, and funny and inspiring right brain/left brain skit, delicious food and drink (and scrumptious quadruple-chocolate brownies!), and won lots of door prizes!
I'm working on a membership program for UPositive. I'll post the details here as soon as I have them, so my blog-readers can have the first chance to participate. There's going to be a lot of value in membership, I can promise you that!
Improving Memory
Back in April, Gary Marcus wrote a short article for the New York Times Magazine entitled “Total Recall.” He described the difference between how a computer accesses its memory and how humans (and other animals) access memory. The computer, of course, is better at it. By the end of the article, he suggested that there might eventually be a “neural prosthetic” (implant) that would stimulate our memory pathways.
No thanks.
I’d like to stick with the human brain remaining human; I’m not interested in becoming even part cyborg, thank you.
But there was some interesting information in the article. For instance, there are studies showing that environment, body posture, secondary senses, all increase memory. If you learn a word while stooping, you will better remember it while stooping. It’s been known for a while that visiting the room where a test will be given beforehand, and keeping the image of that room in your mind while you study increases your score on the test.
I’d like to propose a different solution to improving memory than adding a computer chip to our gray matter. I’m going to try this myself, do an informal study. Here’s my theory:
Choose a different posture for different kinds of information input.
Keep a written list (so you don’t have to remember it on your own).
Practice, practice, practice. (repetition increases synaptic firing: think of a deer creating a path to the stream---it gets easier with each trip)
Reward any success. (behavioral modification technique).
Here are some suggestions (I want to make these so they’re not too obvious or distracting to others):
1. Rub the top of my ear as I learn someone’s name.
2. Put thumb to middle finger as hear people talk about computers.
3. Lace right and left fingers together for writing suggestions.
Do you have any experience with improving your memory in a similar manner? Did it work?
If you decide to try it, let me know what happens, please!
--Batya
The Creativity Empowerment Celebration for the launch of UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching on Friday was great fun! In spite of the Nashville gas crisis, which did keep a few people away. The rest of us shared good conversation, and funny and inspiring right brain/left brain skit, delicious food and drink (and scrumptious quadruple-chocolate brownies!), and won lots of door prizes!
I'm working on a membership program for UPositive. I'll post the details here as soon as I have them, so my blog-readers can have the first chance to participate. There's going to be a lot of value in membership, I can promise you that!
Improving Memory
Back in April, Gary Marcus wrote a short article for the New York Times Magazine entitled “Total Recall.” He described the difference between how a computer accesses its memory and how humans (and other animals) access memory. The computer, of course, is better at it. By the end of the article, he suggested that there might eventually be a “neural prosthetic” (implant) that would stimulate our memory pathways.
No thanks.
I’d like to stick with the human brain remaining human; I’m not interested in becoming even part cyborg, thank you.
But there was some interesting information in the article. For instance, there are studies showing that environment, body posture, secondary senses, all increase memory. If you learn a word while stooping, you will better remember it while stooping. It’s been known for a while that visiting the room where a test will be given beforehand, and keeping the image of that room in your mind while you study increases your score on the test.
I’d like to propose a different solution to improving memory than adding a computer chip to our gray matter. I’m going to try this myself, do an informal study. Here’s my theory:
Choose a different posture for different kinds of information input.
Keep a written list (so you don’t have to remember it on your own).
Practice, practice, practice. (repetition increases synaptic firing: think of a deer creating a path to the stream---it gets easier with each trip)
Reward any success. (behavioral modification technique).
Here are some suggestions (I want to make these so they’re not too obvious or distracting to others):
1. Rub the top of my ear as I learn someone’s name.
2. Put thumb to middle finger as hear people talk about computers.
3. Lace right and left fingers together for writing suggestions.
Do you have any experience with improving your memory in a similar manner? Did it work?
If you decide to try it, let me know what happens, please!
--Batya
Monday, September 15, 2008
Time, Again
NEWS
Big news this week: Creative Empowerment Celebration launching UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching is happening this Friday, 6-9 pm, at HA Gallery in Nashville, TN. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone there! I’ve written a short skit about conversations between the right and left hemispheres of the brain; we’ll be giving out a lot of door prizes; Shirley Geier’s brilliant illustrations for The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People and the first two for The UPositive Guide to Time Management for Creative People will be on exhibit; products and sayings from cafepress.com/UPositive will be displayed, and lots of great people will be wandering through. And, yes, there will be nibbles to nibble.
TIME, AGAIN
Back to that annoying topic. My friend Heather is writing a truly engaging and well-crafted novel about time travel, which has gotten my brain thinking---and reeling!
My cyberfriend and most frequent poster on this blog, Elysabeth, just assumed that time flows smoothly. As we all assume. But what if scientists just conjured up measures of time in order to pretend control over it? What if time really is more of a subjective type of thing? What if all this clock stuff is one large agreement we’ve all made (especially the Swiss and Germans who are quite punctual) so that sometimes people show up in the same place at the same time?
We all know the difference between subjective time and objective time.
Case in point. Since I’m very much into balancing the right and left hemispheres of the brain I pride myself on scheduling. Last week time got all twisted for me. No matter what I did, it went wrong first, then went right. So I decided to stop fighting it and embrace it. I began to schedule my time to include the SNAFUs.
What happened? I sat in my car for an hour waiting for friends to show up for lunch---because as soon as I tried to have control over the chaos, the chaos tricked me and went away. The only thing that didn’t go right was the not-going-right part of the day. MetaSNAFU.
Yes, we need to schedule our time, because we still live in a world that has an agreement to operate by the clock: factual ticking or not. But we also need to give ourselves a break, regularly, when the clock and our schedules forget about each other and go their own ways.
That said, see you on Friday at the gallery, somewhere between 6 and 9 p.m.
--Batya
Big news this week: Creative Empowerment Celebration launching UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching is happening this Friday, 6-9 pm, at HA Gallery in Nashville, TN. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone there! I’ve written a short skit about conversations between the right and left hemispheres of the brain; we’ll be giving out a lot of door prizes; Shirley Geier’s brilliant illustrations for The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People and the first two for The UPositive Guide to Time Management for Creative People will be on exhibit; products and sayings from cafepress.com/UPositive will be displayed, and lots of great people will be wandering through. And, yes, there will be nibbles to nibble.
TIME, AGAIN
Back to that annoying topic. My friend Heather is writing a truly engaging and well-crafted novel about time travel, which has gotten my brain thinking---and reeling!
My cyberfriend and most frequent poster on this blog, Elysabeth, just assumed that time flows smoothly. As we all assume. But what if scientists just conjured up measures of time in order to pretend control over it? What if time really is more of a subjective type of thing? What if all this clock stuff is one large agreement we’ve all made (especially the Swiss and Germans who are quite punctual) so that sometimes people show up in the same place at the same time?
We all know the difference between subjective time and objective time.
Case in point. Since I’m very much into balancing the right and left hemispheres of the brain I pride myself on scheduling. Last week time got all twisted for me. No matter what I did, it went wrong first, then went right. So I decided to stop fighting it and embrace it. I began to schedule my time to include the SNAFUs.
What happened? I sat in my car for an hour waiting for friends to show up for lunch---because as soon as I tried to have control over the chaos, the chaos tricked me and went away. The only thing that didn’t go right was the not-going-right part of the day. MetaSNAFU.
Yes, we need to schedule our time, because we still live in a world that has an agreement to operate by the clock: factual ticking or not. But we also need to give ourselves a break, regularly, when the clock and our schedules forget about each other and go their own ways.
That said, see you on Friday at the gallery, somewhere between 6 and 9 p.m.
--Batya
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
More Creativity and Goal Attainment Blogs
Hi everyone!
Yvonne Perry, of www.writersinthesky.com, a brilliantly helpful website for writers of all kinds, spoke at our nonfiction meetup group last night. She mentioned that the more often a person blogs, the more the keywords will be picked up by the search engines and the happier those of us using blogs for our friends, families, clients, and potential clients, will be.
Well, I like being happy. My right brain loves being happy! And, as we all know, when the right brain is happy....everybody is happy!
So, I'm going to try to add a post or two a week. These will be short, and on helpful topics...bliphelps or something.
They will be about Creativity and the Creative Process. They'll also be about Goal Setting and especially Goal Attainment. Breaking through Creative Blocks. Time Management. Right Brain/Left Brain compatibility. And just plain ol' making-it-through-the-day thoughts.
Please feel free to participate in the discussion, in agreeing or disagreeing with my posts, in adding thoughts, info, ideas...whatever!
And, Elysabeth---special thanks to you for your continued support and posts to these blogs!
--Batya
Yvonne Perry, of www.writersinthesky.com, a brilliantly helpful website for writers of all kinds, spoke at our nonfiction meetup group last night. She mentioned that the more often a person blogs, the more the keywords will be picked up by the search engines and the happier those of us using blogs for our friends, families, clients, and potential clients, will be.
Well, I like being happy. My right brain loves being happy! And, as we all know, when the right brain is happy....everybody is happy!
So, I'm going to try to add a post or two a week. These will be short, and on helpful topics...bliphelps or something.
They will be about Creativity and the Creative Process. They'll also be about Goal Setting and especially Goal Attainment. Breaking through Creative Blocks. Time Management. Right Brain/Left Brain compatibility. And just plain ol' making-it-through-the-day thoughts.
Please feel free to participate in the discussion, in agreeing or disagreeing with my posts, in adding thoughts, info, ideas...whatever!
And, Elysabeth---special thanks to you for your continued support and posts to these blogs!
--Batya
Monday, September 8, 2008
Is It Really Time Off?
NEWS
We’re getting closer and closer to the celebration launching UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching. It’s Friday evening, September 19, from 6-9 pm at HA Gallery in Nashville. There’s going to be hors d’ouevres, of course, a skit about right and left brain conversations, motivational art, music, a Q&A period, and lots of interesting people with whom to mingle!
I tried last week, so I’ll just try again this week, to get the e-newsletter out. So far, I have the design of it (major cyber-accomplishment for me) and I’ll be adding copy, hopefully, tomorrow. Look for it by the end of the week. If you’re not already on my mailing list, please let me know, or visit the Website, www.UPositive.com for the newsletter link.
The second book in the series, The UPositive Guide to Time Management for Creative People, should be out by the end of the month. I’m waiting until after the party to finish it up and do the styling. So far, Shirley Geier has done two gotta-see illustrations for it!
Is it Really Time Off?
This was my birthday weekend. I decided I wanted to redo my back patio, as it had accumulated a lot of leaves and displaced dirt patches, and some potting soil bags from the front yard. The patio chairs needed some cleaning, and it was looking a bit neglected. I never spend a lot of time back there myself, but it’s the entrance to my finished basement where the nonfiction and other groups meet. I’d always had plans to plant some shade-loving greenery, like luscious ferns and columbine and all sorts of things, but never gotten around to it.
The patio’s an odd shape. Two triangular corners of soil, two short rectangular strips along the sides, and one long rectangular strip along the foundation of the house. Mostly boring pebble cement and very, very little planting area. There’s one Rose of Sharon tree beside the gate, which provides nectar for hummingbirds just outside the window here by my computer. Love that part!
I spent two entire days doing the physical labor of moving things around, buying and lifting and dragging a half dozen bags of marble stone chips and red lava chips. Another half dozen bags of topsoil. Eight decent-size plants (all on sale this time of year!), garden tools from front to back of house, up and down the hill. Swept the patio about three times. Laid brick as edging along about a third of the area, and put brick down along one of the short sides. Potted three of the plants for the brick area. Spray painted to my heart’s delight. (I love spray paint, but it doesn’t go very far, and always takes twice as many cans as I figure.) Since I decided on white rock with red lava rock as accent, I sprayed two of the plastic chairs a matching maroonish red, sprayed the containers for the plants; sprayed the wheelbarrow and two of the shepherd’s crooks a rust-reducer undercoat; sprayed the ugly blue trunklike storage bin, two ashtrays, and a garbage pail the matching red. Almost sprayed the visiting cat, but he moved too fast! Set white and red rock in two of the triangular corners, and put in one of the two spreading junipers. Tried that landscaper’s cloth, but I’d rather pull weeds.
All this to say: two days of doing purely physical (and enjoyable), non-brain-taxing (and enjoyable) work. Basically, a break for my left brain, which has been working overtime on UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching.
I love working on the business. I totally love seeing my clients. But working mostly from home on the Internet-based products and newsletter and invites and website and eBooks, and having an unending To-Do list (which is true for every entrepreneur), with my office in my home and no “going home” at 5 or 6 or even 7 pm, has been exhausting.
I slept really well the last two nights. And I woke up feeling remarkably refreshed, clear-headed, re-inspired without effort, and ready to go! Doing the opposite, using opposite energy not only lets your usual energy replenish, but gives it the space to readjust to itself, and to re-center from all the activity that part of the brain has been doing.
Take some time to do the opposite. Put it on your To-Do list. You accomplish much more afterward!
It reminded me that sometimes getting away from it all is the best thing you can to do accomplish it all. Gee. I kind of remember that from….oh, wait….yes, my own video!! And my own eBook.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of checking in with your own wisdom and actually listening to it!
As always, thoughts, comments, additional ideas are welcome.
--Batya
We’re getting closer and closer to the celebration launching UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching. It’s Friday evening, September 19, from 6-9 pm at HA Gallery in Nashville. There’s going to be hors d’ouevres, of course, a skit about right and left brain conversations, motivational art, music, a Q&A period, and lots of interesting people with whom to mingle!
I tried last week, so I’ll just try again this week, to get the e-newsletter out. So far, I have the design of it (major cyber-accomplishment for me) and I’ll be adding copy, hopefully, tomorrow. Look for it by the end of the week. If you’re not already on my mailing list, please let me know, or visit the Website, www.UPositive.com for the newsletter link.
The second book in the series, The UPositive Guide to Time Management for Creative People, should be out by the end of the month. I’m waiting until after the party to finish it up and do the styling. So far, Shirley Geier has done two gotta-see illustrations for it!
Is it Really Time Off?
This was my birthday weekend. I decided I wanted to redo my back patio, as it had accumulated a lot of leaves and displaced dirt patches, and some potting soil bags from the front yard. The patio chairs needed some cleaning, and it was looking a bit neglected. I never spend a lot of time back there myself, but it’s the entrance to my finished basement where the nonfiction and other groups meet. I’d always had plans to plant some shade-loving greenery, like luscious ferns and columbine and all sorts of things, but never gotten around to it.
The patio’s an odd shape. Two triangular corners of soil, two short rectangular strips along the sides, and one long rectangular strip along the foundation of the house. Mostly boring pebble cement and very, very little planting area. There’s one Rose of Sharon tree beside the gate, which provides nectar for hummingbirds just outside the window here by my computer. Love that part!
I spent two entire days doing the physical labor of moving things around, buying and lifting and dragging a half dozen bags of marble stone chips and red lava chips. Another half dozen bags of topsoil. Eight decent-size plants (all on sale this time of year!), garden tools from front to back of house, up and down the hill. Swept the patio about three times. Laid brick as edging along about a third of the area, and put brick down along one of the short sides. Potted three of the plants for the brick area. Spray painted to my heart’s delight. (I love spray paint, but it doesn’t go very far, and always takes twice as many cans as I figure.) Since I decided on white rock with red lava rock as accent, I sprayed two of the plastic chairs a matching maroonish red, sprayed the containers for the plants; sprayed the wheelbarrow and two of the shepherd’s crooks a rust-reducer undercoat; sprayed the ugly blue trunklike storage bin, two ashtrays, and a garbage pail the matching red. Almost sprayed the visiting cat, but he moved too fast! Set white and red rock in two of the triangular corners, and put in one of the two spreading junipers. Tried that landscaper’s cloth, but I’d rather pull weeds.
All this to say: two days of doing purely physical (and enjoyable), non-brain-taxing (and enjoyable) work. Basically, a break for my left brain, which has been working overtime on UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching.
I love working on the business. I totally love seeing my clients. But working mostly from home on the Internet-based products and newsletter and invites and website and eBooks, and having an unending To-Do list (which is true for every entrepreneur), with my office in my home and no “going home” at 5 or 6 or even 7 pm, has been exhausting.
I slept really well the last two nights. And I woke up feeling remarkably refreshed, clear-headed, re-inspired without effort, and ready to go! Doing the opposite, using opposite energy not only lets your usual energy replenish, but gives it the space to readjust to itself, and to re-center from all the activity that part of the brain has been doing.
Take some time to do the opposite. Put it on your To-Do list. You accomplish much more afterward!
It reminded me that sometimes getting away from it all is the best thing you can to do accomplish it all. Gee. I kind of remember that from….oh, wait….yes, my own video!! And my own eBook.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of checking in with your own wisdom and actually listening to it!
As always, thoughts, comments, additional ideas are welcome.
--Batya
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Productive Sleep
News
The celebration launching UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching is happening September 19. If you’re interested in attending and haven’t yet received an invitation, please email Batya@UPositive.com
The website, www.UPositive.com, is running---except for the “subscribe” button. Again, if you’d like to be on the free newsletter list, email Batya@UPositive.com and I’ll be happy to add you. If you’ve already subscribed on the website, please send me an email; I haven’t been able to collect those names. The problem will be solved one way or another in the next few days (I hope).
Speaking of newsletters. The first issue should be out by Friday, although I’m fighting a computer glitch. Here’s hoping!
Productive Sleep
A number of articles have crossed my path recently about sleep. Sure, there were the gazillion about how to get a better night’s sleep (I run a two-hour seminar about that), but these caught my eye because they brought up a subject that had caught my eye decades ago: how to use sleep productively.
Back in the mid-1970s, Patricia Garfield wrote Creative Dreaming. Later on, Robert Moss, Stephen LaBerge and others expanded on the topic, exploring aware and awake dreaming in the spiritual realm and in the psychological realm.
Now, the topic seems to have awakened again.
One of the many marketing e-newsletters I receive focused on using the hours of sleep to add time to the day. He suggests assigning problem-solving tasks to the brain, extending the work day through the night. Does it work? Usually.
The Scientific American Mind, which I’ve mentioned before and which is one of my favorite magazines, included an article in its recent issue entitled: “Quiet! Sleeping Brain at Work.”
All these discuss the ways we can program the brain to solve problems while we’re sleeping. It takes time and persistence, but it works. I’ve done it myself!
My question is this: should we be doing it regularly?
Yes, it takes some consistency to train the sleeping brain to respond to direction. But after the training period, do we really want to keep our brain on-task 24 hours a day? It seems like we’ll be making robots out of ourselves.
Sure, if there is a pressing problem and we can’t seem to find the solution after a few days of concentrating on it (awake time), hand it over to the sleeping brain for help. Makes sense to me. After all, I am a proponent of whole-brain thinking.
But the sleeping brain already has its own agenda: processing daily activities, stressors, joys, experiences, thoughts, input in its own, subconscious way. It takes our awake time and sorts it out, works it through, and puts it aside with a finesse we couldn’t create if we tried. It’s already at work while we sleep.
My concern is that if we take the sleeping brain away from its subconscious, free-and-do-it-the-way-it-knows-best processes regularly, what will happen to the things that are usually processed at night?
Like everything, I think moderation is important---yes, let’s use our subconscious mind to help solve pressing problems. But let’s pick and choose carefully what we direct our sleeping mind to do…and leave it to its own brilliant work, in its own way, most of the (night)time.
Any thoughts?
---Batya
The celebration launching UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching is happening September 19. If you’re interested in attending and haven’t yet received an invitation, please email Batya@UPositive.com
The website, www.UPositive.com, is running---except for the “subscribe” button. Again, if you’d like to be on the free newsletter list, email Batya@UPositive.com and I’ll be happy to add you. If you’ve already subscribed on the website, please send me an email; I haven’t been able to collect those names. The problem will be solved one way or another in the next few days (I hope).
Speaking of newsletters. The first issue should be out by Friday, although I’m fighting a computer glitch. Here’s hoping!
Productive Sleep
A number of articles have crossed my path recently about sleep. Sure, there were the gazillion about how to get a better night’s sleep (I run a two-hour seminar about that), but these caught my eye because they brought up a subject that had caught my eye decades ago: how to use sleep productively.
Back in the mid-1970s, Patricia Garfield wrote Creative Dreaming. Later on, Robert Moss, Stephen LaBerge and others expanded on the topic, exploring aware and awake dreaming in the spiritual realm and in the psychological realm.
Now, the topic seems to have awakened again.
One of the many marketing e-newsletters I receive focused on using the hours of sleep to add time to the day. He suggests assigning problem-solving tasks to the brain, extending the work day through the night. Does it work? Usually.
The Scientific American Mind, which I’ve mentioned before and which is one of my favorite magazines, included an article in its recent issue entitled: “Quiet! Sleeping Brain at Work.”
All these discuss the ways we can program the brain to solve problems while we’re sleeping. It takes time and persistence, but it works. I’ve done it myself!
My question is this: should we be doing it regularly?
Yes, it takes some consistency to train the sleeping brain to respond to direction. But after the training period, do we really want to keep our brain on-task 24 hours a day? It seems like we’ll be making robots out of ourselves.
Sure, if there is a pressing problem and we can’t seem to find the solution after a few days of concentrating on it (awake time), hand it over to the sleeping brain for help. Makes sense to me. After all, I am a proponent of whole-brain thinking.
But the sleeping brain already has its own agenda: processing daily activities, stressors, joys, experiences, thoughts, input in its own, subconscious way. It takes our awake time and sorts it out, works it through, and puts it aside with a finesse we couldn’t create if we tried. It’s already at work while we sleep.
My concern is that if we take the sleeping brain away from its subconscious, free-and-do-it-the-way-it-knows-best processes regularly, what will happen to the things that are usually processed at night?
Like everything, I think moderation is important---yes, let’s use our subconscious mind to help solve pressing problems. But let’s pick and choose carefully what we direct our sleeping mind to do…and leave it to its own brilliant work, in its own way, most of the (night)time.
Any thoughts?
---Batya
Monday, August 25, 2008
QBQ Rant
NEWS:
www.UPositive.com is up and running! YAY! Come on by and visit---you can connect to the goal attainment and creativity challenge videos, the eBook (see below), the relaxation CD, merchandise in the shop, and all sorts of information from UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching as well as Passion-for-Life Psychotherapy (and the difference). Thanks for your patience!
The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People is now up and available in eBook format!!! It’s fully copyrighted, with an ISBN number all its own and registered at the Library of Congress! Even better, it’s illustrated by Shirley Geier, and some of the merchandise matches up with some of the information in the eBook!
The second eBook in the series, The UPositive Guide to Time Management for Creative People is due out in September.
The UPositive Relaxation and Visualization Technique audio CD is available from the website at http://www.upositive.com/. Great background music by Tom Roady helps you follow the gentle instructions to relax and see your dreams!
Mark Friday evening, September 19, from 6 to 9 pm in your calendars for the official opening celebration of UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching! More information is coming here and through the first newsletter, which should be going out sometime next week. (If you’d like an evite and the info, or to be on the mailing list in general, please email me at Batya@UPositive.com or UPositive55@aol.com).
The first 9 sayings from UPositive’s Batya Sez… shop are now available for purchase through http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive. The next nine are in the works---I’ll let you know through this blog and the newsletter when they’re ready! It’s never too early to shop for Christmas and Hanukah and Kwanzaa, and it’s never the wrong day to buy yourself a gift!
The Passion-for-Life Psychotherapy practice has a few openings for new clients in Nashville; please email UPositive55@aol.com for more information. We can talk about depression, anxiety, mood swings, ADD, and family and relationship issues.
UPositive’s Creativity and Life Coaching practice is available locally, but also through telephone and Internet-based services. Please visit the website http://www.upositive.com/ or contact me Batya@UPositive.com for more information.
QBQ Rant
My friend and one of my business mentors, Tim Cummings, mentioned the best-selling book, QBQ, The question behind the question to me last week. Like a good mentoree, I rushed out to get it. And read it in one sitting. It’s a great book.
But I wonder---why do we even need this book? It’s all about the “right” and “wrong” questions people ask in business and other life situations. The “wrong” questions are those that place blame on others, that look outside the self for cause and excuses.
The “right” questions are those that take personal responsibility for problems and mishaps in our lives. The questions that lead us to personal accountability, especially in businesses, organizations, and families.
Here’s my rant: This is about as much “news” as “The Secret” is a secret.
Hasn’t life and personal growth always been about personal responsibility? Of course, we don’t create the world around us. We’re not responsible for every starving child or raped elder on the planet. But if these things bother us, we are responsible to do something about it---even if that’s as simple as donating a few dollars to a related cause.
We’re here to participate in life. To learn and grow. And to reach the best potential of our own selves.
We can’t do that if we’re constantly looking to others for the “whys” and the “how comes” and the “who did thats”: we can only grow and fulfill our personal potential by participating in the world around us with “how can I help” and “how can I change things for the better” and “what can I do?”
This is a wonderful little book for a reminder of this more positive attitude.
And at UPositive, we’re all about positive attitude! And about people reaching their own potential! And about participating to the best extent we can in the present moment. And helping others to do the same, without judgment, without blame; with love and care and concern and inspiration.
Read the book! It’ll fill your heart with determination and energy! QBQ: The Question Behind the Question, by John G. Miller.
As always, I invite your comments, questions, thoughts on this or other topics!
--Batya
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Expect the Unexpected
NEWS:
The website, www.UPositive.com, is up and running, except for the newsletter signup and refer to a friend links. If you’d like either of these, please email me directly at Batya@UPositive.com from outside the website. Thanks for your patience.
The second set of Creativity Challenge and Goal Attainment Tip videos are up on www.YouTube.com/UPositive, or through www.UPositive.com. Take a look! Let me know what you think!
The first eBook in the series, The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People, should be available by the end of this weekend…August 17. The second eBook, The UPositive Guide to Time Management for Creative People is due out in September.
The UPositive Relaxation and Visualization audio CD is available from the website at www.UPositive.com.
Mark Friday evening, September 19, from 6 to 9 pm in your calendars for the official opening celebration of UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching! More information is coming here and through the first newsletter, which should be going out sometime next week. (If you’d like an evite and the info, or to be on the mailing list in general, please email me at Batya@UPositive.com or UPositive55@aol.com).
The first 9 sayings from UPositive’s Batya Sez… shop are now available for purchase through http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive. The next nine are in the works---I’ll let you know through this blog and the newsletter when they’re ready! It’s never to early to shop for Christmas and Hanukah and Kwanzaa, and it’s never the wrong day to buy yourself a gift!
The Passion-for-Life Psychotherapy practice has a few openings for new clients in Nashville; please email UPositive55@aol.com for more information. We can talk about depression, anxiety, mood swings, ADD, and family and relationship issues.
UPositive’s Creativity and Life Coaching practice is available locally, but also through telephone and Internet-based services. Please visit the website www.UPositive.com or contact me Batya@UPositive.com for more information.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Sorry this blog is late again this week, but I didn’t expect the unexpected and have been preoccupied with positive but time-consuming emergencies. So I thought I’d address the issue head-on.
In goal setting, establishing to-do lists, setting today-ables into planners, managing time, business planning, and pretty much everything else, we tend to work with linear, clock time. It should take 20 minutes to go to and from the corner grocery for a gallon of milk and some eggs, so we schedule 20 minutes. I can write for 15 minutes every morning---no problem! Creating a CD should require about two week’s worth of work, then about two hours in a studio.
And then life happens.
Life happening is not a problem: we want life to happen. If everything we did came in fifteen- and twenty-minute, or even two-hour, tick-tocking segments, we’d bore ourselves to death. So life happening---meeting an old colleague at the grocery store and stopping for a cup of coffee to catch up; finally getting into the secondary character’s head and heart and typing a pivotal scene for an hour and a half without taking a breath; getting to the studio and being treated to a half-hour tour and demonstration of fascinating drums of the world---these are the joys of life. But we hadn’t scheduled them.
Life doesn’t happen in linear time. It scoffs at linear time. Thunder isn’t the Norse gods bowling---it’s the deep belly laughs of the Universe at all the linear-time planning we do. There’s that old adage: If you want to make God laugh, make a plan.
For creative people, getting in the zone is the goal to get to the goal of doing our creative work. The Zone is clockless.
So do we make a big bonfire and through all the DayTimers, DayRunners, calendars, pdas, and Palm Pilots in it? No. Not at all.
We expect the unexpected (sorry for the cliché, Heather, but it’s a cliché because it holds truth). We plan for the unplannable.
The best way to sew a button on something is to stick a pin under where your thread loops go, then take the pin out when you’re done. Why? Because it provides just enough give so that your taut stitches won’t rip at the first tug on the button. The tree that bends in the wind lives through the storm. (ok, old, used, but gets my point across)
When you do schedule your to-doables from your goals list, when you apply time management to your activities, add in some extra time---an hour or two a day.
I can feel the panic. Yours. Mine. But…but…I have so much to do. I already can’t get to it all. Take an hour or two a day to do nothing?
Not at all. Take an hour or two a day to participate in life. To have some breathing space. To take the tension out of things. To talk to a friend you meet on the street. To let a character have her way on the page. To explore a new combination of dance movements inspired by the piece you must get choreographed. To flip through a magazine that catches your eye as you rush to get your research on green insulation for new structures finished.
And if, at the end of the day, you haven’t used up your extra time, take a bubble bath, read a book, put your feet up and just breathe…that’s right…get the air into your body and feed yourself some extra oxygen! Catch up on sleep (the way to do that properly is to get to bed earlier, not to sleep late in the morning), if nothing else. You’ll have more energy and clarity the next day, so you’ll be more productive in the time you do schedule your work and creative endeavors.
--Batya
The website, www.UPositive.com, is up and running, except for the newsletter signup and refer to a friend links. If you’d like either of these, please email me directly at Batya@UPositive.com from outside the website. Thanks for your patience.
The second set of Creativity Challenge and Goal Attainment Tip videos are up on www.YouTube.com/UPositive, or through www.UPositive.com. Take a look! Let me know what you think!
The first eBook in the series, The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People, should be available by the end of this weekend…August 17. The second eBook, The UPositive Guide to Time Management for Creative People is due out in September.
The UPositive Relaxation and Visualization audio CD is available from the website at www.UPositive.com.
Mark Friday evening, September 19, from 6 to 9 pm in your calendars for the official opening celebration of UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching! More information is coming here and through the first newsletter, which should be going out sometime next week. (If you’d like an evite and the info, or to be on the mailing list in general, please email me at Batya@UPositive.com or UPositive55@aol.com).
The first 9 sayings from UPositive’s Batya Sez… shop are now available for purchase through http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive. The next nine are in the works---I’ll let you know through this blog and the newsletter when they’re ready! It’s never to early to shop for Christmas and Hanukah and Kwanzaa, and it’s never the wrong day to buy yourself a gift!
The Passion-for-Life Psychotherapy practice has a few openings for new clients in Nashville; please email UPositive55@aol.com for more information. We can talk about depression, anxiety, mood swings, ADD, and family and relationship issues.
UPositive’s Creativity and Life Coaching practice is available locally, but also through telephone and Internet-based services. Please visit the website www.UPositive.com or contact me Batya@UPositive.com for more information.
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Sorry this blog is late again this week, but I didn’t expect the unexpected and have been preoccupied with positive but time-consuming emergencies. So I thought I’d address the issue head-on.
In goal setting, establishing to-do lists, setting today-ables into planners, managing time, business planning, and pretty much everything else, we tend to work with linear, clock time. It should take 20 minutes to go to and from the corner grocery for a gallon of milk and some eggs, so we schedule 20 minutes. I can write for 15 minutes every morning---no problem! Creating a CD should require about two week’s worth of work, then about two hours in a studio.
And then life happens.
Life happening is not a problem: we want life to happen. If everything we did came in fifteen- and twenty-minute, or even two-hour, tick-tocking segments, we’d bore ourselves to death. So life happening---meeting an old colleague at the grocery store and stopping for a cup of coffee to catch up; finally getting into the secondary character’s head and heart and typing a pivotal scene for an hour and a half without taking a breath; getting to the studio and being treated to a half-hour tour and demonstration of fascinating drums of the world---these are the joys of life. But we hadn’t scheduled them.
Life doesn’t happen in linear time. It scoffs at linear time. Thunder isn’t the Norse gods bowling---it’s the deep belly laughs of the Universe at all the linear-time planning we do. There’s that old adage: If you want to make God laugh, make a plan.
For creative people, getting in the zone is the goal to get to the goal of doing our creative work. The Zone is clockless.
So do we make a big bonfire and through all the DayTimers, DayRunners, calendars, pdas, and Palm Pilots in it? No. Not at all.
We expect the unexpected (sorry for the cliché, Heather, but it’s a cliché because it holds truth). We plan for the unplannable.
The best way to sew a button on something is to stick a pin under where your thread loops go, then take the pin out when you’re done. Why? Because it provides just enough give so that your taut stitches won’t rip at the first tug on the button. The tree that bends in the wind lives through the storm. (ok, old, used, but gets my point across)
When you do schedule your to-doables from your goals list, when you apply time management to your activities, add in some extra time---an hour or two a day.
I can feel the panic. Yours. Mine. But…but…I have so much to do. I already can’t get to it all. Take an hour or two a day to do nothing?
Not at all. Take an hour or two a day to participate in life. To have some breathing space. To take the tension out of things. To talk to a friend you meet on the street. To let a character have her way on the page. To explore a new combination of dance movements inspired by the piece you must get choreographed. To flip through a magazine that catches your eye as you rush to get your research on green insulation for new structures finished.
And if, at the end of the day, you haven’t used up your extra time, take a bubble bath, read a book, put your feet up and just breathe…that’s right…get the air into your body and feed yourself some extra oxygen! Catch up on sleep (the way to do that properly is to get to bed earlier, not to sleep late in the morning), if nothing else. You’ll have more energy and clarity the next day, so you’ll be more productive in the time you do schedule your work and creative endeavors.
--Batya
Monday, August 4, 2008
Permission Granted
News!
Website is almost fully functioning---please visit it at www.UPositive.com. I’d love feedback. The email link isn’t quite working yet, but we’re getting the kinks out. Email remains UPositive55@aol.com for the time being.
Products are halfway there! Nine of the first 18 sayings are available on T-shirts, mugs, coasters, mousepads, magnets, caps, and bumper stickers! Check them out at http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive. Remember---Christmas decorations are out in some stores already, so it’s about time to stock up on stocking stuffers and gifts for yourself and others! If you see a saying you like but would prefer it on a different product, drop me an email and I’ll see what I can do.
SEPTEMBER 19—BIG OFFICIAL UPositive OPENING PARTY!! If you’re in Nashville, TN, drop me an email at UPositive55@aol.com and I’ll send you an invite. Door prizes, fun, great networking opportunity for everyone! Food and wine and creative people everywhere!
PERMISSION GRANTED
One of the joys of my career is to watch people as they realize that going for their personal and professional goals really is ‘okay.’ So many people learn (from parents, teachers, religious leaders, etc.) that working toward their heart’s and soul’s desire is ‘selfish,’ or ‘impossible,’ or ‘just a pipe dream.’
It isn’t. Those things that excite you, that impassion you, that fire up the light in your eyes and the energy in your face---those are goals to go for!
There are clients who come to me hoping it’s okay to say aloud the dreams they’ve carried around silently. That tense up when we start describing and outlining those dreams, taking the first steps toward changing them into goals. As they see the steps emerge on paper…actual actions they can take to live the life they really want…a transformation occurs.
I love watching it.
The anxiety drops and their faces clear. The hazy dullness of their eyes clears and sparks fly. Their backs straighten and their shoulders drop and open. Their voices shift, soften yet become stronger. They breathe deeper. Sometimes they cry.
They become their selves---their centered, empowered selves.
I’m blessed to be present during their transformation, and very thankful that they allow me to see it and experience it with them.
So let me give you all permission---right here and right now---to turn your dreams into goals, your goals into steps, your actions into success!
(Really, you need no one’s permission, except your inner self: but, sometimes, hearing it from someone else helps.)
(One caveat: this applies to dreams and goals that do no harm to others---of course.)
Have any of you experienced this? The moment when you have permission---from yourself or someone else---to claim your dreams? What did it feel like? What changed for you?
---Batya
Website is almost fully functioning---please visit it at www.UPositive.com. I’d love feedback. The email link isn’t quite working yet, but we’re getting the kinks out. Email remains UPositive55@aol.com for the time being.
Products are halfway there! Nine of the first 18 sayings are available on T-shirts, mugs, coasters, mousepads, magnets, caps, and bumper stickers! Check them out at http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive. Remember---Christmas decorations are out in some stores already, so it’s about time to stock up on stocking stuffers and gifts for yourself and others! If you see a saying you like but would prefer it on a different product, drop me an email and I’ll see what I can do.
SEPTEMBER 19—BIG OFFICIAL UPositive OPENING PARTY!! If you’re in Nashville, TN, drop me an email at UPositive55@aol.com and I’ll send you an invite. Door prizes, fun, great networking opportunity for everyone! Food and wine and creative people everywhere!
PERMISSION GRANTED
One of the joys of my career is to watch people as they realize that going for their personal and professional goals really is ‘okay.’ So many people learn (from parents, teachers, religious leaders, etc.) that working toward their heart’s and soul’s desire is ‘selfish,’ or ‘impossible,’ or ‘just a pipe dream.’
It isn’t. Those things that excite you, that impassion you, that fire up the light in your eyes and the energy in your face---those are goals to go for!
There are clients who come to me hoping it’s okay to say aloud the dreams they’ve carried around silently. That tense up when we start describing and outlining those dreams, taking the first steps toward changing them into goals. As they see the steps emerge on paper…actual actions they can take to live the life they really want…a transformation occurs.
I love watching it.
The anxiety drops and their faces clear. The hazy dullness of their eyes clears and sparks fly. Their backs straighten and their shoulders drop and open. Their voices shift, soften yet become stronger. They breathe deeper. Sometimes they cry.
They become their selves---their centered, empowered selves.
I’m blessed to be present during their transformation, and very thankful that they allow me to see it and experience it with them.
So let me give you all permission---right here and right now---to turn your dreams into goals, your goals into steps, your actions into success!
(Really, you need no one’s permission, except your inner self: but, sometimes, hearing it from someone else helps.)
(One caveat: this applies to dreams and goals that do no harm to others---of course.)
Have any of you experienced this? The moment when you have permission---from yourself or someone else---to claim your dreams? What did it feel like? What changed for you?
---Batya
Monday, July 28, 2008
Catch-Up Days
News
The www.UPositive.com website is definitely up and crawling. It should be up and running soon! Please visit and send me any suggestions or comments for improving it---or just congrats on having it out there (finally)!!! (The subscribe part of the e-newsletter signup isn’t working yet, so if you’d like to be on my mailing list---once every two weeks plus breaking news on rare occasions---please send your email address to me at Batya@UPositive.com from your email---not from the website. It should be fixed soon.)
Look for an announcement soon about a UPositive opening celebration being scheduled for September or October. We’re actively looking for a room, and a date. It’s going to be fun, with door prizes and comedy-relief included! I’ll post the time/date/place here as soon as I have it!
Catch-Up Days
No matter how much visualization, planning, organizing, and scheduling we do, life has a habit of jumping up and grabbing our time and attention. Things take longer than we thought, steps show up we hadn’t thought of, and distractions arise that turn into either needed breaks or necessary additions to our goals lists.
After a week or two, when we review our to-do lists or goals outline, it’s natural to wonder where the time went. Didn’t we plan right? Didn’t we choose the right steps? Are we out of sequence? Where did we go wrong?
It’s worthwhile to check ourselves and correct any mistakes or miscalculations we’ve made. Think of goal attainment as sailing…you don’t get from here to there in a straight line. You tack from side to side, using the weather and the wind to power your journey.
Sometimes, though, it’s not what we’ve done but just life itself that “gets in the way”---and not necessarily negatively. Trust me, if Robert Redford knocked on my door I’d throw my entire to-do list for the week away in a heartbeat, invite him in, and take as long as possible to have a really deep conversation. (Of course, that conversation is on my goals list, it’s just not scheduled into my DayTimer this week.)
So what do we do?
Expect the unexpected. An old adage with a lot of wisdom to it.
What does that mean? For me, it means scheduling in what I call a “catch-up day.” I try to do it every two or three weeks, before the “leftovers” from my DayTimer turn sour or proliferate to overwhelming proportions. Knowing I have the space and time to catch up also releases the stress from seeing leftovers on my to-do list.
A catch-up day is on the schedule with nothing much else around it. I might take a break to go for a walk, or to the gym, but that’s about it. I take out my daily planner, and my goals lists and spend some time reviewing where I’ve been, where I am now, and anything that might be missing. I add and subtract items from the goals list. I go through my to-do lists from the past few weeks and make a list of things I didn’t get to do. Then I schedule those into the next week or two. I update my calendar.
Usually I take the time to re-visualize my goals. Closing my eyes, returning to my relaxed state, I pull up the visualizations of my life five years from now, then three, then next year. By then I have re-energized myself, and I’m ready to get going. This also serves to shortcut the guilt trip I might otherwise pull: “Oy, I should have done that last week”; “How could I have forgotten to call my friend?”; “The meeting was two weeks ago and I haven’t sent my notes yet---why bother, they’ll have forgotten me anyway.” I, like many of you, can go on and on with that goblin-voice in my head. Re-visualizing quiets that voice. Excitement is always more powerful than worry.
After all the organization of my catch-up day morning, I might spend some of the afternoon making some calls or sending some emails that were lost in the rush. Do the follow-up from networking. Send thank you notes. Send great-to-meet you notes. If there are small, quick tasks that fall by the wayside, I might do a few of those, just to check them off the list.
Often, after a catch-up day, I feel refreshed, reorganized, re-inspired. And I try to remember the goals listed under “mental health/relaxation/replenish my mind-body-spirit.” Catch-up days are great for the bubble bath or manicure I’ve been putting off because I’ve been running around too fast trying to GetItAllDone.
So take a day every two to three weeks and play catch-up with yourself!
Do you have your own version of catching up with yourself? Please share it with us along with any other thoughts about this post!!
--Batya
The www.UPositive.com website is definitely up and crawling. It should be up and running soon! Please visit and send me any suggestions or comments for improving it---or just congrats on having it out there (finally)!!! (The subscribe part of the e-newsletter signup isn’t working yet, so if you’d like to be on my mailing list---once every two weeks plus breaking news on rare occasions---please send your email address to me at Batya@UPositive.com from your email---not from the website. It should be fixed soon.)
Look for an announcement soon about a UPositive opening celebration being scheduled for September or October. We’re actively looking for a room, and a date. It’s going to be fun, with door prizes and comedy-relief included! I’ll post the time/date/place here as soon as I have it!
Catch-Up Days
No matter how much visualization, planning, organizing, and scheduling we do, life has a habit of jumping up and grabbing our time and attention. Things take longer than we thought, steps show up we hadn’t thought of, and distractions arise that turn into either needed breaks or necessary additions to our goals lists.
After a week or two, when we review our to-do lists or goals outline, it’s natural to wonder where the time went. Didn’t we plan right? Didn’t we choose the right steps? Are we out of sequence? Where did we go wrong?
It’s worthwhile to check ourselves and correct any mistakes or miscalculations we’ve made. Think of goal attainment as sailing…you don’t get from here to there in a straight line. You tack from side to side, using the weather and the wind to power your journey.
Sometimes, though, it’s not what we’ve done but just life itself that “gets in the way”---and not necessarily negatively. Trust me, if Robert Redford knocked on my door I’d throw my entire to-do list for the week away in a heartbeat, invite him in, and take as long as possible to have a really deep conversation. (Of course, that conversation is on my goals list, it’s just not scheduled into my DayTimer this week.)
So what do we do?
Expect the unexpected. An old adage with a lot of wisdom to it.
What does that mean? For me, it means scheduling in what I call a “catch-up day.” I try to do it every two or three weeks, before the “leftovers” from my DayTimer turn sour or proliferate to overwhelming proportions. Knowing I have the space and time to catch up also releases the stress from seeing leftovers on my to-do list.
A catch-up day is on the schedule with nothing much else around it. I might take a break to go for a walk, or to the gym, but that’s about it. I take out my daily planner, and my goals lists and spend some time reviewing where I’ve been, where I am now, and anything that might be missing. I add and subtract items from the goals list. I go through my to-do lists from the past few weeks and make a list of things I didn’t get to do. Then I schedule those into the next week or two. I update my calendar.
Usually I take the time to re-visualize my goals. Closing my eyes, returning to my relaxed state, I pull up the visualizations of my life five years from now, then three, then next year. By then I have re-energized myself, and I’m ready to get going. This also serves to shortcut the guilt trip I might otherwise pull: “Oy, I should have done that last week”; “How could I have forgotten to call my friend?”; “The meeting was two weeks ago and I haven’t sent my notes yet---why bother, they’ll have forgotten me anyway.” I, like many of you, can go on and on with that goblin-voice in my head. Re-visualizing quiets that voice. Excitement is always more powerful than worry.
After all the organization of my catch-up day morning, I might spend some of the afternoon making some calls or sending some emails that were lost in the rush. Do the follow-up from networking. Send thank you notes. Send great-to-meet you notes. If there are small, quick tasks that fall by the wayside, I might do a few of those, just to check them off the list.
Often, after a catch-up day, I feel refreshed, reorganized, re-inspired. And I try to remember the goals listed under “mental health/relaxation/replenish my mind-body-spirit.” Catch-up days are great for the bubble bath or manicure I’ve been putting off because I’ve been running around too fast trying to GetItAllDone.
So take a day every two to three weeks and play catch-up with yourself!
Do you have your own version of catching up with yourself? Please share it with us along with any other thoughts about this post!!
--Batya
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Aha! vs Just Do It! Creativity Controversy
News!
The www.UPositive.com website is up and crawling…there are some editorial changes and some additions still in process, so it won’t quite be up and running for a few more days (next week?). Please visit! Please give me feedback at Batya@UPositive.com.
The Batya Sez… shop (you can reach it through the Shop page on the website, or directly through www.cafepress.com/UPositive is working! It needs a lot of editing, and so far has only T-shirts and mousepads for half the motivational/inspirational/slightly cynical/and just plain funny sayings that will soon be there. At some point in the near future, there will be caps and mugs, magnets and coasters, bumper stickers, and more…and nine more sayings! Check it out---get yourself or someone you know a gift…and come back often! (I don’t think the Thank-You page is connected yet, so let me say Thank You now!
The first eBook….The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People…is waiting for its isbn number and for me to figure out which server(?) to attach it to. So…foreseeable future!
The Aha! or Just Do It! Creativity Controversy
I’ve been joining a lot of social/business networks lately, and visiting some interesting forums. This week, one of them focused on the question of creativity and moods, or style of creativity. The musician/songwriter wondered if people thought it better to create from those moments of inspiration or from sitting down and forcing the creative act. Here’s my response, with a bit more detail than I fit in the post:
I think it's (d) all of the above.
The more you use your right brain, the more open it is to receiving input, and the more available it is to you. Although that's not quite right.
The right brain is always receiving input: sensory, emotive, whole-picture (forest-type), metaphorical. The trick is opening the path from right to left brain---bringing it into awareness and available thought (left brain). It's cleaning up, calling in the road crews, and widening the corpus callosum, which is the connector between right and left brains. The more you use it, the easier its use becomes. You want to introduce your right brain to your left brain and get them talking to each other.
Personally, I sometimes write with that sudden "Aha!" inspiration. Other times, sit me down in a nice comfy chair, with pen(cil) and paper or laptop, tell me "write!" and it happens. When I was working on Barbie fashions, I could grab a piece of material and a doll, without any preconceived idea, and just start draping. Sometimes, though, I’d walk through my workday with an image of a dress floating just behind my eyes, rush home, and execute the piece---with or without a sketch.
I realize not everyone works this way, and I'm not saying it's the best or worst way to do it---the creative process and judgment don't go well together, until you get to the Edit stage.
First---figure out your own style, and encourage it. Organize your time as best as possible around those activities or triggers that already invite your Muse in. If you write best in the morning, wake up early with your inspiration open. If you design best late at night, clear a space in your home where you won’t bother others as they sleep. Maximize what already works for you.
Then, encourage your brains to talk to each other any time, everywhere. Beckon up your Muse: invent a chant, light a candle, find a talisman---create a small ritual to call him/her present. With some repetition, this works remarkably well. The Muse, after all, comes through the right---symbolic---brain.
Practice, practice, practice. Sweep and stretch the corpus callosum, let your right and left brains sit down to coffee together regularly. Train them to pay respectful attention to each other, to inform each other of their needs.
Any other thoughts on the Aha! vs Just Do It creativity controversy?
--Batya
The www.UPositive.com website is up and crawling…there are some editorial changes and some additions still in process, so it won’t quite be up and running for a few more days (next week?). Please visit! Please give me feedback at Batya@UPositive.com.
The Batya Sez… shop (you can reach it through the Shop page on the website, or directly through www.cafepress.com/UPositive is working! It needs a lot of editing, and so far has only T-shirts and mousepads for half the motivational/inspirational/slightly cynical/and just plain funny sayings that will soon be there. At some point in the near future, there will be caps and mugs, magnets and coasters, bumper stickers, and more…and nine more sayings! Check it out---get yourself or someone you know a gift…and come back often! (I don’t think the Thank-You page is connected yet, so let me say Thank You now!
The first eBook….The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People…is waiting for its isbn number and for me to figure out which server(?) to attach it to. So…foreseeable future!
The Aha! or Just Do It! Creativity Controversy
I’ve been joining a lot of social/business networks lately, and visiting some interesting forums. This week, one of them focused on the question of creativity and moods, or style of creativity. The musician/songwriter wondered if people thought it better to create from those moments of inspiration or from sitting down and forcing the creative act. Here’s my response, with a bit more detail than I fit in the post:
I think it's (d) all of the above.
The more you use your right brain, the more open it is to receiving input, and the more available it is to you. Although that's not quite right.
The right brain is always receiving input: sensory, emotive, whole-picture (forest-type), metaphorical. The trick is opening the path from right to left brain---bringing it into awareness and available thought (left brain). It's cleaning up, calling in the road crews, and widening the corpus callosum, which is the connector between right and left brains. The more you use it, the easier its use becomes. You want to introduce your right brain to your left brain and get them talking to each other.
Personally, I sometimes write with that sudden "Aha!" inspiration. Other times, sit me down in a nice comfy chair, with pen(cil) and paper or laptop, tell me "write!" and it happens. When I was working on Barbie fashions, I could grab a piece of material and a doll, without any preconceived idea, and just start draping. Sometimes, though, I’d walk through my workday with an image of a dress floating just behind my eyes, rush home, and execute the piece---with or without a sketch.
I realize not everyone works this way, and I'm not saying it's the best or worst way to do it---the creative process and judgment don't go well together, until you get to the Edit stage.
First---figure out your own style, and encourage it. Organize your time as best as possible around those activities or triggers that already invite your Muse in. If you write best in the morning, wake up early with your inspiration open. If you design best late at night, clear a space in your home where you won’t bother others as they sleep. Maximize what already works for you.
Then, encourage your brains to talk to each other any time, everywhere. Beckon up your Muse: invent a chant, light a candle, find a talisman---create a small ritual to call him/her present. With some repetition, this works remarkably well. The Muse, after all, comes through the right---symbolic---brain.
Practice, practice, practice. Sweep and stretch the corpus callosum, let your right and left brains sit down to coffee together regularly. Train them to pay respectful attention to each other, to inform each other of their needs.
Any other thoughts on the Aha! vs Just Do It creativity controversy?
--Batya
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Fear of Success/Fear of Failure
News!
The new August-September 2008 videos will be up by the end of the week. The new UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching Goal Attainment Tip is about making decisions, and the Creativity Challenge focuses on synesthesia (“joined perception”). Take a look/listen at www.YouTube.com/UPositive. Thank you Lance!
The first items from Batya Sez… UPositive’s product line of motivational, inspirational, slightly cynical, and just plain fun sayings on caps and T-shirts, mousepads and mugs, magnets and more should also be available by the end of this week. You can find them through the Shop link at www.UPositive.com or through www.CafePress.com/UPositive (I haven’t tested this link yet…if it changes I’ll post the new one here next Monday). The second batch of items should be available in another week or so.
The Website, www.UPositive.com, is semi-functional!!!! There are some important changes that will be posted in a few days; the eBook is ready but not yet connected to the site, and the Links page is not up-to-date but will be soon. Feel free to wander around the site and let me know what you think!
Look for a big grand opening party in mid-September! Details will be available by the end of this month!
Fear of Failure/Fear of Success
In the past two weeks, the topic of fear in relation to creative activity and/or goal attainment has come up a number of times. I’m not going to address the difference between the fear of failure vs the fear of success here, because the results are the same: we become stuck, inactive, unable to accomplish our desires, and often depressed.
Fear is an interesting emotion. Most of our emotions reside in the right brain. Fear, on the other hand, seems to originate in the left brain, jump the dividing line of the corpus callosum, and take up residence in the right brain. There, it masquerades as an intense emotion rather than the belief(s) that it is.
“I might fail,” is a thought, not an emotion, and the resulting beliefs, such as “I’m not good enough,” or “Then I am worthless,” or “Then no one will love me,” or many other possible thoughts jump up with it. Sometimes they’re just under the surface of awareness, but with a bit of scratching through, we’ll find them.
When we allow fear of failure/success to run our lives, to make choices regarding actions on the to-do list of attaining our goals, we often fall into a depression, which further shackles our forward motion. Often, breaking through depression requires taking action no matter what: whether we feel like we want to or not. (Biochemical depression might need a biochemical response as well as taking action). Even very small activities can engender increased energy.
I think the most powerful tool to fight the fear of failure/success is courage. Courage is often a doing-it-anyway attitude. I’m going to try whether I fail or succeed. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “the only true failure is in not trying” or some such wording. Courage is something we all have because it can be made up. Courage can come from “living as if” as often as it comes from some personality strength. It can be derived from stubbornness (“I won’t let that stop me!”) and from rebelliousness (“So, left brain, you think you have the last word? I don’t think so!”). In breaking through fear of failure/success, it doesn’t really matter where your courage comes from. Gather it together and use it.
Take a look through the Shop page at UPositive.com (well, in a week or two). If you need a reminder, the “Do it Anyway” products, with their inner-goblin faces, will remind you that you’re not alone in this battle against your fears.
The other recommendation I have for addressing and conquering the fear of failure/success is to let go of your desire for perfection. We’re human: perfection belongs to God/gods/the Universe (whatever your belief, please translate to your own understanding). Accept that you’re going to fail at being perfect.
The Dine People (Navajo) added a dream thread to their weavings, which wandered through the rugs at a meandering diagonal while all the other threads were at right-angles. The Japanese build a flaw into their pottery. Both do these for the same reason: what they create should not be perfect, cannot be perfect, isn’t meant to be perfect. They’re human. Even their most successful creations are imperfect. And they see a beauty in that.
The August-September UPositive Goal Attainment video about decision-making addresses the fear of making choices, and offers a process to break through and make the best-possible choice of the moment. Take a look: it might be helpful to you.
There’s a lot more conversation possible about fear of failure/success. I’d like to hear your thoughts, suggestions, and experiences about it. Please post your comments and stories here.
Note: Primal fear---of such things as loud noises, falling, possibly the dark, large animals with sharp teeth growling at us, and, in Romania especially, Dracula, arises from our Reptilian brain, but is not the topic of this conversation.
---Batya
The new August-September 2008 videos will be up by the end of the week. The new UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching Goal Attainment Tip is about making decisions, and the Creativity Challenge focuses on synesthesia (“joined perception”). Take a look/listen at www.YouTube.com/UPositive. Thank you Lance!
The first items from Batya Sez… UPositive’s product line of motivational, inspirational, slightly cynical, and just plain fun sayings on caps and T-shirts, mousepads and mugs, magnets and more should also be available by the end of this week. You can find them through the Shop link at www.UPositive.com or through www.CafePress.com/UPositive (I haven’t tested this link yet…if it changes I’ll post the new one here next Monday). The second batch of items should be available in another week or so.
The Website, www.UPositive.com, is semi-functional!!!! There are some important changes that will be posted in a few days; the eBook is ready but not yet connected to the site, and the Links page is not up-to-date but will be soon. Feel free to wander around the site and let me know what you think!
Look for a big grand opening party in mid-September! Details will be available by the end of this month!
Fear of Failure/Fear of Success
In the past two weeks, the topic of fear in relation to creative activity and/or goal attainment has come up a number of times. I’m not going to address the difference between the fear of failure vs the fear of success here, because the results are the same: we become stuck, inactive, unable to accomplish our desires, and often depressed.
Fear is an interesting emotion. Most of our emotions reside in the right brain. Fear, on the other hand, seems to originate in the left brain, jump the dividing line of the corpus callosum, and take up residence in the right brain. There, it masquerades as an intense emotion rather than the belief(s) that it is.
“I might fail,” is a thought, not an emotion, and the resulting beliefs, such as “I’m not good enough,” or “Then I am worthless,” or “Then no one will love me,” or many other possible thoughts jump up with it. Sometimes they’re just under the surface of awareness, but with a bit of scratching through, we’ll find them.
When we allow fear of failure/success to run our lives, to make choices regarding actions on the to-do list of attaining our goals, we often fall into a depression, which further shackles our forward motion. Often, breaking through depression requires taking action no matter what: whether we feel like we want to or not. (Biochemical depression might need a biochemical response as well as taking action). Even very small activities can engender increased energy.
I think the most powerful tool to fight the fear of failure/success is courage. Courage is often a doing-it-anyway attitude. I’m going to try whether I fail or succeed. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “the only true failure is in not trying” or some such wording. Courage is something we all have because it can be made up. Courage can come from “living as if” as often as it comes from some personality strength. It can be derived from stubbornness (“I won’t let that stop me!”) and from rebelliousness (“So, left brain, you think you have the last word? I don’t think so!”). In breaking through fear of failure/success, it doesn’t really matter where your courage comes from. Gather it together and use it.
Take a look through the Shop page at UPositive.com (well, in a week or two). If you need a reminder, the “Do it Anyway” products, with their inner-goblin faces, will remind you that you’re not alone in this battle against your fears.
The other recommendation I have for addressing and conquering the fear of failure/success is to let go of your desire for perfection. We’re human: perfection belongs to God/gods/the Universe (whatever your belief, please translate to your own understanding). Accept that you’re going to fail at being perfect.
The Dine People (Navajo) added a dream thread to their weavings, which wandered through the rugs at a meandering diagonal while all the other threads were at right-angles. The Japanese build a flaw into their pottery. Both do these for the same reason: what they create should not be perfect, cannot be perfect, isn’t meant to be perfect. They’re human. Even their most successful creations are imperfect. And they see a beauty in that.
The August-September UPositive Goal Attainment video about decision-making addresses the fear of making choices, and offers a process to break through and make the best-possible choice of the moment. Take a look: it might be helpful to you.
There’s a lot more conversation possible about fear of failure/success. I’d like to hear your thoughts, suggestions, and experiences about it. Please post your comments and stories here.
Note: Primal fear---of such things as loud noises, falling, possibly the dark, large animals with sharp teeth growling at us, and, in Romania especially, Dracula, arises from our Reptilian brain, but is not the topic of this conversation.
---Batya
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Welcome to the Age of the Right Brain
As I sifted through a pile of months-old New York Times papers, I came across an interesting article in the Business Section of April 6th. It caught my eye with the title: “Let Computers Compute. It’s the Age of the Right Brain.” Yes!
The article, in a nutshell, emphasizes not only the importance but also the need for creativity in the business setting. This certainly isn’t a new thought, but it has taken a number of decades for it to gain some weight in the business community.
As the NYT article states, we have entered a “Creative Economy” and the “Conceptual Age.” It points out the somewhat obvious: that computers and cheap labor in Asia are now doing much of the left-brain work of the previous American workforce. The left-brain work of creating and using computers, which can now handle many of the sequential skills of that hemisphere, has made much of its own work obsolete.
The left brain is outsourcing and automating itself. For instance, can you remember the last time a live person answered a business phone? Or when customer service for a product didn’t start out (and for the most part complete) your problems by computer?
Business Coaches may well be at the forefront of encouraging creative thinking in corporate America. They use brainstorming (a right-brain activity), drawing, journaling, and other right-brain activities to teach problem-solving from new angles. Thinking outside the box is now encouraged in many major corporations, at least on the management level.
That’s great news!
I think, however, that it’s going to take a while for it to trickle down to the mid-size company, and certainly longer to trickle down to below management level, if it ever does. Is that a hint of cynicism? Yes. I’d love to hear experiences that prove me wrong about it, though.
It’s a good sign, anyway. Certainly, the fact that creativity in the business setting is addressed by the New York Times Business Section, means that the topic is up for conversation. Entering the awareness of the general populace, creativity just might have a positive effect in places we can only imagine (yup, with our right brains!).
It’s my firm belief that the more we use our right brain in all areas of our lives, as individuals, as groups, as communities, as businesses, as a country…the better off we’ll be. The right brain sees the whole picture---it sees humanity as one thing, for instance---rather than categorizing. Certainly, there are more than enough prejudiced artists, writers, singers, et cetera in the creative community, but taking an educated guess I imagine the percentage is lower than in the general population. The right brain tends to be inclusive and sees similarities; it puts things together in patterns the left brain is too busy categorizing to notice.
And anything that encourages creative productivity in any form is on the plus side of my ledger-of-life.
So I’m on board to welcome the “Conceptual Age”---bring it on! My right brain is ready: is yours?
--Batya
The article, in a nutshell, emphasizes not only the importance but also the need for creativity in the business setting. This certainly isn’t a new thought, but it has taken a number of decades for it to gain some weight in the business community.
As the NYT article states, we have entered a “Creative Economy” and the “Conceptual Age.” It points out the somewhat obvious: that computers and cheap labor in Asia are now doing much of the left-brain work of the previous American workforce. The left-brain work of creating and using computers, which can now handle many of the sequential skills of that hemisphere, has made much of its own work obsolete.
The left brain is outsourcing and automating itself. For instance, can you remember the last time a live person answered a business phone? Or when customer service for a product didn’t start out (and for the most part complete) your problems by computer?
Business Coaches may well be at the forefront of encouraging creative thinking in corporate America. They use brainstorming (a right-brain activity), drawing, journaling, and other right-brain activities to teach problem-solving from new angles. Thinking outside the box is now encouraged in many major corporations, at least on the management level.
That’s great news!
I think, however, that it’s going to take a while for it to trickle down to the mid-size company, and certainly longer to trickle down to below management level, if it ever does. Is that a hint of cynicism? Yes. I’d love to hear experiences that prove me wrong about it, though.
It’s a good sign, anyway. Certainly, the fact that creativity in the business setting is addressed by the New York Times Business Section, means that the topic is up for conversation. Entering the awareness of the general populace, creativity just might have a positive effect in places we can only imagine (yup, with our right brains!).
It’s my firm belief that the more we use our right brain in all areas of our lives, as individuals, as groups, as communities, as businesses, as a country…the better off we’ll be. The right brain sees the whole picture---it sees humanity as one thing, for instance---rather than categorizing. Certainly, there are more than enough prejudiced artists, writers, singers, et cetera in the creative community, but taking an educated guess I imagine the percentage is lower than in the general population. The right brain tends to be inclusive and sees similarities; it puts things together in patterns the left brain is too busy categorizing to notice.
And anything that encourages creative productivity in any form is on the plus side of my ledger-of-life.
So I’m on board to welcome the “Conceptual Age”---bring it on! My right brain is ready: is yours?
--Batya
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The Best Laid Plans...
I’ve been contemplating the realities of life lately, after hearing stories from a number of my friends about not reaching their goals. What happens when you’ve envisioned your goals, set them, planned the steps to them, taken the steps, remained positive, and still not reached your goals?
My first response is to revisit the process: Is the vision detailed? Anchored through the senses? Can you really feel the accomplishment when you imagine it? Have you held that vision with you during the process, revisiting it over and over? Were there steps that you skipped? Was your positive attitude surface only, or were you committed to it?
These are not questions to make anyone “wrong” but a review similar to what is done in any business to learn where to improve, where to tweak the process, where to redirect energy.
Other questions arise: Is this the goal you really want---or one you think you should want? Is there another path to take to reach it?
Can you still work toward the goal? Is it the timing you set for yourself what you’ve failed at? If so, readjust your calendar. Find alternate steps to take. Perhaps there’s a skill you need to learn, new people to meet, someone you need to hire to help you along the way.
If you’ve decided to abandon this particular goal, there are some steps I recommend while doing so. (1) Take a good look at how much you’ve accomplished and learned along the way. (2) What other goals did you accomplish to get as far as you have? (3) How does the process you’ve been through apply to your future?
I truly believe that every honest endeavor we undertake has value. Perhaps gleaning the value from what we term “failure” is the real treasure.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Have there been times when you did not reach the goals you set for yourself? What did you do? What have you learned from the process. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic!
--Batya
My first response is to revisit the process: Is the vision detailed? Anchored through the senses? Can you really feel the accomplishment when you imagine it? Have you held that vision with you during the process, revisiting it over and over? Were there steps that you skipped? Was your positive attitude surface only, or were you committed to it?
These are not questions to make anyone “wrong” but a review similar to what is done in any business to learn where to improve, where to tweak the process, where to redirect energy.
Other questions arise: Is this the goal you really want---or one you think you should want? Is there another path to take to reach it?
Can you still work toward the goal? Is it the timing you set for yourself what you’ve failed at? If so, readjust your calendar. Find alternate steps to take. Perhaps there’s a skill you need to learn, new people to meet, someone you need to hire to help you along the way.
If you’ve decided to abandon this particular goal, there are some steps I recommend while doing so. (1) Take a good look at how much you’ve accomplished and learned along the way. (2) What other goals did you accomplish to get as far as you have? (3) How does the process you’ve been through apply to your future?
I truly believe that every honest endeavor we undertake has value. Perhaps gleaning the value from what we term “failure” is the real treasure.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Have there been times when you did not reach the goals you set for yourself? What did you do? What have you learned from the process. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic!
--Batya
Monday, June 16, 2008
Websites and Babies
(Old) News
The Nashville Goal-Attainment Meetup continues on Tuesdays at 6 pm. Please sign up for this empowering group at http://self-improvement.meetup.com/279/. I'll be guiding people through a supportive process of getting to the goals they've already chosen. This is the Getting It Done! chance for success! Creative and everyday goals are welcome. It's an open group: come when you can!
Time Management for Creative People will be presented at the Songwriter’s Guild of America the next two Thursdays (19th and 26th) of June. Please go to www.songwritersguild.com to sign up. I’ll be presenting the seminar over two evenings: Thursdays, June 19th and 26th. First step in Time Management: put it on your calendars now! We’ll be talking about organizing, scheduling, and a lot more than that! As usual in my workshops, I’ll be addressing the special issues creative folks face in accomplishing left-brain activities such as managing time. We’ll be doing some fun right-brain activities, too. Conquering time management (yes, wear your chain-mail outfits!) leaves you more time to succeed with your creative endeavors! So, what are you waiting for? Seating is (really and truly) limited, so reserve now. Kimberly’s waiting to hear from you!
Website News The to-do list to get www.UPositive.com up and running is now less than a page long, double-spaced! The two May videos are still up on YouTube, and will stay up for the month of June...and maybe July. Check them out and enter the creativity challenge! I’m still looking for help in creating a virtual party for the day when www.UPositive.com is up and running!
My first eBook, Goal Attainment for Creative People, is being edited by my wonderful friend Elysabeth Eldering and will be available through the www.UPositive.com Website once that’s up, so please look for it there! Next goal is to create some fun products related to creativity, goal attainment, and just plain silliness; they’ll be available from CafePress.com in a week or two, and there will be a link from the Website.
TEN TOP REASONS WHY CREATING A WEBSITE IS LIKE HAVING A BABY
This week's blog is going to be short and sweet. It'll explain all you need to know about where I am with the Website.
10. You eat a lot during its gestation, especially chocolate.
9. It takes about 9 months to get it out in the world.
8. Web designer is as costly---and as necessary---as an obstetrician.
7. It requires all your attention, all the time.
6. It wants to grow up big and strong quicker than it’s ready to.
5. It gets into trouble every time you try to ignore it for a minute.
4. It (well, you) gets very whiny, cries, and even throws things.
3. It doesn’t always play well with others (blogs, YouTube, etc.)
2. You have to arrange for play dates (links).
1. It gets jealous whenever you try to accomplish something else.
The Nashville Goal-Attainment Meetup continues on Tuesdays at 6 pm. Please sign up for this empowering group at http://self-improvement.meetup.com/279/. I'll be guiding people through a supportive process of getting to the goals they've already chosen. This is the Getting It Done! chance for success! Creative and everyday goals are welcome. It's an open group: come when you can!
Time Management for Creative People will be presented at the Songwriter’s Guild of America the next two Thursdays (19th and 26th) of June. Please go to www.songwritersguild.com to sign up. I’ll be presenting the seminar over two evenings: Thursdays, June 19th and 26th. First step in Time Management: put it on your calendars now! We’ll be talking about organizing, scheduling, and a lot more than that! As usual in my workshops, I’ll be addressing the special issues creative folks face in accomplishing left-brain activities such as managing time. We’ll be doing some fun right-brain activities, too. Conquering time management (yes, wear your chain-mail outfits!) leaves you more time to succeed with your creative endeavors! So, what are you waiting for? Seating is (really and truly) limited, so reserve now. Kimberly’s waiting to hear from you!
Website News The to-do list to get www.UPositive.com up and running is now less than a page long, double-spaced! The two May videos are still up on YouTube, and will stay up for the month of June...and maybe July. Check them out and enter the creativity challenge! I’m still looking for help in creating a virtual party for the day when www.UPositive.com is up and running!
My first eBook, Goal Attainment for Creative People, is being edited by my wonderful friend Elysabeth Eldering and will be available through the www.UPositive.com Website once that’s up, so please look for it there! Next goal is to create some fun products related to creativity, goal attainment, and just plain silliness; they’ll be available from CafePress.com in a week or two, and there will be a link from the Website.
TEN TOP REASONS WHY CREATING A WEBSITE IS LIKE HAVING A BABY
This week's blog is going to be short and sweet. It'll explain all you need to know about where I am with the Website.
10. You eat a lot during its gestation, especially chocolate.
9. It takes about 9 months to get it out in the world.
8. Web designer is as costly---and as necessary---as an obstetrician.
7. It requires all your attention, all the time.
6. It wants to grow up big and strong quicker than it’s ready to.
5. It gets into trouble every time you try to ignore it for a minute.
4. It (well, you) gets very whiny, cries, and even throws things.
3. It doesn’t always play well with others (blogs, YouTube, etc.)
2. You have to arrange for play dates (links).
1. It gets jealous whenever you try to accomplish something else.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Creativity & "Madness" 2nd look
News and not-so-new news
The Nashville Goal-Attainment Meetup continues on Tuesdays at 6 pm. Please sign up for this empowering group at http://self-improvement.meetup.com/279/. This is the Getting It Done! chance for success! Ifyou really want to create the life you dream of, this is the place that can help you get it done! Creative and everyday goals are welcome. It's an open group: come when you can!
Time Management for Creative People will be presented at the Songwriter’s Guild of America on June 18th and 26th (both are Thursday evenings). That's next week, people! Please go to www.songwritersguild.com to sign up. First step in Time Management: put it on your calendars now! We’ll be talking about organizing, scheduling, and a lot more than that! As usual in my workshops, I’ll be addressing the special issues creative folks face in accomplishing left-brain activities such as managing time. We’ll be doing some fun right-brain activities, too. Managing time leads to increased success in your creative endeavors! So, what are you waiting for? Seating is (really and truly) limited, so reserve now. Kimberly’s waiting to hear from you!
Website News The to-do list to get www.UPositive.com up and running is showing some actual check-it's-done marks! The two May videos remain up on YouTube. Check them out and enter the creativity challenge! They'll be there throughout June, too; I'll aim to start new ones on a monthly basis in July. Does anyone know how to create a virtual party for the day when www.UPositive.com is up and running?
My first eBook, Goal Attainment for Creative People, will available from the Webite as soon as it's active. I’m also busy creating some fun products---coffee mugs, T-shirts, caps, magnets, etc.---related to creativity, goal attainment, and just plain silliness. Does anyone out there know how to maneuver in CafePress.com?
CREATIVITY & MADNESS (2nd look)
There’s actually an annual week-long seminar out in Santa Fe that I’m planning to attend one of these years, by that title. Intriguing workshops, though most are based on examining the work of a particular well-known artist (broadest definition of the term), usually past, in the light of their mental health issues or personality quirks. It leaves much to be desired, as far as I can tell, but the title of the retreat draws me to it, hopefully not in the moth-to-flame kind of way.
What interests me much more are inquiries into the chicken-or-egg type of controversy over “madness” and creativity. Most of the studies I’ve read approach the topic with how the symptoms of a mental health diagnosis---such as depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder---affect the creative process, either feeding it or detracting from it.
Many salient points are explored in those approaches: how the listlessness and lack of energy of depression keep writers from their work; how being unable to focus leaves many artistic works unfinished, frustrating the artist; how anxiety about failure or success leaves many works unmarketed, or even uncreated.
I like this approach, as it provides quite a bit of insight into problems my friends, colleagues, and clients face.
But it leaves something out. Something I’ve experienced myself, and something---once I broach the topic---many creative people relate to.
Avoiding creative action can exacerbate the symptoms of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, ADD, OCD, or any number of other “madnesses.” When I have stories or songs brewing inside me and don’t make the time to release them onto paper or laptop, a particular kind of frustration sets in. If I continue to avoid creating, the frustration turns to anger, or anxiety, or a cloudlike depression that begins to affect my mood and other activities. It slows me down, though I tend to try to speed up in everything I do.
Truth is, if I don't make time for the creative outflow, no matter how fast I think I'm doing everything else, I tend to wander in circles. It takes more hours to accomplish fewer tasks. My attention, my life-force, my internal Power is off-kilter, mucking up the clarity with which I otherwise work.
What are your experiences: does your anxiety/depression/etc. work for or against your creativity? Does your avoidance of creativity increase or decrease your mental-health symptoms? I'd love to read your thoughts on the topic!
--Batya
The Nashville Goal-Attainment Meetup continues on Tuesdays at 6 pm. Please sign up for this empowering group at http://self-improvement.meetup.com/279/. This is the Getting It Done! chance for success! Ifyou really want to create the life you dream of, this is the place that can help you get it done! Creative and everyday goals are welcome. It's an open group: come when you can!
Time Management for Creative People will be presented at the Songwriter’s Guild of America on June 18th and 26th (both are Thursday evenings). That's next week, people! Please go to www.songwritersguild.com to sign up. First step in Time Management: put it on your calendars now! We’ll be talking about organizing, scheduling, and a lot more than that! As usual in my workshops, I’ll be addressing the special issues creative folks face in accomplishing left-brain activities such as managing time. We’ll be doing some fun right-brain activities, too. Managing time leads to increased success in your creative endeavors! So, what are you waiting for? Seating is (really and truly) limited, so reserve now. Kimberly’s waiting to hear from you!
Website News The to-do list to get www.UPositive.com up and running is showing some actual check-it's-done marks! The two May videos remain up on YouTube. Check them out and enter the creativity challenge! They'll be there throughout June, too; I'll aim to start new ones on a monthly basis in July. Does anyone know how to create a virtual party for the day when www.UPositive.com is up and running?
My first eBook, Goal Attainment for Creative People, will available from the Webite as soon as it's active. I’m also busy creating some fun products---coffee mugs, T-shirts, caps, magnets, etc.---related to creativity, goal attainment, and just plain silliness. Does anyone out there know how to maneuver in CafePress.com?
CREATIVITY & MADNESS (2nd look)
There’s actually an annual week-long seminar out in Santa Fe that I’m planning to attend one of these years, by that title. Intriguing workshops, though most are based on examining the work of a particular well-known artist (broadest definition of the term), usually past, in the light of their mental health issues or personality quirks. It leaves much to be desired, as far as I can tell, but the title of the retreat draws me to it, hopefully not in the moth-to-flame kind of way.
What interests me much more are inquiries into the chicken-or-egg type of controversy over “madness” and creativity. Most of the studies I’ve read approach the topic with how the symptoms of a mental health diagnosis---such as depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder---affect the creative process, either feeding it or detracting from it.
Many salient points are explored in those approaches: how the listlessness and lack of energy of depression keep writers from their work; how being unable to focus leaves many artistic works unfinished, frustrating the artist; how anxiety about failure or success leaves many works unmarketed, or even uncreated.
I like this approach, as it provides quite a bit of insight into problems my friends, colleagues, and clients face.
But it leaves something out. Something I’ve experienced myself, and something---once I broach the topic---many creative people relate to.
Avoiding creative action can exacerbate the symptoms of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, ADD, OCD, or any number of other “madnesses.” When I have stories or songs brewing inside me and don’t make the time to release them onto paper or laptop, a particular kind of frustration sets in. If I continue to avoid creating, the frustration turns to anger, or anxiety, or a cloudlike depression that begins to affect my mood and other activities. It slows me down, though I tend to try to speed up in everything I do.
Truth is, if I don't make time for the creative outflow, no matter how fast I think I'm doing everything else, I tend to wander in circles. It takes more hours to accomplish fewer tasks. My attention, my life-force, my internal Power is off-kilter, mucking up the clarity with which I otherwise work.
What are your experiences: does your anxiety/depression/etc. work for or against your creativity? Does your avoidance of creativity increase or decrease your mental-health symptoms? I'd love to read your thoughts on the topic!
--Batya
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Lost in Cyberia
Apologies to anyone who is kind enough to read this blog regularly and is wondering where this week's post is....it being Thursday and my usual posts occur on Monday (well, maybe Tuesday morning).
The Website is coming along...it'll be ready any time now...
I have been lost in Cyberia for the past two weeks trying to get it ready! There's sooooo much to it! Debbie at Digiroo.com has been wonderful, and patient, and kind, and brilliant in doing the web-building and designing....it's going to be great!
(I've also been fighting a bad tooth infection, and on meds...it might not have been an intelligent post anyway!)
New posts will return this coming Monday, June `9.
In the meantime, sign up with the Songwriter's Guild of America for the two-evening seminar on Time Management for Creative People. You'll have more time for your creative pursuits, get more done, and feel less frazzled by the end of it! http://www.songwritersguild.com/
The Goal Attainment Meetup of Nashville still meets Tuesday evenings at 6 pm for those of you willing to put effort into your dreams and aspirations. We won't be meeting the first Tuesday of the month because Chuck Whiting just asked me to help emcee his Tunesmithing Nights at Borders (I'll get you that link!). Check out the details for the Meetup at http://self-improvement.meetup.com/279/.
Have a wonderful weekend. See you on Monday!
--Batya
The Website is coming along...it'll be ready any time now...
I have been lost in Cyberia for the past two weeks trying to get it ready! There's sooooo much to it! Debbie at Digiroo.com has been wonderful, and patient, and kind, and brilliant in doing the web-building and designing....it's going to be great!
(I've also been fighting a bad tooth infection, and on meds...it might not have been an intelligent post anyway!)
New posts will return this coming Monday, June `9.
In the meantime, sign up with the Songwriter's Guild of America for the two-evening seminar on Time Management for Creative People. You'll have more time for your creative pursuits, get more done, and feel less frazzled by the end of it! http://www.songwritersguild.com/
The Goal Attainment Meetup of Nashville still meets Tuesday evenings at 6 pm for those of you willing to put effort into your dreams and aspirations. We won't be meeting the first Tuesday of the month because Chuck Whiting just asked me to help emcee his Tunesmithing Nights at Borders (I'll get you that link!). Check out the details for the Meetup at http://self-improvement.meetup.com/279/.
Have a wonderful weekend. See you on Monday!
--Batya
Monday, May 26, 2008
Freedom
The Nashville Goal-Attainment Meetup continues on Tuesdays at 6 pm. Please sign up for this empowering group at http://self-improvement.meetup.com/279/. I'll be guiding people through a supportive process of getting to the goals they've already chosen. This is the Getting It Done! chance for success! Creative and everyday goals are welcome. It's an open group: come when you can! We meet May 27, then skip a week for Chuck Whiting/SGA’s Tunesmithing at Border’s on West End---come join us!. We meet again June 10 if you miss tomorrow’s goals meeting.
Time Management for Creative People will be presented at the Songwriter’s Guild of America in June. June is soon, people! Please go to http://www.songwritersguild.com/ to sign up. I’ll be presenting the seminar over two evenings: Thursdays, June 19th and 26th. First step in Time Management: put it on your calendars now! We’ll be talking about organizing, scheduling, and a lot more than that! As usual in my workshops, I’ll be addressing the special issues creative folks face in accomplishing left-brain activities such as managing time. We’ll be doing some fun right-brain activities, too. Conquering time management (yes, wear your chain-mail outfits!) leaves you more time to succeed with your creative endeavors! So, what are you waiting for? Seating is (really and truly) limited, so reserve now. Kimberly’s waiting to hear from you!
Website News The to-do list to get www.UPositive.com up and running is now less than a page long, double-spaced! The two May videos are up on YouTube, and will stay up for the month of June. Check them out and enter the creativity challenge! I’m still looking for help in creating a virtual party for the day when www.UPositive.com is up and running!
My first eBook, Goal Attainment for Creative People, is being edited by my wonderful friend Elysabeth Eldering and will be available through the www.UPositive.com Website once that’s up, so please look for it there! Next goal is to create some fun products related to creativity, goal attainment, and just plain silliness; they’ll be available from CafePress.com in a week or two, and there will be a link from the Website.
Freedom
It’s Memorial Day. Day of memories. Day of being thankful to those who have given their lives for our freedoms.
I keep reminding myself that freedom isn’t about how far I can afford to drive in my car this week, given the rising gas prices: it’s about the right to go where I want when I want to, even if I have to walk! Freedom isn’t about which candidate I’m going to vote for: it’s about being able to go to the polls unaccosted in order to vote.
Like many Americans, I love my country: at the same time, I appreciate having the freedom to criticize it, admonish it for not living up to its own high ideals, and speaking out against the injustices I see it perpetrating. This doesn’t make me less American---it makes me more American. Participating in the government isn’t just a right, I believe it’s a responsibility.
My challenge to anyone reading this blog is to write / sculpt / dance / sing / build / whittle / knit your creative expression of freedom.
If you’d like to post it here to share with others---please do!
And thank you to all those who have given their lives so that we are free to continue in the expression and experience of our freedoms in America.
--Batya
Time Management for Creative People will be presented at the Songwriter’s Guild of America in June. June is soon, people! Please go to http://www.songwritersguild.com/ to sign up. I’ll be presenting the seminar over two evenings: Thursdays, June 19th and 26th. First step in Time Management: put it on your calendars now! We’ll be talking about organizing, scheduling, and a lot more than that! As usual in my workshops, I’ll be addressing the special issues creative folks face in accomplishing left-brain activities such as managing time. We’ll be doing some fun right-brain activities, too. Conquering time management (yes, wear your chain-mail outfits!) leaves you more time to succeed with your creative endeavors! So, what are you waiting for? Seating is (really and truly) limited, so reserve now. Kimberly’s waiting to hear from you!
Website News The to-do list to get www.UPositive.com up and running is now less than a page long, double-spaced! The two May videos are up on YouTube, and will stay up for the month of June. Check them out and enter the creativity challenge! I’m still looking for help in creating a virtual party for the day when www.UPositive.com is up and running!
My first eBook, Goal Attainment for Creative People, is being edited by my wonderful friend Elysabeth Eldering and will be available through the www.UPositive.com Website once that’s up, so please look for it there! Next goal is to create some fun products related to creativity, goal attainment, and just plain silliness; they’ll be available from CafePress.com in a week or two, and there will be a link from the Website.
Freedom
It’s Memorial Day. Day of memories. Day of being thankful to those who have given their lives for our freedoms.
I keep reminding myself that freedom isn’t about how far I can afford to drive in my car this week, given the rising gas prices: it’s about the right to go where I want when I want to, even if I have to walk! Freedom isn’t about which candidate I’m going to vote for: it’s about being able to go to the polls unaccosted in order to vote.
Like many Americans, I love my country: at the same time, I appreciate having the freedom to criticize it, admonish it for not living up to its own high ideals, and speaking out against the injustices I see it perpetrating. This doesn’t make me less American---it makes me more American. Participating in the government isn’t just a right, I believe it’s a responsibility.
My challenge to anyone reading this blog is to write / sculpt / dance / sing / build / whittle / knit your creative expression of freedom.
If you’d like to post it here to share with others---please do!
And thank you to all those who have given their lives so that we are free to continue in the expression and experience of our freedoms in America.
--Batya
Monday, May 19, 2008
Preparation, or the Fixin' To of Goal Attainment
News and not-so-new news
The Nashville Goal-Attainment Meetup continues on Tuesdays at 6 pm. Please sign up for this empowering group at http://self-improvement.meetup.com/279/. I'll be guiding people through a supportive process of getting to the goals they've already chosen. This is the Getting It Done! chance for success! Creative and everyday goals are welcome. It's an open group: come when you can!
Time Management for Creative People will be presented at the Songwriter’s Guild of America in June. June is soon, people! Please go to www.songwritersguild.com to sign up. I’ll be presenting the seminar over two evenings: Thursdays, June 19th and 26th. First step in Time Management: put it on your calendars now! We’ll be talking about organizing, scheduling, and a lot more than that! As usual in my workshops, I’ll be addressing the special issues creative folks face in accomplishing left-brain activities such as managing time. We’ll be doing some fun right-brain activities, too. Conquering time management (yes, wear your chain-mail outfits!) leaves you more time to succeed with your creative endeavors! So, what are you waiting for? Seating is (really and truly) limited, so reserve now. Kimberly’s waiting to hear from you!
Website News The to-do list to get www.UPositive.com up and running is now less than a page long, double-spaced! The two May videos are up on YouTube, though they need a little tweaking, which should be done by tomorrow (Tuesday). Check them out and enter the creativity challenge! I think they'll be there for June, too; I'll aim to start new ones on a monthly basis in July. Does anyone know how to create a virtual party for the day when www.UPositive.com is up and running?
My first eBook, Goal Attainment for Creative People, should be ready in about a week. It'll be available on the Website, so please look for it there! I'm also trying to create some fun products related to creativity, goal attainment, and just plain silliness. Does anyone out there know how to maneuver in CafePress.com?
Preparation, or the Fixin' To of Goal Attainment
Since moving to the mid-South a little more than a decade ago, it took a while to figure out what "fixin' to" meant. Didn't you just decide to do something, wake up in the morning, and do it? What's this "fixin' to" thing?
I figured it out when I painted my house. Waking up one morning, I was determined to paint the living room. So I went and picked a paint color. Then I bought the right brushes and rollers. Since I planned on faux paint, I needed to test out a number of bags/rags/cloths until I found the one that produced the right effect. Reading the labels of the various paints came next. Laying down painter's cloth...taping the edges of the walls...stopping for lunch...answering the phone...changing into clothes I could get rid of at the end of the project...covering my hair...by the time I was ready, it was too late in the evening to get started.
I'd been busy all day---I swear I was! Exhausted! But not a wall had been painted, not even touched by a brush or roller or rag. So what had I done?
That's where the "fixin' to" started making sense. I hadn't been painting, but I'd sure spent the whole day fixin' to paint!
What does this have to do with goal attainment?
Everything. It isn't enough to write a hasty list of goals and expect that you'll start in the morning and attain them. Being successful requires planning, takes time, needs effort, and demands attention to detail. It's worth the time and energy to wrestle your goals into shape, organize them into an outline or plan, divide them into steps that are small enough to accomplish one day at a time, and affirm them regularly.
Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Doing something well necessitates preparation.
Successful chefs have assistants whose only job is to prep the meal: cut the veggies, line up the ingredients, etc. How many rehearsals does it take before a performance is presented to the public? I'm on the fifth draft of my first novel...and I'm sure it needs a sixth and seventh.
Your future success is worth proper preparation. Take the time to luxuriate in the visualizations; write and rewrite your goals in positive wording; schedule the small steps that you can accomplish this week and next.
So get fixin'! You'll be ahead of the game and so much closer to attaining your dreams!
--Batya
The Nashville Goal-Attainment Meetup continues on Tuesdays at 6 pm. Please sign up for this empowering group at http://self-improvement.meetup.com/279/. I'll be guiding people through a supportive process of getting to the goals they've already chosen. This is the Getting It Done! chance for success! Creative and everyday goals are welcome. It's an open group: come when you can!
Time Management for Creative People will be presented at the Songwriter’s Guild of America in June. June is soon, people! Please go to www.songwritersguild.com to sign up. I’ll be presenting the seminar over two evenings: Thursdays, June 19th and 26th. First step in Time Management: put it on your calendars now! We’ll be talking about organizing, scheduling, and a lot more than that! As usual in my workshops, I’ll be addressing the special issues creative folks face in accomplishing left-brain activities such as managing time. We’ll be doing some fun right-brain activities, too. Conquering time management (yes, wear your chain-mail outfits!) leaves you more time to succeed with your creative endeavors! So, what are you waiting for? Seating is (really and truly) limited, so reserve now. Kimberly’s waiting to hear from you!
Website News The to-do list to get www.UPositive.com up and running is now less than a page long, double-spaced! The two May videos are up on YouTube, though they need a little tweaking, which should be done by tomorrow (Tuesday). Check them out and enter the creativity challenge! I think they'll be there for June, too; I'll aim to start new ones on a monthly basis in July. Does anyone know how to create a virtual party for the day when www.UPositive.com is up and running?
My first eBook, Goal Attainment for Creative People, should be ready in about a week. It'll be available on the Website, so please look for it there! I'm also trying to create some fun products related to creativity, goal attainment, and just plain silliness. Does anyone out there know how to maneuver in CafePress.com?
Preparation, or the Fixin' To of Goal Attainment
Since moving to the mid-South a little more than a decade ago, it took a while to figure out what "fixin' to" meant. Didn't you just decide to do something, wake up in the morning, and do it? What's this "fixin' to" thing?
I figured it out when I painted my house. Waking up one morning, I was determined to paint the living room. So I went and picked a paint color. Then I bought the right brushes and rollers. Since I planned on faux paint, I needed to test out a number of bags/rags/cloths until I found the one that produced the right effect. Reading the labels of the various paints came next. Laying down painter's cloth...taping the edges of the walls...stopping for lunch...answering the phone...changing into clothes I could get rid of at the end of the project...covering my hair...by the time I was ready, it was too late in the evening to get started.
I'd been busy all day---I swear I was! Exhausted! But not a wall had been painted, not even touched by a brush or roller or rag. So what had I done?
That's where the "fixin' to" started making sense. I hadn't been painting, but I'd sure spent the whole day fixin' to paint!
What does this have to do with goal attainment?
Everything. It isn't enough to write a hasty list of goals and expect that you'll start in the morning and attain them. Being successful requires planning, takes time, needs effort, and demands attention to detail. It's worth the time and energy to wrestle your goals into shape, organize them into an outline or plan, divide them into steps that are small enough to accomplish one day at a time, and affirm them regularly.
Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Doing something well necessitates preparation.
Successful chefs have assistants whose only job is to prep the meal: cut the veggies, line up the ingredients, etc. How many rehearsals does it take before a performance is presented to the public? I'm on the fifth draft of my first novel...and I'm sure it needs a sixth and seventh.
Your future success is worth proper preparation. Take the time to luxuriate in the visualizations; write and rewrite your goals in positive wording; schedule the small steps that you can accomplish this week and next.
So get fixin'! You'll be ahead of the game and so much closer to attaining your dreams!
--Batya
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