tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67587330423591994402024-03-13T21:54:36.101-05:00UPositive BlogBATYA D. WININGER welcomes you to UPositive's Blog, where thoughts, opinions, questions, and maybe even answers related to psychotherapy, life coaching, creativity, goal attainment, motivation, and more will appear. Please feel free to participate in the discussions!BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-18760435898175657932010-01-18T07:30:00.003-06:002010-01-18T07:42:33.989-06:00New Website on Past Lives!<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Hello again. I know it's been a long time, but I've been receiving some new responses from readers of the blog---thank you all for visiting!<br /><br />Just wanted to let you know that I've been busy working on another website, which was originally connected to UPositive.com.<br /><br />It's called Past Lives Coaching (<a href="http://www.pastlivescoaching.com">http://www.pastlivescoaching.com</a>) and I'm really excited about it! I've been building it myself, and loving the experience - surprisingly. Never thought I'd be a site builder. (You can find out more about how I did it by going to the site, then clicking on the "Powered by Site Build It!" link on the bottom of any page.<br /><br />What does Past Life regressions have to do with UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching?<br /><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">A few things.</span><br /></span><ul style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><li>Ever feel that no matter how hard you try, you can't quite make headway toward your goals? And nothing you try to figure out makes a dent in that?</li><li>Have the sense that there's always been something incomplete following you around like a shadow, nagging over your shoulder?</li><li>Manage most of your goals but get nowhere with one in particular?</li><li>Always had the feeling you have a latent creative talent that you just can't seem to name, or commit to, or express?</li></ul><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">These are only a few of the possible connections between attaining your goals and past life regressions.<br /><br />Check out the pages of the website and see what else might intrigue you! There's lots of helpful information, suggestions for action, quizzes to take -- and soon, opportunities to enter into conversation with other folks just as interested in reincarnation, past lives, future lives, karma, soul mates, and similar topics. And there's always new info and ideas being added!<br /><br />And, yes, it's still about your success in your present life -- just offering some new and different tools to reach your goals!<br /><br />Have you ever experienced a past life regression? Think you have an idea of one or more of your past lives? Have you met your soul mate? Do you have a sense you have karma to complete? Or that you've "been-here-done-that-met-someone" in a previous life? Share your thoughts here and/or <a href="http://www.pastlivescoaching.com">on the Past Lives Coaching </a>site!<br /><br />--Batya </span><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br /><br /></span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-35947198129603786002009-03-12T13:37:00.002-05:002009-03-12T13:39:58.204-05:00Whole Brain Learning<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">In a conversation with a friend about learning languages, I remembered my own struggle learning a language. I was going to visit Israel for a month or two, and needed to learn Hebrew. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">There are Ulpan classes designed for quick learning, and I signed up a few months before the trip. But it wasn't until I was in Israel, living with people who pretty much didn't speak English, that my brain had to open up and learn. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I remember having a dream where I was trying to move out of an apartment, and the movers wouldn't lift a thing until I said the Hebrew word for "furniture" (not a word I normally used), and as soon as I said "r'hitim" they grabbed everything up and moved me. Since dreaming is in the right brain, but language learning is left brain---it's interesting that the dream was the breakthrough. After that, I was able to speak and understand much more Hebrew.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Come to think of it---when I was learning how to drive a stick shift car the same thing happened. I couldn't get it. Struggled and failed and failed and stripped gears. Then, one night, I dreamed about driving it. The next day I got in the car and drove like I'd been doing it for a decade. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So maybe there's a point where learning, which we try to do in the left brain, needs right-brain connection. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">They do say that people test higher if they first imagine themselves taking the test in the room where it's given. And even higher if when they study (left brain again), they do that same imagining first---of being in the test room. Again, adding the right brain into the picture (so to speak).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I think it's true for anything: a whole brain approach gives improved results. It's all about exercising that corpus collosum, the bridge between the hemispheres, that gives us the extra step-up toward success, and happiness in our lives. </span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-17783785267604519872009-03-02T12:37:00.002-06:002009-03-02T12:41:06.375-06:00Lost in Cyber-Hell<meta equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.0 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Read only if you're curious about sad computer-experience stories, or if you're a masachist.</p>
<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Sorry that there haven't been any new blogs from me for the past few weeks: I've been in cyber-hell. My trusty old computer had been slowing down, groaning, and begging for relief by spitting surfed pages back out for a while now. Finally, I gave in, did a little research, asked my good friend and computer guru Jamie as well as my brother for help. My brother, who's really good at computers, recommended a few refurbished Dells. So...I bought one. There it was, all bright and shiny---the very next day! </span> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">It took a while, and Jamie's help and encouragement, but I finally got the Dell up and running. And it was wonderful!</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">For five days.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">And then the refurbished Dell started to make whirring noises, wouldn't read my Trackball mouse anymore, required extensive prayers, stopped paying attention to my Preferences in a couple of programs, and began to kick me out of Firefox. A wonderful phone-tech in Myanmar or India or a hilltop in Tibet or somewhere, named Sam, tried to help. (Dell really does have good customer support, so someday I might buy a NEW Dell product.)</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">But when she got to...let's Reinstall Windows, I said...”Nope, that Window is closed.” After a very very long, discouraging wait, Dell agreed to take the computer (and screen) back. Whew! I had about 5 days left on the return policy before I would have to continue accepting Fixes to it. Glad I read the fine print.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">The moral of the story: Refurbished is good if you really know what you're doing. If you don't, and have mini-cardiac-arrests every time the computer burps, like I do, don't get one. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">During this time, my old computer decided to die. (I'd moved it to the basement, and I suppose it got lonely.) I have, I am very proud to say, reinstalled Windows (don't tell Dell) in that one, resurrecting it---and it works, though it has no memory at all of what has gone before. Luckily, I'd taken as much as I could out of it and copied it onto handy, dandy thumb drives to transfer to the new machine(s) before unplugging it upstairs. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">So then it was about buying a brand new computer. The one I wanted was through Best Buy (which has awful customer support---and they only had it in Mt. Juliet---about 45 minutes away and a highway drive I hate. Off I went. The salesperson sold me the model below it, for $100 less. The next day I called and said, “what did he do? I want the other machine.” So I went back to Mt. Juliet, box unopened, because Best Buy refused to ship the computer I really wanted to the West Nashville store. Then the salesman convinced me to buy the Microsoft Office for Students, because I wanted to be able to use Word (Oh, yeah, this machine is Vista instead of Dell's XP Pro---I'd been on XP on the old machine). Well, whaddaya know---Student has a very weird, unwieldy version of Word that is not worth anything---so I wasted yet more money. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">A friend showed me how to get Open Office (just search for it---it's free), which has my old Word (or something similar enough). I love it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">All the info and programs I'd hand typed, downloaded, and updated the week before into the Dell had to be done again. I'm still doing it.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Another lesson---though I really enjoyed using aol for all these years---aol runs behind things in your computer, slows things down, and just messes some things up. Getting out of ao-hell is nearly impossible. I had to copy and paste literally hundreds (16 pages) of “favorites” into a Word document and it's taking me four days to copy and paste urls into Foxfire bookmarks. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Luckily my friend Mia showed me evernote, and I'm entering the list there at the same time. So I have my “filing cabinet” of websites on Foxfire (my computer), and evernote (off my computer in cyberspace somewhere).</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">I've purchased a VISTA for Dummies book (which is a bit advanced for my cyber-challenged brain). I'm determined to learn the workings of this machine.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">I have been learning about computers through this whole process, and when the salesperson at Staples (bought a screen on a great sales!) spoke cyber-ese, I actually understood most of what he said. Shocked myself. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: trebuchet ms;">And, I'll be blogging again...maybe later today. </p> BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-20120816761248283402009-02-03T12:25:00.000-06:002009-02-03T12:26:32.122-06:00Reasons for Creativity<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The second quotation in The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People (available at </span><a href="http://www.upositive.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">www.UPositive.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">) is from the author Steve Gillete:<br /><br />“There are so many good reasons for creating more beauty and music in the world.”<br /><br />I love this quote. It gets me thinking about those reasons, coming up with specifics for why more beauty and music is so important. Thinking about this concept, I remember a story I heard about the traditional Balinese people, and their beliefs.<br /><br />The people of Bali wear black-and-white check belts to symbolize the balance between “positive and negative” in the world. As I understand the story, it is necessary to have both for the world to continue: if there is too much negativity, the world will be destroyed; if the world becomes completely positive, there is no longer a reason for the world to exist.<br /><br />Beauty and music---and anything created---is on the side of the “positive,” and helps to keep the world balanced and in existence. Simple.<br /><br />Other traditions proclaim that creativity continues the use of the Original Energy of the beginning of the cosmos, and, therefore, is essential to its continuance as well.<br /><br />It’s not a very far stretch to proclaim that creativity is, indeed, a Green activity, of which we always need more.<br /><br />Do you agree? Do you see other “reasons” why beauty, music, and creativity are essential?<br /><br />--Batya</span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-60839644140393543562009-01-31T17:01:00.001-06:002009-01-31T17:03:20.282-06:00Art vs. Form as Function<span style="font-family:verdana;color:#006600;"><strong>Creativity and the Everyday</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">An article in last April’s New York Times by Glenn Collins reminded me that art used to be the everyday. In traditional earth-based societies everywhere around the world, everyday objects---from spoons to moccasins, camel knee-pads to bowls---were decorated and used. There was no distinction between “fine” or “high” art and functional art, no difference between an elite corps of artists and the regular person.<br /><br />I think we’ve lost something in moving from art as function to form as function. While we still admire the lines of an expensive sink faucet or the new wood paneled refrigerator, are we missing opportunities to express our own vision of the world in our daily lives?<br /><br />We’re closer to imbuing our lives with creative energy when we hang our children’s finger-painted masterpieces on the refrigerator door, or tack their first drawing of a tree---even though it might be purple---to the board by our desks. We allow this expression to our children, but what about to ourselves?<br /><br />In the article, “All the Colors of the Rugs the Nomads Walked On,” Collins remarks about camel knee covers: “…the curiosity is that they are so intricately woven, so richly patterned and so extraordinarily colorful.” The pieces are “…so much more glorious than they need to be…” The curator of the show being referenced, Jon Thompson is quoted as saying, “Everything here was made for some purpose. And someone put effort and energy---and love---into making it.” <br /><br />I remember studying Native cultures from various parts of the world. My second major in undergraduate school was cultural anthropology; I returned for my first Masters degree in the same subject. Part of what’s always drawn me to the Original Peoples of the world is their creativity. The way the nomads of the Middle East wove with “a riot of color in a landscape that is beige,” as the rug show’s assistant curator said. The way even the most crooked pottery from the early Anasazi culture of the American Southwest carries lines and dots and geometric patterns to embellish it. How tiny the patterns of the woven baskets of Africa are; or the intricacies of porcupine quill weaving in Northeast America.<br /><br />And all these items were used. They weren’t sequestered away on museum shelves protected from touch. The purpose was to use all these products. Expressing creativity was an everyday, accepted, even expected part of daily life.<br /><br />Wouldn’t it be lovely to get back to that quality of life? Everyone as an artist…every object a work of art. </span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-6171703076007498272009-01-27T08:50:00.000-06:002009-01-27T08:51:06.698-06:00Creativity & Alchemy<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Creativity---always interesting new definitions of it popping up here and there. In reading through an old pile of New York Times articles, saved for a rainy day (does snow count?), I came across a NYT magazine piece about Tom Binnes, artist extraordinaire of found objects. Jewelry and masks are among the prominent pieces in his collections from the past 20 years. That’s along and illustrious career!<br /><br />What caught my eye was what Binns said about his own art: “I am always trying to reassess the value of something.”<br /><br />Isn’t that what all creativity is about?<br /><br />I have my saying, “There is always something new under the sun” on products through </span><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/UPositve"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">www.cafepress.com/UPositve</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">. What I mean by that is, I think, what Binns alludes to. That whether or not there are new factual objects in our universe, there is always a new way of seeing what’s already there. A new interpretation, a redefinition, a turning something on its side or upside down, whether it’s an object that can be held, a way of moving, a turn of phrase, a meaning or an insight.<br /><br />Art, in all its forms, is in that way, alchemy. Turning something into something else.<br /><br />We are all magicians!<br /><br />---Batya<br /><br /><br /> </span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-877009435736373932009-01-21T09:19:00.001-06:002009-01-21T09:20:59.439-06:00Imagination vs. Knowledge<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”--Albert Einstein (Quoted in Chapter Three of The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People)<br /><br />I love this quote. It makes me think every time I read it. I was raised, like many of us, to believe that knowledge was the key to the world. The more information we retained, the smarter we were…the more successful we would become. We were rewarded for As in school, punished for low grades. And obtaining those grades often meant letting go of our imaginations that might argue with the “facts” or focusing our left brains to memorize and store the information that we were taught. If we questioned too much, or asked the “wrong” questions, we were admonished. Repeating the data perfectly, which is defined as obtaining knowledge, became the goal for success.<br /><br />And here comes Einstein, of all people, the epitome of shifting our knowledge of the universe and how it works, saying that knowledge isn’t the most important goal. Imagination, of all things---a right-brain activity---is more important. How can that be?<br /><br />Bottom line for me in answering this is that without imagination our knowledge would never grow. We would pass the exact same information from generation to generation, never learning anything new, never expanding our experience, never achieving breakthroughs in science or mathematics or even chemistry---all arenas we usually think of as Left Brain.<br /><br />Kekule, who discovered the benzene ring which brought major breakthroughs in chemistry and therefore medicine, first saw the structure in that half-dream state of the imagination. Einstein himself, after working his Left Brain into exhaustion trying to figure out his theory, finally reached his Theory of Relativity lying on his back staring at the sky in a trance state. These are all right-brain, or imagination, states of being.<br /><br />It is, indeed, the imagination that allows us to increase our knowledge. That makes complete sense in rereading Einstein’s quote.<br /><br />Are there any other ways you see to read the quote? Please post your replies here. I’m looking forward to reading them.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;">--Batya</span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-72049262320026600722009-01-18T14:19:00.001-06:002009-01-18T14:21:27.436-06:00Dreams, Beliefs, Plans, Actions<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><em>“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.”--</em>Anatole France (as quoted in Chapter Five of The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People)<br /><br />I often read about goal setting or achievement as taking action. If only you do the steps, you’ll reach your goal.<br /><br /><em>“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”</em> Or does it? Does it begin with the act of taking a step? Or does it begin with the dream of walking a thousand miles? Of having the intention to go somewhere other than where you are at the moment? To accomplish your goal, you need not only the dream or vision of it, but then the plan of how to get from here to there, of which direction to head in, and the belief that you are able to take the steps, and that with your plan, the steps will lead you to your goal, to your “great thing.” Taking a step, if you have no dream or direction, no plan or belief, can just as easily start you walking in a very small circle as it can start you heading on a journey. A thousand steps without direction can get you into a very close, very deep rut.<br /><br />The “down” time is so essential to success. If you only work toward your goals, only act, you’ll exhaust yourself. Dreaming and believing, internal rather than external activities---done best during periods of “rest”---empower the actions you take toward your accomplishments.<br /><br />Revisiting your dream, your vision, your visualization of your goals reinvigorates your passion, which then guides your reticular activating system and fuels your actions. When you dream and believe, and add plans and action, you pave the way for miracles to happen: you-made as well as Universe-made.<br /><br />So, dream away! Believe in yourself! And then make your plans and take the actions you need to get you there. </span><br /><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">--Batya</p></span><br /><br /></span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-16710169414690537912009-01-15T16:57:00.002-06:002009-01-15T17:02:04.827-06:00Making it Easy for the Muse<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">One of my friends who has a problem, as most of us do at some point or other, actually sitting down to write her book, put it, she’s waiting for the inspiration to hit. We’d been through long conversations about writing, about the creative process, about the creative act and the doing of it.<br /><br />When she said she was waiting for the Muse to come knock down her door and then she’d get creative, I saw the problem in a new way. Here’s some of my response to her:<br /><br /> “That’s your problem! Aha! Got it! You think that writing is about award-wining ideas hitting you. Nope. Writing is about putting words on paper (or typing them onto a computer screen). Simple. That's it.<br /> “And that goes for painting or choreographing, or designing, or any creative act at all. It’s never about the brilliant Aha! moment that’s supposed to come in a vacuum. Vacuums are overrated.<br /> “More often, the Aha! award-winning stuff comes in the middle of some really awful, disgusting totally garbage-bound stuff. You have to prepare the stage: you have to do the garbage to get to the awards.<br /> “You don't write (or paint or dance, etc.) just when inspiration hits. You write so inspiration <em>can</em> hit. You give it the opportunity, make it easy, prepare the target.<br /> “Inspiration looks for the easy way---like we all do and like all natural phenomena do. If it's floating by and there's someone already writing (garbage or whatever) it doesn't stop to judge, it just sees that there are fingers flying and putting words down (or feet already dancing, or a paintbrush already poised above canvas…) and it's much easier to drop the inspiration in those laps than to find someone else, get them to stop whatever else they're doing, find pad and pencil or plug in the laptop or tie their ballet slippers, or mix the perfect green pigment, and finally, after all that, give them the inspiration. I mean, really...if you were a Muse, which way would you go?”<br /> <br />So let’s all make a resolution for 2009: Let’s make it the year of Making it Easy for the Muse. Let's get the garbage out of the way by starting without the Muse, so when the Muse is ready, she/he/it can inspire us easily.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Happy Creative 2009!</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">--Batya<br /> </span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-43147905632186304752009-01-06T17:07:00.002-06:002009-01-06T17:13:31.825-06:00Worthy Goals<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">“<em>What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.” --Victor Frankl<br /></em></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">This is the first quote in <em><span style="color:#006600;">The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People</span></em> (available from </span><a href="http://www.upositive.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">www.UPositive.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">). It's an important thought: not only that people need goals, but need goals that are larger and more meaningful than the everyday. What goal is actually worthy of your true self? Of your ‘largest’ self? What goal is big enough and encompassing enough to be worthy of your soul?<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Notice, too, that Frankl doesn’t speak about the attainment of the goal, but of the “striving and struggling” for it. He isn’t referring to the success or failure of reaching the goal, but of the process of living toward that goal.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">We often make our goals too small. We envision only that which we are willing to think we CAN reach. What would happen if we made our goals large enough that reaching them stops being the issue, but striving and struggling for them becomes the purpose of our days and nights?<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I’m impressed by a number of the movies Robert Redford has chosen to act in. Putting aside my attraction to the man for a moment (not his looks, but him)… I have thought often about what common thread runs through many of these films: <em>Brubaker</em>; <em>Havana</em>; <em>Milagro Beanfield Wars</em>; and <em>Quiz Show</em> (in reverse), among others. What I see in these is a main character who becomes bigger than himself (in <em>Quiz Show</em>, smaller) by acting from a private passion or commitment. By engaging in the process, they become more human, more effective; their actions extend farther past themselves into the world; they make more of an impact than they could imagine even in their own minds.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">If we commit to a larger vision, something we might not even believe we can reach, and commit to the process, how much farther along the path we might get! I have a little sign framed in my house that reads: “Reach for the moon: even if you fail you land among the stars.” It reminds me of just this: the farther I reach, the farther I’ll get. If I aim for a large, distant goal, even if I don’t get there, I’ll get farther than if I reach for a small goal that is a sure thing.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I remember in the ‘60s and ‘70s when we had the audacity to try to end world hunger. We haven’t done it yet. Knowing we wouldn’t accomplish it in 40 years…we might have given it up. But look how much closer we are than if we hadn’t taken it on as a goal then. There are food banks all across America. There are hunger relief programs all across the world. Even the US Postal Service conducts a food drive: we started that ‘way back when. So many more people eat now; so many fewer starve. Do we still have a very long way to go to alleviate world hunger? You bet we do. Might we achieve that in the next 40 years? Who knows? But if we continue to aim for it, we’ll end up with a lot fewer hungry people than would exist if we decided it was an “impossible” goal and gave it up.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">And, what are you willing to attain, even by miracle? If you don’t engage in the process, even a miracle can’t get you there. How would you feel if you find a goal worthy of that stress and strain, worthy of your soul---and by your daily efforts (and miracle, if necessary)---you do reach it?<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So what goals are worthy of your striving and struggling in 2009? What are you willing to stress yourself for? What are you willing to maybe fail at reaching just to get that much closer?</span><br /><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">--Batya</p><br /> </span><br /></span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-48532496948417476772008-12-27T16:31:00.001-06:002008-12-27T16:33:51.736-06:00Something New Under the Sun?<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Has it all been done before?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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 </span><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">www.cafepress.com/UPositive</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">).<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />(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.)<br /><br />So, to everyone, create away!!<br /><br />--Batya</span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-8016147806665565722008-12-13T16:56:00.001-06:002008-12-13T17:00:04.471-06:00The Care and Feeding of Self: Depression Type<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />And then there’s the Out of Balance, or Brain Vacation Depression, which is what I had.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />This wasn’t “Batya’s Depression.” I really was scared.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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!<br /><br />Have you experienced any of these depressions? How have you conquered it? I’d love to hear from you!<br /><br />--Batya</span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-76028353079723685232008-11-28T18:57:00.002-06:002008-11-28T19:02:06.645-06:00Thanksgiving<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />But it wasn’t just about a big meal back then.<br /><br />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 <em>their</em> 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.<br /><br />Maybe this is what we need to remember about Thanksgiving.<br /><br />--Batya<br /><br /><br /><br /> </span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-87578628692325209992008-10-24T09:52:00.002-05:002008-10-24T09:54:36.939-05:00Goals and Depression, Mood Swings, ADD, OCD, etc.<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">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.<br /><br />And then nothing happens. Except frustration.<br /><br />“There’s too many things to do. I’ll never get there.”<br /><br />“I don’t have the energy.”<br /><br />“I start something and get distracted; then I do the other task and get distracted again.”<br /><br />“I just can’t find the focus to get much done.”<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Third: most approaches are tailored to people who are already functioning fairly well.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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 </span><a href="mailto:Batya@UPositive.com"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Batya@UPositive.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">., or visit </span><a href="http://www.upositive.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">www.UPositive.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">.<br /><br />If you have stories about your own frustrations and successes attaining your goals, feel free post here, or send me an email.<br /><br />--Batya</span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-86735726936543012902008-10-02T14:45:00.004-05:002008-10-02T15:00:15.834-05:00Definition of "Goal"<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">While reading Dan Miller's excellent book, <em>48 Days,</em> 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? </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">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.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Attaching a time determination to a goal is left-brained, and only half the story. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">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. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">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." </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So I don't think a timeline is the <em>definition</em> of a goal. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I think the definition of goal is:</span><br /><div align="center"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong>A goal is a dream with commitment attached.</strong> </span></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">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." </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I'd love to read your thoughts and responses to this redefinition of "goal."</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">--Batya </span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-38703946232301769042008-09-24T12:30:00.003-05:002008-09-24T12:35:47.663-05:00Improved Memory<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#663366;">NEWS</span></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;color:#663366;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#330033;">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! </span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#330033;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#663366;"><span style="color:#663300;"><span style="color:#330033;">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</span>. </span><span style="color:#330033;">There's going to be a lot of value in membership, I can promise you that! </span></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;color:#663366;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#663366;">Improving Memory</span></strong><br /><br />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.<br /><br />No thanks.<br /><br />I’d like to stick with the human brain remaining human; I’m not interested in becoming even part cyborg, thank you.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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:<br /><br />Choose a different posture for different kinds of information input.<br />Keep a written list (so you don’t have to remember it on your own).<br />Practice, practice, practice. (repetition increases synaptic firing: think of a deer creating a path to the stream---it gets easier with each trip)<br />Reward any success. (behavioral modification technique).<br /><br />Here are some suggestions (I want to make these so they’re not too obvious or distracting to others):<br />1. Rub the top of my ear as I learn someone’s name.<br />2. Put thumb to middle finger as hear people talk about computers.<br />3. Lace right and left fingers together for writing suggestions.<br /><br />Do you have any experience with improving your memory in a similar manner? Did it work?<br /><br />If you decide to try it, let me know what happens, please!<br /><br />--Batya</span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-4690154419703903282008-09-15T11:14:00.001-05:002008-09-15T11:16:45.944-05:00Time, Again<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="color:#663366;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">NEWS</span></strong><br /></span><br />Big news this week: <span style="color:#006600;"><strong>Creative Empowerment Celebration</strong></span> launching <strong><span style="color:#006600;">UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching</span> </strong>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.<br /><br /><span style="color:#663366;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">TIME, AGAIN</span></strong><br /></span><br />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!<br /><br />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?<br /><br />We all know the difference between subjective time and objective time.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />That said, see you on Friday at the gallery, somewhere between 6 and 9 p.m.<br /><br />--Batya</span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-72988364582091466262008-09-09T12:04:00.003-05:002008-09-09T12:29:47.369-05:00More Creativity and Goal Attainment Blogs<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Hi everyone! </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Yvonne Perry, of </span><a href="http://www.writersinthesky.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">www.writersinthesky.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">, 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. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">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! </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">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. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">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.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Please feel free to participate in the discussion, in agreeing or disagreeing with my posts, in adding thoughts, info, ideas...whatever!</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">And, Elysabeth---special thanks to you for your continued support and posts to these blogs!</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">--Batya</span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-28910141652993482412008-09-08T09:19:00.001-05:002008-09-08T09:22:06.762-05:00Is It Really Time Off?<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#663366;">NEWS</span></strong><br /><br />We’re getting closer and closer to the <span style="color:#006600;"><strong>celebration launching UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching</strong></span>. 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!<br /><br />I tried last week, so I’ll just try again this week, to get the <strong><span style="color:#006600;">e-newsletter</span></strong> 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, </span><a href="http://www.upositive.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">www.UPositive.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> for the newsletter link.<br /><br />The second book in the series, <strong><em><span style="color:#006600;">The UPositive Guide to Time Management for Creative People</span></em></strong>, 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!<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#663366;">Is it Really Time Off?</span></strong><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Take some time to do the opposite. Put it on your To-Do list. You accomplish much more afterward!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Sometimes it’s just a matter of checking in with your own wisdom and actually listening to it!<br /><br />As always, thoughts, comments, additional ideas are welcome. <br /><br />--Batya<br /> </span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-18365552995643637762008-09-03T09:45:00.001-05:002008-09-03T09:47:24.195-05:00Productive Sleep<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#663366;">News</span></strong><br /><br />The <strong><span style="color:#009900;">celebration launching UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching</span></strong> is happening September 19. If you’re interested in attending and haven’t yet received an invitation, please email </span><a href="mailto:Batya@UPositive.com"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Batya@UPositive.com</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br />The <strong><span style="color:#009900;">website, </span></strong></span><a href="http://www.upositive.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#009900;"><strong>www.UPositive.com</strong></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><span style="color:#009900;">,</span></strong> is running---except for the “subscribe” button. Again, if you’d like to be on the free newsletter list, email </span><a href="mailto:Batya@UPositive.com"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Batya@UPositive.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> 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).<br /><br />Speaking of <strong><span style="color:#009900;">newsletters</span></strong>. The first issue should be out by Friday, although I’m fighting a computer glitch. Here’s hoping!<br /><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#663366;">Productive Sleep</span></strong><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Now, the topic seems to have awakened again.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.”<br /><br />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!<br /><br />My question is this: should we be doing it regularly?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Any thoughts?<br /><br />---Batya</span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-34949775658395383622008-08-25T18:01:00.002-05:002008-08-25T18:05:24.876-05:00QBQ Rant<span style="font-size:180%;"><br /><strong><span style="color:#663366;">NEWS:</span></strong></span><br /><a href="http://www.upositive.com/"><strong><span style="color:#009900;">www.UPositive.com</span></strong></a> 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!<br /><br /><strong><em><span style="color:#009900;">The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People</span></em></strong> 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!<br /><br />The second eBook in the series, <span style="color:#009900;"><strong><em>The UPositive Guide to Time Management for Creative People</em></strong></span> is due out in September.<br /><br />The <strong><span style="color:#009900;">UPositive Relaxation and Visualization Technique</span></strong> audio CD is available from the website at <a href="http://www.upositive.com/">http://www.upositive.com/</a>. Great background music by Tom Roady helps you follow the gentle instructions to relax and see your dreams!<br /><br />Mark Friday evening, September 19, from 6 to 9 pm in your calendars for the <strong><span style="color:#009900;">official opening celebration</span></strong> 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 <a href="mailto:Batya@UPositive.com">Batya@UPositive.com</a> or <a href="mailto:UPositive55@aol.com">UPositive55@aol.com</a>).<br /><br />The first 9 sayings from <span style="color:#009900;"><strong>UPositive’s Batya Sez… shop</strong></span> are now available for purchase through <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive">http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive</a>. 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!<br /><br />The <strong><span style="color:#009900;">Passion-for-Life Psychotherapy</span></strong> practice has a few openings for new clients in Nashville; please email <a href="mailto:UPositive55@aol.com">UPositive55@aol.com</a> for more information. We can talk about depression, anxiety, mood swings, ADD, and family and relationship issues.<br /><br />UPositive’s <strong><span style="color:#009900;">Creativity and Life Coaching</span></strong> practice is available locally, but also through telephone and Internet-based services. Please visit the website <a href="http://www.upositive.com/">http://www.upositive.com/</a> or contact me <a href="mailto:Batya@UPositive.com">Batya@UPositive.com</a> for more information.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;color:#663366;"><strong>QBQ Rant</strong></span><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Here’s my rant: This is about as much “news” as “The Secret” is a secret.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />We’re here to participate in life. To learn and grow. And to reach the best potential of our own selves.<br /><br />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?”<br /><br />This is a wonderful little book for a reminder of this more positive attitude.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Read the book! It’ll fill your heart with determination and energy! QBQ: The Question Behind the Question, by John G. Miller.<br /><br />As always, I invite your comments, questions, thoughts on this or other topics!<br /><br />--BatyaBatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-9766200944616992872008-08-14T17:18:00.003-05:002008-08-14T17:23:11.184-05:00Expect the Unexpected<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><span style="color:#663366;"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#663366;">NEWS:</span> </span></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><span style="color:#663366;"><br /></span></strong>The website, </span><a href="http://www.upositive.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong>www.UPositive.com</strong></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">, 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 </span><a href="mailto:Batya@UPositive.com"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong>Batya@UPositive.com</strong></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> from outside the website. Thanks for your patience.<br /><br />The second set of <strong><span style="color:#006600;">Creativity Challenge</span></strong> and <span style="color:#006600;"><strong>Goal Attainment Tip</strong></span> videos are up on </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/UPositive"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">www.YouTube.com/UPositive</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">, or through </span><a href="http://www.upositive.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">www.UPositive.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">. Take a look! Let me know what you think!<br /><br />The first <strong><span style="color:#006600;">eBook </span></strong>in the series, <em><strong><span style="color:#006600;">The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People</span></strong></em>, should be available by the end of this weekend…August 17. The second eBook, The <em><strong><span style="color:#006600;">UPositive Guide to Time Management for Creative People</span></strong></em> is due out in September.<br /><br />The <strong><span style="color:#006600;">UPositive Relaxation and Visualization audio CD</span></strong> is available from the website at </span><a href="http://www.upositive.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">www.UPositive.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">.<br /><br />Mark Friday evening, September 19, from 6 to 9 pm in your calendars for the official <strong><span style="color:#006600;">opening celebration</span></strong> 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 </span><a href="mailto:Batya@UPositive.com"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Batya@UPositive.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> or </span><a href="mailto:UPositive55@aol.com"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">UPositive55@aol.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">).<br /><br />The first 9 sayings from <strong><span style="color:#006600;">UPositive’s Batya Sez… shop</span></strong> are now available for purchase through </span><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">. 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!<br /><br />The<span style="color:#006600;"><strong> Passion-for-Life Psychotherapy practice</strong></span> has a few openings for new clients in Nashville; please email </span><a href="mailto:UPositive55@aol.com"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">UPositive55@aol.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> for more information. We can talk about depression, anxiety, mood swings, ADD, and family and relationship issues.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#006600;">UPositive’s Creativity and Life Coaching practice</span></strong> is available locally, but also through telephone and Internet-based services. Please visit the website </span><a href="http://www.upositive.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">www.UPositive.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> or contact me </span><a href="mailto:Batya@UPositive.com"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Batya@UPositive.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> for more information.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#663366;">EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED</span></strong><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />And then life happens.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />For creative people, getting in the zone is the goal to get to the goal of doing our creative work. The Zone is clockless.<br /><br />So do we make a big bonfire and through all the DayTimers, DayRunners, calendars, pdas, and Palm Pilots in it? No. Not at all.<br /><br />We expect the unexpected (sorry for the cliché, Heather, but it’s a cliché because it holds truth). We plan for the unplannable.<br /><br />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)<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />--Batya<br /><br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-310006985172882432008-08-04T08:14:00.004-05:002008-08-04T08:18:04.838-05:00Permission Granted<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="font-size:180%;color:#663366;">News!</span></strong><br /></span><strong><span style="color:#006600;">Website</span></strong> is almost fully functioning---please visit it at </span><a href="http://www.upositive.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">www.UPositive.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">. I’d love feedback. The email link isn’t quite working yet, but we’re getting the kinks out. Email remains </span><a href="mailto:UPositive55@aol.com"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">UPositive55@aol.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> for the time being.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#006600;">Products</span></strong> 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 </span><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">. 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.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#006600;">SEPTEMBER 19—BIG OFFICIAL UPositive OPENING PARTY!!</span></strong> If you’re in Nashville, TN, drop me an email at </span><a href="mailto:UPositive55@aol.com"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">UPositive55@aol.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> and I’ll send you an invite. Door prizes, fun, great networking opportunity for everyone! Food and wine and creative people everywhere!<br /><span style="color:#663366;"><strong><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">PERMISSION GRANTED</span></strong></span><br /><br />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.’<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />I love watching it.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />They become their selves---their centered, empowered selves.<br /><br />I’m blessed to be present during their transformation, and very thankful that they allow me to see it and experience it with them.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />(Really, you need no one’s permission, except your inner self: but, sometimes, hearing it from someone else helps.)<br /><br />(One caveat: this applies to dreams and goals that do no harm to others---of course.)<br /><br />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?<br /><br />---Batya</span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-6410208715167509272008-07-28T09:15:00.002-05:002008-08-04T09:07:15.395-05:00Catch-Up Days<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><span style="color:#663366;">News<br /></span></strong><br />The </span><a href="http://www.upositive.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong>www.UPositive.com</strong></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong> <span style="color:#006600;">website</span></strong><span style="color:#006600;"> </span>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 </span><a href="mailto:Batya@UPositive.com"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Batya@UPositive.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> from your email---not from the website. It should be fixed soon.)<br /><br />Look for an announcement soon about a <strong><span style="color:#006600;">UPositive opening celebration</span></strong> 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!<br /><br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#006600;">Catch-Up Days</span></strong><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.)<br /><br />So what do we do?<br /><br />Expect the unexpected. An old adage with a lot of wisdom to it.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />So take a day every two to three weeks and play catch-up with yourself!<br /><br />Do you have your own version of catching up with yourself? Please share it with us along with any other thoughts about this post!!<br /><br />--Batya</span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6758733042359199440.post-31947280030815004912008-07-22T08:20:00.002-05:002008-07-22T08:27:41.351-05:00Aha! vs Just Do It! Creativity Controversy<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong><span style="color:#009900;">News!</span></strong><br /><br />The </span><a href="http://www.upositive.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong>www.UPositive.com</strong></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> <strong><span style="color:#006600;">website</span></strong> 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 </span><a href="mailto:Batya@UPositive.com"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Batya@UPositive.com</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">.<br /><br />The <strong><span style="color:#006600;">Batya Sez… shop</span></strong> (you can reach it through the Shop page on the website, or directly through </span><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">www.cafepress.com/UPositive</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> 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!<br /><br />The first eBook….<strong><span style="color:#006600;">The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People</span></strong>…is waiting for its isbn number and for me to figure out which server(?) to attach it to. So…foreseeable future!<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#663366;"><span style="color:#006600;">The Aha! or Just Do It! Creativity Controversy</span><br /></span></strong><br />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:<br /><br />I think it's (d) all of the above.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Any other thoughts on the Aha! vs Just Do It creativity controversy?<br /><br />--Batya</span>BatyaDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16605146095666982766noreply@blogger.com1