Author Archives: RichardB

Poetry Writing with Clients

18 Friday Jan 2019

Posted by in creative arts therapy, poem, Poetry, writing

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Writing a poem for the first time can be intimidating, but there are many possible ways to get started. In this post I’ll talk about just one of them, which is a list poem.
Defining a Poem
The first step when introducing poetry to clients is to define poetry. Show what a poem looks like on a page. Explain that a poem is usually short, and that each line has a fixed length. It uses carefully-chosen language to express a feeling, and sometimes uses rhythm, rhyme, or repetition.
Writing a List Poem

A list poem is a poem in which each line begins the same way. List poems are wonderful for beginning writers especially, because the start of each line is provided, creating a comfortable way in (at least I have this part that I can write, and know I’m spelling it correctly). A list poem can be simple and powerful. One client, who struggles with depression, wrote a poem in which each line begins, “I love” followed by one thing that makes her feel happy.
5 Tips for Writing a Successful List Poem:
Read poems together as a group, to get clients familiar with the sounds and rhythms of it. After reading a poem, ask if there is any line that clients like or find interesting. Ask why they like it, what makes it stand out. Keep your ear open for things clients say—does something sound like a list poem? “Every morning I…” “I want to read…” “If I had a million dollars I’d…” “I love the way…” The possibilities are endless.
When clients are ready to begin writing, here are some tips to keep in mind:
1. Be specific
Help clients bring their poems to life by including specific details. In other words, show, don’t tell. “I wake up early,” becomes, “I wake up at 3:00 am every morning to go to work.” Instead of “I cook Chinese food” help the client write, “I cook catfish with spicy sauce.”
2. Five senses
Can you see this poem? Can you hear it? Smell it? Feel it? Taste it? Is this poem bringing a world to life? If not, think about describing with the five senses.
3. Order
Pay attention to the order of the list. Does it have a beginning? A middle? An end? Does it need an additional line to bring it to a close?
4. Word Choice
Think about word choice. Could another word be more effective? Sometimes beginning writers want to use the word “beautiful,” but write “nice” instead because it is easier to spell. Help the writer actualize the poem in her mind.
5. Edit
Don’t be afraid to edit. ‘Make it Messy’ is a good mantra for first drafts. They should have crossed out parts and additions. Are any items in the list extraneous? Are there unnecessary repetitions? Help students build the confidence to edit themselves.

Behavior Influences Attitudes

16 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by in Attitudes, behavior, creative, Creativity

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It’s true that our behavior influences our attitudes. Tibetan monks say their prayers by whirling their prayer wheels on which their prayers are inscribed. The whirling wheels spin the prayers into divine space. Sometimes, a monk will keep a dozen or so prayer wheels rotating like some juggling act in which whirling plates are balanced on top of long thin sticks. Many novice monks are not that all emotionally or spiritually involved at first. It may be that the novice is thinking about his family, his doubts about a religious vocation or something else while he is going through the motions of spinning his prayer wheel. When the novice adopts the pose of a monk and makes it obvious to themselves and others by playing a role, their brain will soon follow the role they are playing. It is not enough for the novice to have the intention of becoming a monk: the novice must act like a monk and rotate the prayer wheels. If one has the intention of becoming a monk and goes through the motions of acting like a monk, one will become a monk.
The great surrealist artist Salvador Dali was described by his fellow students at the Madrid art academy as “morbidly” shy according to his biographer Ian Gibson. He had a great fear of blushing and his shame about being ashamed drove him into solitude. It was his uncle who gave him the sage advice to become an actor in his relations with the people around him. He instructed him to pretend he was an extrovert and to act like an extrovert with everyone including your closest companions. Dali did just that to disguise his mortification. Every day he went through the motions of being an extrovert and, eventually, he became celebrated as the most extroverted, fearless, uninhibited and gregarious personalities of his time. He became what he pretended to be.
The Greek philosopher Diogenes was once noticed begging from a statue. His friends were puzzled and alarmed at this behavior. Asked the reason for this pointless behavior, Diogenes replied, “I am practicing the art of being rejected.” By pretending to be rejected continually by the statue, Diogenes was beginning to understand the mind of a beggar. Every time we pretend to have an attitude and go through the motions, we trigger the emotions we create and strengthen the attitude we wish to cultivate.
If you want to become an artist and go through the motions of being an artist by painting a picture every day, you will become an artist. You may not become another Vincent Van Gogh, but you will create the attitude of an artist and you will become more of an artist than someone who has never tried.
 
Mona Lisa’s Smile
Think, for a moment, about social occasions-visits, dates, dinners out with friends, gatherings, birthday parties, weddings, etc. Even when you’re unhappy or depressed, these occasions force us to act as if we were happy. Observing other’s faces, postures, and voices, we unconsciously mimic their reactions. We synchronize our movements, posture, and tone of voice with theirs. Then my mimicking happy people, we become happy. You begin to behave like the people who surround you, and that behavior influences your attitude.
Leonardo da Vinci also observed that it’s no mystery why it is fun to be around happy people and depressing to be around depressed people. He also observed the melancholy that painters usually give to portraits. He attributed that to the solitariness of the artist and their joyless environment. According to Giorgio Vasari (1568) that while painting the Mona Lisa Leonardo employed singers, musicians and jesters to chase away his melancholy as he painted. The musicians and jesters forced him laugh and be joyful. This behavior created the attitude of joy and pleasure as he painted. As a result, he painted a smile so pleasing that it seems divine and as alive as the original.
 
Even Facial Expressions Can Change Your Emotions
CIA researchers have long been interested in developing techniques to help them study facial expressions of suspects. Two of the researchers began simulating facial expressions of anger and distress all day, each day for weeks. One of them admitted feeling terrible after a session of making those faces. Then the other realized that he felt poorly, too, so they began to keep track. They began monitoring their body during facial movements. Their findings were remarkable. They discovered that a facial expression alone is sufficient to create marked changes in the nervous system.
In one exercise they raised their inner eyebrows, raised their cheeks, and lowered the corner of their lips and held this facial expression for a few minutes. They were stunned to discover that this simple facial expression generated feelings of sadness and anguish within them. The researchers then decided to monitor the heart rate and body temperatures of two groups of people. One group was asked to remember and relive the most sorrowful experience in their life. The other group in another room was simply asked to produce a series of facial expressions expressing sadness. Remarkably, the second group, the people who were pretending, showed the same physiological responses as the first.
The CIA researchers in a further experiment had one group of subjects listen to recordings of top comedians and look at a series of cartoons while holding a pen pressed between their lips an action that makes it impossible to smile. Another group held a pen between their teeth which had the opposite effect and made them smile. The people with the pen between their teeth rated the comedians and cartoons much funnier than the other group. What’s more, neither group of subjects knew they were making expressions of emotion. Amazingly, an expression you do not even know you have can create an emotion you did not choose to feel. Emotion doesn’t just go from the inside out. It goes from the outside in.
Try the following thought experiment.
•Lower your eyebrows.
•Raise your upper eyelid.
•Narrow the eyelids.Press your lips together.
Hold this expression and you will generate anger. Your heartbeat will go up ten or twelve beats. Your hands will get hot, and you will feel very unpleasant.
The next time you’re feeling depressed and want to feel happy and positive, try this.
•Put a pen between your teeth in far enough so that it’s stretching the edges of your mouth back without feeling uncomfortable. This will force a smile. Hold it there for five minutes or so. You’ll find yourself inexplicably in a happy mood. Then try walking with long strides and looking straight ahead. You will amaze yourself at how fast your facial expressions can change your emotions.

Is an Optimistic Mind Associated with a Healthy Heart?

16 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by in Creativity, Healthy Heart

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“Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.” — World Health Organization (1946) Many poets, philosophers, and thinkers throughout history have recognized the intimate link between physical and mental health. The ancient Roman poet Juvenal once declared “A healthy  mind in a healthy body”.

However, until relatively recently, most psychological research has focused on the link between psychological difficulties (e.g., anxiety, depression) and physical health. But things are changing. Over the past few decades, a growing number of studies demonstrate that merely alleviating anxiety and stress don’t necessarily lead to better life outcomes. Positive characteristics, such as optimism, vitality, meaning, and subjective life satisfaction are immensely important in their own right. The related fields of positive psychology and health psychology focus on rigorous scientific investigations of how people adapt to life’s inevitable challenges, and how that is related (or even leads to) a better quality of life. This process of resilience across life is the idea of thriving, successful aging, or flourishing.
See more at: http://www.creativitypost.com/psychology/is_an_optimistic_mind_associated_with_a_healthy_heart

Researchers pinpoint brain’s happiness region

15 Tuesday Jan 2019

Posted by in emotions, Happiness, research

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creativity1.jpg Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence,” the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle once said. But how does one reach this goal? According to a new study by researchers from Japan, a person’s happiness may depend on the size of a specific brain region.

Researchers found people who were happier had larger gray matter volume in the precuneus region of the brain.

Study leader Dr. Wataru Sato, of Kyoto University in Japan, and colleagues publish their findings in the journal Scientific Reports.

The definition of happiness has been debated for centuries. In recent years, psychologists have suggested that happiness is a combination of life satisfaction and the experience of more positive than negative emotions – collectively deemed “subjective well-being.”

But according to Dr. Sato and his colleagues, the neurological mechanisms behind a person’s happiness were unclear.

“To date, no structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) investigation of the construct has been conducted,” they note.

“Identification of the neural substrates underlying subjective happiness may provide a complementary objective measure for this subjective construct and insight into its information-processing mechanism.”

 

Meditation may boost happiness by targeting precuneus brain region

To address this research gap, the team used MRI to scan the brains of 51 study participants.

After the scans, subjects were asked to complete three short questionnaires that asked them how satisfied they are with their lives, how happy they are and how intensely they feel positive and negative emotions.

The researchers found that individuals who had higher happiness scores had larger gray matter volume in the precuneus of the brain – a region in the medial parietal lobe that plays a role in self-reflection and certain aspects of consciousness – than their unhappy counterparts.YMen.jpg

What is more, the researchers found that one’s happiness may be driven by a combination of greater life satisfaction and intensity of positive emotion – supporting the theory of subjective well-being.

“These results indicate that the widely accepted psychological model postulating emotional and cognitive components of subjective happiness may be applicable at the level of neural structure,” they add.

These findings, the researchers say, indicate that individuals may be able to boost their happiness through practices that target the precuneus, such as meditation:

“Previous structural neuroimaging studies have shown that training in psychological activities, such as meditation, changed the structure of the precuneus gray matter.

Together with these findings, our results suggest that psychological training that effectively increases gray matter volume in the precuneus may enhance subjective happiness.”

Dr. Sato adds that, while further research is required, these current findings may be useful for developing psychological programs that boost a person’s happiness.

creative thinking

14 Monday Jan 2019

Posted by in create, Creativity, Research

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When the task at hand requires some imagination, taking a walk may lead to more creative thinking than sitting, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

“Many people anecdotally claim they do their best thinking when walking,” said Marily Oppezzo, PhD, of Santa Clara University. “With this study, we finally may be taking a step or two toward discovering why.”

While at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, Oppezzo and colleague Daniel L. Schwartz, PhD, conducted studies involving 176 people, mostly college students. They found that those who walked instead of sitting or being pushed in a wheelchair consistently gave more creative responses on tests commonly used to measure creative thinking, such as thinking of alternate uses for common objects and coming up with original analogies to capture complex ideas. When asked to solve problems with a single answer, however, the walkers fell slightly behind those who responded while sitting, according to the study published in APA’s Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition.

While previous research has shown that regular aerobic exercise may protect cognitive abilities, these researchers examined whether simply walking could temporarily improve some types of thinking, such as free-flowing thought compared to focused concentration. “Asking someone to take a 30-minute run to improve creativity at work would be an unpopular prescription for many people,” Schwartz said. “We wanted to see if a simple walk might lead to more free-flowing thoughts and more creativity.”

Of the students tested for creativity while walking, 100 percent came up with more creative ideas in one experiment, while 95 percent, 88 percent and 81 percent of the walker groups in the other experiments had more creative responses compared with when they were sitting. If a response was unique among all responses from the group, it was considered novel. Researchers also gauged a participant’s total number of responses and whether a response was feasible and appropriate to the constraints of the task. For example, “Putting lighter fluid in soup is novel, but it is not very appropriate,” Oppezzo said.

In one experiment with 48 participants, each student sat alone in a small room at a desk facing a blank wall. When a researcher named an object, the student came up with alternative ways to use the object. For example, for the word “button,” a person might say “as a doorknob on a dollhouse.” The students heard two sets of three words and had four minutes per set to come up with as many responses as possible. To see how walking might affect more restricted thinking, the researchers also had the students complete a word association task with 15 three-word groups, such as “cottage-Swiss-cake,” for which the correct answer is “cheese.” Participants repeated both tasks with different sets of words first while sitting and then while walking at a comfortable pace on a treadmill facing a blank wall in the same room.

With a different group of 48 students, some sat for two different sets of the tests, some walked during two sets of the test and some walked and then sat for the tests. “This confirmed that the effect of walking during the second test set was not due to practice,” Oppezzo said. “Participants came up with fewer novel ideas when they sat for the second test set after walking during the first. However, they did perform better than the participants who sat for both sets of tests, so there was a residual effect of walking on creativity when people sat down afterward. Walking before a meeting that requires innovation may still be nearly as useful as walking during the meeting.”

Students who walked in another experiment doubled their number of novel responses compared with when they were sitting. The 40 students in this experiment were divided into three groups: One sat for two sets of tests but moved to separate rooms for each set; another sat and then walked on a treadmill; and one group walked outdoors along a predetermined path.f-202.jpg

To see if walking was the source of creative inspiration rather than being outdoors, another experiment with 40 participants compared responses of students walking outside or inside on a treadmill with the responses of students being pushed in a wheelchair outside and sitting inside. Again, the students who walked, whether indoors or outside, came up with more creative responses than those either sitting inside or being pushed in a wheelchair outdoors. “While being outdoors has many cognitive benefits, walking appears to have a very specific benefit of improving creativity,” said Oppezzo.

More research will be necessary to explain how walking improves creativity, the authors said. They speculated that future studies would likely determine a complex pathway that extends from the physical act of walking to physiological changes to the cognitive control of imagination. “Incorporating physical activity into our lives is not only beneficial for our hearts but our brains as well. This research suggests an easy and productive way to weave it into certain work activities,” Oppezzo said.

Marily Oppezzo, Daniel L. Schwartz. Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking.. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2014; DOI:

Escaping the train to Auschwitz

12 Saturday Jan 2019

Posted by in Auschwitz, History, Holocaust

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On 19 April 1943, a train carrying 1,631 Jews set off from a Nazi detention camp in Belgium for the gas chambers of Auschwitz. But resistance fighters stopped _67068630_ausch_gettythe train. One boy who jumped to freedom that night retains vivid memories, 70 years later.

In February 1943, 11-year-old Simon Gronowski was sitting down for breakfast with his mother and sister in their Brussels hiding place when two Gestapo agents burst in.

They were taken to the Nazis’ notorious headquarters on the prestigious Avenue Louise, used as a prison for Jews and torture chamber for members of the resistance. Read more here

Pablo’s Poesía

11 Friday Jan 2019

Posted by in Poetry

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Por Pablo Neruda


Looking inside
deep down-tongue-less
I stumbled on Pablo
sitting-writing-scratching like a chicken in the dirt
every once in a while a tear would fall
making mud on the floor
sticking to our shoes-making tracks everywhere we went

I asked Pablo for some paper…”and perhaps a pen….?”
He looked up …” No habla ingles “…. he sighed. “Habla en español”

I looked up

way up
and saw my tongue-trying to speak the language of his childhood

July 2006

Self-control and Success

11 Friday Jan 2019

Posted by in Creativity, self control

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Most of us believe that a certain amount of self-control is crucial for success. In order to succeed in the modern world, you need expertise in some area. Gaining that expertise requires work and practice. The discipline to work or practice at something means that you have to give up things that might be fun right now in order to engage in actions that will be rewarding in the future.
Research by Walter Mischel, Yuichi Shoda, and their colleagues supports this link.
They looked at the relationship between the delay of gratification task developed by Walter Mischel in the 1960s and later performance.
See more at: http://www.creativitypost.com/psychology/self_control_and_success

Meditation and Pain management

09 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by in Meditation, mindfulness, pain management, research, Wellness

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According to a new study, mindfulness meditation exhibited even stronger physical pain reductions than morphine, says the study’s lead investigator
Open any magazine and you’ll find that mindfulness has gone mainstream. You’ll also notice there are studies that purport to show meditation’s benefits on just about everything, from kids’ math scores and migraine length to HIV management and bouncing back after a crisis. Now, an elaborate new forthcoming study looks at how the brains of meditators respond to pain, to be published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
f-202.jpgDr. Fadel Zeidan, assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, has studied mindfulness for 15 years and has observed improved health outcomes as a result. “But what if this is all just a placebo?” he wondered. “What if people are reporting improvements in health and reductions in pain just because of meditation’s reputation as a health-promoting practice?” He wanted to find out, so he designed a trials that included a placebo group.
Zeidan recruited 75 healthy, pain-free people and scanned their brains using an MRI while they experienced painful heat with a 120-degree thermal probe. Then, the researchers sorted them into four groups and gave them four days of training. Everyone thought they were getting the real intervention, but most of them were getting a sham treatment.
“I want to be restrained about the efficacy of mindfulness, and the way to be restrained about it is by making it harder and harder to demonstrate its effectiveness,” Zeidan says.
First, there was a placebo cream group that participants were told reduces pain over time, Zeidan says (it was really just petroleum jelly). For four days, they rubbed it on the back of their leg and tested it against that painfully hot thermal probe. Little did they know, the researchers cranked down the heat each day; the participants thought the cream was working.
Another group was taught a kind of fake mindfulness meditation—they were told to breathe deeply for 20 minutes but were given no instructions on how to do it mindfully. The control group was subjected to 20 minutes of a very boring book on tape: The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne.996972_621934824532791_1132991476_n
For the real intervention, people sat for 20 minutes with straight posture, closed their eyes and listened to specific instructions about where to focus one’s attention and how to let thoughts and emotions pass without judgment. “Our subjects are taught to focus on the changing sensations of breath and to follow the breath with the mind’s eye as it goes down the chest and abdomen,” Zeidan says.
After four days, everyone re-entered the MRI machine and endured the same pain from the 120-degree probe. They were told to use their training—breathing deeply, mindfully meditating or the cream. They used a lever to indicate the physical intensity and emotional unpleasantness of the pain.
They found that people in all of the groups had greater pain reductions than the control group. The placebo cream reduced the sensation of pain by an average of 11% and emotional unpleasantness of pain by 13%. For the sham mindfulness group, those numbers were 9% and 24% respectively. But mindfulness meditation outperformed them all. In this group, pain intensity was cut by 27% and emotional pain reduced by 44%.
That shocked Zeidan. Past research has indicated that the opioid morphine reduces physical pain by 22%—and mindfulness had surpassed even that. But the MRI results, which showed how pain was registering in their brains, surprised him even more. People who had practiced mindfulness meditation seemed to be using different brain regions than the other groups to reduce pain.
“There was something more active, we believe, going on with the genuine mindfulness meditation group,” Zeidan says. This group had increased activation in higher-order brain regions associated with attention control and enhanced cognitive control, he says, while exhibiting a deactivation of the thalamus—a structure that acts as the gatekeeper for pain to enter the brain, he explains. “We haven’t seen that with any other technique before.”create
It’s an important preliminary study, Zeidan says, but exactly who will benefit from meditation’s impact on pain is still unknown. “We’re now at the stage, at least in my lab, where we have enough evidence that meditation reduces pain and it does it in a really unique fashion, different from any other technique we’ve seen,” he says.
And as for the questions left unanswered? “We don’t have the studies yet,” he says, “but we’re getting there.”

Advice on how to get out of a rut

09 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by in creative, Creativity, Rut

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1. “Get out of the studio… far away from the computer and look for the fabulous in the mundane. Mini road trips to antique malls and thrift shops provide some of the most amazing juxtapositions of function, color, shape and materials, as well as time to ponder them. Not to mention, the drive itself forces an unplugged brain cleanse that makes space for the new ideas to get in.” — Bob Faust, Principal/Designer,Faust Ltd.
2. “I like to have several things going at once. That way, if one’s not coming I can work on something else. If none of them have any life to ’em, the best thing to do is to just take a break. There’s nothing worse than trying to force it and the world doesn’t need any more bad art; there’s already plenty of that.” — Dmitry Samarov, Painter and Writer
3. “I make a cup of coffee instead of miming one. I stop ripping out my hair in large tufts and watch it grow in. I take a walk and get a life. The rut will pass. Not creating with a gun to your head works, too.” — Susan Messing, Improvisor, Messing With A Friend
4. “I always reach out to my mom to get inspiration if I’m in a rut. Childhood memories are big part of our restaurants. At Urbanbelly, menu item number #15 “Rice Cake” is from a street vendor when I was growing up in Seoul, Korea. So my mom reminds me about certain dishes or even tells me a recipe that she has used.” — Bill Kim bellyQ , Urbanbelly, and bellyshack.
5. “After attending a great play, or great musical concert, I tend to become creatively inspired. After listening to someone like Stevie Wonder in concert for 2 hours, it’s kind of hard not to.” — Billy Branch, Three-time Grammy Award Nominee
6. “The most difficult thing for me is to get started on a big creative project. I have many ideas, but putting them into clear form is a true challenge! In those cases, I need to clear my mind of all other life concerns, and I give myself the time to take a nice walk or do some meditation so that my mind is clear of all the little stresses that get in the way. Then, I reserve a good chunk of uninterrupted time to work, as the big creative projects require intense focus to be formulated.”  — George Lepauw, President and Artistic Director of the International Beethoven Project
7. “To dig my way out of a creative rut, I close the door to my hayloft studio…and hit the closets to play “Keep & Toss.” Once everything is bagged & tagged for donation, I pour a red beverage and turn off my brain in front of an old movie;Mommy Dearest paved the way for Spring ’13!” — Peach Carr, Project RunwaySeason 8 & All Star
8. “In order to come up with new dishes, I fast and go for long runs. Being very hungry brings clarity to exactly what I crave and want to eat. Refinements of these ideas often end up on my menus.” — Gray McNally, Tortoise Club
9. “I lock myself in a dance studio, put on good music and improvise.  Without setting any rules, I simply dance, allowing myself the space to move free of judgment.  Removing the pressure of creating on a deadline or for a specific reason, frees me up, resulting in more spontaneous and rich movement.” — Stephanie Paul, Be the Groove, Co-Founder/Artistic Director
10. “Sometimes when I find myself in a creative rut, I look to my cookbook collection. I more often than not go to the books that I bought when I started cooking, like Alfred Portale’s 12 Seasons, Alain Ducasse’s Grand Livre de Cuisineor even recent publications like anything from Stephane Raynaud. Sometimes just a glimpse at a picture can start the creative juices flowing, and get me back on track.” — Sean Pharr, Chef de Cuisine NoMI Kitchen
11. “When I’m in a creative rut, it is frustrating and tortuous because it can lead to self-doubt and the thought, ‘has my artistic well run dry?’ When it happens, I step away from my work, clear my mind through meditation and have a good laugh watching Modern Family.” — Stacy Bowie, Painter
12. “I believe creative ruts are often related to overtiredness and being overloaded. Rest, breath, laughter and nature for rejuvenation are my go-to solutions, and I often spend time with kids playing because it cleanses my mind and starts me at a free, playful, creative place. Taking quiet time with my animals also puts me in a place to start any creative process, and then I trust.” — Melissa Veal, Wig and Make-up Designer, Chicago Shakespeare Theater
13. “It’s easy to get into a rut when you are conceiving and designing shows a lot, back to back. The nature of commercial theatre dictates that you think really far ahead and sometimes that is very limiting. For me, the final creative answers can’t come until you are in the room, so it’s a matter of balancing the practical with the creative.” — Rachel Rockwell, Director/Choreographer
14. “I spend some time outdoors hiking, foraging, camping or fishing. Nature puts me back on track!” — Paul Virant, Chef/owner Vie Restaurant, Chef/partnerPerennial Virant
15. “Navigating out of a creative ‘rut’ means taking an afternoon away from my studio to sit in a hotel lobby and sketch people. I can immerse myself in seeing a variety of fascinating subjects, interesting fashion looks, all while madly capturing them with pencil on paper. Afterwards, I feel creatively refreshed-ready to tackle new fashionable opportunities.” — Rosemary Fanti, Fashion Illustrator
16. “I take a shower. There is something about the rote activity of washing your hair that frees up your mind.” — Jared Van Camp, Executive Chef Nellcote
17. “When I feel stuck creatively, it’s generally because I’ve been at it for too long. When that happens, I delve into another art form for awhile (i.e., if I’m stuck on a painting or drawing, I might go and write a poem or short story, immerse myself in cooking a wonderful meal, or meditate for a bit.) Switching it up really helps. A fresh look is invaluable when you return, and you come back with renewed perspective.” — Lyn Pusztai Co-owner / Co-designer of Roulette 18 jewelry and Freelance Painter/Illustrator
18. “Distraction works best. When I’m out on the road I crave the quiet of the painting studio and vice versa. Making art is my job and mostly I don’t have time to get to all the nonsense bubbling in my skull.” — Jon Langford, Artist and Musician
19. “When I am in a creative rut, I go to art museums and art shows, and look at other people’s art. I also look at books with pictures in them to get the visual part of my mind working and activated. Going out in nature always stimulates my senses and my mind, so I do that to find inspiration, as well, and I usually come back with some new ideas. Also, going to lectures, movies, taking a walk in the city, and listening to some music seems to help free my mind a bit, so that some inspiration can float in when I am diverted and not trying so hard. I am the most creative when I am relaxed and not trying.” — Victoria Fuller, Artist/Musician
20. “One way that I get out of a creative rut is to sit down with super forward-thinking books, as well as ones from cooking school (the fundamentals). It helps me find my center. Usually hyper-focusing on an upcoming season like Spring and Google-searching images helps create a positive flow of thoughts.” — Pat Sheerin, Executive Chef/Partner, Trenchermen
21. “After dinner, I head to the studio for ‘concepting time.’ When I feel the creative rut creeping in, I put on Chicago Tonight and break out a sketch book. That show always provides a variety of intellectual stimulation to get my mind and imagination warmed up. If after an hour my sketches are lame, at least I saw/heard an excellent show!” — Jeff Zimmermann, Artist
22. “I read poetry… Rumi, Neruda, Rilke, and my own poetry, to remind myself of my own art. The words help me to see shapes, colors, form, which then inspire me to write, paint and create.” — Arica Hilton, Poet/Artist
23. “Usually, when I need inspiration, I get more collaborative, working with all members of the team can help spark some initial burst of creativity. Or, I’ll cook something with my wife and children to help drown out all of the noise (budgets, P&L statements, deadlines, etc) that fills my head and I can focus on what I enjoy the most. My kids have amazing palates, too – they let me know if anything is off balance in a dish, so I really focus on clean, simple, well prepared items.” — James O’Donnell, Michael Jordan’s Steak House
24. “If I get into a creative rut, I take a long bath, light a candle, and listen to soft music followed by a nice long slumber. After a restful night’s sleep, I often wake to a morning of refreshing ideas!” — Dee Alexander, vocalist
25. “I choose to spend my time with brilliant people, who excel in many different areas, and this helps me get out of my creative rut. From restauranteurs to investment bankers and from musicians to engineers, the people with whom I surround myself inspire me to create new pieces and come up with ideas that meld different types of art.” — Josephine Lee, President and Artistic Director of Chicago Children’s Choir
26. “To get inspired I love going to some of my favorite Italian restaurants like Balena or Piccolo Sogno and when I can, I also love going to New York to visit my Italian favorites like Lupa, Keste or Il Buco. Going back to my favorite cookbooks, like Babbo and A16, also helps me get new thoughts and inspiration.” — Chris Macchia, The Florentine
27. “I destress. I take the pressure off of creating just for creation purposes. At times, we can focus on the business aspect or the productivity of our craft so much that it sucks the passion out of us. I go have fun and stop thinking so hard. I let life take it’s course and fill me with experiences that shape my art. Also, our competitive nature can block creativity. I remind myself that I’m not competing to win a contest. I remind myself that this is what I love and how and why I fell in love with it.” — Marco The Poet, Poet, co-founder of Speak Life Movement
28. “On the rare occasion that I’m uninspired about a piece I’m practicing, I play something else, and return to the original piece feeling more refreshed. I love talking about music, but can find it challenging to write essays or articles on the subject. My solution is to just write something, anything, and once I get going, I find it usually isn’t so bad after all!” — Rachel Barton Pine, international violin soloist
29. “I go to the movies, go see live theater or music.  I find that experiencing the creativity of others is most inspiring.” — Lynne Jordan, vocalist

Philippine rehab uses Art therapy

08 Tuesday Jan 2019

Posted by in art, drawings, Mental Health

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MANILA, Sept 14 — A group in Manila are using art therapy to help addicts overcome drug addictions and show Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte that bloody retribution is not the only solution to drugs.

The Centre for Christian Recovery, a religious organisation which manages a small private rehabilitation facility west of Manila, has incorporated drawing into its daily sessions as a way for addicts to express their feelings.

“These drug dependents are not used to saying what they feel,” said Davis Dakis, the programme director.people

“They do not know how to express their emotions. So now, through art, they can express whatever they feel.”

The art sessions at the centre, which caters for 40 addicts, comes amid a bloody campaign against drugs since Duterte took office in June.

More than 2,500 people have been killed in the war on drugs, with about 900 deaths a result of police operations, police say.

Owie, a drug user undergoing rehabilitation, said he was afraid of going back on the streets despite his attempts at reformation.

“I hope our president will take a different action. I don’t want it to be like this. It’s as if he wants to just kill all of us addicts,” he said.

“There is still hope for us, it’s not too late to change.” — Reuters

– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/features/article/art-therapy-philippine-rehab-centre-drawing-a-future-for-drug-addicts#sthash.2xp9Lcap.dpuf

Anxiety

07 Monday Jan 2019

Posted by in Anxiety, Wellness

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We all know the uncomfortable feeling of anxiety. Our hearts race, our fingers sweat, and our breathing gets shallow and labored. We experience racing thoughts about a perceived threat we fear will be too much to handle. That’s because our “fight or flight” response has kicked in, resulting in sympathetic arousal and a narrowing of attention and focus on avoiding the threat. We seem to be locked in that state, unable to focus on our daily chores or longer-term goals.  Below are six strategies that you can use to help relieve your everyday anxiety:

  • Reevaluate the probability of the threatening event actually happening.

Anxiety makes us feel that a threat is imminent, yet most of the time what we worry most about never happens. By recording our worries—and how few actually came true—we can notice how much we overestimate the prospect of negative events.

  • De-catastrophize.

Even if a bad event happened, we may still be able to handle it by using  coping skills and problem-solving abilities or by enlisting others to help. Although not pleasant, we could still survive encountering a spider, having a panic attack, or losing money. It’s important to realize that very few things are the end of the world.feelings-54

  • Use deep breathing and relaxation.

By deliberately relaxing our muscles we begin to calm down so we can think clearly. If you practice this at first without a threat present, it can start to become automatic and will be easier to use in the moment when you face a threat. Deep breathing engages the parasympathetic nervous system to put the brakes on sympathetic arousal.

  • Become mindful of your own physical and mental reactions.

The skill of mindfulness involves calmly observing our own reactions, including fear, without panic or feeling compelled to act. It can be taught in therapy and improves with practice.

  • Accept fear and commit to living a life based on core values.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an approach that encourages people to accept the inevitability of negative thoughts and feelings and not try to repress or control them. By directing attention away from the fear and back onto life tasks and valued goals, we can live a full life despite the fear.

  • Exposure.

Exposure is the most powerful technique for anxiety and it involves facing what we fear and staying in the situation long enough for the fear to habituate or go down, as it naturally does. Fear makes us avoid or run away, so our minds and bodies never learn that much of what we fear is not truly dangerous.