Author Archives: RichardB

Being Creative & Meditation

20 Wednesday Mar 2024

Posted by in Creativity, grounding, Meditation, mindfulness

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Certain meditation techniques can promote creative thinking, even if you have never meditated before. This is the outcome of a study by cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato and Dominique Lippelt at Leiden University, published in Mindfulness.MP900309017

Long-lasting influence

The study is a clear indication that you don’t need to be an experienced meditator to profit more from meditation. The findings support the belief that meditation can have a long-lasting influence on human cognition, including how we conceive new ideas. Besides experienced meditators, also novices may profit from meditation.

Different techniques, different effects

But the results demonstrate that not all forms of meditation have the same effect on creativity. Test persons performed better in divergent thinking (= thinking up as many possible solutions for a given problem) after Open Monitoring meditation (= being receptive to every thought and sensation). The researchers did not see this effect on divergent thinking after Focused Attention meditation (=focusing on a particular thought or object.)

Setup of the study

Print40 individuals participated in this study, who had to meditate for 25 minutes before doing their thinking tasks. There were both experienced mediators and people who never meditated before. The study investigated the influences of different types of meditative techniques on the two main ingredients of creativity:

  • Divergent thinking Allows for many new ideas to be generated. It is measured using the so-called Alternate Uses Task method where participants are required to think up as many uses as possible for a particular object, such as a pen.
  • Convergent thinking Convergent thinking, on the other hand, is a process whereby one possible solution for a particular problem is generated. This is measured using the Remote Associates Task method, where three unrelated words are presented to the participants, words such as ‘time’, ‘hair’ and ‘stretch’. The participants are then asked to identify the common link: in this case, ‘long’.

Lorenza S. Colzato, Ayca Szapora, Dominique Lippelt, Bernhard Hommel. Prior Meditation Practice Modulates Performance and Strategy Use in Convergent- and Divergent-Thinking Problems. Mindfulness, 2014; DOI: 10.1007/s12671-014-0352-9

Art Benefits

13 Wednesday Mar 2024

Posted by in art, Wellness

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1. Art makes you more observant. Leonardo da Vinci said, “Painting embraces all the ten functions of the eye; that is to say, darkness, light, body and color, shape and location, distance and closeness, motion and rest.” Creating art helps you learn to “see” by concentrating on detail and paying more attention to your environment.

2. Art stimulates the imagination. If you consider yourself a right-brained (artistic) person, you can enhance the creative skills you already possess. If you’re left-brained (analytical), creating art will stimulate your creativity and imagination.

3. Art enhances problem-solving skills. Unlike math, there is no one correct answer in art. Art encourages out-of-the-box thinking and lets you come up with your own unique solution.

Sufi Dream.jpg

4. Art boosts self-esteem and provides a sense of accomplishment. We stick our kids’ artwork on the fridge to boost their self-esteem. Hanging your latest work of art on the wall can instill you with the same feeling.

5. Art reduces stress. Painting, sculpting, drawing, and photography are relaxing and rewarding hobbies that can lower your stress levels and lead to an overall improvement in well-being.

6. Art enhances cognitive abilities and memory, even for people with serious brain conditions. Dr. Arnold Bresky is a physician who has created a program he calls the “Brain Tune Up”� that utilizes art therapy for patients that have Alzheimer’s and dementia. He has seen a 70% success rate in improving his patients’ memories. He believes that by drawing and painting, they are connecting the right and left hemispheres of the brain and growing new brain cells.

DG

28 Wednesday Feb 2024

Posted by in Economy

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As of January 8, 2024, Dollar General (DG) has 19,643 stores in the continental United States and Mexico. (Wikipedia)
In 2022, the company’s revenue was $34.8 billion and its net income/profit was $3.1 billion. (Wikipedia)

I was reminded of this the other day as I was waiting in line at DG and saw a manager fiddle with the safe (didn’t have my glasses on and couldn’t really see what she was doing).

Much like other large retailers (Walmart and Albertsons), DG has the ability to negotiate lower prices for some goods because of their enormous size. At my local DG, most prices are on par with the local grocery store. Of course I can’t really say local … not in my definition of what local is. DG is a 23 mile round trip, the grocery store (Safeway), is an 80 mile round trip. Such is the way of rural life.

Dollar General’s strategy is to target low-income and low-population areas that other major retailers avoid. 75% of their stores are in towns with fewer than 20,000 people. (LinkedIn) DG can and does serve as a food and other goods lifeline to the areas it serves. Well, at least my ‘local’ DG.

However, DG never has any fresh produce. I understand why, produce in a store is labor intensive compared to everything else. Plus produce goes bad if no one buys it, a potential money losing proposition.

DG does seem to have a poor reputation (lots of employee and consumer complaints) including more than $21 million in fines from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration for having blocked fire exits, dangerous levels of clutter and more. Even shareholders are upset as they voted for a resolution that called for an independent, third-party audit into worker safety, a move that the company opposed. (CNBC)

DG does have its role in providing goods to folks who would otherwise not have any other resources. For that I am grateful. But, they need to clean up their act.