Archive for the 'Creativity' Category

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Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Published on June 13, 2011 in Anais Nin, cathartic writing, Creativity, Decisions, Heuristic, inspiration, Wray Herbert, writer blog and Writers and Their Notebooks.

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I often tell my students that if they are encountering turbulent times or having difficulty making a decision, whether it is large or small, they should use their journal to help figure out their answers. No doubt, some decisions are easier to make than others. Writing in your journal can help you make decisions by identifying the potential risks and gains of a situation. Journaling can help you come to grips with what is really going on. Writing empowers us.

In a recent article in U.S. News & World Report (special edition: Secrets of Your Brain) there was an excerpt from a new book called, One Second-Thought: Outsmarting Your Minds’ Hard-Wired Habits by Wray Herbert. The author discusses the concept of heuristics which refers to the experience-based techniques which help us make decisions. He discusses how over time humans have evolved these cognitive rules of thumb. Heuristics can help us efficiently navigate the many choices we are faced with every day. The author postulates that even though heuristics comes in handy, they are at times imperfect and irrational. Sometimes using heuristics can be a trap because we might become lazy and not think through certain decisions.

The author discusses the various types of heuristics, including: the familiarity heuristic, default heuristic and the acceptance heuristic. The familiarity heuristic is a result of habit and experience and it is almost automatic. The default heuristic refers to us having a powerful bias for sticking with a decision we have once made. In other words, we don’t want to rock the boat. It’s the safe, stay-the-course impulse which, in the past has provided good results. Constant switching back and forth about what to do, can be perilous, in regard to all decisions including financial and romantic. As a result we have become adverse to hopping around. The acceptance heuristic illustrates our overpowering tendency to make choices which others approve of. It’s about being safe and feeling a sense of belonging to society. This is connected to the idea of group dynamics.

Many studies have been done on the subject of decision-making. While some people have difficulty making decisions and are scared about the possibility of making the wrong decision, others find the task of making a decision quite easy.

My readings taught me that those with the following traits, tend to make easier and more efficient decisions:

1. good self-esteem
2. honesty with oneself
3. loving oneself
4. having courage

One of the best ways to make a personal decision is through self-talk and one of the best ways to do this is through the practice of regular journaling.

“Once you make a decision, says Emerson, “the universe conspires to make it happen.”

Journaling: A Message to All Graduating Students

Published on May 24, 2011 in Author Blog, Bill Clinton, Creativity, graduates, graduation, inspiration, Journaling, Journals, Musings, New York University and Writing, journaling.

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I just returned from New York where I attended my son’s graduation from NYU. It was a week of celebration and festivities with many highlights, one of which was having former President, Bill Clinton, as the keynote speaker for the 179th commencement ceremony at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, May 18th. I had my journal in my pocket and scribbled down all of his wonderful words of wisdom.

In addition to receiving an honorary doctorate, he had many poignant messages for these students, about to march out into the ‘real world.’ In spite of all the issues facing the world today, he remained positive and offered the students tips on how to navigate the tough terrain. I give him kudos for being able to focus on the positive while addressing the bleak economic and world trends. He stressed the importance of accentuating the positive forces in the world while at the same time diminishing the negative. “We need to find a way to decrease the negative,” he reiterated.

He discussed humanity and equality and summarized that “the borders of the world look more like nets than walls.” He said, “today, 10-year olds can find out something on the internet I had to go to university to learn.”

He stressed the importance of having a passion and enjoying the type of work you choose. He succinctly stated, “Do what you love, work hard at it, and don’t quit….You should strive to find happiness every day and not believe that it comes at the end of the journey and most people are happiest doing what they are good at.” Furthermore, he said, “when pursuing your dreams, you can’t quit when you fail; you can’t quit when you mess up and when life seems to deal you a tough hand.”

He talked about their future and summarized: “You must decide what you want the world to look like when your children are sitting where you are today… believe that the only way to win the planet is to share it and the only way to do it is to think of our grandchildren.”

To hear the speech in its entirety, go to this link:

http://www.nyu.edu/life/events-traditions/commencement/web-cast.html

Congratulations to all graduates, worldwide!!
Diana

Double Whammy Weekend – New Frontiers

Published on May 9, 2011 in Author Blog, cathartic writing, Creativity, General Information, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and writing.

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This past weekend was a double whammy wonderful one for me—Saturday was my birthday and Sunday, Mother’s Day. As someone who embraces the celebration of life, I took full advantage of my lot, even though my kids—Rachel, Regine and Josh—sadly all live on the east coast. I felt their love across the miles. Next year I vow for us to somehow be together, at least for one of these festivities, preferably Mother’s Day.

My husband now calls me Heinz 57. It has many different flavors and there are days when I feel like this as I have so many interests. One interest which I will address this year is my lifelong fascination with psychology, what makes us do the things we do and how the human mind works. Perhaps this fascination began on the streets of Paris where I would sit in cafes for hours as a child with my grandfather people-watching. This pastime of course also lead to my passion for writing.

So this summer I will merge my fascination with people, writing and psychology into one big study. I was just accepted into a PhD Program in Transpersonal Psychology at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto.

http://www.itp.edu

Transpersonal Psychology is the branch of psychology which deals with the spiritual aspects of the human experience and studies a person’s highest potential through his/her peak and mystical experiences. I believe that this is the new wave of psychology and the psychology of the future. This branch of psychology involves transcending the physical world and realizations through a person’s individual intuition. Writers such as Whitman, Emerson and Thoreau were all students and advocates of transcendentalism.

I am hoping that my work in this field will put me in even closer touch with the human psyche.

Many of my forthcoming blog discussions will be on the merging of literary arts and the psychological aspects of the world we live in. Please excuse any excessive psychobabble and feel free to comment on anything I say. This is an open invitation to all of my readers.

Next week I will discuss the New Psychoanalysis in more detail.

Enjoy your week!

The Magic of a Good Book

Published on January 24, 2011 in Anais Nin, Author Blog, Creativity, General Information, inspiration, Reading, The Catcher in the Rye, writer blog and writing.

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What makes a good book? What makes it hang around for so many years? Why is it that some books you are unable to put down? Many people have speculated on the answer to this question. Personally, I’m not so sure what makes a book timeless. Let us speculate together.

When you cannot put a book down, it might indicate that the author logically composed the book and that the book flows intuitively. The story and its characters are believable. A believable character is also one who wants something. In fact, the author might spend an entire book helping them character get what he or she wants. It has been said that an unmet desire is what makes a story move forward. In fact, when the protagonist gets what they want, the story is usually over.

I also believe that voice makes a good book. The voice is the individual writing style of a writer and what distinguishes one writer from the next. Voice refers to the tone and feeling of the writing, accomplished and this is done through word choice and sentence structure. It is the way an author’s writing sounds on the page, whether it be friendly, formal, chatty or distant. Every writer has a distinct voice and it is this plot which propel a story forward. Often the voice in memoir is easier to detect, because it’s written in the first person.

One of my favorite first-person booksis still as popular as it was at the time of its first release in 1951—Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger who died about one year ago at the age of ninety-one. Salinger used the repetition of certain words which helped to establish both voice and the character development of his protagonist, Holden Caulfield.

In summary, a good classic book teaches you a great deal about life, enriches your mind, provides you with a moral and reveals a passion worth investigating.

Here’s a partial list of some of my favorite books, in no particular order. Perhaps you can share some of yours:

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
La Comedie Humaine by Honore Balzac
The Journals of Anaïs Nin
The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff
The Color of Water by James McBride
Blue Angel by Francine Prose
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr
My Invented Country by Isabel Allende
Darkness Invisible by William Styron
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
A Separate Piece by John Knowles
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

The Fine Art of Storytelling

Published on December 20, 2010 in Author Blog, autobiographies, Creativity, General Information, inspiration, Journaling, Journals, Reading, writer blog and Writing, journaling.

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Lately I have found myself contemplating the fine art of storytelling. Some people are wonderful at it and others just want to make you yawn. The idea of storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images, sounds and embellishments. It is a way to express the emotional power of information. Robert McKee, in his book, Story, says “Stories are equipment for living.” In fact, when a story is told well, the listener is transported on a journey to a new place.

According to John Gardner, “Like other kinds of intelligence, the storyteller is partly natural, partly trained. It is composed of several qualities, most of which, in normal people, are signs of either immaturity or incivility: wit (a tendency to make irreverent connections); obstinacy and a tendency toward churlishness (a refusal to believe what all sensible people know is true); childishness (an apparent lack of mental focus and serious life purpose, a fondness for daydreaming and telling pointless lies, a lack of proper respect, mischievousness, an unseemly propensity for crying over nothing); a marked tendency toward oral or anal fixation or both (the oral manifested by excessive eating, drinking, smoking, and chattering; the anal by nervous cleanliness and neatness coupled with a weird fascination with dirty jokes); remarkable powers of eidetic recall, or visual memory (a usual feature of early adolescence and mental retardation); a strange admixture of shameless playfulness and embarrassing earnestness, the latter often heightened by irrationally intense feelings for or against religion; patience like a cat’s; a criminal streak of cunning; psychological instability; recklessness, impulsiveness, and improvidence; and finally, an inexplicable and incurable addiction to stories, written or oral, bad or good. Not all writers have exactly these same virtues, of course. Occasionally one finds one who is not abnormally improvident.”

The holiday season is a good time to share stories amongst friends and family. Some people are better at verbal storytelling, while others, like myself, prefer to revert to the written word. Many of our preferences and comfort zones reflect back to the patterns of our childhoods. As an only child of working parents, I spent a lot of time reading and writing in my journal. My parents were first generation immigrants and worked very long hours to provide food for our table. Dinners were often rushed with a minimum amount of storytelling unless we had a visitor who probed us. As a result, I was raised with books and paper, but gravitated to friends who were good storytellers because my situation made me a good listener. Things haven’t changed. I am who I am.

Lately, I’ve become good friends with a few great storytellers and I have been captivated, mesmerized and curious about what it is that’s missing for me to tell a good story. I have also done some reading to improve my own verbal storytelling (my family often tells me, I neglect to build up the tension and/or I omit the punch line). Heading into my sixth decade, I plan to improve this. Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

- Before telling your story, you need to know it well and/or memorize it
- Vary the pitch in your voice when telling a story
- Make sure your facial expressions coincide with the story’s mood
- Make sure the sequence of events is correct
- Build up to the story’s climax
- When finished do not go on to another story
- Practice storytelling in front of a mirror

One thing I also read was the importance of putting on a “story hat.” In other words, just before you are to tell a story, put on your story hat which gets you in the mood to tell your story. It is a way to take your mind off your audience, particularly if you are on the shy side.

If you are curious about some more tips in this area, I suggest you check out a great you-tube on the subject, called, “Storytelling: Theory and Practice.”

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all!

This blog will be taking a two-week hiatus.

Namaste,
Diana

Daylight Savings Musings

Published on November 8, 2010 in Author Blog, Creativity, Journals, writer blog and writing.

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For those who need a formal definition, daylight savings time is the advancement of the clocks so that the afternoons have more daylight and the mornings have less. Typically, we change our clocks one hour in the fall and one hour in the spring. The way it goes is that we put the clocks one hour back in the fall and one hour forward in the spring. To use elementary school day reminders, we spring forward and fall backwards.

Interestingly, until recently I thought Daylight Savings Time (DST) was just something all states and countries did twice a year, but upon reading I learned that this was not the case. For those of you who are interested in trivia and/or lean towards traveling, you might be interested to know the following:

• Arizona, Hawaii and Puerto Rico are the only places in the United States that do not observe DST. Instead, they observe Standard Time and do not change their clocks.

• Canada also observes DST, except for Saskatchewan and parts of Northern British Columbia.

• Most countries near the equator remain on Standard Time and do no change their clocks.

• Parts of Australia also remain on Standard Time, including, Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia.

• China and Japan remain on Standard Time.

There seems to be some controversy regarding the importance and necessity of observing and adhering to daylight savings time. Authorities have indicated that this gesture is beneficial to some, but for the most part, people complain that it causes confusion particularly when it comes to meetings and sleeping patterns. Farmers are amongst those who seem to object to DST and people like myself who just find it a nuisance running around the house changing clocks that are too high to reach. Thankfully, the smart engineers out there have arranged it that our technology, such as computers and iPhones are all changed automatically. Let’s bow to their brilliance.

Just to bring the subject home and close to my heart, the poet in me could not help but share a poem by Mary Oliver in regard to DST. It was posted along with others, on the opinion pages of yesterday’s Sunday, New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/opinion/poems-for-fall.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness

Every year we have been
witness to it: how the
world descends
into a rich mash, in order that
it may resume.
And therefore who would cry out

to the petals on the ground
to stay,
knowing, as we must,
how the vivacity of what was is married
to the vitality of what will be?
I don’t say
it’s easy, but
what else will do
if the love one claims to have for the world
be true?
So let us go on

though the sun be swinging east,
and the ponds be cold and black
and the sweets of the year doomed.

Wellness and Writing

Published on October 24, 2010 in Author Blog, breast cancer, Creativity, Health and Wellness, Journaling, Journals, writing, Writing for healing and Writing, journaling.

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This past weekend, and for the third year in a row, I attended the Wellness and Writing Connections Conference in Atlanta. http://www.wellnessandwritingconnections.com/. I also facilitated a workshop called, “From Journal to Memoir.” The Director of the Conference, John Evans, Ph.D. is an amazing person with vision and a huge heart, who is unfortunately fighting with the demon of cancer.

The conference was packed with many compelling workshops and speakers, but for me the highlight was speaking with Brenda Stockdale, the author of You Can Beat the Odds: Surprising Factors Behind Chronic Illness and Cancer.

For more than thirteen years, Stockdale has been the director of mind/body medicine for Georgia Cancer Treatment Center. She was the national program director for the cancer support organization founded by best-selling author and surgeon, Bernie Siegel, MD.

Stockdale unequivocally believes, and research strongly supports, the connection between low stress levels and a decrease in the incidence of cancer. The mechanisms are obvious—stress can control how the immune system works and increase a person’s vulnerability for cancer.

More often than we would like to admit, each of us have heard of a physician who has given a cancer patient six months to live. How does it happen that the person outlives all predictions? According to Stockdale, it’s simple. “The effect begins in a tiny part of the brain called the limbic system. This is where your experience is translated into a physical reality—like when your heart races because you are scared or excited. In this magical area of the brain, sights, sounds, thoughts and feelings are translated into biological events at lightening speed.” Thus we can have some control as to what happens in our bodies.

When Stockdale discusses the mind/body connection, she refers to applied psychoneuroimmunology, psychopharmacology, applied psychophysiology and informed recent findings in epigenetics. Her belief and more recent research have proven that the seemingly soft interventions such as writing can affect the sensitive world of the cell to facilitate rejuvenation. By regular expressive writing or journaling you can help to identify the psychological events, stresses and situations in your life, which influence your mood and your body. Writing down both your symptoms and feelings helps you to connect the dots. Sometimes sitting on smoldering negative emotions can unnecessarily use up precious positive energy.

When trying to conquer a disease, it is really not mind over matter or body, but the idea is that mind and matter affect one another. Essentially, our beliefs and belief systems become our biology. Studies have shown that those who have not gotten sick or were able to conquer their illness had the 3 C’s:

  1. control (sense of self-mastery)
  2. commitment (to themselves)
  3. challenge (the ability to see their current situation as a turning point rather than an end point)

The conference will be on hiatus for 2011, but will be strong and vibrant in March 2012.

Here’s to your health and all good things!

Diana

Journaling to Awaken The Real You

Published on September 27, 2010 in Creativity, Health and Wellness, Journaling, Journals, Musings, writer blog and Writing for healing.

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For the fourth year in a row, this past Saturday, I taught a workshop at The West Hollywood Book Festival, which I feel is one of the best organized and comprehensive of book festivals.. I always enjoy teaching at this festival because the participants are always so eager and enthusiastic, plus my class is always full!

The title of this year’s workshop was, “Journaling Yourself Out: Personal Writing to Awaken, Discover and Accept Who You Are.” The idea is that each of us has our own unique inner world waiting to be tapped into. Whether writing for fun or publication, my hope was to motive the participants to use their journals to tap into that world living inside of them.

I referenced James Pennebaker whose studies have shown that journal writing for a mere 15-20 minutes a day can improve your outlook on life, reduce your blood pressure and increase your immune function. The journal is also a place to turn to during times of transition, such as career changes, the ending or beginning of relationships, coping with illness, or the loss of a loved one.

Everyone has emotions and we all react differently to them. Some people prefer to talk about their problems, others keep to themselves, and writers like myself, love pouring emotions onto the pages of a journal. Journaling helps us sort through our emotions and helps us heal during difficult times. For me, in particular, journaling is a healthy way to sort through problems in order to avoid the build up of mental and physical stress. Everyone should have their own way to cope and hopefully you know what works for you.

Journaling can also be very grounding. It gives you a chance to hear your inner voice. If you listen closely, you find the answers to many of your questions. Sometimes journaling helps us come to grips with what is missing in our lives and helps us reach out to our needs and desires. Here is a helpful exercise to help tap into our happiness:

1)   Write about a time when you gave full reign to who you really are or a time when you felt most comfortable in your shoes. Explain how you felt and how others acted around you. Remain in the moment.

2)   Write about what is holding you back from feeling like you felt in #1. Write about what you should pay attention to in your life.

3)  Describe your ideal life—including relationships, job, living arrangements. One way to figure out what you really want and who you really are is to write about what brings you joy. What makes your heart dance? Your descriptions should include feelings, people, places and events.

For those who are interested in maintaining the practice of journaling, here are the tips I always share:

  • Find a quiet, uninterrupted time and place to write
  • Choose an inspiring notebook and pen
  • Create a centering ritual (light a candle, meditate, play music, stretch)
  • Breath deeply
  • Put aside your inner critic
  • Date your entry
  • Begin by writing your feelings and sensations
  • Write nonstop for 15-20 minutes
  • Save what you have written
  • Write regularly

Although this class was quieter than some of the others I’ve had at this festival they were very keen to begin the journaling process. I think many of the participants were amazed at how a simple prompt like, “Right now I feel like …” could get one writing for 15-20 minutes non-stop.

Typically, during my workshops I send the students home with some more journaling prompts to do at home. For many people, free-writing or writing without lifting your pen off the page for a designated period of time (let’s say 20 minutes), is enough to get them going, but others prefer more specific prompts. Here are a few I shared this weekend and which you, my reader, might also find helpful:

1.  Write about a major crisis in your life

2.  Write about what makes you laugh

3.  Write about your most memorable childhood moment

4.  Capture a moment from your day in prose or poetry

5.  Describe a stranger

6.  Write about what you want to do before you die

7.  Write about what a special favor you did for someone and how it made you feel

Journaling “Stendhalism”

Published on September 20, 2010 in Author Blog, Creativity, Journaling, Musings, writer blog, writing and Writing, journaling.

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After having just spent two weeks in Italy, I thought, “Stendhalism” would be an appropriate blogging topic. The inherent beauty lingering around every Italian corner was almost too much for one person or for one journey. Part of me wanted to visit in slow motion so that it could all be soaked in slowly, but there was really also much to see.

We began our sojourn in Lucca, then went to Siena, Florence and ended in Rome. The actual word “Stendhalism” was termed in Florence and created by one of my favorite authors, 19th century writer, Stendhal (pseudonym of Henri-Marie Beyle). In 1817 while visiting the Basilica of Santa Croce where the tomb of the artist Michelangelo is located, he felt this overwhelming sense of beauty.

This condition is also called the “Wow Effect.” Some say “Stendhalism” is a psychosomatic syndrome that can cause fainting when someone is in awe of unbearable beauty. In some persons, the result can be rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations when exposed to art. This usually happens when the art is particularly “beautiful” or there is a large amount of art is in one place.

The term “Stendhalism” may also be used to describe a similar reaction when confronted with immense beauty in the natural world. There are many natural spots in the world which can create a similar effect, such as driving through Big Sur, the Grand Canyon and other American landmarks.

In a recent conversation with a colleague, I learned of a variation of “Stendhalism” which can happen in the city of Jerusalem in Israel. In this case it is appropriately called the “Jerusalem Syndrome,” whereby the body’s “overwhelm” response is in reaction to the sense of awe in the presence of spiritual or religious significance.  Apparently, the local police in Jerusalem are very aware of the syndrome and know how to deal with the many daily cases encountered by the thousands of Christian, Jewish and Muslim pilgrims who visit this destination—the Holy Land to all.

*****

What do you think of this syndrome? Is there a place that you have visited in the past which brings out this syndrome in you. How have you dealt with it? Does creativity such as writing or taking photos help?

The Art of Letter Writing

Published on August 9, 2010 in Anais Nin, Author Blog, cathartic writing, Creative Nonfiction, Creativity, Healing With Words, Letter Writing, Musings, writer blog, writing, Writing for healing and Writing, journaling. Tags: , , , , , .

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The letter can be a vital tool to clarify your feelings to either yourself or to others. The purpose of a letter might be to inform, instruct, entertain, amuse, explore psychological problems, keep in touch, or offer love. The advent of the telephone was viewed as a replacement for letter writing, but with the birth of email, there seems to be a resurgence of the age-old art of letter writing.

Many people use  letter writing to release pent-up emotions, such as complaint letters to companies about a malfunctioning product  or letters to the editor about a pressing current event. Typically, when confronting someone on an issue, it’s easier (and healthier) to blow up on the page rather than directly toward the person. Letters are also a good venue to gather your thoughts first, and can be used as a segue to discussion.

Most writers are good letter writers. Authors such as Pam Houston, Fenton Johnson and Shawn Wong frequently write letters. Wong views letter writing as practice for his craft. He says:

“When I was eighteen I started thinking about becoming a writer but as an undergraduate student and later as a graduate student in creative writing, I didn’t really have a career as a writer so I wrote letters, sometimes as many as five or six letters a day. In looking back at the thousands of pages of letters, I realize those letters were how I practiced my writing.”

Author, John McPhee, once said that every book he wrote began with the words, “Dear Mother.” His letters didn’t typically usually end up in his published book, but serves its purpose—it gets him writing. Diarist Anaïs Nin began her first journal entry as a letter to her deranged father as a way to remain connected with him, although she also never sent it. In fact, it is not always necessary to send letters. Sometimes the exercise in writing the letter is all that is needed to clear the mind and calm the psyche.

Some writers use the letter form to warm up their writing. Sometimes it helps to one get into the swing of a story and helps to develop voice. Many, such as myself, write letters in their journal, particularly if they’re having difficulty developing a character in their story.

Others may decide to write letters to their pets. You can really write to whoever or whatever inspires you. It is important to date your letters and in case you decide to send the letter, to keep a copy of it. In the future, it will be amusing and informative to reread your letters, plus you never know how their contents may be used in a future literary work.

When beginning a letter, the best way to start is to say what prompted you to write the letter or why you were thinking of the person at that particular time. The letters we most enjoy receiving are those which carry the writer’s personality. When reading well-written letters we feel as if the person is sitting beside us, looking at us and speaking to us.

Perhaps the most satisfying aspect of letter writing is the opportunity to communicate exactly what’s on your mind. What more could a writer ask for than a specific, hand-picked, captivated reader? So, if you could say anything you wanted to anyone in the world, who would you address?  What would you say?  Sit down, take out a sheet of paper or crack open your journal, choose your audience and begin your journey!

Some Letter-Writing Tips

•                Use simple and easy to understand sentences

•                Avoid using complicated and long words

•                Be specific

•                Break your letter into small parts or paragraphs

•                Make sure your voice or tone is appropriate to the subject of the letter

•                For clarity, read the letter aloud

•                Write, rewrite and polish your letter