seismic event can severely shake, threaten, or reduce to rubble many of the schematic structures that have guided understanding, decision making, and meaningfulness,” they write. The physical rebuilding of a city that takes place after an earthquake can be likened to the cognitive processing and restructuring that an individual experiences in the wake of a trauma. Once the most foundational structures of the self have been shaken, we are in a position to pursue new—and perhaps creative—opportunities. The “rebuilding” process looks something like this: After a traumatic event, such as a serious illness or loss of a loved one, individuals intensely proces... posted on Jan 27 2016 (31,263 reads)

within people. Billboards, buses, commercials, community outreach, etc. Meaningful moments. Nothing for sale. Gifts for human consciousness. Powered by The People.”  Over the last four years, inspirational messages have appeared on 36 billboards, 12 buses, and 3 newspapers, resulting in over 14 million media impressions, bringing countless positive moments for the people in the San Francisco Bay Area and illustrating how individuals matter when they consciously come together as creative force. In 2014, Inspiration Campaign received a grant award from The Pollination Project. “Inspiration Campaign is a way for us to decide what kind of media we want to see in ou... posted on May 3 2017 (10,885 reads)

who speak in spiritual terms routinely refer to God as creator but seldom see "creator" as the literal term for "artist". I am suggesting you take the term "creator" quite literally. You are seeking to forge a creative alliance, artist-to-artist with the Great Creator. Accepting this concept can greatly expand your creative possibilities." --Julia Cameron, "The Artist's Way" Through a 'not-so-smart' smartphone mishap, the Universe tapped me on the shoulder recently and invited me into the Universal Flow of abundance and creativity. I'd meant to send a text message to a certain Julia I know, but my smartphone... posted on Feb 9 2021 (6,781 reads)

because all life builds on relations and unfolds through mutual transformations. Poetic ecology restores the human to its rightful place within ‘nature’—without sacrificing the otherness, the strangeness, and the nobility of other beings. It can be read as a scientific argument that explains why the deep wonder, the romantic connection, and the feeling of being at home in nature are legitimate—and how these experiences help us to develop a new view of life as a creative reality that is based on our profound, first-person observations of ecological realities. Poetic ecology allows us to find our place in the grand whole again. From this vantage point, we can ... posted on Jun 29 2021 (3,790 reads)

we don’t teach it. JM: All that said, in Focus you also touch on the value of letting your mind go adrift sometimes. DG: There are many kinds of attention, and each has its value. When we think of focus, we tend to think of one point of concentration—‘I’m going to get this thing done if it kills me,’ just keep your eye on the target. Well, that’s useful in many respects—in school, at work. But not always. If you want to be creative, actually, that is a creativity killer. To be in a creative state of mind, you want to let your mind wander. You do want to focus on the problem at first and gather all the information tha... posted on Mar 25 2014 (23,033 reads)

after a while the muse shows up, too.” Legendary composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky put it similarly in an1878 letter to his benefactress: “A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.” Indeed, this notion that creativity and fruitful ideas come not from the passive resignation to a muse but from the active application of work ethic — ordiscipline, something the late and great Massimo Vignelli advocated for as the engine of creative work — is something legions of creative luminaries have articulated over the ages, alongside the parallel inquiry of where ideas come from. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, the most succinc... posted on Sep 29 2014 (26,746 reads)

features in her film. Gifting as a concept can seem so abstract. I get a lot of people commenting to me that gift economics sounds great in theory, but what are some examples of it working? People want to know how they can practically put gift culture into practice in their lives, because all around them they only see examples of a taking culture. Gifting feels like a utopia, rather than something we can enact in our everyday lives. This film, by providing real, concrete examples of the creative use of this paradigm-shifting idea, illuminates the power of gifting and encourages more creative work in this area. I sat down with McKenna to discuss the movie and her vision in more det... posted on Nov 1 2015 (12,595 reads)

at 5am,start playing and not stop until I had mastered them. Eventually it got so out of hand that a local newspaper came and did a story on the dark side of Nintendo, starring me. (Laughter) (Applause) Since then, I have traded hair for teeth. (Laughter) But this served me well in college, because I finished my senior thesis four months before the deadline.And I was proud of that, until a few years ago. I had a student named Jihae, who came to me and said, "I have my most creative ideas when I'm procrastinating." And I was like, "That's cute, where are the four papers you owe me?" (Laughter) No, she was one of our most creative students, an... posted on Apr 28 2016 (28,691 reads)

don’t think you can fast forward or cheat that process. The creative journey requires you to put in that time.” James Clear is a productivity expert who uses behavioral science to help nearly half a million newsletter subscribers optimize their habits. He recently sat down with bestselling author Steven Johnson for a conversation on what drives and contextualizes creativity and innovation. Steven is the author of ten books, including Where Good Ideas Come From and, most recently Wonderland, which highlights the influence of wonder and delight on the movements that shape history. This conversation has been edited and condensed. To view James and Steven’s full ... posted on Sep 24 2017 (9,045 reads)

But when we speak and I ask about these challenges, he is fearless. Motivated by the excitement of making the impossible possible, I can hear the sparkle in his voice as he speaks about helping people, “Oh my gosh I can do that! I can do more!” And doing more he is, continuing to pose provocative questions that offer us a new way of seeing. Muhammad Yunus has always challenged the way the poor are perceived, insisting that they are not unimaginative or lazy but creative and entrepreneurial. In his new book, A World of Three Zeros: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Carbon Emissions, he is challenging the way we think about ou... posted on Jul 24 2018 (7,439 reads)

can we reconcile the immensely destructive force of fire with its equally limitless creative potential? Forest managers light intentional blazes to clear overgrowth and begin anew the cycle of life. A fireplace becomes a hearth, offering heat, light, and survival for the home’s residents. And fiery volcanic activity can obliterate what stands in its path all the while creating new land in a matter of hours and days that becomes highly fertile soil in thousands or millions of years. The element of fire—and its life-giving results in the form of heat and light—represent both a powerful metaphor and an undeniable fact of organic and spiritual transformation. Evelyn Underhil... posted on Aug 10 2021 (2,753 reads)

process as the tension between a seed’s affirming force to sprout and the soil’s denying force – only to awaken a previously unimagined possibility. Third pillar of Heartivism is Ahimsa. That’s a Sanksrit word that is typically translated as “non-violence”, but that’s a loose translation. Ahimsa is not the absence of violence, but rather, as Dr. King put it, a shift from the "darkness of destructive selfishness" to the "light of creative altruism." Below is Vimala Thakar, defining Ahimsa as an active presence of a creative love that gracefully responds to the challenges of the world. Gandhi referre... posted on Feb 2 2023 (8,776 reads)

to attack. A for attack. We attack the other side and then we know where it goes. So the question that we face is, how do we get out of the 3A trap? This is where I’ve learned that the best way out of the 3A trap is to do the exact opposite of avoiding, which is paradoxically to lean into the conflict. Instead of freezing where it paralyzes your ability to bring your full potential to the situation, you lean in. You lean in with curiosity. You lean in with natural creativity, maybe some creative ways to actually engage that because the best creative ideas come from actually when there are divergent opinions and collaboration. Is this easy? No, it’s not easy. This is some of the... posted on May 13 2024 (2,332 reads)

Keith Sawyer looks to comedians and jazz groups for 10 keys to more creative, successful teams in the office, on the field, and beyond. In 1949, the comedian Sid Caesar brought together a legendary group of comedy writers and created one of the biggest television hits of the 1950s, Your Show of Shows. Caesar’s team included Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Neil Simon. It may have been the greatest writing staff in the history of television. They developed the show in a small suite of rooms on the sixth floor of 130 West 56th Street in Manhattan. Caesar created a fun and improvisational environment, where the team would riff on each other’s idea... posted on Feb 1 2012 (41,378 reads)

Descartes has to do with C. P. Snow and the second law of thermodynamics. When legendary theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking was setting out to release A Brief History of Time, one of the most influential science books in modern history, his publishers admonished him that every equation included would halve the book’s sales. Undeterred, he dared include E = mc², even though cutting it out would have allegedly sold another 10 million copies. The anecdote captures the extent of our culture’s distaste for, if not fear of, equations. And yet, argues mathematician Ian Stewart in In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed ... posted on May 8 2012 (15,419 reads)

things seem more American than the pursuit of happiness, but are we going about it all wrong? That’s one of the questions raised by The Myths of Happiness, the new book by Sonja Lyubomirsky. Lyubomirsky is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, and one of the leading researchers in the field of positive psychology. Her previous, best-selling book, The How of Happiness, published in 2008, is chock full of the best research-based practices for increasing happiness. The Myths of Happiness follows up on that work by explaining how our assumptions about what will and won’t bring us happiness are often flat-out wrong. Und... posted on Jun 12 2013 (27,138 reads)

bloomer, such as Ian Fleming, who, after succeeding as a journalist, banker, and stockbroker, went on to create James Bond when he was 45. Such achievers are only the tip of the rosebush. Late bloomers are actually plentiful, and each has his or her own story and distinctive pathway. Stopping to look at all the paths together calls into question some of society's most cherished beliefs— about the nature of human development, the roles of intelligence and education in creative achievement, and the ingredients of success at any age. All too often, what society thinks is a limiting factor—harsh early life experiences, such as parental loss—may turn out to... posted on Sep 24 2013 (36,694 reads)

Bennett-Goleman and Daniel Goleman explain the science behind "mind whispering"—a technique for overcoming self-defeating habits of mind. Tara Bennett-Goleman and her husband Daniel Goleman form a kind of intellectual dream team—one almost exclusively preoccupied with emotions. In best-selling books like Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence, Daniel Goleman has laid out the cognitive science and theories behind our emotions and social interactions. In her work as a psychotherapist and in her best-selling book Emotional Alchemy, Bennett-Goleman has applied those theories to overcoming self-defeating habits of mind and improving our relationships. ... posted on Oct 6 2013 (30,696 reads)

we don’t teach it. JM: All that said, in Focus you also touch on the value of letting your mind go adrift sometimes. DG: There are many kinds of attention, and each has its value. When we think of focus, we tend to think of one point of concentration—‘I’m going to get this thing done if it kills me,’ just keep your eye on the target. Well, that’s useful in many respects—in school, at work. But not always. If you want to be creative, actually, that is a creativity killer. To be in a creative state of mind, you want to let your mind wander. You do want to focus on the problem at first and gather all the information tha... posted on Feb 18 2014 (31,559 reads)

counts for a whole lot. With the many landmines out there, ready to derail even the most talented of people, “showing up” regularly offers undeniable benefits. Some of these perks often go overlooked. For those excited to make progress this year, let’s keep in mind all of the advantages at our disposal when we have an enviable attendance record: Consistency begets consistency. A person in motion stays in motion, unless acted upon by a Netflix binge session. The creative mind is much like machinery. Too much work and you overload it, too little and a decrepit state of rusty thinking awaits you. Keep the process humming by allowing the steady flow of work to n... posted on Apr 23 2015 (168,629 reads)