Category Archives: Creativity
About the Changemaker Creativity Books
Boat by MorBCH
The Changemaker Library has been divided into ten categories. These are core, creativity, exercise, food, health, meditation, peace of mind, personal development, spiritual direction, and stress reduction. A few of the books have been recommended for more than one category.
Creativity is the secret to being in our passion. We are in our “flow” when we are working and time seems to disappear. Joy can’t be discovered by the mind. Joy happens when our total being–thoughts, words, feelings–are all focused at the same time. Joy comes from the heart.
Mihaly Csikszentmihaly states that flow has the following components:
1. Usually occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing
2. We must be able to concentrate on what we are doing.
3. Concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken has clear goals and provides immediate feedback..
4. One acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes awareness of the worries and frustrations of everyday life.
5. Enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their actions.
6. Concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over.
7. The sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes.
Also to create harmony in whatever one does is the last task the flow theory presents. Athletes call this phenomenon being in the “zone”.
The Changemaker Library recommended these books for creativity:
The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Julia Cameron
ISBN 0-87477-694-5
Fingerpainting on the Moon: Writing and Creativity as a Path to Freedom
Peter Levitt
ISBN 0-609-61048-1
Prosperity Pie: How to Relax About Money and Everything Else
SARK
ISBN 0-7432-2920-7
The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart (Companion to The Artist’s Way)
Julia Cameron
ISBN 0-87477-836-0
Tags: creativity, prosperity, relax.creative, spiritual, writing
How I Keep My Creativity Flowing
I believe that emotion is energy. So choosing to use your energy positively is a choice you can make any time of the day. Staying in your fear won’t help you in any way except to keep you from moving forward. So the first thing I ask myself when I am feeling fearful is, “What am I trying to avoid not completing?”
Procrastination is one of my favorite methods to stay in my fear and not move forward. I have had to put several action thoughts, prayers, and deeds into affect to change my old self into new and better action goals.
1. I use the focus–refocus –then review action steps to plan my day.
2. I always keep small legal pads at each place I use in the home and/or office. I work at home but have three work places. The variety gives me new scenery and different computers. A writer’s life is a solitary profession. Writers also have to be relentless about rewriting. I have found physically moving to another work space helps to help me find a new train of thought.
3. After I have several ideas on several note pads, I do a “brain dump” of organizing for all the material I have notes. Sometimes I do a mind map (xmind) to see what is the direction I want to go in. I have been training my brain for 30 years how to be my servant instead of my master. I believe this is one of my life issues. I call my main lessons life lessons so that I can remember they will be with me for life. Prior posts about what I call finding the observer mind:
Retrain Your Brain Quick Links
If You Want to Change a Habit, Use Reframing
4. Writing down my goals or plans in a large, hardcover notebook that I have divided into 3 sections helps me to keep it simple. Then I use a red pen and circle my goals for the day. I may use a different colored marker for each day as I move through the week. But usually I have to move on to new topics.
5. For translating my goals and plans into action steps, I use clipboards. I learned clipboards from the Navy when I worked in Guantanamo Bay. I keep 5 clipboards focused on 5 different directions I may or may not be following. If something loses favor with the direction I want to go in, it is easy to discard that topic. I generally keep a clipboard free for home care and/or personal errands.
Some goal-setting links:
Goals are Dreams With a Deadline!
6. In the past few years, I have kept alphabetized white cover notebooks to keep all aspects of a topic I am researching. But, for now, I have so much material I no longer follow that smaller notebooks serve me better.
