Seize the Day - Power Up Creativity

C Carpe Diem - Seize inspiration and
R Run with ideas to see where they can take you
E Explore and play, never stopping...
A Angle your line for hours as a person who fishes
T Talk with creatives and people outside your field till your brain's abuz-z-z-z-z
I Initiate from within - unleashing your potential
V Vacuum cobwebs - relax and  refresh your spirit
I Idle the motor - simply daydream when you feel like it...
T Touch your soul - Thank God and be grateful
Y Yes, yes, yes.

Look at creativity through another viewfinder to see the action in your brain

C Curiosity and discovery can increase rewards to brain through dopamine, a natural drug
R Rewire brain by doing creative acts & your brain builds neuron pathways for creativity
E Engages amygdala where brain processes emotional information that feeds zeal & novelty
A Adjust speed of brain waves by selecting music that enhances your creative activity.
T Target your working memory to try new skills
I Insightful thinking increases activity in temporal lobes, which enable applications you try
V Vary work activities to tap your brain's multiple intelligences
I Improves focus and problem solving through brain's natural serotonin
T Tap into sensory information stored in parietal lobes to enhance visualization of places and events
Y Yield to a sense of improvisation and self-expression that originates in the brain's frontal lobe

Does your game plan include surprise?

Isn’t that the beauty of real creativity, that you wake up every morning not knowing what you’re going to discover? Mark McGuinness of Lateral Action

Coach adds surprise to game plan  Are you open to surprise? Surprise comes when we least expect it... and maybe we miss it at times because it looks too simple... The New Orleans Saints were behind as they started the second half of the Superbowl. They came in with a very simple play, an onside kick, but the Indianapolis Colts did not expect it just then. It gave the Colts the momentum to win. Goes to show what surprise can do for a well-oiled team or even individuals.  I thank Brad Shorr for the "aha."

A novel suggestion:  "You ought to create a room for yourself now that your children have left," a friend suggested.  My hubby had an office in our home for years, but not once did I entertain that possibility.  Her words came as total surprise.

"Yes, what a superb idea," I replied almost simultaneously as inspiration welled within me.

"I'll tag along as you pick out colors and decide on furniture and accessories," she offered.  "Then I'll help with painting, and tasks to pull it off."

We lunged into the work - selecting a carpet and new slipcovers, sewing a Roman curtain, painting walls, choosing just the right prints and furniture... When completed, the splendid atmosphere encouraged me to create in many ways.  Eventually I wrote my doctoral dissertation here, and I continue to design projects and write here.

Because I followed through with my friend's surprising suggestion, it led to unexpected results, such as going back to university after earning a masters three decades ago.  Are you a person who lives for surprise and do you know others who do? 

Are you curious as to why some people dive in when a surprise comes, while others linger and then let it go?  Here's the bigger picture...

Novelty The challenge of something different stirs the human brain. Novelty's a motivator for most folks. An unexpected stimulus sparks desire for humans to explore and learn. Since our brains are wired to avoid boredom and ruts, when a stimulus activates the brain, most people explore further in search of some kind of reward at the end.   Often release of dopamine which brings a high level of satisfaction, and is reward in itself.

People who welcome new experiences have stronger connections between their memory and reward brain centers than people who tend to avoid anything new, research now shows.

Pay it forward - Hank Wasiak cites an example of The Martin Agency's Asset Based Thinking (ABT). They took a daring extra step in the midst of recession when they had to cut 5% of their staff. They actually "paid prospective employers to hire the people they had to lay off….one half of the first month’s salary up to $4,000. An offer with a potential price tag of $100,000. Not an insignificant commitment in tough times," Hank exclaims.

Paying it forward is an amazingly powerful action according to Hank since it...

1. Gives a person an edge up
2. Shows person is valued - a self esteem boost
3. Creates sustainable positive ripple effect
4. Shows other colleagues that firm treats employees well - more motivated employees
5. Establishes an incentive and opportunity to hire where there might have been none

Ever consider creating opportunity by paying it forward?

"What talent would grow from your corner of the world if you simply acted today on what you do best," Ellen Weber asks, "in spite of the strikes against you?"  To turn this around when crisis hits Ellen challenges us to...

Turn what you do well into meaningful work  To get started Ellen suggests that we reflect then leap. Ponder this, "if a new career path could happen for you, what would you do differently today to rev the engines?"

By now you may ask, can people find surprises in work that is mired in rules?  Possibly... And, Mark McGuinness explored this with intriguing findings...

Spontaniety comes from following the rules Amazing patterns emerge when simple rules are established. Mark McGuinness summarizes this phenomenon to flesh it out a little more. "...Creators are more like gardeners than architects, planting and watering the seeds to help them grow, but with no control over the emerging forms."

Why not "play it simple," and see what results. What about...

using one new tactic throughout the day?   I spoke a lot of negatives in a day, without even realizing it.  When I concentrated on speaking and reacting in a more positive way, I was able to break a very detrimental pattern. Focusing on the good changed me and ways I react to others.

switching your daily preferences?  I used to watch TV and now I'd rather read or write which requires more brainpower.

stretching beyond what you think you can do?  Often I'd stop short of stepping past comfort zones. I would cringe at the notion of carrying on a conversation with leaders. Ellen Weber challenged me to do it by asking 2-footed questions. Conversations centered on the leader this way because I let my curiosity guide me.  Questions focused on the other person and their interests.  Since people love to talk about themselves, using 2-footed questions helped me get beyond a nervousness I'd had. The tactic was simple, but it changed everything.

What's one simple action you'd add to the above list that would be sure-fire surprise for others?

Photo Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ogimogi/ / CC BY 2.0

Thwart Theft of Memory Bandits

"Prudy, where're my keys," I overheard a friend's 30-year-old husband inquire, not so softly.

Putting a planner, keys or other items in a different place can challenge memory no matter your age. To counter forgetful moments, maintaining blood sugar levels, even in the absence of disease, may be an important strategy for preserving cognitive health. Recently, Columbia University Medical Center researchers discovered that high blood sugar can cause you to be "hippocampically challenged."

Memories are stored in your brain's hippocampus, whether new words of a foreign language you're memorizing, an equation to use for an algebraic problem, or where you put down your keys.

"In the era on an aging population, memory is the new sex," David Brooks, Op-ed columnist for the New York Times, claims. So what can be done to keep your brainpower at optimum?

Three actions do much to keep brain's hippocampus at prime performance: maintain blood sugar levels, get plenty of exercise and challenge mind by learning in new areas.

Limit sugar intake People need some sugar to maintain health but too many cans of soda, too many rich desserts and candy consumed from your desk at work are some ways folks can begin to make changes. Regular check-ups at your physician's help you keep a pulse on this.

Regular aerobic exercise When it comes to the hippocampus, the part of your brain vital to certain types of memory, size matters. Numerous studies have shown that bigger is usually better. Now researchers discovered that elderly adults who are more physically fit tend to have bigger hippocampi and better spatial memory than those less fit.

Novelty stokes memory "Not surprisingly, memory strengthens and the brain’s rejuvenated, Dr. Ellen Weber reports, "in the presence of novelty." She adds...

How does it happen? Your brain’s hippocampus releases a shot of dopamine in response to novelty. Anthony Grace at the University of Pittsburgh describes a feedback loop that involves a chemical and electrical interactions between dopamine and novel or unexpected events. This lively process appears to lock in memory, as it also engages the amygdala where the brain processes emotional information.

Keeping the brain in mind as you age?

Your Brain's Lazy - Jolt It!

Ever attempt to create a new marketing plan, and stale ideas stall you? Nothing new surfaces... Interestingly, the human brain reverts to the familiar... Your brain's lazy. Rather than "birth" a brand new "baby," which takes labor, your cranium sticks to past experiences stored in your basal ganglia. You see why "in the box" thinking soon overtakes your "brainstorming sessions. No wonder mediocrity overtakes many organizations.

Neuroscientists tell us the way you perceive goes beyond what your eyes and ears transmit to your brain. Perception, or the "aha," is created in the brain itself! Are you the kind of person who does things that others say "can't be done?" Howard Schultz, Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Sergei Brin and Jeff Besos established some of today's most innovative companies, and brought novelty to the marketplace. Voila, Starbucks, Apple, Google and Amazon.com came to life. These four represent distinctive and distinctively American contributions to capitalism, Washington Post writers, James Ledbetter and Jacob Weisberg, assert.

Good news is that you too, have potential to be an inventor! "In order to think creatively," according to Gregory Berns, who recently published, Iconoclast, "you must develop new neural pathways and break out of the cycle of experience-dependent categorization." He adds, you can jolt your brain to energize new feats by surprising it with new information or an unfamiliar environment.

Try tapping variety of your intelligences as you launch your next project. Be sure to use intelligences that seem unlikely choices... Believe me, revelations emerge as you engage new perspectives, rather than relying on the familiar. Try these pathways to stir new thinking:

Musical - Music Can Move Your Brian Waves to Benefit You

Logical-mathematical - Your Brain on Numbers

Spatial - Color Your Banner - Color Your Brain!

Naturalistic - Nature Nurtures the Mind

Interpersonal - Want to Ratchet Up Your Networking? - tips by Darren Rowse

Verbal-linguistic - Find Oomph in Creative Editing - tips by Joanna Young

Bodily-kinesthetic - Play to Recharge Your Brain

Intrapersonal - Treat Myself - Lyrics to Inspire

Be sure you have a positive mindset as you begin, since positives stir serotonin, a miracle drug at work, to flow in your brain.

Ready to create a novelty in your business?

Please share your strategies to tap your creative mind. I'll highlight these in a follow-up blog.

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream

The other day we had a blast making ice cream for the first time using an idea I found at Kaboose Crafts. On our shopping trip for ingredients, I turned it into a guessing game. As we picked each item, I heightened the anticipation by telling her we were going to try a new recipe and she will be so surprised. Her eyes lit up each time and, with every item, she modified her guess to no avail. Since she has never made ice cream, the rock salt did not give away the mystery.

While we were making the ice cream, a recipe from Rachel's Recipe Box, the guessing game started anew. While stirring, Pamela thought of pudding, so I encouraged her that she was very close! Even while putting ice in the Ziploc bag, she went through a guess or two before she figured it out. We all enjoyed the ice cream and found that this handmade, homemade way of making ice cream promotes fun and emotion sharing.


Coconut Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

2 14-ounce cans coconut milk
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon xanthum gum
1/2 cup gf/cf chocolate chips/chunks
1 pint Ziploc bags
1 gallon Ziploc bags
2/3 cup rock salt
ice cubes
canister or coffee can (optional)

Put first five ingredients in a bowl and stir with a whisk until smooth and creamy. Put half of the mixture into a pint-sized Ziploc bag. Add half of the chocolate chips/chunks to the bag. Zip the bag tight. You may want to double bag it. Put half of the rock salt in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag and fill the bag half full of ice. Put the pint bag inside the gallan bag containing the rock salt and ice. Zip the bag. Gently flip, toss, rock, twist, shake the bag until the ice cream texture meets the consistency you prefer.

For another RDI variation the next day, double-bag the remaining mixture and place it in a canister with the remaining rock salt and more ice. The freeze will happen faster because ingredients stored in the refrigerator are closer to the desired temperature. Roll the canister back and forth as a game and see if the child can guess what is inside the canister. Kaboose recommends using coffee cans, but all I had onhand was a sugar canister. With a bigger group of kids, a large can, and plenty of duct tape, you can try playing kick the can.

Now, we are taking time to reflect upon this experience to imagine other recipes for ice cream. Pamela has already chosen Strawberry Coconut Ice Cream for our next batch.

Silly Talk

My friend, the Queen Mum, gave an example of how RDI differs from other therapies in trick or treating. Someone made a comment to me today about Pamela's great conversation yesterday. The mom wrote, "It is so reassuring to me to see other kids with mannerisms like my son's." I realized that RDI is different in another way.

My goal is not to make Pamela indistinguishable from her peers. I want Pamela to be Pamela. She would not be the same Pamela if she lost her gentle, yet quirky qualities. I want to be able to share with Pamela my experiences and find out about her experiences. I hope that she can learn to enjoy spontaneous exchanges and to be able to collaborate with others for she has so much to share. I pray that she can learn to be resilient and bounce back more quickly when life does not go exactly her way. I want her to be able to communicate non-verbally and pick up on the subtle ways that others do so. I hope we can open the door to friendship outside of the family (we are already her friends), to meaningful work, and to independence if that is even possible a long time down the road. Of course, she can chose not to go through these doors, but, at least, she will know how if she does choose!

Today's clip from the same great conversation reminds me of what attracted me to RDI. When I read the following paragraph describing the language used in Level I, I had an "aha!" moment because I was doing these very things with Pamela starting when she was about eight years old. We have been playing these language games, which we called "silly talk", for years!

Vocalization is used for the enhancement of excitement, the irect attention to our faces and to celebrate our simple successes. Ritualized song segments, often repeated "chants," set phrases and silly words are used for their relationship binding and enhancement elements. We often take phrases that the novice enjoys and repeat them, with slight changes in emphasis or rhythm and find that this significantly increases with their fun. We may pick up on stereotypical language, modify it and then ad it contextually to the activity we are setting up. (page 36)

When Pamela was little, she would sit in my lap and we would go back and forth with her favorite stim phrases. I would slow down my pace or increase my pace. I would raise my voice right before I would insert the wrong word. Silly talk always meant lots of giggling and laughter. The most oddball thing we did was to stretch a jingle from TV to teach calendar skills. Pamela picked up a jingle and ran around the house singing, "It's Sunday." So, every day, we sang it for that day, "It's Thursday." When she mastered that, we practiced what day it was not, "It's NOT Tuesday." Next, we worked on today, tomorrow and yesterday: "Yesterday was Sunday!" Then, we extended it to months. It amazed me how far we stretched one silly jingle that Pamela loved!

In the following clip, notice how Pamela smiles and laughs when I say things wrong on purpose. Her enjoyment increases as keeping getting close to the right word (Super 8 Motel), but never quite right. Pamela learned to be playful in language because of all the silly talk we have been doing for years.

Freedom for Novelty and Risk

A good performance uses a framework of knowledge. But within that framework there's freedom. Jos van Veldhoven, Artistic Director of the Netherlands Bach Society.

Why is it that some folks are "born" rebels, especially many associated with the arts? A smile comes when I think about this because, in part it's brain related. According to Eric Jensen, the brain rises to challenges and novelty -- too little challenge leads to boredom. So it's not surprising that musicians or artists take foundational works or techniques from a master and put thier footprints on them in innovative ways. Similarly, businesses that cultivate a climate of freedom where they value novelty and risk will likely be successful in tomorrow's marketplace. What does a culture of innovation look like?

As Mr. van Veldhoven appoached Bach's B minor Mass, he did so with the idea that attempts to replicate authenticity stifles "flexibility and sense of spontaneity." No matter if its philosophy, science, education, or business, rules often surface within knowledge frameworks, for the purpose of keeping them "pure." While there's a fine line in going over the edge, many people delight in fresh approaches.

For instance, in a New York Times interview, van Veldhoven said he uses few singers in the choral parts of this Mass, which gives the whole work a very different feel. "I'm very interested in facts," says this Artistic Director, "but I don't want to be a conservator and do exactly what Bach did."

Consider van Veldhoven's approach as you think about where your business is headed..."So many musicians are trained to think of the composer as God, who had the truth in his pen -- one single truth, and only one. The composer isn't God. He's a friend you can talk to." Thoughts...

Arts Stir Creativity in Business

Have you ever thought of art as a process that shapes your mind? It could be as simple as doodling at times to capture ideas. Or, it could be as complex as writing a new chapter for a book, with Vivaldi’s inspirational music in the background. Art with the brain in mind, might be as playful as putting your own words to a tune you enjoy. Or, it could be as serious as capturing just the right metaphor for your firm’s next ad campaign.

One of the benefits of participation in arts is that it fine tunes creativity, one of the things most needed in business today according to an American Management Association survey of 500 CEO’s.

To survive in the 21st century, most CEO’s responded, “Practice creativity and innovation.” However, the survey also reveals, “only 6 percent felt their organizations were doing a ‘great job’ of it.” So how might that change?

Most workers tackle tasks at work through routines they’ve developed. By thinking and creating a project as an artist, workers gain advantage by bringing gifts and talents on board and raise possibilities for novel outcomes.

Here’s some suggestions to jumpstart a project by using more multiple intelligences. Start with two or three and for new zest add more.

Musical – Play jazz in the background as you work…Since jazz moves on improvisation, see how its rhythms stir your writing or other tasks Or try a genre that enhances creativity. such as baroque.

Spatial – Outline a project by doodling or design with pictures first.

Verbal – Take a walk and gather some metaphors from nature. Or, debate main points with a colleague and note gaps.

Kinesthetic – Dramatize, or mime main ideas

Intrapersonal – Keep a journal of discoveries you make at work. Write down one new thing you learn in a day at your job. Or show it through pictures.

Interpersonal – Take a survey to find out what fellow employees would change to make the work environment more pleasant and how they would go about it with the arts. Enlist others to help implement best suggestions.

Naturalistic – Get away from your desk and take a brisk walk outside near trees or a park. Go with a question in mind for a problem you want to solve at work.

Logical Mathematical – Tip your project upside down. If you generally start at the beginning, view it from the end point instead. Or vice-versa. Break it down or build it up with new patterns.

Artists focus and follow through by experimenting and playing with new ideas as they work. They ask questions, reflect and adjust along the way. And in the end they showcase final results for others. Thoughts?