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Creativity Articles |
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| A Quick Course in Creativity |
| This quick course in creativity is designed to give you a platform to stand on as we look at the various ways you can handle home, social and workplace situations, job-search details and career-path decisions. Let's examine what creativity might look like.
Here are some of the ways in which creativity expresses itself. Perhaps the creative idea is one that mixes and matches items or ideas that haven't been combined in just this way before. A wonderful example of this comes from Anita Roddick, w More.. |
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| Dare to Dream |
| Have you ever thought of this? When you were young and at school the teachers always reprimanded the dreamers - "You live on another planet", "You've got your head full of silly notions!" and the like.
Then we are in the playground. The boys say, "I'm gonna jump over that garbage can" and the other boys say, "Nah, you're not good enough, you can't do that."
You back up and run your hardest at the garbage can and try to ignore the taunts of your disbelieving friends - you leap - and on passing More.. |
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| Tapping into Your Super Creative Power |
| Do you consider yourself creative? How about super creative? Most people may not think of themselves as creative, but I believe that everyone has the potential for great creativity. They just need a little understanding and practice.
Think of two parts of the mind: the conscious, and the subconscious. The conscious is the part that thinks. It's the part that you are aware of. The subconscious handles everything else. Your bodily functions, sensory input, memories, feelings, associations, and mo More.. |
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| Seeing Problems From Their Creative Side |
| Did you know that winning actually puts less wear and tear on the body than worrying? And did you know that you could worry yourself sick to the point that you'll end up in a hospital bed? And that, depending on the severity of the problem, when it becomes chronic and acceptable mode of conduct, it could lead to options beyond hospitalization? It could very well lead to imprisonment or interment!
Dr. Charles H. Mayo once said that half the beds in American hospitals are filled by people who wor More.. |
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| Quiz -- Are You Creative? |
| Worried you may not be creative or you may not be creativeenough? This quiz will help you find out just how creativeyou are.
Take a piece of paper and number it from one to seven. Foreach question, write down the corresponding letter of youranswer.
1. When you come across a rose, you immediately:
A. Smell it.
B. Quote every rose poem you can remember.
C. Write your own poem.
D. Sketch the rose.
E. Step on the rose.
2. One of your dreams in life is to:
A. Write a novel.
B. Become a painter.
More.. |
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| The Creativity Creed |
| I believe that creativity is a natural order of life itself and it provides my life with the purest of energies.
I believe there is an underlying creative force infusing throughout my life.
I believe that when I open my creativity, I am opening the Creatorâ?'s creativity.
I believe creativity is part of my destiny and just as important as all living things.
I believe creativity is my Creatorâ?'s gift to me. Using my creativity is my gift back to him.
I believe expectation of a fulfill More.. |
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| Charge Your Imagination (1) |
| "The challenges are not in the marketplace. They are in the mind"....... Jean Bernard
As we progress into year 2005, it is time for the professional and business class to "charge your imagination" for greater exploits this year. Take this message from IMAGINATION himself. Is IMAGINATION a person you ask? Yes he is, and he wants to address you, this season. It would be worth your while to listen. His sentences are short and language in the first person. This is the preamble of his message.
I am More.. |
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| Overcoming Artists Block (Part 1) |
| How many times does an artist stare down at that blank piece of paper thinking "What on earth do I paint - Where do I put my first mark?" More often than you would imagine! It happens to all creative people actually, from visual artists, designers, poets, through to musicians and writers.
When this situation arises, you are in the grip of creative block. When you wrack your brains to come up with ideas but just can't seem to. There may be contributing factors to this state, such as tiredness, d More.. |
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| Overcoming Artists Block (part 2) |
| Once you are ready to start working again you will know it instinctively. All artists go through periods of 'creative block' - it's normal, but after one such episode there are ways of stimulating ideas and getting the creative juices flowing again.
Visit your local library and take out books that cover materials, techniques and subjects that are not familiar to you. If you are a watercolour artist, why not try oils for once? If you paint large acrylic abstracts, would it be possible to try sof More.. |
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| Recharge Your Battery |
| It was 4:15PM on a Thursday when I arrived at the hair salon to get my haircut. My hair appointment was at 5PM but I arrived there quite early.
As I set down in the comfortable leather chair in the little "waiting corner," I looked down to my left with an intention to pick a magazine from the big basket that was filled with maybe over 50 magazines.
I sorted through the magazines but nothing would catch my eye. There were so many different magazines; I couldn't decide which one to pick and read More.. |
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| A New Discovery Of An Old Secret |
| Some years ago, when the world seemed to close in on me and I felt as though I was trapped between the sword and the wall, I made an exciting discovery. Actually, it was a phenomenon that was as old as dirt but it took on significant meanings for me because it freed me from all my problems and all the stresses and pressures that were being imposed upon me.
I discovered that there is only one simple root cause of all problems. When this primal cause becomes known, understood and properly applied More.. |
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| Improve Your Bottom Line, Kens Idea Saved over $100,000 |
| Engaged employees can show us the way to continuously improve. Customers want our products and services to be better, delivered faster, and produced less expensively. This means that everything we do needs to be improved. All employees can be thinking about how to reduce costs, looking at safety issues, reducing wastes, and improving the environment, while at the same time developing skills to identify, articulate and communicate those kinds of things.
The Gallup Organization has studied thousa More.. |
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| Shyness - Another View |
| We are all born shy, aren't we? When we see little children clinging to their parents, hiding behind Mom or Dad, we are reminded about the shyness of first coming into this World. As this early stage of our life we are not ready to be seen just yet. We want to hide until it feels safe to come out and be visible.
Becoming visible is what Life is all about. Revealing ourselves, showing ourselves and expressing our "inner self" are about becoming visible and declaring ourselves "Ready" to meet the More.. |
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| Top Ten Brainstorming Techniques for Business Success |
| We experience creativity every time a fresh idea pops into our minds. We recognize creative imagination in everything from a pastel painting to a business plan. By trying these ten tips, you will discover some amazing creative abilities that may surprise you.
1. Substitute someone else's perspective for yours. How would a teacher, lawyer, actor, artist, explorer, journalist, psychologist, engineer, homemaker, child, or accountant approach your idea or subject? Don't know? Ask them!
2. Look at More.. |
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| The Art of Keeping a Journal |
| Journal keeping is basically without rules. It is an uncensored invitation to cut & paste, sketch & chart, and to visualize and unravel every great and small thought. At its most basic it is a decision that your life has value.
Just listing your experiences and endeavors can reveal incredible things and encourage you to work for the nearly impossible, the rigorous, and the unseen. Recently, during a course on INQUIRY, I was asked to make a list of one hundred things I didn't know. Here a simple More.. |
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| Breathing Out Stage Fright |
| You're stepping onto the stage, amidst opening night flurry and last minute stage directions. In the audience are the director you'd like to work with, the reviewer everyone listens to, and your first acting coach. The blood pumps in your ears, your heart is racing, and your throat is so dry you can't possibly speak your lines. Every muscle is tense and you want to run.
It's called the "fight or flight" response. It's also called stage fright. Stage fright comes in many different forms. For som More.. |
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| 10 Ways to Thrive as a Creative Artist |
| 1. Connect with your DREAM - Indulge yourself in a vision of the bigger picture and get out of the mire of self-doubt, details and challenges of today. What's the purpose of it all? What are you working towards? What is your unique mission to carry out?
Daily Practice: Spend a few quiet moments reflecting on your BIG CREATIVE DREAM. Then, capture your thoughts through words, images and/or music and look back on these every day as a way to reconnect.
2. Connect with your "INNER ARTIST" - That p More.. |
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| Think & Grow Rich |
| All wealth is a product of mind. Some economists will try to convince you that wealth comes from productivity. Many people believe that wealth is a matter of ownership or the accumulation of possessions. They are blind to the truth. They see only effects, not causes.
It is ideas that produce wealth. The process of creating anything, including wealth, begins with the idealization, the conceptualization, the visualization. Everything that follows is simply the implementation of the original thoug More.. |
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| Creative Dreams - What Winter Driving Taught Me |
| We had a winter storm the other day here in Toronto. And as I was driving, I started thinking about what my winter driving had in common with my creative dreams. Here's what I came up with.
1. Being grateful to be in my car, pointed in the right direction and moving (however slowly). Some days I don't accomplish as much work towards my creative dream as I set out to. Other days it seems like I'm moving backwards.
And I know that as I:
~ Get in the car (show up every day),
~ Point it in the r More.. |
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| Sleep and Creativity |
| In my life, sleep is the number one way that I can either enhance my self-care and nourish myself or defeat my self-care and deplete my energy, peace of mind & productivity all in one shot.
When I'm rested I'm more resilient to stress. My body is more flexible and willing to work, my head is more clear and focused, I feel happier and more at peace and I'm nicer to myself AND to everyone else.
When I'm overtired, on the other hand - my body and my emotions feel more brittle. Unexpected turns ca More.. |
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| Creating and Living Your Ideal Legacy |
| A legacy is more than a gift that lives on after you. Certainly, a legacy is a contribution to humanity. A legacy provides value to future generations. However, if you are creating your ideal legacy, it will also make your heart bubble with passion and excitement today!
Louisa Alcott wrote:"When Emerson's library was burning at Concord, I went to him as he stood with the firelight on his strong, sweet face, and endeavored to express my sympathy for the loss of his most valued possessions, but h More.. |
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| 7 Things Sapping Your Creativity Right Now |
| This was a very easy article to write. I was late in getting started this month, and as my publication deadline got closer and I could no longer wait until I "felt" like writing an article, I was forced to sit down and do it. In doing it, I thought about the last month (when I meant to be getting started on this as well as other creative projects), and I identified seven things that have gotten in the way of my creativity. Maybe you'll see yourself in some of these.
1. Not getting enough sleep More.. |
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| Fear & Creativity |
| My fears are most powerful when they're simmering just under the surface of my awareness. I'm resistant to a new idea, I'm defensive about holding on to my old ways, I feel excited and panicked at the same time - these are sure-fire signs that there's some fear under there.
Shining a spotlight on my fear has been the best (and only) way to get to the other side of it.
"Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love" - Ranier Maria Rilke
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| Problem Solving Techniques For Business And Life |
| Learning a few good problem solving techniques can improve your bottom line and your life.
Do you ever run out of good ideas, or go around in circles trying to come up with a solution for a persistent problem? Maybe you just need to learn some simple problem solving techniques, and then start applying them. Choose one or two of the methods below, and get in the habit of using them in your personal life and your business.
Using Your Unconscious Mind
Let your unconscious mind do your problem so More.. |
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| Sing & Be Well |
| When people find out that I'm a music therapist, the comments I hear most often are "I wish I could sing!" or "Oh, I love to sing, but I'm not good enough to do it in front of anyone". Some of these people tell me that, as children, a parent, teacher or someone else told them that they should just mouth the words because they didn't have a good enough voice.
Singing is our birthright! Singing is a natural and pure expression of how glad we feel to be alive, and the way we show our love of music More.. |
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| Creative Thinking versus Critical Thinking |
| The process of creative thinking is often, mistakenly, intertwined with critical thinking. There is a tendency to write and edit simultaneously, couple hypothesis generation and evaluation, combine problem identification with solution.
To increase effectiveness, one should first apply creative thought, which is meant to be daring, uninhibited, free-spirited, imaginative, unpredictable, and revolutionary. The trick is to ignore content and maximise the size and richness of the idea pool.
Second More.. |
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| Top Five Journal Exercises |
| Keeping a journal is a form of creative expression that enhances the creativity coaching process. Keeping a journal develops emotional awareness, reinforces self-esteem and aids in problem-solving. Keeping a journal also provides a written record of artistic growth, struggle and change. Here are some basic exercises that I use throughout the creativity coaching process.
DIALOGUE: Writing a dialogue between one or more subjects helps to identify and separate emotions, ideas, issues and influence More.. |
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| Revenge of the Sith - Creativity and Structure |
| The common belief is that lack of structure and randomness enhances creative output, whereas in truth, creativity is enhanced when it is organised, systematic and based on highly structured processes. This article will use Episode III of the Star Wars trilogy - Revenge of the Sith - to demonstrate that point.
First, some basic concepts.
a) We can measure creativity by observing the number of ideas produced, their novelty and diversity and the frequency of production. This allows us to gauge wh More.. |
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| Creativity Myths |
| Sustained myths about Creativity and Innovation lead to confusion, bad practice and bad decision making. Some of them include:
1. Creativity requires Creative Types
While some theorists assert that there are creativity traits such as tolerance for ambiguity and intolerance to conformity, these assertions are countered by the fact that traits are hard to identify and are not stable nor transferable across situations. Further, motivation is a critical factor. Additionally, creativity is a cognit More.. |
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| Magic In Your Spice Rack |
| Variety is the spice of life, but spices, historically are the stuff of magic! A spell, after all is really just a recipe and traditionally many of them involve plant life or herbs. Magic doesn't have to be complicated to work. In fact the simplest spells sometimes work best of all, because they most resemble an innocent wish and the doer is not attached to the outcome. Check out the magickal uses of some of these very common spices, which are found in almost everybody's spice rack or kitchen cu More.. |
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| Should You Quit Your Job for Your Dream? |
| The next time you're moodily sitting in your office, wishing you were living your dream instead, answer the following questions? or answer them now! They'll give you a sense of whether or not now's the time to make the break.
# My job is making me crazy; so crazy I'd do anything to quit.
# Highly agree
# Mildly agree
# Don't really agree
# Strongly disagree
# If I left my job for my dream, I'm not sure what I'd do first, or even how I'd begin it.
# Highly agree
# Mildly agree
# Don't re More.. |
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| Codifying Creativity |
| Can we codify creativity? Within these few words are a number of principles that must be identified and resolved before we can really answer the question.
The first question is, what is creativity? What are we trying to codify?
One useful definition of creativity is that it is problem identification and idea generation. Another is the production of a number of diverse and novel ideas. Yet another is the engagement in a number of diverse and novel behaviours.
The second question is, can we mea More.. |
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| The Power Of Your Intuition |
| We all have enormous reserves of mental capacity that we habitually fail to use. There is no problem that we cannot solve, no obstacle we cannot overcome, and no goal we cannot achieve when we learn to use the incredible power of our mind to its full capacity. When we us the power of our mind to it's fullest our creative capacity is unlimited.
All of the truly successful men and women in history started down the path the success by learning to listen to their intuition. Your intuition is your d More.. |
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| Who Wants To Be A Creative Genius? |
| an You Learn Creativity?
Have you ever watched Robin Williams do a stand-up routine? Could so much creativity and spontaneity result from a highly organized approach? Definitely. Wild and funny thoughts don't come from nowhere. Comedians have habits of mind, and even the most spontaneous ones get better with practice, because they're training their brains to find the humor in situations.
You can do this too. Creativity in all areas can be improved by cultivating the right habits in your mind. More.. |
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| 10 Ways To Boost Your Creativity |
| Creativity is your birthright - but can often be hidden in the everyday. To facilitate your personal development and self growth, here are some creativity tips you can use to resurrect, refresh and enhance your creative faculties.
1. Look after yourself.
Sleep well/Eat well/meditate/do what you enjoy and do it more often (if it is life enhancing!). Creativity is reduced when your senses are dulled.
2. Do something different.
We do so much on auto - the route we take to work, newspaper we rea More.. |
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| In between Luck & Effort |
| I have one magical thought, lets see it more closely. Just look around & try to find out peoples who are successful, in sense of reality, with no efforts. You will find none.
Now look around again & try to explore the peoples who are successful by morality of their efforts, and this you will find many.
Their distinctive efforts have certainly taken them ahead, may be in changeable degree.
People who believe only in luck shall be able to see opportunities in the mirrors.
People believing in e More.. |
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| How A Creation Box Can Work For You |
| Bring to mind a time when you decided that you wanted something in your life; a vacation, a special book, or a household item. Did you notice that things relating to what you were wanting appeared out of nowhere--either you overheard someone talking about it, noticed an advertisement, a billboard or even junk mail? This, my friends, is the power of the Law of Attraction at work. The Law of Attraction states that all forms of matter and energy are attracted to that which is of a like vibration. " More.. |
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| Why Teach Thinking? Why Not ? |
| The word 'creativity' has so many diverse meanings and interpretations. I remember telling an audience of teachers that creating a mess is also creative as long as new things and views are being conjured up. This led to much laughter and discussion about the meaning of 'creativity' (This notion of 'creative mess' was taken from master-thinker, Dr Edward de Bono).
Most people feel that creativity has to garner results or products, and it is not wrong to think so. However, by giving such consciou More.. |
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| Dancing On Your Brain: The Cha-Cha Effect |
| My grandmother used to say that the secret to living a good life is maintaining a flexible spine and a flexible mind. Whether we're talking about joints or brains, there's just no room for rigidity.
Mark Twain once made a comment that illustrates my grandmother's idea perfectly. He said:
"It is discouraging to try to penetrate a mind like yours. You ought to get it out and dance on it. That would take some of the rigidity out of it."
That's exactly what we need to do in order to be open to ne More.. |
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