You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
That is from the poem “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver. [The image is Six Wild Geese, woodblock print by Ohara [...]
“Many people live as if their future equals their past or their past equals their future… People cut and paste old stories from their life into their future chapters. You are cutting and pasting chapter 10 into chapter 29 and all of a sudden you have this repeated cycle of relationships. This repeated cycle of [...]
“In 1982 the National Endowment for the Arts established the NEA National Heritage Awards as a way of honoring American folk artists for their contributions to our national cultural mosaic….
“At the age of 14, Sidiki Conde lost the use of his legs as the result of polio. In his village in Guinea, West Africa, disabled [...]
Hale Dwoskin is the President of Sedona Training Associates and author of several books, including The Sedona Method: Your Key to Lasting Happiness, Success, Peace and Emotional Well-Being (Foreword by Jack Canfield.)
These comments by Dwoskin are from an interview in the free online course The Masters of The Secret [from Centerpointe Research Institute.]
We’re basically all [...]
“Each of us has a tendency to underestimate his or her own abilities. We should realize that we have deep within ourselves deep reservoirs of great ability, even genius that can be tapped if we’ll just dig deep enough.”
That is a quote by Earl Nightingale, from his article The Great Problem-Solving Tool.
[The photo is from [...]
How can we make our lives less stressful, yet still productive and creative?
In her article Living a Balanced Life [also published on Positive Psychology News Daily, and the Happiness Institute], Dana Arakawa outlines some helpful perspectives and approaches.
She notes: “In this age of multi-tasking and instantaneous communication through cell phones, e-mail, and BlackBerrys that do [...]
Masi Oka has an improv background and computer science degree, and worked for George Lucas’ visual effects studio, ILM, before acting.
His first leading role is ‘Hiro Nakamura’ in the TV series Heroes [dvd].
[The image is from Wired magazine - The 2007 Rave Awards.]
On the Tavis Smiley Show April 27, 2007, he addressed stereotyping and [...]
“She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, or manic depression. O’Connor describes the illness as like having a gaping hole in the centre of her being… The diagnosis, and then the drugs, gave her back her creativity.”
Excerpted from the article “Sinead O’Connor talks music, mental illness and men,” by Sheryl Garratt [London Times] :
The new album, [...]
“Fear can make you come up with strengths you didn’t know you had.”
Alan Alda explains the very real value of fear in his article How to Be a Nervous Wreck.
He notes, “There is a certain fear for me in acting, and it happens much earlier than opening night: it’s when I’m in a chair, reading [...]
Creativity coach Eric Maisel, PhD points out the insidious attraction of what he calls “special addictions that might be dubbed the distraction addictions.”
Among these, he lists “compulsive Internet surfing, online shopping, and video game playing that have sprung up alongside our technological advances.”
“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.” Friedrich Nietzsche
That quote by Nietzsche [from the page: Dysfunction / disorder] is a perspective many artists and other gifted and talented people with intense and “chaotic” inner lives may appreciate.
But is turmoil necessary for creative expression?
[The image, by [...]
“It’s a common belief that, above everything else, one’s success is determined by their level of intelligence. Is this really true?
“Consider this: Who has the higher probability of success? A person with brilliant smarts who struggles with self doubt, or a person with average intelligence who has a focus on positive action? ….
“Edward DeBono says, [...]
“The search for perfection, like a mite under the skin, goads us and drives us and makes us ill at heart when we fail to attain what we cannot possibly accomplish. …
“We want perfect 10s in gymnastics, 300hp engines in family cars, airplanes that fly faster than sound, multiple gigabyte processors in computers. We push [...]
“Sometimes you get to a point where you can’t stop what you are thinking. It’s like you’re being taken over by a demon.”
Excerpts from article: Jennifer Capriati tries to beat her demons, By Wayne Coffey, NYDailyNews.com July 15th 2007:
Photo: Former child prodigy Jennifer Capriati is finding peace in her life in her home in Jupiter, [...]
Being creative and realizing our talents involves a lot of self-awareness and respecting who we really are, including our unconscious depths.
In an interview about her film “Flightplan,” Jodie Foster commented, “When you’re a dramatic actor you look for films that hit you in the gut, in this unconscious place that really moves you, and then [...]
“The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.”
Athlete Steve Young
Personal growth, personal development, self-improvement – these are topics that many of us explore. Maybe most of us. But can we be overdoing it sometimes?
The top three bestseller book titles on Amazon today are the latest [...]
“I think being different, being against the grain of society, is the greatest thing in the world.” – Elijah Wood
Despite the creative success and popular acclaim of many eccentric people in the arts, there are many overt and subtle pressures to conform. But at what cost to us personally, and for the health and [...]
“You watch television to turn your brain off and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on.”
– Steve Jobs
Of course, there may be some bias in Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ comment. But a number of thoughtful people warn about using TV too much or too unconsciously.
Rosie Milner notes in her [...]
Dancer and choreographer Martha Graham (1894-1991) lived a richly creative life, and one of her often quoted perspectives is about respecting and expressing our own individual personality and talent :
“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all [...]
