New magazine for and about your Mind

Over the weekend I stumbled onto a magazine from last year in the reading pile at my office. I always find great stuff buried there but I didn't even know that this magazine existed. I wanted to mention it here as a resource. It's Scientific American Mind. Every article in this issue from April 2005 was intriguing to me, the science/wellness nerd, but especially the article on creativity. Here's an excerpt for you and a link to the magazine to read the rest of the 4 page article. Go to past issues at the top and it's April 2005.
Scientific American Mind
Very interesting information, especially for a new perspective on my jazz improvising.

Excerpted from "Creativity Unleashed" by Ulrich Kraft
The right hemisphere's divergent thinking underlies our ability to be creative. Curiosity, love of experimentation, playfulness, risk taking, mental flexibility, metaphorical thinking, aesthetics--all these qualities play a central role. But why does creativity remain so elusive? Everyone has a right hemisphere, so we all should be fountains of unorthodox ideas.

Consider that most children abound in innovative energy: a table and an old blanket transform into a medieval fortress, while the vacuum cleaner becomes the knight's horse and a yardstick a sword. Research suggests that we start our young lives as creativity engines but that our talent is gradually repressed. Schools place overwhelming emphasis on teaching children to solve problems correctly, not creatively. This skewed system dominates our first 20 years of life: tests, grades, college admission, degrees and job placements demand and reward targeted logical thinking, factual competence, and language and math skills--all purviews of the left brain. The propensity for convergent thinking becomes increasingly internalized, at the cost of creative potential. To a degree, the brain is a creature of habit; using well-established neural pathways is more economical than elaborating new or unusual ones. Additionally, failure to train creative faculties allows those neural connections to wither. Over time it becomes harder for us to overcome thought barriers. Creativity trainers like to tell clients: "If you always think the way you always thought, you'll always get what you always got--the same old ideas."

Taking Time Out

This is a great article by Alice Walker that was forwarded to me by a dear friend. Alice discusses the need to take time out to reflect and let our feminine energy (which is in all of us BTW) surface and create a brave new world. (My words, not hers) Enjoy! All Praises To The Pause

The New York City Marathon Winners

Thank you for inspiring all of us! You have expanded our beliefs to include your amazing accomplishment and in turn expand our ideas of what is possible in our lives as well. Now take a nice hot bath and glory in the adoration of your family and friends. 'til next year!


1 35176 Sab Koide 83M USA

1 46414 Joan Rowland 80F USA
2 33168 Iris Vinegar 80F USA

Listening Generously

To hear this entire discussion go to Listening Generously

In the final reading from Kitchen Table Wisdom, Rachel Naomi Remen reflects on mystery in everyday life:

The most important questions don't seem to have ready answers. But the questions themselves have a healing power when they are shared. An answer is an invitation to stop thinking about something, to stop wondering. Life has no such stopping places, life is a process whose every event is connected to the moment that just went by. An unanswered question is a fine traveling companion. It sharpens your eye for the road.

As a freshman in medical school, I had been randomly selected as class photographer and given a camera to take pictures for the yearbook. I took pictures for four years. At first I felt burdened by the responsibility, the need to carry the heavy camera with me to class, to remember to look at things. But in time, the camera caused me to see my ordinary surroundings far more clearly, to become aware of beauty around me in some very unlikely places. It had given me new eyes. A good question is like that Zeiss.

In some fairy tales there is a magic word which has the power to undo the spell that has imprisoned someone and free them. When I was small, I would wait anxiously until the prince or the princess stumbled on the formula and said the healing words that would release them into life. Usually the words were some sort of nonsense like "Shazam." My magic words have turned out to be "I don't know.

OK, I'm a girlie girl. I'll admit it.

So I know some of you like to wake up to a soothing cup of java in the morning, a little "pick me up" to get the wheels turning. Well, for a real turbo charged blast off, let me recommend a frightened mouse scurrying around your kitchen. Could you hear my screams all over the planet?
Once, the mouse vanished down its favorite escape hatch, I decided to examine the situation. I remembered an experience in my London flat in 1972, where a bird flew into our window. Again, my girlie roommates and I were screaming, jumping behind the couch in a total panic. What is so interesting is the fact that I have had a life long love of birds. I have 4 of them now flying around my house. The key difference is they are completely mellow.
The moral to this story is the possibility that fear spreads faster than a wild fire. If I had seen this morning's mouse tucked away, sleeping in someone's hand, I'd probably want to pet it. The fear in the trapped bird and the tiny mouse is what got me screaming and acting like a lunatic.
Fear might just infect human to human relationships, as well. Just in case, it is probably best to surround ourselves with upbeat, confident folks and hopefully their positive energy will launch our own confident, upbeat path in this world.

Summer Flashback

I just came from the annual meeting of the Mohegan Colony in Crompond, NY. We enjoy a wonderful lake and a community rich in history. As we were working on ideas of how to improve the lake and keep our community vital, someone suggested forming a relationship with a local university to possibly start an environmental project with the students.
I was reminded of the vacation place my family visited when I was a child in upstate New York. Shortly after our families stopped going to the lake, Hartwick College took over both the lake and the surrounding buildings and cottages. Since 1971 it has run an environmental program for the college students. As a result, all these years later, the program has helped lots of kids get interested in studying the environment and perhaps some of them will be the ones that rescue us from all this global warming that's going on. I felt really close to that land and am so happy to find out that it has become a home for such a positive program.
By the way, you can still rent the cottages in the off season and there is neither cell phone or TV reception. Sounds like my kind of place........Pine Lake near Oneonta, NY

Our Challenges Are Our Gifts

This morning on The Infinite Mind Radio about having Asperger's Syndrome, Howard Bloom did a commentary expanding the concept of what it means to have a disability. He looked at it from an evolutionary perspective. We humans were given precious few gifts for survival, no fur, no fangs or claws. How to stay warm, how to eat meat, how to find shelter? These were all the problems that out ancestors solved while living on the edges of the Ice Age with very little room for mistakes. They rose to the challenge, overcame their disabilities, developed tools, fashioned warm clothes, feasted on what they hunted, and built portable housing. You might say that the need to solve these original disabilities made us human. Beethovan was deaf, Ray Charles was blind and many others throughout history have shown that solving the problems of their uniqueness graces all of us. Howard Bloom was given the ability to see visions of larger worlds as he devoured 2 books a day. He recommends giving up the illusion of normalcy and rather celebrate our abilities to be unique and accept each other's gifts as our evolutionary path.

The History of Doubt

This is a great quote from Epicurus that I wanted to share with you and I also wanted to recommend listening to the show where the History of Doubt was discussed with Jennifer Michael Hecht. Fascinating topic. History of Doubt
Doubters, questioners and explorers hold your heads high! We are the fuel in the engine of change.

Here's a reading from one of the greats in her "doubters hall of fame," the third-century B.C.E. Greek philosopher Epicurus. (BTW same time frame from whence classical Chinese Medicine flows)
"Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search thereof when he has grown old, for no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. And to say that the season for studying philosophy has not yet come or that it is passed and gone is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet or that it is now no more. Therefore, both old and young ought to seek wisdom. The former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been. And the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old because he has no fear of the things which are to come. So we must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness since, if that be present, we have everything, and if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it."
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Perfection vs. Values

I was out jogging today, reflecting on my second listening to "Prodigal Summer" a book on tape by Barbara Kingsolver. It explores many conversations between people who have very different ideas of their worlds and how they think the rest of us should live. It occurred to me that the characters, who had perfection as their standard, had very little room for flexibility and whimsy. No one could live up to their perfect standards, not even themselves. Their rigidity was keeping them from the simple pleasures in life and from having close relationships. Their judgments and ideas about perfection seemed to be leaving them angry, irritable and mean spirited.
I was trying to think about an alternative that would soften the whole issue of perfectionism. When our efforts are not crushed by our judgmental natures, we can still have our spirits be challenged and allow ourselves some room for mistakes, imperfections, the time to learn something new and even some vulnerability with others. Doing our best, having strong values and putting an honest effort into the things we care about, can all take place within the context of flexibility when judgments are relaxed. Substituting values for judgments seems like a good place to start building our efforts while staying kind, soft and open. Perfection can wait for another lifetime. Why not start being happy and content right now?

What If It's Not True?

What if our inner voices are wrong? "I am my own worst critic!" is a common expression. So my question is "who you gonna trust?" If our self talk can so easily turn negative, inspired by random perceived rejections or sometimes by nothing at all, should we be trusting ourselves to make these judgments. Why is it so often that our friends are full of praises for our successes and we can barely hear it? We are so busy saying "Yes, but...." They do it too, so you are not alone. You know you usually think your friends are funnier, smarter, better looking than they think they are.
What is the antidote to those sour words we hear inside of us? Find proof that the truth lies elsewhere. For instance, when I say "I always make the same mistake and fall into the same patterns." Find the exceptions, when this wasn't true and write it down. This won't be easy, at first. We have been trusting the "worst critic" for a long time. Add the positive details of your history and sometimes the truth is 180 degrees from what you are habitually telling yourself. Surprise!!
You will get better at recognizing your negative voices and soon you'll be arguing the other side of your case and the negative voices will back off.

A Value Rich Life

I was listening to a radio discussion about how best to choose the foods for your supper each day. The examples they gave depended on what is important to you as an individual. While listening, it struck me that more important than helping you pick a potato over an eggplant, choosing your foods based on what you value in life is a great metaphor for the rest of our lives. For example, if you value community, you'll find a fresh food market. If you value a landscape dotted with farms, you'll buy locally. If you worry about pesticides, you'll buy organic. If you value fresh, you'll buy seasonally. If you value the process, you'll grow some of your own food. We usually vary our choices, depending on our circumstances. My point is how does this variety of choices apply to our jobs, families, consumption, health, pleasurable activities, or even our choice of wardrobe? Each choice is based on something we value, either subtlely or more obviously. When we make choices that are out of line with our values, we suffer and so does the world around us. It sometimes takes a bit more time and attention to live a "value rich" life but you will truly be richer for the effort.

20 Ways to Relax in a Minute or Less

To answer the USA Today article on stress from the last post, here are some tools to try.

20 Ways to Relax in One Minute or Less

1) Take 10 long, slow, deep, quiet, even breaths
2) Look at a candle with your eyes almost closed. Focus on the flame and your eyelashes
3) Go outside and take a few deep breaths
4) Pet a dog and talk to the owner
5) Close your eyes and listen for a few seconds
6) Write down 5 things you are grateful for
7) Call someone and praise something they did
8) Sing a favorite song at the top of your lungs
9) Draw or sketch something
10) Make circles with every moveable joint: neck, fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, waist, hips, knees and ankles
11) Stick out your tongue and make roaring lion sounds
12) Find something to laugh at
13) Take a minute to fall in love with nature, the sky, a flower, a pond
14) Take a walk around the block
15) Whistle
16) Have a conversation with a young child
17) Turn off the news and research a way to share your talents
18) Slowly eat a piece of fruit, enjoy the texture, taste and smell
19) Give yourself a quick hand or foot massage
20) Write down 5 things you are good at

Stress and Starting Helpful Habits

A friend sent me this article today. Developing healthy habits and a consistent self-care routine isn't easy, but it looks like today might be a good day to get started!

Only half of worried Americans try to manage their stress
By Kate Schuler, Special for USA TODAYThu Feb 23, 7:15 AM ET
When it comes to dealing with stress, a number of Americans turn to unhealthy behaviors such as overeating and smoking for relief and don't exercise, according to a survey released today by the American Psychological Association (APA).

But those choices, researchers say, lead to increased health problems that ultimately make stress worse.

"What's surprising and alarming is the fact that too many people weren't taking active steps to do anything about the stress they're feeling," says Russ Newman of the APA. "People don't really appreciate how detrimental stress is, and the ways they're trying to manage stress can be as detrimental, if not more so."

Despite the numbers of adults who are very concerned about stress, only 55% are making an effort to manage it - a trend that could have long-term consequences for the health of Americans, Newman says. Adults who experience stress were less likely to say they were in good health, and they reported higher rates of hypertension, depression and obesity.

The survey of about 2,000 adults showed that 47% of Americans said they were concerned about the levels of stress in their lives, though women were more likely than men to say they were affected by stress.

Women also responded differently, the survey shows. Women under stress were more likely than men to say they felt nervous, wanted to cry or had a lack of energy. Men said they had trouble sleeping and felt angry or irritable.

About one-quarter of Americans said they turn to food for comfort; about one in three women said they cope by eating. Those who reported turning to food were twice as likely as the average American to be diagnosed with obesity, researchers noted.

People who reported higher stress also were more likely to smoke and less likely to exercise. These behaviors lead to a "vicious cycle," Newman says, in which unhealthful habits might relieve stress in the short term but exacerbate it in the long run.

Such habits are hard to break, however. Rajita Sinha, director of the Research Program on Stress, Addiction and Psychopathology at Yale University School of Medicine, says that when a person is stressed, the need to feel better "takes precedence over impulse control."

"We tend to choose a response based on what we know, based on habit," Sinha says. "We will be looking for things that calm us down, but they may not be the best thing for us."

She recommends trying to start good habits early on and paying close attention to "why we do one thing over the other" to be more aware of long-term consequences.

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What is the purpose of your Work?

What is work? That’s the question asked towards the end of the book 'Your Money or Your Life' by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. You can check out their online program at Simple Living Network
They discuss learning how to value yourself and your limited time on this earth in the context of what you do everyday for love or money. According to them, and statistics, as a 53 year old I have less than 2249,325 hours left.
They quote E.F Schumacher, who says:
"The three purposes of human work are as follows – First, to provide necessary and useful goods and services. Second, to enable everyone of us to use and thereby perfect our gifts like good stewards. Third, to do so in service to, and in cooperation with, others, so as to liberate ourselves from our inborn egocentricity."

They include a quote from Studs Terkel's book "Working":
"....It is about a search, too, for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather that torpor: in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying."

From Dominguez/Robin:
"So we see that our concept (as a society) of leisure has changed radically. From being considered a desirable and civilizing component of day-to-day life it has become something to be feared, a reminder of unemployment during the years of the Depression. As the value of leisure has dropped, the value of work has risen. The push for full employment, along with the growth of advertising has created a populace increasingly oriented toward work and toward earning more money in order to consume more resources."

"The vows for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health -- and often till death do us part -- may be better applied to our jobs than our wives or husbands. No wonder we introduce ourselves as nurses or contractors rather than as parents or friends."

"The real problem with work, then, is not that our expectations are too high. It's that we have confused work with paid employment. Redefining work as simply any productive or purposeful activity, with paid employment being just one activity among many, frees us from the false assumption that what we do to put food on the table and a roof over our heads should also provide us with our sense of meaning, purpose and fulfillment. Breaking the link between work and money allows us to reclaim balance and sanity."

"Our fulfillment as human beings lies not in our jobs but in the whole picture of our lives--in our inner sense of what life is about, our connectedness with others and our yearning for meaning and purpose. By separating work and wages we bring together the different parts of ourselves and remember that our real work is just to live our values as best we know how. In fact, mistaking work for wages has meant that most of our jobs have gotten neither the attention nor the credit they deserve – jobs like loving our mates, being a decent neighbor or developing a sustaining philosophy of life. When we are whole, we don’t need to try to consume our way to happiness. Happiness is our birthright."

"Another casualty of our confusion of work with wages is our inner work – the job of self-examination, self-development and emotional and spiritual maturation. It takes time to know yourself. Time for reflection, for silence, for journal writing, for prayer and ritual, for diaalogue with a caring friend to heal the wounds from our past, for developing a coherent philosophy of life and personal code of ethics and for setting personal goals and evaluating progress. Yet, instead of honoring this as important work, we squeeze what we can into evenings and weekends, devoting the majority of our waking hours to the real work of our jobs.
Redefining work gives us back the full experience and expression of these other activities. We can honor our houshold duties, our relationships and our inner work and give this unpaid employment the same creativity, respect and attention that we give to our paid employment."