From the category archives:

Brain Waves

The Creative Bow Wave

by Katherine on February 3, 2010

I just enjoyed a fabulous week on a cruise ship. The cabin that I was in on the starboard side of the ship (that’s the right side, for all non-nautical people like me). Standing on the verandah, I spent a fair amount of time just watching the boat cut through the water, creating wave after wave as it took us closer to each destination.

It made me think of a session that I had with my coach several months ago where she compared the bow wave – the first wave that ripples out from the bow of the ship – to the reason behind the day to day choices I make.

For me my bow wave is creativity. It’s the constant that flows through my projects, my friendships, my financial situation, my resources, my outlook on life.

It’s the why behind my what.

Bow waves don’t happen when boats stay in the safety of the harbour. Waves rock the boat. They shake things up. They ripple out to the vast ocean, disturbing the surface of the water.

The same is true of creativity. Creativity demands more of us than playing it safe. It shakes things up. It takes us to different destinations and makes us view life from a different perspective. It requires course corrections. It makes our completed projects different from what anyone else in the universe would create, even if they started with the same idea.

Creativity isn’t just about producing something artistic. It’s about taking creative inspiration and flowing it through your business, your book, your article, your day, your conversations. It’s about enjoying life by playing with ideas. It’s about knowing that your thought is creative and choosing what you will do or won’t do.

Celebrate and ride the bow wave!

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Creating a New Form

by Katherine on January 6, 2010

Usually at the beginning of each year, I do a vision board for the coming year. It takes in every aspect of my life: spiritual and personal growth, health and well-being, financial abundance, business and career, social life and friends, primary relationship, and creativity. (Yes, I give creativity a whole section by itself.)

This year I decided to try something different. So I pulled Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping book off my bookshelf. I discovered the book several years ago and have done many mind maps since then, some on large bristol board and some small enough for a postage stamp. Well, maybe not quite that small, but pretty small.

It’s very pleasing to me to observe the idea of mindmapping showing up over and over in mainstream business. I’m seeing it everywhere. I even got an email the other day where a mindmap was one of the bonuses for buying a particular business program.

This is a perfect illustration of how we are moving away from focusing on business and life with only goal-oriented left-brain thinking and moving towards a more co-creative, non-linear, whole brain approach.

I cheer and applaud and sometimes even chuckle each time I see evidence of that shift.

When I first brought the book off the shelf, I was going to do a mind map instead of a vision board. However as I worked on it, lo and behold, it started to morph into something that was not a mind map or a vision board but something that merged the two forms.

Is it a vision map? A mind board?

Whatever the name it seemed to bring about a flow of ideas and my hand could hardly keep up with my thoughts.

I started by drawing this form on my piece of white bristol board.

visionmap 150x150 Creating a New Form The seven sections became the categories of spiritual and personal growth, health and well-being, financial abundance, business and career, social life and friend, primary relationship, and creativity.

Starting from the centre of the board I worked out toward the edge writing words and ideas, and adding a few pictures and other items I cut from magazines and newspapers. Yesterday I completed two of the seven sections.

What is so wonderful about this kind of activity is that it has multiple layers. Here are just a few that I thought of.

  1. It will give me a direction for the upcoming year.
  2. It sparked a lot of ideas.
  3. It helped me see where a lot of things intersect and connect.
  4. It will be a piece of art worthy of hanging on a wall in my office.
  5. It’s FUN! I look forward to completing it.
  6. It brought about a new form.

And you know what? I bet I will start seeing vision maps in other places now. Synthesizing two or more ideas into a new form is one of the most powerful ways we create and bring about innovation. The best part of all is that many individuals could combine mindmapping and vision boards, and each would be unique according to each individual’s perspective and purpose.

That’s worth cheering about too!

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Grounded Wingnut 2nd Edition

by Katherine on December 8, 2009

{Find out whether you’re a Grounded Wingnut}

Insight CD

Insight CD

Many people are turning to brainwave technology to increase their success, creativity, and ability to actively attract their big visions.

Before we even learn how to speak we seem to learn so fast and take in so many beliefs that don’t serve us as adults. The part of our brain used for speaking and walking is not developed so much of our time is spent in alpha, theta (very relaxed) or delta (sleep) states. Our minds are most receptive in those relaxed states and so we take in huge amounts of information with very little effort.

But what if as adults, the conditioned beliefs are telling us not to take a chance on creating a bigger vision for our life? Lack of success is usually caused by a mind conditioned to stay in familiar learned beliefs and patterns rather than take a chance on something unknown. However with the latest in brain wave technology from the Immrama Institute you can start to change your creative ability.

Simply by listening an audio CD with binaural beats and the soothing sounds of ocean waves through stereo headphones for less than a half-hour each day, you can:

• Achieve profound states of deep meditation and relaxation
• Significantly reduce stress and anxiety
• Improve your sleep and increase energy and vitality
• Awaken your potential for long-term personal growth
• Dramatically increase your self-awareness
• Take your inspiration and motivation to new levels
• Experience higher levels of creativity and consciousness
• Develop your intuition and expand your personal insight
• Reach deep into your subconscious mind for life solutions

Get your own copy of this great tool here.
{Disclosure: this is an affiliate link. However, I only pass on info that is pertinent to being more creative, and that I have used myself.}

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Creating Meaning from Experience

by Katherine on November 2, 2009

butterflymusic 150x150 Creating Meaning from ExperienceLast weekend I attended a vocal intensive seminar. It’s a regular once a year event that my vocal coach does for his students, and for singers that some of his students teach. It’s very well-named because it is very intense, going non-stop from 9 in the morning until 9 at night.

Singers of all ages, who sing all musical styles, and who are at different stages of learning attend the seminar. We each have a time slot or two to sing and the rest of the time we learn by listening to other singers.

After it was over, and everyone left both tired and charged up, I got in my car and started the one and a half hour drive home. During that time of mindless activity, while some other part of my brain took over the automatic task of keeping on the road, I reflected on my personal experience of the intensive.

I realized that:

  • I was very open to enjoying the creative gifts of all the other singers, no matter what musical style they sang or where they were in their vocal development.
  • I didn’t compare myself to anyone else and I saw once more that we all have a unique voice to bring to the world. Wow!
  • While I’d enjoyed some very nice compliments from people about my singing and my song compositions, I hadn’t needed them to have a positive experience.
  • It was more fun to find out from other people how music fed their creative life.
  • Very interesting discussions could occur just by asking people questions designed to bring forward their very best thoughts and ideas.

Not everyone had the advantage of time driving home that I did. But I hoped that everyone took the opportunity to create their own meaning from the experience. Inner perspectives can shift in a very profound way if we just give ourselves permission to let the insights flow. But it doesn’t stop there.

After seeing personal meaning, then what? Or maybe so what?

The ‘then what’ for me has been a commitment to sing every day, even if it’s only for a few minutes. And to appreciate the creative gifts of others that I am blessed to come in contact with.

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Passion from Crisis

by Katherine on September 21, 2009

Everyone has a deep passion to create. Do we flow with it or push it away because we sense an oncoming crisis?

Often a crisis in our lives will open the door to our greatest passion and creativity. The crisis could be anything: it could be the ending of a relationship or a car accident that brings our busyness to a full stop; it could be the loss of a job or a financial crisis. (We sure had that experience in the past year and a half!)

Looking back into my past, I can see that the most painful experiences have been my opportunity to grow and expand. This isn’t big news; most people can truthfully say that….after it’s over.

During times of crisis in my life, I was NOT CHEERING! And I still don’t cheer…exactly.

But I’ve had enough experience now to acknowledge that while I’m still squirming uncomfortably, there’s something positive about what’s happening. I don’t have to wait until it’s over to feel the underlying good in it.

And some of my best creative efforts have come as a result of a crisis. If you look back, I think you might see the same!

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The Neutral Zone

by Katherine on September 9, 2009

When I moved to Vancouver BC in 2006 I spent some time in what I called the Neutral Zone.

It was my first major move in over 20 years, and my first long distance move ever. For about six week I had boxes of books sitting in my living room with no shelves to put them on. I had one chair to sit on. My computer died and I had to get a new one.

It was a time of upheaval.

However, I could see the most incredible view of the mountains and the ocean from my living room floor-length window and I was now five minutes away from the beach and a seven minute drive to hiking trails.

One morning I sat on a log on the beach for half an hour and just watched the tide come in. I felt such gratitude that I had that luxury in today’s world.

I called that time my Neutral Zone. I know from previous times that wonderful inspirations and solutions to problems arrive when one is in the Neutral Zone.

Creative people need to carve out those times.

Doesn’t have to be on the beach. Doesn’t have to be for half an hour. It’s simply a way to tune out the distractions and expectations from the outer world and really listen to our own guidance. Those moments, whenever we can carve them out, are beyond price.

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Fifty-five Minutes of Creative Focus

by Katherine on August 31, 2009

In my last post I talked about how bouncing to music for 5 minutes on my mini-trampoline helped me focus for the other 55 minutes in the hour. (Did I also mention that it was just plain fun?)

Today I’m going to talk about the impact of music during the other 55 minutes.

I’ve never been able to focus while listening to music that has lyrics so that’s out for me. I know they’ve done studies to show the effects on the brain while listening to Mozart. However, although I love classical music (Ralph Vaughan Williams is my favourite composer) I’m not a big Mozart fan. Gasp!

So instead for my 55 minutes of focused attention I listen to music that has added brain-wave technology. The one I’ve been using recently is called Deep Journeys from HemiSync. There’s a really good graphic on the CD showing brain activity with and without the music.

The effect is deeply calming and at the same time it allows me (unlike others that require me to meditate with my eyes closed) to work on my current project.

I could go into a riff about how and why it works. But frankly, I don’t really know or care. I just love the effect on my ability to be productive.

Creativity Nugget: this is a great tool for optimal performance and creative thought.

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