“Instead of making kindergarten like the rest of school, we need to make the rest of school (indeed, the rest of life) more like kindergarten.” — Mitch Resnick I have Mitch Resnick (or, more specifically, his published work) to thank for sending me down the rabbit hole of innovation in education a few years ago. Mitch Resnick (aka […]
Read Julia Cameron‘s entire article on Motto
Ours is a youth-oriented culture. A glance at the tabloids tells us of the exploits of the young. There is not as much of a platform for the artistic achievements and accomplishments of the older or even the middle aged. We falsely believe that creativity belongs to the young, and so, when we pass a certain age, we tell ourselves we are “over the hill.” We ignore the fact that many artists create well into what might be called their “dotage.”
The idea that creativity fades with age is false.
Twenty-five years ago, I wrote a book on creativity called The Artist’s Way. Over four million people have worked with that book. I have taught many live classes and have often found my just-retired students to be the most poignant. Setting out to write a book on creativity and aging, It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again, I discovered that many of us have a fiery passion we long to express in our golden years. As we turn our hand to the page, crafting a memoir of our time on the planet, many dreams surge to the fore. It is not “too late” to begin their pursuit. Often, our life’s experience gives us a “leg up” in creating meaningful art. Comfortable in our own skin, we may find the gift of candor as a passion that has been brewing for decades pushes to the fore with energy and conviction.
We are taught to believe that negative equals realistic and positive equals unrealistic. Nonsense.
Internalizing these destructive messages, we believe we’re “too old,” decide it’s “too late.” But “I’m too old” is something we tell ourselves to save ourselves from the emotional cost of the ego deflation involved in being a beginner.
In the moment of creation, we are ageless. We feel both young at heart and old and wise. “Artists work until the end,” my photographer friend Daniel said to me recently. Yes, they do. This is why retirement from one career— even if it is our major career—is not, by any means, “the end.” Because the act of creating something, anything, renders us timeless, because the act of creation is led by that inner, youthful part of ourselves, we continually reinvent our lives through our art. The capacity to create is as innate as our very life force. I would even say that our creativity and our life force might be one and the same.
Julia Cameron is the author of more than 30 books, including The Artist’s Way, Walking in This World, Finding Water and, most recently, It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again.
The writer Edith Wharton, a self-professed “slow worker,” dismissed the idea of easy creative triumph. “Many people assume that the artist receives, at the outset of his career, the mysterious sealed orders known as ‘Inspiration,’ and has only to let that sovereign impulse carry him where it will,” she wrote in her 1925 bookThe Writing of Fiction. The artistic impulse, she continued, was instead achieved through “systematic daily effort.”
But while she championed diligence, Wharton was also driven by something she found more difficult to describe. Writing in The Atlantic in 1933, she sought to explain that “central mystery” of spontaneous creative expression—the “teeming visions which, ever since my small childhood, and even at the busiest and most agitated periods of my outward life, have incessantly peopled my inner world.”
“It is as impossible to fix in words,” she wrote, “as that other mystery of what happens in the brain at the precise moment when one falls over the edge of consciousness into sleep.”
In a 2008 study published in the journal PLOS, Charles Limb, an otolaryngologist at the University of California, San Francisco and accomplished jazz saxophonist,and Allen Braun, a speech researcher at the National Institutes of Health, designed a clever way to observe creative expression in the brain: an fMRI machine with a specially made musical keyboard. The two men recruited six professional jazz musicians for the study; while in the fMRI, the participants performed musical exercises ranging from a memorized scale to a fully improvised piece of music.
Watch Charles Limb’s TED Talks
Observing the musicians’ brain activity as they performed each task, Limb and Braun found that when their subjects improvised, a region called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) became less active. Like a neural mother hen, the DLPFC is connected to planning, inhibition, and self-censorship; its deactivation has been suggested to play a role in altered states of consciousness such as daydreaming, meditation, and REM sleep. (A separate imaging study published in the journal Nature in 2012 found a similar lulling of the DLPFC during freestyle rap.) This pattern of brain activity, Limb and Braun wrote, may be “intrinsic to the creative process,” which “can apparently occur outside of conscious awareness and beyond volitional control.”
Their findings support a fundamental model of creativity developed by Arne Dietrich, the author of and a professor of psychology at the American University of Beirut. Dietrich argues that the brain’s prefrontal cortex is central to creativity, and depending on the particular creative activity, the region will either significantly slow—as it did in the jazz study—or ramp up.
Earlier this year, Limb co-authored a new study led by Malinda McPherson, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard-MIT Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, to address that missing element. The study also asked jazz pianists to improvise in an fMRI scanner; this time, though, the musicians were instructed to first review photographs of a woman wearing a positive, negative, or neutral expression, and then to try to match the photo’s mood with their improvised melodies.
The results were somewhat surprising. McPherson’s team predicted the creativity-related DLPFC deactivation from the previous study would be found equally in the negative and positive improvisations, but it was much more pronounced during the happy trial. The researchers also found that the negative-photo improvisations showed greater activity in certain brain regions connected to cognitive control and reward; specifically, there was increased connectivity between the insula, an area that controls visceral awareness, and the substantia nigra, an area responsible for reward and pleasure.
Broadly, McPherson’s findings support Dietrich’s argument that creativity doesn’t stem from one easily definable process or brain pattern. The results also indicate that “emotion has a huge effect on the way our brains can be creative,” McPherson says. Positive emotion, for instance, seems to be related to a deeper state of creative flow. Her findings also seem to indicate that unhappy artistic expression requires more conscious restraint than happy music—but may also be, on some level, more rewarding.
“Sadness in art is perplexing,” McPherson says. “People love performing and listening to sad music, but generally try to avoid sadness in other areas of their lives.” It may be that the arts give us the chance to safely practice and experience a range of emotions, she says—or, as Wharton writes, to experience feelings “quite unrelated to the joy or sorrow caused by real happenings, but as intense.” Sad music, then, could be especially pleasurable because the musician “knows that the sadness is coming from the art, and not from any other loss,” McPherson speculates. Happy art, on the other hand, may allow a deeper creative flow because it carries less emotional risk, even if it also means less of a reward or release.
Of course, the more questions that are answered, the more questions arise: Do the findings about jazz improvisation apply equally to other forms of art and music? If there are distinct paths to creativity, how can we steer our brains to enter a state of creative flow? What happens to the brain during those more deliberate creative efforts, such as revising an artistic work?
As they move forward, Limb and his colleagues are working to both deepen their understanding of musical improvisation and extend the research to other areas of creativity. “There are so many deep and critical questions when it comes to the neuroscience of art,” he says. “It may take a while before we are able to unify the knowledge across disciplines.”
Is the creative person in your life driving you nuts? Eric Strong can help you get a grip with 3 ½ Tips for Managing and Living with Creative Types.
In 5 Creativity Books Everyone Should Read Dean Bokhari gives us some awesome resources designed to help anyone maximize creative potential. That is, anyone dedicated enough to cultivate their desired talent. Innate or otherwise. Click the link above for Bokhari’s original article. It’s a quick and entertaining read. In it he takes a realistic look at the creative process and briefly explains what you’ll gain from each book. If you don’t need any convincing, shop Bokhari’s list below and dive into these gems now by selecting the eBook versions!
Red Hot and BOOM!
by Various Authors
The Red Hot Authors present Red Hot & BOOM! A Sizzling Hot Collection of Stories. Celebrate Independence Day with Ten Books from Authors who will Heat Your Summer Nights!, You will fall in love with the characters!
Category: Romance & Holidays
Price: $0.99 Originally $9.90
Expires: Jul 10, 2015
Get it: Amazon
Clutter Free: Small Life Changes
by Lynn Hall
Want to de-clutter your home and live in a stress free environment, but feel like you do not have enough time? You can! Take back your life! This book is about having a plan for getting your life and things around your house under control. Learn which items to keep and which ones to let go of which is incredibly vital when you are attempting to de-clutter your home, reduce your stress, and simply streamline your day-to-day life.
Category: How to & Home Improvements
Price: $0.99 Originally $7.99
Expires: Jul 10, 2015
Get it: Amazon
Flight
by Alyssa Rose Ivy
With over 175 five-star reviews on Amazon: Allie is spending a summer in New Orleans when she meets mysterious and enticing Levi, who takes her on a supernatural journey that will cause her to question everything she thought she knew.
Category: Teen/Young Adult
Price: Free! Originally:$0.99
Expires: Unknown
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Saturday Night Widows
by Becky Aikman
In this “testament to the durability of the human spirit” (People), Becky Aikman shares her struggle with grief and her gradual adjustment to life after her husband’s death — with the help of a group of women known as the Saturday Night Widows. “An unexpected delight, rich with wisdom and laughter” (The Washington Post).
Category: Non-Fiction & Women’s Studies
Price: $1.99 Originally $9.99
Expires: July 19
Get it: Amazon
The Absolute Best Dump Dinners Cookbook
by Rockridge Press
Dive into this mouthwatering guide to everything from soups and salads to pastas and frittatas. With 75 delicious recipes that require minimal prep time, this book is ideal for the busy home cook!
Category: Cook Books/Quick & Easy
Price: $0.99 Originally $3.99
Expries: July 9
Get it: Amazon
Attitudes of Gratitude
by M.J. Ryan
Want to feel healthier, happier, and more complete? Learn to practice gratitude every day, with proven techniques that might just change your life! “This little book is an elixir for the soul” (New York Times bestselling author Kathy Freston).
Category: Self-help/Motivational
Price: $0.99 Originally $14.95
Expires: July 7
Get it: Amazon
Falling for the Marine
By Samanthe Beck
Chloe refuses to date military men — but when sexy helicopter pilot Michael ends up on her massage table, their chemistry is too powerful to resist. Don’t miss this sizzling USA Today bestseller with over 700 five-star ratings on Goodreads!
Category: Erotic Romance
Price: $0.99 Originally: $2.99
Expires: Unknown
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The BBQ & Outdoor Grilling Cookbook
By Scott Cooper
Winter’s finally over — it’s time to break out the grill! This mouthwatering cookbook offers easy, delicious recipes for everything from seasoned steak to herb-sprinkled fish, along with irresistible sauces, tasty side dishes, and tantalizing desserts.
Category: Cooking
Price: Free! Originally: $3.99
Get it: Amazon
War Bonds
By Cindy Hval
Even in the depths of World War II, love found a way to thrive… This moving book tells how 30 remarkable couples came together in wartime — and forged bonds that would endure for life.
Category: General Nonfiction
Price: $1.99 Originally: $14.99
Expires: Unknown
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Grounded
By G.P. Ching
Growing up in an Amish community, Lydia Troyer is secluded from the outside world. When she seeks medical help for her father, she discovers a secret government study to end the energy crisis that thrusts her into a pivotal — and perilous — role. A riveting dystopian novel!
Category: Teen and Young Adult
Price: Free! Originally: $2.99
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Lest We Forget
Brian L. Porter
Brian L. Porter will take you into the center of the action in this poetry collection, and make you feel as if you are really there. One minute you’ll find yourself in the cockpit of a bomber, limping home damaged from a raid over enemy territory; and the next in a dogfight over the Kent countryside during the Battle of Britain. His grandfather and father having served in the army during WW1….
Category: Nonfiction
Price: $0.99 Originally: $3.99
Expires: May 26, 2015
Get it: Amazon
Ethan
Celeste Hall
Ethan knows that his entire race hovers on the brink of extinction. Strict laws that have protected their species are now being challenged. Laws created to prevent demons and humans from consorting outside of the Dream. But there is something about Madison that draws him in, despite the consequences.
Category: Paranormal Romance/Erotic Romance
Price: FREE! Originally: $2.99
Expires: May 28, 2015
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The Purge of Babylon
By Sam Sisavath
After creatures of the dark nearly destroy humanity in one blood-soaked night, a small band of survivors fight their way to safety. Help awaits in the countryside — but the journey will test them in unimaginable ways… With over 550 five-star reviews on Amazon.
Category: Science Fiction
Price: Free! Originally: $0.99
Expires: Unknown
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Home to Walnut Ridge
By Diane Moody
After leaving a nightmare job, Tracey returns to her Tennessee hometown, where she discovers surprising secrets, unlikely romance, and a fresh start. A warm and uplifting tale of faith, love, and second chances with over 200 five-star reviews on Amazon.
Category: Christian Fiction
Price: Free! Originally: $3.71
Expires: Unknown
Get it: Amazon
The Free
By Willy Vlautin
A disabled Iraq War veteran, Leroy survives by escaping into an alternate reality — while Pauline and Freddie, who work at his nursing home, endure their own harrowing struggles. A “heartbreaking” novel (Booklist) with nearly 350 five-star ratings on Goodreads.
Category: Literary Fiction
Price: $1.99 Originally: $10.99
Expires: Unknown
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Against the Dark
Carolyn Crane
Today’s Deal is a Thriller Suspense by bestselling author, Carolyn Crane. An anticipation and a nail-biting suspense. Angel Ramirez left the safecracking game five years ago, and she?s worked hard to make amends and build an honest life. But when a beloved aunt is kidnapped, she must reunite with her girl gang to acquire the unique ransom: Walter Borgola’s prized diamonds…
Category: Romance, Myster/Suspense
Price: FREE! Originally: $3.99
Expires: May 28, 2015
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Inadmissible
By Tamer Elsayed
Tamer came to America to pursue his dreams — but when a youthful mistake landed him in legal trouble, he discovered the dark side of the US justice system. “An intelligent, honestly written memoir of immigration” (Kirkus Reviews).
Category: Biographies and Memoirs
Price: Free! Originally: $2.99
Expires: Unknown
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The Identity Switch
By AJ Winters
What if you could make big changes to your life by starting with a few small things? Learn how understanding your own psychology can help you achieve even your largest goals!
Category: Advice and How-To
Price: Free! Originally: $0.99
Expries: Unknown
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Burial Ground
By Michael McBride
When Hunter’s body turns up in Peru, his father flies down to investigate the murder. But he’ll soon wish he’d never set foot in the rainforest… Perfect for Michael Crichton fans.
Category: Action and Adventure
Price: Free! Originally: $2.99
Expires: Unknown
Get it: Amazon
Deceptive Cadence
By Kathryn Guare
Conor McBride disappears into a false identity to find the man who betrayed him — his own brother Thomas. He wants nothing more than to bring Thomas home, but he’ll soon find himself facing danger and conspiracy in a foreign land. A mesmerizing thriller about family and redemption.
Category: Thrillers
Price: Free! Originally: $2.99
Expires: Unknown
Get it: Amazon
Dying for the Highlife
By Dave Stanton
Jimmy Homestead has a checkered past, but he hopes to leave it all behind after winning $43 million in the lottery. Instead, he’s followed across Nevada by old enemies and so-called friends… Can PI Dan Reno keep him out of harm’s way?
Category: Mysteries
Price: Free! Originally: $3.99
Expires: Unknown
Get it: Amazon
Have your read any of these featured books? How would you rate it? Tell us about it in the comments section.
Great top 10 list here from TED Blog. But the word that caught my eye is “retronym,” used in number 9. If you click the link it takes you to wordnik.com which defines the word this way: Continue reading Word of the Day + Repost: The top 10 words of TED2015
Busy lawyers and entrepreneurs Bradley Lum and Trey Waterloo understand the desire for independence and the roadblocks that keep most people from it. They’ve navigated the hurdles inherent to stepping out on your own and now want to help fellow entrepreneurs solve some common problems, such as the need for an independent work environment conducive to effective and efficient work habits, the need for targeted education that would aid in reaching certain goals, and the need for affordable health-care options for the self-employed. Continue reading Entrepreneurship Thrives in the #Hive
The Book of Negroes (based on the novel Someone Knows My Name) will be BET’s first miniseries. The star-studded production includes lead actress Aunjanue Ellis (Ray, The Help), Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire, A Few Good Men), Oscar and Emmy winner Louis Gossett Jr. (A Raisin in the Sun, Boardwalk Empire), and features Lyriq Bent (Rookie Blue), Jane Alexander (The Cider House Rules), and Ben Chaplin (The Thin Red Line). Director and co-writer Clement Virgo is a feature film and television director (The Wire) who also serves as producer with executive producer Damon D’Oliveira (What We Have).
Price: $9.95
In 1987, Dr. Benjamin Carson gained worldwide recognition for his part in the first successful separation of Siamese twins joined at the back of the head. Carson pioneered again in a rare procedure known as a hemispherectomy, giving children without hope a second chance at life through a daring operation in which he literally removes one half of their brain.
Such breakthroughs aren’t unusual for Ben Carson. He’s been beating the odds since he was a child.
Raised in inner-city Detroit by a mother with a third grade education, Ben lacked motivation. He had terrible grades. And a pathological temper threatened to put him in jail.
But Sonya Carson convinced her son he could make something of his life, even though everything around him said otherwise. Trust in God, a relentless belief in his own capabilities, and sheer determination catapulted Ben from failing grades to the directorship of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
Gifted Hands takes you into the operating room to witness surgeries that made headlines around the world—and into the private mind of a compassionate, God-fearing physician who lives to help others.
Price: $3.99
This exciting new release includes the complete text of “Twelve Years a Slave.” Read the amazing story of Solomon Northup before (or after) you see the critically-acclaimed movie of 2013. But this collection doesn’t stop there. It also includes:
* Complete, unabridged texts of the five additional works listed below, all well-known works about slavery in America
* An active table of contents for easy navigation to any book or chapter
* The original illustrations for “Twelve Years a Slave”
* Easy-to-use links to download unabridged audiobooks of four of the works from Librivox
* Well-formatted text with adjustable font and size
Below is a brief introduction to the six included works. (Excerpts from Wikipedia are used in the summaries.)
–Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a citizen of New-York, kidnapped in Washington city in 1841, and rescued in 1853, from a cotton plantation near the Red River in Louisiana —
Author: Solomon Northup (July 1808 – c. 1864-1875)
Published: 1853
“Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup as told to David Wilson, is a memoir of a black man who was born free in New York state but kidnapped, sold into slavery and kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana before the American Civil War.”
— Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave —
Author: Frederick Douglass (February 1818 – February 20, 1895)
Published: 1845
Audiobook available from Librivox, link included
“Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a memoir and treatise on abolition written by famous orator and ex-slave, Frederick Douglass. In factual detail, the text describes the events of his life and is considered to be one of the most influential pieces of literature to fuel the abolitionist movement of the early 19th century in the United States.”
— The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself —
Author: Josiah Henson (June 15, 1789 – May 5, 1883)
Published: 1849
“The Life of Josiah Henson is a slave narrative written by Josiah Henson, who would later become famous for being the basis of the character of Tom from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. ”
— Uncle Tom’s Cabin —
Author: Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896)
Published: 1852
Audiobook available from Librivox, link included
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe…Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible.”
— Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl —
Author: Harriett Ann Jacobs, under the pen name Linda Brent (February 11, 1813 – March 7, 1897)
Published: 1861
Audiobook available from Librivox, link included
“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a slave narrative that was published in 1861 by Harriet Ann Jacobs, using the pen name “Linda Brent.” It addresses the struggles and sexual abuse that young women slaves faced on the plantations, and how these struggles were harsher than what men suffered as slaves.”
— Up From Slavery —
Author: Booker T. Washington (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915)
Published: 1901
Audiobook available from Librivox, link included
“Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of Booker T. Washington detailing his work to rise from the position of a slave child during the Civil War, to the difficulties and obstacles he overcame to get an education at the new Hampton University, to his work establishing vocational schools.”
Slave narratives, some of the most powerful records of our past, are extremely rare, with only fifty-five post–Civil War narratives surviving. A mere handful are first-person accounts by slaves who ran away and freed themselves. Now two newly uncovered narratives, and the biographies of the men who wrote them, join that exclusive group with the publication of A Slave No More, a major new addition to the canon of American history. Handed down through family and friends, these narratives tell gripping stories of escape: Through a combination of intelligence, daring, and sheer luck, the men reached the protection of the occupying Union troops. David W. Blight magnifies the drama and significance by prefacing the narratives with each man’s life history. Using a wealth of genealogical information, Blight has reconstructed their childhoods as sons of white slaveholders, their service as cooks and camp hands during the Civil War, and their climb to black working-class stability in the north, where they reunited their families. In the stories of Turnage and Washington, we find history at its most intimate, portals that offer a rich new answer to the question of how four million people moved from slavery to freedom. In A Slave No More, the untold stories of two ordinary men take their place at the heart of the American experience.
Price $2.99
Roots is a groundbreaking story of history and family that spanned continents and touched generations. One of the most important books and television series ever to appear, Roots galvanized the nation and created an extraordinary political, racial, social and cultural dialogue that hadn’t been seen since the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The book sold over one million copies in the first year, and the miniseries was watched by an astonishing 130 million people. It also won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Roots opened up the minds of Americans of all colors and faiths to one of the darkest and most painful parts of America’s past, and we continue to feel its reverberations today.
Roots: The Enhanced Edition is truly definitive–adding unmatched, sweep, context and insight to this ever-relevant classic.
The Enhanced Edition features:
• Full text of the book
• Video introduction and interview with David Wilson
• New video interview with Tom Brokaw
• Footage of author Alex Haley provided by the NBC News Archives and the Haley family, including Today Show interviews with Tom Brokaw, Roots-related events in the 1970s, an extended interview about the book, and more (45 minutes of video)
• Recordings of Alex Haley speaking about researching and writing the book (30 minutes of audio)
• 10 rare photos from the Haley family
• Essay by Alex Haley
• Reading Group Guide
• Introduction by Michael Eric Dyson
• Extended biography of Haley
Étude Life 