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Scientific understanding of creativity is far from complete, but one lesson already seems plain: originality is not a gift doled out sparingly by the gods. We can call it up from within us through training and encouragement. Not every man, woman or child is a potential genius, but we can get the most out of our abilities by performing certain kinds of exercises and by optimizing our attitudes and environment-the same factors that help us maximize other cognitive powers. Some of the steps are deceptively simple, such as reminding ourselves to stay curious about the world around us and to have the courage to tear down mental preconceptions.
 Ulrich Kraft, quoted in Unleashing Creativity" Scientific American Volume 16 Number 1 (2005). 
Read articles by Lifestage Senior Trainers Nicholas Wolff and Jude Treder-Wolff on Ezine.
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NICK'S PICKS
In the days and months following the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, immersed in my role as a lead trauma counselor on a team working with survivors and family members of the missing, I felt the stirrings of change within myself that continues to this day. Tragedy feels darker, acts of kindness more transcendent. A heightened sensitivity to the effects of disaster on victims and the healers who rush to their side when things are at their worst are with me always now. An article by a physician doing relief work in Haiti after the recent earthquate published in last week's New England Journal of Medicine resonates to this and adds a haunting reminder of the humanizing power of music: "After the January 12 earthquake, I traveled with a national disaster team from the Department of Health and Human Servicesto Haiti, where we set up a mobile tent hospital on the sitesof a devastated school and a nearby adolescent clinic. My 2-weekdeployment was marked by sensory overload. There was the hotsun, the humidity, and the swirling mosquitoes. The air wasfull of dust and smoke from burning bodies and burning tires.The smell of diesel fuel from our generator was mixed with thoseof decomposition, garbage, and unwashed bodies. The sound ofwomen and children weeping in sorrow and pain joined the noiseof roosters crowing from 4 in the morning until noon, the droneof the generator, and the throb of rescue helicopters. But at dusk, voices of the earthquake survivors rose in gospel song from the tent city next to our camp and seemed to weave a tapestryof solace."Annekathryn Goodman, M.D. "Ministry of Touch - Reflections on Disaster Work after the Haitian Earthquake" New England Journal of Medicine, March 3,
2010 Improv is a work-out for the brain, a creativity-and-spontaneity generator and one of the best ways to spend an evening, either as a participant or an audience member. This article sheds some light on why skill-building activities that are hard (like improv and music, among other things) make us happier. I like it when research catches up to what artists, creatives and non-comformists already know. "No Pain, No Gain: Mastering A Skill Makes Us Stressed In The Moment, Happy Long Term" Artistic New Directions is a not-for-profit laboratory for development of creative work - improv, stand-up, plays and other projects - with the support of first-class faculty. Learn about ANYTHING GOES on Wednesday nights for works-in-progress, their classes, workshops, retreats and more at artisticnewdirections.org. **** Who Am I This Time?Role-Taking For 21st Century
Learning and Growth Merlin the Magician, according to legend, trained the boy who would become King Arthur by transforming him into various animals through which he experienced different ways of thinking about power and groups. As a snow goose, he participates in a peaceful culture in which leaders are chosen based on their ability to navigate. Things are quite the opposite when he is turned into a falcon and nearly killed when a competitor picks a fight with him, or a fish when he is nearly devoured by a much bigger one. As an ant he can only adapt by becoming robotic, hearing "a noise in his head, like a song on the radio that repeats over and over, and he hears a voice, constantly giving him directions," because the ant culture has eliminated independent thought. Merlin's method would be called "role-taking" in our world, a learning method that is powerfully effective for internalizing an unfamiliar skill or new information, e.g In a recent training seminar, employees of a large non-profit institution that serves the general public were reeling from the consequences of severe cutbacks directly due to donor money that disappeared down the Bernie Madoff rabbit hole....MORE Nicholas Wolff, LCSW, BCD, TEP Nicholas Wolff has trained psychotherapists, educators, counselors, and law enforcement professionals for over 30 years. |
 THE HEALING FORCE OF SOCIAL NETWORKSby Jude Treder-Wolff,LCSW,RMT,CGPA fantastic, food-centered fund-raiser I attended at Chelsea Piers last fall - the annual "A Second Helping of Life" event for SHARE, a not-for- profit organization that provides free support services for women with breast and ovarian cancer - turned into a mini-reunion with some remarkable women I was privileged to work with at Gracie Square Hospital in the 1980's. Reconnecting with this group to celebrate and champion our colleague and dear friend Kathy Hynes-Kadish, a metastatic breast cancer survivor and SHARE volunteer, combined with the "right-over-there" celebrity-sightings and nonstop samplings of some of New York's best food and drink made the evening a trifecta of good energy that was almost too much of a good thing. (When I spotted Judy Gold with a tray of canapés and called out her name 3 times as if she were an old college buddy I knew the wine-tasting portion of the evening was over for me.) Kathy has been living with metastatic breast cancer since 1999, presently shows "no evidence of disease" and knows first-hand the experience of "Living With Uncertainty" - the name of a peer support group she facilitates for SHARE... MORE
 Jude Treder-Wolff recently published her first book, Possible Futures: Creative Thinking For TheSpeed of Life.
First, the core human reality that "heart and soul" language points to has been given many names by diverse traditions. Hasidic Jews call it the spark of the divine in every being. Christians may call it spirit, though some (e.g., the Quakers) call it the inner teacher, and Thomas Merton (a Trappist monk) called it true self. Secular humanists call it identity and integrity. Depth psychologists call it the outcome of individuation.
Parker Palmer, quoted in "Teaching With Heart and Soul: Reflections on Spirituality in Teacher Education" Journal of Teacher Education Vol. 54, No. 5, (2003)
The world is changing so quickly that promoting the ability for creative thinking and promoting cultural adaptability is essential. Remember that kids starting school this year will be retiring in 2065. We don't have a clue about what the world will be like then. Sir Ken Robinson, quoted in "Reading, Writing and Creativity" Business Week February 23, 2006 |