Wow creative inspiration!

Here's someone in touch with personal creativity who has extended that to making a difference, albeit in a small and limited way:

The Phoenix Commotion is a local building initiative created to prove that constructing homes with recycled and salvaged materials has a viable place in the building industry. This process uses only apprentice labor and teaches marketable skills to anyone with a work ethic who is willing to swing a hammer. By keeping labor costs low and using donated or found materials, the homes created are truly affordable. No two are alike due to the myriad of materials used, so there is an artistic element that makes Phoenix Commotion homes unique. We target single parents, artists, and families with low incomes. We require the homeowner to be involved with the planning and construction of his or her own home. The result is a person who is empowered, not only by the useful knowledge of building skills, but by the opportunity to become part of a community as a vested participant.

Here are the links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Phillips

http://www.phoenixcommotion.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=1&Itemid=2&lang=es

First, have a look at this inspiring presentation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVLu99Ja2mA

Creative Commitment Challenge

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom (Anais Nin)

http://www.marssociety.org/home/press/news/howwewillterraformmars

Change can be disruptive, disturbing, unsettling and even scary, but it can also be exciting, rejuvenating and liberating. Remember that creativity means new, novel, original or innovative, so commit yourself to doing something new, novel, original or innovative in one area of your life. You can make that change a huge leap or a small step.

Commitment means doing the following, and having fun in doing so:

1   Take stock: Curl up in a comfy place with a notebook and a pen. Make a list of various aspects of your life, such as your home, your garden, your workplace, your habits and practices, how you dress, how you prepare and eat your food, your social life and interests, and so on. You should have at least five categories (aspects of your life) on your list. For each category, honestly write down all the ways you express yourself personally; for example, write down all the ways that you express yourself personally in your garden, in your office at work, in how you prepare and eat food ... (what do you do that expresses your personality and individuality?). So, by the end of your session in the comfy chair, you will have identified at least five areas in your life and you will have listed any and every way in which you personally express your creativity in that aspect of your life. Honesty rather than CYA justification is important for this excercise, so it is OK if you cannot find any way in any aspect of your life that you personally express yourself with integrity (i.e. that you do anything differently from your family, friends, colleagues or your community).

2   Brainstorm ideas: Now for each category ... your home, garden, habits, practices, how you dress, how your prepare and eat food, your social life, interests, and so on) think of all the ways that you could, if anything and everything was possible, express your personal creativity in that aspect of your life. Write down whatever thoughts come to you, without censoring or judging your ideas. For each, aim to write down at least ten different ideas in ten minutes. Don’t think about what is possible or not, but just write whatever and all the thoughts you have (not to be different for the sake of being different, but to explore your own interests and passions). The only critic and censor of your ideas is in your head, so don't hold back. What if anything was possible in your life? (If I was 30 years younger, I would devote my whole life to getting to Mars as part of an expedition to terraform the planet! How could I include this passion in my everyday life in a personally creative way?)

3   Act on one idea: Choose one aspect of your life and one idea you wrote down about expressing your personal creativity. Aim to choose one that brings significant change to your life, but if you are apprehensive about changing your life radically, then choose to take a small step (such as, such as setting and eating at the table instead of in front of the TV every night, or wearing a different colour each day, or finding a new fruit or vegetable to create a meal with each week, or  committing yourself to mindfully reading a book each month in exploration of your personal interests, or devoting 15 minutes each day to develop a talent, such as photography or drawing or writing poetry or dance). Now go ahead and for the next month (yes, for one full month, every day), honour your personal creativity in that aspect of your life in that way every single day. (For, me, how can I include my passion for relocating to Mars to terraform the planet in some aspect of my everyday life?)

You are unique and special and all that I ask is that for every day, for one full month, you honour your special unique, personal creativity in one aspect of your life, in one way, honestly and wholeheartedly. When we choose to commit ourselves to honouring our true selves in small everyday ways, we find the courage to honour ourselves in all ways and truly live as the unique beings that we are.

© SD Vahl, 2012
SD Vahl hereby asserts her right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

The Practice of Observing

Nothing exists until or unless it is observed. An artist is making something exist by observing it. (William S. Burroughs)

http://www.scenicreflections.com/media/271737/moon_phases_Wallpaper/

This is a challenging creative practice that requires persistence as you ‘wait for the muse’. The rewards are that it will train you to pay attention to the information you get from all your senses, and along the way you will encounter that ‘aha’ moment of creativity.

The essential part of this practice is to be completely honest and authentic in describing what you observe, and how you describe it. If you observe and describe the same thing every day, then that is OK … just keep doing this practice once a day for at least a week.

1   Choose a scene, such as a view from a window, or an object, such as a pot plant.

2  For at least seven consecutive days, at the same time of day, be still and observe the same scene or object from the same place for at least five minutes. Be open to observing with all your senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and feelings). You don’t have to observe and record ‘something’ for every sense, but rather be aware of all your senses as you observe. In doing this exercise some people will explore colour or shades, others will focus on form, some will be aware of feelings, and so on. Just go with whatever resonates most strongly with you (by the end of the week you should know what this is).

3  Be open to observing rather than analysing. When you observe, you are open to receiving information through all your senses; when you analyse, you look for meaning and strive to understand structure and processes. Practise observing rather than analysing.

4  Now spend ten to fifteen minutes describing what you see. You can do this by drawing or painting what you see, by writing what you see in a poem or piece of prose or by simply free writing, or even by singing or dancing. Don’t aim to finish a creative piece but rather spend the time just capturing what you observed.

© SD Vahl, 2012
SD Vahl hereby asserts her right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Why creative thinking fails in the workplace

Why do creative thinking exercises in the workplace fail to produce a ground-breaking shift for the organisation? How can we encourage creative thinking in the workplace?

http://www.sxc.hu/gallery/ma_makki

Let’s start with that well-worn saying ‘thinking outside the box’. My personal experience is that the ruling culture of the corporate world is exponential profits for shareholders, and this limits creative thinking. This idea acts as a filter and so many creative ideas are sifted out before they are expressed. Employees feel repressed and brilliance is censored. Basically, people end up trying to get create new ideas within a confined space. To really find the gems of creative thinking in a corporate creative thinking exercise, you need to free people to truly think outside the box and forget about the constraints. Throw out all the rules and simply ask ‘what if anything was possible’. The creative space is that in which anything is possible. Remember this!

The censor is always present in the workplace. Of course everyone is concerned about how they are perceived by others and thus how well they are doing. Who wants to say something that may be perceived as stupid or irrelevant when their boss is in the room? On the other hand, there is the competitive spirit in the workplace. Some people may think that coming up with innovative an idea is only worthwhile when there is personal reward and acknowledgement offered in exchange. If you are leading a creative thinking exercise in the workplace, you need to be aware of and balance these two contradictory human drives. Give everyone strokes and get rid of the censor!

Extroverts drown out introverts. In any group situation you will have those who want to take centre stage (overtly or covertly), and those who just want to just fade into the background and ‘think about it’. You will get the best out of introverts if each person is required to work alone, and you will force extroverts to really think 'outside the box'. When people work in groups, then the extroverts will drown out the introverts -- always! Put simply, you will get more ideas if people are required to brainstorm individually rather than as a group, and yes the paradox is that brainstorming works best as an individual exercise (to really get 'out the box' in exploring ideas) and a group exercise (to evaluate and collate and make plans from all ideas).

Individual rewards are a bad idea as the censor and the competitive spirit derail the whole process. The innovation that will create an award-winning paradigm shift for your company will eventually be a group rather than an individual effort, so spoil and reward everyone, genuinely!

Warm-up is essential. Spend as much as half an hour doing warm-up exercises such as associative thinking, divergent thinking, working with mandalas, juggling (there’s a creative thinking exercise that I have not shared with you yet -‑ and I have a maverick twist for my juggling exercises), and so on.

A creative thinking exercise such as brainstorming is the first step in the process of, for example, creating a new product.  For each idea, you need to then brainstorm every implication, consequence, requirement, and so on. Even a frivolous idea will produce gems (this won't work because of this but this gives me an idea that I can apply to something else), so give people the time and space to go through this second step.

Educate people about the basics of creative thinking before you require them to do a creative thinking exercise. Here are some basic principles:

1 In creative thinking exercises such as brainstorming, quantity is more important than quality. Participants must rather provide nonsensical ideas than not produce the required number in the time allowed (e.g. more than ten ideas in fifteen minutes).

2 Not only give a time limit but announce a time count down of each minute to put participants under pressure to produce quantity in the time allowed (Five minutes left! You have to give me ten ideas and you have only Five minutes left!)

3 The goal of brainstorming is not to produce a final perfect plan, but to find lots of innovative ideas. Each can then be teased out and analysed, then ideas can be combined, and those ideas that work can be used. Stress that all and any ideas are acceptable in a brainstorming exercises, no matter how unworkable or off topic they may seem.

Creativity can be chaotic, but order can be created out of chaos! Let participants enjoy the chaotic space of creativity and find their own order from that chaos.

http://www.sxc.hu/gallery/rknds

© SD Vahl, 2012
SD Vahl hereby asserts her right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Creative Problem Solving

Here is a five-step process for solving problems using your creative thinking. The process is actually common sense, and once you have practised it a few times you will find that it is easy to use.

http://morguefile.com/archive

Identify three or four problems in different areas of your life (home, work, personal, and so on) and try using this process with each.

1   Association: Write the problem in the middle of a piece of paper and circle it. Now, fill the page with every idea, image, thought, memory, and so on that comes to your mind regarding the problem. Work quickly to fill up the page. All you have to do at this stage is write down all your associations with the problem. Do not analyse or judge anything. Write down everything that you think of, every thought, image, sensation, idea that emerges, as quickly as you can. Get past the censor and write down everything and anything that you feel and think.

2  Divergence: Write the problem at the top of the page. As quickly as you can, write down at least ten different solutions to the problem. Don’t think through, analyse or judge your ideas. At this stage the goal is quantity (to write down as many ideas as possible), not quality (they don’t have to be practical or reasonable). Set yourself a time limit of ten minutes to write down at least ten different solutions to the problem (and, yes, relocating to Mars is an acceptable solution to a problem).

3  Brainstorming: For each solution that you listed in step 2, brainstorm every implication, consequence, requirement, and so on that you can think of. Use a different piece of paper for each solution, work as quickly as you can and write down everything that comes to your mind. At this stage, resist the temptation to let the critic dismiss any solution as not worth spending time on, so if a solution was relocation to Mars, then you must go through the entire process for that idea.

4  Incubation: Set aside the problem and don’t think about it anymore. For how long should you do this? Maybe overnight will be enough or maybe you will need more time.

5  Aha: The problem will resolve itself, or a flash of inspiration will come to you for a creative solution, or the best solution from the list you made in step 2 will become apparent.

I have created an 8-step creative problem-solving method. Try it in solving a small problem, and then learn to spontaneously apply the method to solving all sticky problems if you want to use creative thinking in your life.

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Problem-Solving-Dawn-Dare-ebook/dp/B00AUYNGDY/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1402251291&sr=1-3&keywords=creative+problem+solving

© SD Vahl, 2012
SD Vahl hereby asserts her right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Flower Garden

Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men and animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock. (Henry Ward Beecher)

http://morguefile.com/archive

Explore your creativity with this project, and remember to push away the censor and critic and to have fun.

Other than the infinity of stars, perhaps nowhere else is there as much abundance in the Universe as in the creation of flowers. These delightful gifts from Nature are not difficult to draw, there is an endless variety for inspiration, and flowers are all around us in some form or another.

1  In your imagination, create a part of a flower garden, such as against a wall or under a tree. Alternatively you can use a part of a garden as your inspiration.

2  Do some brainstorming (write down all your thoughts and ideas about each flower) and give each kind of flower a defining characteristic.

3  Create a cartoon strip or picture storybook that depicts a conversation between the different kinds of flowers in this part of the garden.

http://morguefile.com/archive

© SD Vahl, 2012
SD Vahl hereby asserts her right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Inspiration from Dreams

Silver bubbles

Glinting with light

Float on the fluid edge

Where water and air meet

Held by the liquescence of water

That enfolds me deeper in its embrace

My lungs instinctively gasp for air

And my arms reach for that permeable edge

As my feet paddle for a foothold

Fear mingles with enchantment

As I sink and reach upward

In this magical entrapment

And now in my dreams

I am submerged in water again

Struggling to reach the air and the light

Sinking

The glinting of the silver bubbles receding

But in the moment of inevitable surrender

I suddenly can breathe underwater

And I am not alone (SDV)

Untitled © Michael Jastremski / Attribution-ShareAlike / 2007-07-23 12:26:48

Our dreams are inspirational gifts from the subconscious – a source of creative ideas, and creative thinking.

For at least two months, whenever you remember a dream (or a nightmare, which was my inspiration for the poem), do something creative with it, without analysing symbols and psychological meaning.

You will need an A4 notebook and some colour pens. Keep it by your bedside. When you wake up, if you remember a dream or part of a dream, on a new page in your notebook, write the day and date and everything you can remember about the dream.

During the day, write down any ideas that surface about the dream in your creativity notebook. Sometimes you will need to do this for more than a day for an idea of how to express that dream in concrete form to emerge. Once it does, write a poem or draw a picture or a cartoon or a diagram about the dream. Perhaps, though, your dream will want to find expression in another way ‑ invite friends around for a creative dinner party, or dress in a different way, or redecorate a part of your home, or plan something adventurous for your next holiday …

If no ideas spontaneously emerge on how you can creatively express your dream, try writing about it with your non-dominant hand, and then set it aside. You may find that your dreams are creative inspiration from day one, or you may need to do this for a month or two. However, keeping this kind of dream journal will help you access intuitive creative ideas.

  

© SD Vahl, 2012
SD Vahl hereby asserts her right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.