Category: Business in Rhyme

Simplicity – the ultimate sophistication of your work

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme

whitman

Once Jane Austine said that life has turned into a “succession of busy nothings” and unfortunately I have found a lot of truth in her words. We often forget what really matters and get caught in petty, trivial things that deplete our time and energy. About 2 years ago, I took a radically different approach to my life – mostly provoked by my health issues. I began to simplify and minimalise everything I could – from physical stuff, what and how I eat, my everyday habits, what kind of thoughts and conversations I “consume” and interesting – beside the momentary benefits like feeling more free, relaxed and lighter (in every sense!) a need for poetry was born again. And I truly believe in the saying “Less is more”, where minimalism and poetry enriched my life on so many levels.

Today I will not speak much of a poetry, but rather I will try to share my tips and views on simplification, which can help in your writing, work or business; to find what really matters, prioritize and do more of the things you love. In the long run, you will feel more content and accomplished.

1.Learn to say no and cut down on meetings

I know we usually want to please everybody, but try to analyze your obligations more clearly and think: are all those meetings, tasks and chores really necessary? Today? What can’t wait? What can you delegate? What requires your personal, undivided attention? Once you manage to clear your schedule (just a little bit :-)) you will be more productive on the things that really do matter.

2.Take digital sabbatical when ever you can

According to International Association of Business Organizing a typical U.S. worker is interrupted by communications technology every 10 minutes. It’s a productivity killer and developing habits of focusing at a priority task is of vital importance in gaining time –which is your most valuable asset.

3.Find business processes you can automate

This is especially important in our business culture – everything requires approval, signature ext. Sharing files and templates among coworkers can help reduce incoming e-mail and paper jams.

4. Lean is the new black

Once you set your priorities, try to find any gaps where you can develop your own shortcuts to make processes lean as possible. Focus your resources on the things that matter the most.

5. Go paperless

Don’t get me wrong: I know, for the writer this one can be really hard.

I personally love the smell and the sound of lisp paper.

I love having blisters on my fingers from extensive handwriting.

I like to taint my fingers with blue ink – nevertheless there are possibilities for us to cut down the paper work and therefore the clutter accumulating on our desk and in our drawers. I’ve included here this simple info-graphic with tips and tricks to help you along the way:

infographicdont-waste-time-but-dont-waste-paper-either-1-1024

6.Adopt the Zen productivity mindset.

This idea is from Leo Babauta’s phenomenal blog Zen habits, where he proposes for us actually to put limits and strict rules on everything:

Besides forcing you to focus on essential tasks that have a large Return on Investment (ROI), it forces you to eliminate the non-essential tasks. No other system forces you to do that. It forces you to make the best use of your time. It forces you to limit the time you spend on things, which means you have more time for other things that are important to you, and you are able to focus on what you want to focus on, instead of everything coming at you. It simplifies your life and makes you less stressed out.

In a nutshell, limit yourself how many tasks a day you are going to execute; do one task at a time – and put rules on repetitive tasks – like, you will check your e-mail only twice a day. It’s an edgy idea but worth a try.  In my post What writing haiku taught me about business the notion of simplicity also came forth, but we can always challenge ourselves even further.

7.Cut the the weeds at their root.

It’s so easy to go back to the old habits. Once you realize you are starting to overcomplicate things again, go back to the rules. Adopting minimalism as an entrepreneurial mindset takes time and effort. Once you see the benefits, “busy nothings” will dissolve by themselves.

But I say unto you,

Take this stuff just as a stuff;
Movement is movement;
Sitting is sitting,
but don’t wobble
under any circumstances!
My stuff has turned into a dragon
and swallowed up the whole world.
Where are the poor mountains and rivers and great earth now?

Yun-men Wen-yen, (Ummon), 864-949

 

 

The Go-getters guide to building your personal author brand

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Write, create, innovate!, Writer's creative bites

hartman

Branding for sometime now has been a buzz word. We instinctively recognize branding as a purposeful creating of authentic image, identity and most importantly the “feeling” that companies want their consumers to experience – about different products and services. Yet you are a writer, not a company or a product. How that applies to you? Do you really need a brand?

Let us put it this way: Your personal author brand can be seen as a purposeful creating of unique and distinct theme in your marketing approach that you want your audience to remember you by.

How do you that?

Well, there are few questions that can lead you along the way discovering your brand personality. I would start with:

How do you want to be remembered?  Think in terms of senses, feelings, experiences, words, language, ideas, concepts that you want to be associated with. That can also depend on the field and focus of your writing: if you are in area of business writing do you want to be remembered as a tough authority or compassionate leader? Do you want to teach or inspire? As a fiction writer what mood do you want to evoke?

Once you define these primarily goals, you will be more clear on your purpose, message that you want to deliver and who are you trying to reach. That one simple message around which will revolve your whole branding theme is of pivotal importance, since it will communicate your philosophy and your values: what are you bringing to your readership.

Be open, honest, tell your story, since people like to connect on the personal level. This will also help you communicate who you really are and what distincts you from others. You are your brand, but also your readers are your brand – who you attract and what impressions you make.

Follow your distinct writing voice!

The tone and style of your communication should naturally reflect your expertise, brand promise, and core belief.

By consistently building your author brand, you can broaden the areas of your influence and involvement.

You can:

  • get offer for guest blog posts which will increase your readership;
  • get advertising requests for your website;
  • position yourself as an expert in your field;
  • increase probability for future book deals;
  • get broader exposure in media;
  • even get the opportunity for product/service endorsement.

Think about it and start building you brand now!

4 Ideas to supercharge your productivity – the poet way

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme

goethe

Frankly speaking, this is one of my traits and habits that I’ve never struggled with. Even from my early years in school, I was always efficient, on time and productive. Most of the time I managed to do several things at once, but always kept an eye open not to sacrifice the quality of work I’m doing. When I look back, I think that my poetic inclinations have contributed to developing of my productive skills. So, here are my top 4 tricks to keep my productivity levels high:

Think from the end about the task at hand!

The first thing I do is that I always imagine how good I will feel when I finish my task – meaning reducing stuff I need to do (being project, work or house related); how it will give me more time to do things I love – like writing this blog or working on a new poem. It goes with an encouraging thought that later develops into an encouraging process – getting things done brings joy and relaxation.

Amuse and reward yourself for any task you do!

Every task, no matter how tedious you can make more intriguing and fun. I like to invent little games along the way and when I’m satisfied with the outcome I treat my self – with some extra time for reading, having chat with a friend and ext. Element of surprise is something that brings humor, loosens the tension and stress. We are all aware that it’s impossible always to follow the schedule, that little things pop-up out of our control – see them as an inspiration, a learning opportunity for you to be more adaptive to uncommon situations. I sometimes even write little poems where I joke about these tricky uncertainties of life – and it’s a perfect opportunity for us to become more responsive. Predictability is a mood killer and is our choice to game up our working hours.

If you have to repeat, don’t get stuck in defeat!

Any chore you can treat like the most beautiful poem chorus. Repetitive tasks can be tiring and feeling like it sucks out all of our life energy. But again, remember it’s an essential part of keeping life balance and work flow – like the chorus in the poem or a song: it gives meaning to that art expression; it’s base from which starts new adventure in the coming strophe.

Finding your daily beat keeps your productivity in shape and fit!

In order to master your productivity you have to observe yourself first. When you are most productive? What activities give you the most pleasure? Take advantage of those activities for setting the right mood and build momentum you need for finishing things up. Once you find what works for you best, try turning it into a habit. Don’t forget to have fun along the way because in reality – we don’t manage time: we all have the same amount of time in a day; we manage activities and there is your chance to transfer your day into an epic story.

For your further inspiration enjoy the verses:

The butterfly counts not months but moments,
and has time enough.

~

Time is a wealth of change,
but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth.

~

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time
like dew on the tip of a leaf.

– Rabindranath Tagore

 

 

 

 

3 tips to skyrocket your creativity at work

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Read, write, lead!, Write, create, innovate!

shaw

There are many ways how companies try to encourage creativity at work. Office furniture and desk organizations with thinking areas and “green zones” with fountains  aim to offer relaxing atmosphere for employees to jump-start their innovative thinking. But sometimes that’s not enough. You know those days when  you simply get stuck and nothing new comes out? You have a deadline and work just piles up and you don’t manage anything to finish?

Innovation is the building block of any business and as we nurture our bodies with food and drink we need to nurture our mind with adequate thought food. In order to awaken our hidden talents and bring forth our skills that can be beneficial both to us and our company, what our mind “consumes” can be of key importance for sparking our creativity.

These are three tips that can help your creative mind to work:

1.Get visual

Colors, shapes, perspective – can literally influence how you perceive your ideas and work. When feeling uninspired and discouraged, disrupt your thinking with some relaxing photos of different landscapes, displaying different colors, locations, architecture, cultures. For instance, exposure to both blue and green in the study performed by Ravi Mehta and Rui (Juliet) Zhu  has been shown to enhance performance on tasks that require generating new ideas. However, the color red has been linked with superior performance on tasks involving attention to detail.

2.Get verbal

In an intriguing book (What poetry brings to business – which also inspired this blog) Claire Morgan argues that language and different perspective on the value and purpose of language can boost surge of creative ideas.

She proposes looking, for instance, at the phrase colorless green ideas sleep furiously conjured by language theorist Noam Chomsky.

The phrase itself has no meaning or value. Some people would consider it’s pure nonsense. The words colorless and green oppose each other – creating notion of irrationality in the mind.

But in the game of language and poetry the phrase could make sense.

Think in the realm of series interlinked questions:

Is the green colorless?

Can sleep have a speed?

Can idea sleep?

Does idea have a color?

Maybe we can analyze the phrase green ideas like something new, yet to be born, to mature, but still invisible to us, colorless?

Furiously, breaking their path towards us, to be revealed and captured, but they are still sleepy in some corner of our mind, or ideas are keeping us awake, furious, while we try to sleep?

Interpretations are endless, with two opposing things, excluding each other, yet forcing us to find meaning, logic, purpose, connection, conclusion.. These associations evoke emotions and images that generate ideas.

So next time try to formulate your problem in the form of a riddle, searching for non-existing meanings. New ideas will begin to flow in and this is a fundamental way how poetry works.

3.Get physical

Engaging in any physical activity can help us generate more creative ideas. In the study “Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking” conducted by Stanford University authors document that creativity is improved by physical exercise. The study found that walking indoors or outdoors similarly boosted creative inspiration. The act of walking itself, and not the environment, was the main factor. Across the board, creativity levels were consistently and significantly higher for those walking compared to those sitting.

In your next search for inspiration, go for a brisk walk, do some stretching or light yoga for work. Giving your neurons more space and time to breath, you will feel more relaxed and eager to solve any problem.

 

 

How poetry inspired Tesla to design one of his most important inventions

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Read, write, lead!, Write, create, innovate!

tesla image

No matter how much we dwell on the nature of creative process, there are still a lot of uncertainties how creative part of personality develops. Usually it fluctuates between states of exquisite thrill and inspiration and extreme, deep introvert isolation. We have documents about creative processes of highly creative people like Michelangelo, Mozart, Picasso and even Tesla stating that these people managed to sustain prolonged periods of creative display, but one that was often triggered by some depressive mood or trauma, ending also with some distorted thoughts.

Tesla’s descriptions of creative process in his autobiography give important insights into the phenomenon. Right on the first page we read:

…for many years my life was little short of continuous rapture.

Nikola Tesla was, no doubt, a remarkable man, an extraordinary scientist and inventor. If we look more deeply into his habits, infatuations and things he was attracted to, we can observe more clearly his sources of inspiration.

He was born in Smiljane in 1856. in the family of an orthodox priest. Even in his early age he showed inclinations towards science. As a young boy he got ill, infected by cholera. While still fighting with death, he begged his father to let him study technical sciences. A firm promise that his father made, gave strength Tesla to get better and later, in 1875. he enters technical school in Graz. Even during studies he contemplated the idea about alternating current.

It’s interesting to note that while working on new inventions Tesla had visions, images and even could hear strange voices – rather then expressing his thoughts in numbers or terms. He writes:

In my boyhood I suffered from a peculiar affliction due to the appearance of  images, often accompanied by strong flashes of light…When a word was spoken to me the image of the object it designated would present itself  vividly to my vision and sometimes I was quite unable to distinguish whether what I saw was tangible or not.

One of the lesser known facts about Tesla is that he was also a great fan of poetry. It was an excerpt of Goethe’s Faust that inspired him to finalize his invention of  the alternating current-motor. The term “world-changing invention” certainly applies to this innovation.

tesla motor

Around 1881., Tesla goes for a walk with his friend Antal Szigety in Budapest. While walking through a park the young Tesla recites a poetic passage by heart:

The glow retreats, done is the day of toil;
It yonder hastes, new fields of life exploring;
Ah, that no wing can lift me from the soil
Upon its track to follow, follow soaring!

I’d see in that eternal evening beam,
Beneath my feet, the world in stillness glowing,
Each valley hushed and every height agleam,
The silver brook to golden rivers flowing.
The mountain wild with all its gorges
Would hinder not the godlike course for me;
Before astounded eyes already surges,
With bays yet warm, the open sea.
And yet at last the god seems to be sinking;
But new impulse awakes, to light
I hasten on, eternal brightness drinking,
Before me day, behind me night,
Above me heaven, and under me the billow.
A lovely dream, while glory fades from sight.
Alas! To wings that lift the spirit light
No earthly wing will ever be a fellow.

What verses described, he was actually experiencing himself at the moment. And as the sun set that day, it is believed that Tesla have drawn the design for the induction motor in the sand.

The passage Tesla quotes is about a dream of flying beyond the sun, the heavens, in eternal daylight. And Tesla finds the metaphor, the parallel between the dream and the priority for human kind. He further writes:

If we want to avert an impending calamity and a state of things which may transform the globe into an inferno, we should push the development of flying machines and wireless transmission of energy without an instant’s delay.

Tesla was also a talented poet himself. A lot of his thoughts and musings he would write in the form of poem that would later serve him as a reminder or a guidance in his future work.

What we can learn from Tesla is that any innovative thinking, being scientific or otherwise, is nourished by diverse influences, conditions and environments and that we should keep our senses always alert.

Sources: McLean, A. ed. 2006 Goethe’s Faust (from 1.act, 1. scene to 2. act, 2. scene)

Tesla, N. 2005, My Inventions; The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla, Wildside Press, LLC

 

Excercise your creativity through poetry, part III

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Write, create, innovate: exercises

kintz

Extensive research in area of cognitive science and intellectual skills suggests that intuitive understanding of seeing problems in new ways, analytical ability and effective communication of ideas to others are strong precursors of innovative thinking. Sternberg, R. J. (1986). in “Intelligence applied: Understanding and increasing your intellectual skills” in detail covered this topic.

In other words, sometimes is easy to come up with a good idea, but how we formulate idea, how it “goes into the world” and becomes persevered by the environment, strongly influence the possibility of the idea to become viable.

In the part I and part II of these series, I offered some suggestions on generating new ideas. Hence, writing poetry makes use of all three previously mentioned intellectual skills. Poetry can help us not only with writing and coming up with new ideas but also how to present our idea, make it more attractive to our audience or clients. That’s one of the reasons why I love poetry so much: it really help us work on our confidence, on our belief that we can contribute to something greater than ourselves, that we can provide value by sharing our knowledge and passion.

So for boosting your creative flow I have a little exercise to propose:

Next time you work on new idea, project, script – write like a small presentation of your idea in the form of a poem. Then read it out loud and imagine you have to present (“sell”) your idea to someone (agent, customers, managers ext). How does it feel? Is it empowering or you sense your idea lacks something? Pay attention to your posture: does you body naturally straights up while you read and present? Or you are quailed, with shrugged shoulders, impatient to finish your reading? Are you satisfied with the outcome or you are uncomfortable and insecure? Is your idea understandable? What else you could include in your poem? What kind of reaction you would like to provoke?

Your intuitive guidance, that inner knowing will tell you are you on the right track with your idea. If it doesn’t work try again. Between the verses is your hidden treasure to perfecting your idea.

You can go step further and organize a real audience for pitching your idea-poem. Listen and watch them. Did you capture their attention, how did they react? Your idea, transmuted through poem has to provide experience, to be uplifting, different from already seen and heard.

Note down your observation and work on the refinement of your idea. It will get you closer to your desired result – where both you and your clients enjoy the fruits of your work.

Take back this virgin page

by Thomas Moore

Take back the virgin page,
White and unwritten still,
Some hand more calm and sage
The leaf must fill.
Thoughts come as pure as light,
Pure as even you require:
But oh! each word I write
Love turns to fire.

Yet let me keep the book;
Oft shall my heart renew,
When on its leaves I look,
Dear thoughts of you.
Like you, ’tis fair and bright;
Like you, too bright and fair,
To let wild passion write
One wrong wish there!

Haply, when from those eyes
Far, far away I roam,
Should calmer thoughts arise
Tow’rds you and home;
Fancy may trace some line
Worthy those eyes to meet,
Thoughts that not burn, but shine,
Pure, calm, and sweet.

And as, o’er ocean far,
Seamen their records keep,
Led by some hidden star
Through the cold deep;
So may the words I write
Tell thro’ what storms I stray,
You still the unseen light
Guiding my way.

Systems thinking as a holistic approach to entrepreneurship

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Read, write, lead!

Harman

To better understand social systems, thinking from a system perspective allows us to see and recognize interactions between system elements. Systems thinking takes into account larger number of interactions as an issue being studied and therefore results in greater number of conclusions than those delivered by other forms of analysis. It’s quite an effective approach and it can be applied to any type of system, being that business or your life in general. Now, I would go even broader in my definition: successful entrepreneurs have the ability to perceive the world as a system.

Why is that important?

As Michael Gerber states in his article Systems thinking:

Your business should be systems-dependent, not people-dependent.

With no systems in place, your business depends on you and on a few people who run things for you. If you or they disappear, even for a short time, your business is thrown into chaos. But if you have the right systems in place, the systems run your business, and nearly anyone can run the systems. You can decide suddenly to take a three-month holiday and your business won’t skip a beat. Your key employees could quit, and you could replace them easily with no ill effect.

This type of thinking is like taking precaution measures: as you start your own business, with systems thinking approach you are establishing right connections between the elements of your business, allowing for business to become adaptive, responsive – you are able to manage better any change.

But I would go even step further: a real systems thinking approach is a crucial step to becoming a holistic entrepreneur. Not only when the elements of the business system are beautifully interrelated but when your business is aligned with your values, your passion, your whole outlook on the world. There is no separation between your life, work and spirituality – it’s a system that like a hologram reflects in its tiniest atom who you are. You recognize the purpose in everything and your business and life is the realization of that purpose.

To truly think and operate your life and business in such way takes time and practice. We have to work on ourselves every day to improve our habits and how we respond to everyday challenges. I see poetry as a shortcut on this journey. Poetry can be that sixth sense that most of us lack, as it translates hidden agendas and prepare us for new experiences. It disintegrates the complexity of the world around us – opening our eyes for new possibilities and making new thoughts easier to digest. Poets are true systems thinkers: with each poem we read, even for that shortest moment, we take on the world as they contemplate it to a higher level of comprehension.

Life’s Meaning by Fra Giovanni Giocondo

Life is so full of meaning and purpose,

so full of beauty beneath its covering,

that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.

Courage then to claim it; that is all!

But courage you have, and the knowledge

that we are pilgrims together,

wending through unknown country home.

 

Why self-help books will not help you to move ahead with your business

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme

thoreau

About 10 years ago I was in a sort of a turning point in my life, when I decided to radically change the course of my professional orientation – from geology and natural sciences I swam into managerial waters. Somehow my easy-going, free research spirit started to be molded by managerial principles, business rules and ext. I was still involved with natural sciences, but on the other side of fence: instead of exploring I was learning how to manage resources and it included entirely different way of thinking… and enjoying company of different people.

My business school professors and colleagues had a list of books that if you want to survive in the business world is a MUST read. Some of them included famous Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. As much as I agree and wholeheartedly advocate the habit of positive thinking, I do find that these type of books have a certain limitations if you try to live by their implied rules and suggestions.

The real world does not operate as the self-help gurus would want you to believe. Focus on consumption, consumerism, acquiring more of material stuff, while neglecting spiritual and purposeful side of our existing in the world is only contributing to already soulless corporate system. We all want to be better than we are or used to be, but instead of money and material wealth to be our measure of success, we should focus on contribution, value, integrity and sharing.

To really live is to experience life in all its manifestations, but that’s not the obstacle to live in the state of love, empathy and caring. My reading list of books to help you move ahead is accordingly a little bit different.

I would recommend:

Walden by Henry Thoreau, which takes you on the journey of discovering real treasurers in life. It helped me to appreciate more life and enjoy the gifts we all have.

The second one is the Wendell Berry’s Collected Poems: 1957-1982. In one of his poems he writes:

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Metaphorically speaking, poet encourages us to seek the meaning in things like family and spirituality, to look deep inside ourselves in order to find peace and harmony. In his poems, every word is entwined with love for nature and community and he writes with such sureness and agility, that is so easy to absorb any of his thoughts. It’s a great reminder that how we integrate ourselves in the world around us, what are our core beliefs and purpose is the measure of success. Finding purpose everyday in your life is your shortcut to success.

 

Uncharted waters of poetry-based learning

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Read, write, lead!, Write, create, innovate!

franBG

Arts-based learning is a different way of acquiring new knowledge about non-art topics like leadership, innovation and management in business. It can include any type of art form such as painting, performance, storytelling, music or poetry.

Art is that invisible force that inspires us to pause, to slow down racing thoughts and explore other sources of information. By putting a side our rational thinking we open doors for higher realms of awareness and wisdom, giving us insights we couldn’t recognize earlier.

One of the most beneficial attributes of arts-based learning is that it fosters co-creative spirit, where with joined strengths is much easier to find a solution or accept change in responsive way. This type of activities can accelerate the process of finding shared values and creating trust among co-workers. Arts-based learning has been also seen as a vehicle for enhancing intercultural communication, with more than 400 of America’s Fortune 500 companies using artistic skills, processes and experiences to foster creative thinking and strengthen innovation processes.

If you approach life like an artist you are developing skills:

to observe the world in different light; to better use available resources;to follow your instincts; to pursue your passion; to explore your own innovative thinking; to find connections among unrelated events and elements;to take risks and become more empathetic and understanding.

In my previous posts I gave a glimpse on how poetry can help us in strategic thinking, storytelling, intercultural communication, building business ethics, decision making, advertising and how it fosters innovation, leadership and creativity. But there are ohter ways how poetry can enhance our learning abilities. Monika Kostera in her paper “Performatives: Collecting Poetical Definitions of Management’, Organization, 4(3), p. 343, 1997, examines the relationship between feelings and organizational skills through the lens of poetry. She argues that we can use poetry to learn more about the subversive and subjective experience of talking about management topics. In her opinion, poetry is particularly powerful in that it does not avoid passion and it is disruptive because it is inconclusive.

In another very interesting paper, “Voice, Verse and Va va voom: Illuminating Management processes through Poetry”, Grisoni and Kirk (2006) explored the power of using poetry as a critical analytical tool. Two members of organization have written poems about their experiences in relation to decision-making critical incidents within the life of organization. They reported that writing in the form of poetry enabled them to find a voice, increased personal learning, and new insights in relation to roles, management processes of decision-making, and interpersonal dynamics in the organisation.

But this is not where the power of poetry-based learning ends: it can help us further in learning about:

  • Systems thinking;
  • Values creation and contribution;
  • Managing change;
  • New product development;
  • Branding;
  • Acquiring tacit knowledge;
  • Improving collaboration and teamwork;
  • Role-playing and improving communications,

which all these topics will be further explored in the posts to come.

For now I will live with some thoughts by Jose Rizal:

Education Gives Luster To Motherland (an excerpt)

Where wise education raises a throne
Sprightly youth are invigorated,
Who with firm stand error they subdue
And with noble ideas are exalted;
It breaks immortality’s neck,
Contemptible crime before it is halted:
It humbles barbarous nations
And it makes of savages champions.
And like the spring that nourishes
The plants, the bushes of the meads,
She goes on spilling her placid wealth,
And with kind eagerness she constantly feeds,
The river banks through which she slips,
And to beautiful nature all she concedes,
So whoever procures education wise
Until the height of honor may rise.

 

Can Art impact our health?

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Write, create, innovate!

Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.

              ~ Pablo Picassopicasso

This is one very interesting and emerging topic. In the last decade, there has been done a lot of research with positive results on how arts can help us improve our health and help us in our healing journey – both mentally and physically.

The idea that creative expression can make a powerful contribution to the healing process has been embraced in many different cultures. Throughout recorded history, people have used pictures, stories, dances, and chants as healing rituals.

Each type of arts (visual, acoustic or verbal) has its own benefits.

In this post I will exclusively focus on writing and the power of language. The results of some researches are quite fascinating. For example, Dr. James W. Pennebaker of the University of Texas at Austin has designed several studies to show the links between writing and health:

Writing about emotional upheavals in our lives can improve physical and mental health. Although the scientific research surrounding the value of expressive writing is still in the early phases, there are some approaches to writing that have been found to be helpful.

In a series of exercises, healthy student volunteers who wrote about traumatic experiences had more positive moods, fewer illnesses and better measures of immune-system function than those who wrote about superficial experiences. Even 6 weeks later, the students who’d written about what upset them reported more positive moods and fewer illnesses than those who’d written about everyday experiences.

In another study of students vulnerable to depression, those who did expressive writing exercises showed significantly lower depression symptoms, even after 6 months, than those who had written about everyday matters.

There have been also developed a range of new therapies that use arts as basic methodology and approach with noticeable success. For the visual summary of how arts can beneficially impact our health you can look at the infographic given at this link that was developed by Art and Health Network Canada.

So, whenever you can, surround yourself with art or get involved in some artistic work: it’s fun, creative and most importantly is doing good for your health and wellbeing.

Health by Rafael Campo

While jogging on the treadmill at the gym,
that exercise in getting nowhere fast,
I realized we need a health pandemic.
Obesity writ large no more, Alzheimer’s
forgotten, we could live carefree again.
We’d chant the painted shaman’s sweaty oaths,
We’d kiss the awful relics of the saints,
we’d sip the bitter tea from twisted roots,
we’d listen to our grandmothers’ advice.
We’d understand the moonlight’s whispering.
We’d exercise by making love outside,
and afterwards, while thinking only of
how much we’d lived in just one moment’s time,
forgive ourselves for wanting something more:
to praise the memory of long-lost need,
or not to live forever in a world
made painless by our incurable joy.