Do negative emotions make for better creative decisions?

Do negative emotions during the creative practice make for better decisions as a writer?
That’s one suggestion that comes from the recent article by Jonah Lehrer on the ‘upside’ of sadness. Lehrer examines research, published in Psychological Review by Andy Thompson and Paul Andrews, psychiatrist and evolutionary psychologist, which offers the idea that sadness and depression [...]

Task #9: Curious Explorers, Part 2

As well as Luis the volunteer coordinator, I also had the opportunity over the summer to spend some time with an old friend. Close your eyes and think of what a ‘Curious Explorer’ would be like. Bright and lively, constantly open to experience, not fearless but too interested to let opportunities [...]

Task #9: Curious Explorers, Part 1

One of the ways that you can become expert is through vicarious learning – watching and learning from others. It’s one of the principles in Curious? for developing an aptitude for interest: find some ‘curious explorers’ – those people who are naturally explorative and interested in the world – and model [...]

Exercise #1: Writing my values

And so back after a three week break – pretty refreshed, and with lots of ideas and thoughts for curiosity and emotion in tow. More on this later. But this morning I sat down and began the Exercises in Todd Kashdan’s book Curious? – not in the order that I’ve picked [...]

Task #4: Meaning in Life

Friday night, and I have one more task on my to-do list for today: Baseline Task #4 from Todd’s book, Curious? (I hope first name terms are acceptable now we’re Twitter followers). This one is the Meaning in Life Questionnaire.
It measures how much you find your existence to be significant. Below [...]

“But we are flux” – Muriel Spark

How are we to articulate emotion? Here’s one way, from novelist Muriel Spark via quantum physics.
For the theorist David Bohm, an understanding of life as “the law of the whole movement” is central to all emotion, to the act of creativity and to the renewal of a fragmented person or fragmented culture.
He [...]

David Bohm on creative curiosity

I came across the work of David Bohm last week, and took his collection of essays On Creativity away camping for the weekend.
Bohm was a physicist and theorist, and the book is a weaving of both science and philosophy. While working with the prevailing views of Quantum mechanics, Bohm also took a lateral [...]

Task #3 Acceptance and Action

The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (or AAQ-2 – sounds like a gun) measures psychological flexibility. I hope it’s more than my physical flexibility – I’ve just taken up meditation, and sitting on the floor comfortably is tougher than a ten mile run. In Curious?, psychological flexibility is also described as “the [...]