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Creativity is Intelligence Having Fun: Well Said, Albert Einstein

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"Creativity is Intelligence Having Fun." - Albert Einstein
A while back, I was sent a new book to review on my blogs (How to Draw Cool Stuff) and while enjoying the heck out of it, I started thinking about the benefits of creativity on your mental and emotional health. Basically, getting in touch with your creative side (cooking, drawing, gardening, writing, crafting special coffee drinks, painting…) awakens an area in your brain that may have been dormant since art class in the tenth grade.

It’s never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never a good thing when any part of your brain is dormant.

CNN reports that taking part in creative endeavors protects neuron growth by promoting the production of new neurons – which delays dementia.  Put another way, it’s a wake up call to your brain cells – one it needs greatly. Wake up calls such as this, of course, not only keep you sharp – they also help protect you against the various forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s Disease.

Other Ways Being More Creative is Good For You

  • Getting in touch with your creative side boosts self-confidence and even self-esteem.
  • Being creative reduces stress.
  • Drawing, cooking, gardening, painting, etc.. are excellent ways to alleviate anxiety.
  • Individuals who eat out of boredom or as a result of inactivity often find that they shave a great number of calories and even lose weight when they take up a creative new hobby.
  • If your creative new hobby involves learning new things (such as the wonderful art lesson the book pictured below provides), the mental benefits are doubled.  Learning new things is the best way to strengthen your brain and ward off mental decline, dementia, and Alzheimer’s.

If it’s been a while since you got in touch with your creative side, I hope you’ll let this serve as a motivating shot in the arm to pick up those pencils, gardening tools, coffee brewing gadgets, or paint brushes.

Your brain will thank you for it.

~ Joi (“Joy”)

Read my How to Draw Cool Stuff Review on my mental fitness blog! It’s a great book for kids and adults – and, trust me, it’s as cool as advertised.

 

How to Draw Cool Stuff
 

Perfect Quote About New Year’s Day (Quote Graphic)

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New Year's Day Quote
Poets are, unquestionably, some of the most talented and gifted of all writers. They’re just brilliant – and I’m not saying that because one of my daughters happens to be a poet (though she is especially brillaint). Poetry is one of the hardest things to write – I’ve tried!

Edith Lovejoy Pierce – the poet who coined the beautiful quote above – captured the essence of New Year’s Day beautifully.

Just as you’d expect a poet to do.

Have a beautiful, safe, and perfectly wonderful New Year’s Day and may 2016 bring you everything you ever hoped for – and even things you never even hoped to dream of!

~ Joi (“Joy”)

A Reminder to Slow Down and Appreciate the Beauty All Around Us

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Quote about Snowflakes

The wonder of a single snowflake outweighs the wisdom of a million meteorologists. –Sir Francis Bacon, philosopher

I once heard someone say that we should “look at” everything in life as though we were seeing it for the first or last time. If you think about it, that’s a very profound – life-changing, even – approach.

It reminds me of the unspeakable joy I always got when my daughters were babies and would see anything for the first time – snow, Christmas lights, cats, airplanes, monkeys at the zoo, etc.   Things that we all saw for the first time at some point.  None of these things are any less spectacular or beautiful today than they were then.  The problem is we get “used” to so many of them and take them for granted.

The holidays are a perfect example – whether it’s Thanksgiving or Christmas, we often get so busy buying, baking, wrapping, and complaining about money (come on… we’re all guilty!) that we allow one beautiful scene after the next to slip right past us.

  • I always get a kick out of mall “Santas” – well, not them as much as the little ones in line and on lap.  Their expressions are precious and their excitement is contagious. If you need a little extra Christmas cheer, trust me, find a mall Santa and the company he keeps.
  • Christmas lights always put on a dazzling show.
  • Maybe it’s because I’m a foodie, but I think there’s a great deal of beauty in all the candies, cookies, pies, hams, and casseroles!
  • Candles – especially the ones that smell as beautiful as they look.
  • Nativity scenes are also extra beautiful and meaningful.
  • Christmas music – driving around town while bellowing out loud with songs on the radio? Priceless.
  • Tinsel, bows, wrapping paper, ribbons, bags… they’re works of art in and of themselves.
  • Christmas trees – a beautifully decorated Christmas tree is gorgeous  – but so is a small, humble “Charlie Brown” tree. No such thing as an ugly Christmas tree as far as I’m concerned.
  • Last… but certainly not least… there isn’t anything more beautiful than families gathering together – around the tree, around the table, and around the tv – this is the stuff memories AND LIFE are made of.

Like snowflakes, there are wonders all around us. I hope that this Christmas season – and all the seasons thereafter – you’ll slow down and allow yourself to be awestruck by the beauty and the wonders that surround you.

~ Joi

Thursday Throwback: Take a Chance

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Walt Disney Quote About Failure

Sometimes I wonder if “common sense” isn’t another way of saying “fear.” And “fear” too often spells failure. – Walt Disney

Take a Chance by Walt Disney

In the lexicon of youth… there is no such word as fail! – Edward Bulwer-Lytton

I wonder how many times these sturdy old words have been used in graduation speeches each year.  Tehy take me back to my own high-school days, when I had my first pair of white flannel trousers and the world ahead held no  heartbreak or fear.

Certainly we have all had this confidence at one time in our lives, though most of us lose it as we grow older.  Perhaps, because of my work, I’ve been lucky enough to retain a shred of this youthful quality.  But sometimes, as I look back on how tough things were, I wonder if I’d go through it again.  I hope I would.

When I was about twenty-one, I went broke for the first time.  I slept on chair cushions in my “studio” in Kansas City and ate cold beans out of a can.  But I took another look at my dream and set out for Hollywood.

Foolish? Not to a youngster.  An older person might have had too much “common sense” to do it.  Sometimes I wonder if “common sense” isn’t another way of saying “fear.” And “fear” too often spells failure.

In the lexicon of youth there is no such word as “fail.”  Remember the story about the boy who wanted to march in the circus parade?  When the show came to town, the bandmaster needed a trombonist, so the boy signed up.  He hadn’t marched a block before the fearful noises from his horn caused two old ladies to faint and a horse to run away.  The bandmaster demanded, “Why didn’t you tell me you couldn’t play the trombone?” And the boy said, “How did I know? I never tried before!”

Many years ago, I might have done just what that boy did.  Now I”m a grandfather and have a good many gray hairs and what a lot of people would call common sense.  But if I’m not longer young in age, I hope I stay young enough in spirit never to fear failure – young enough still to take a chance and march in the parade.  – Walt Disney

Theodore Vail Quote About Difficulties

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Quote About Difficulties

“Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.” – Theodore Vail

What a profound quote! This is the sort of inspirational quote that makes you think… my absolute favorite kind. When I come face to truth with a quote like this one, I like to just spend a little time alone with it.

When I think back over my life, I can recall certain difficulties. I think of these difficulties as unwanted visitors.  They always intrude in the same way.  My family, figuratively, is sitting comfortably in around the dining room, having a wonderful meal – talking about University of Kentucky Basketball, St. Louis Cardinals baseball, the Denver Broncos.  Then trouble arrives banging on the door, upsetting everyone and causing chaos.  The most unwelcome guest of all time.

However, as I think back on these difficulties…. none of them won.  We always survived.  What’s more, we walked away stronger and wiser.

As Theodore Vail points out, it’s the imaginary visitors at the door that are our undoing. The problems we only “imagine” are at the door – problems that, truth be told, aren’t even on our property.  These are the “What if…” variety of problems – the ones we invent in the most worrisome corner of our mind.”

As important and vital as thought is, and truthfully don’t we wish more people practiced the art, sometimes we can think too much.   A lot can be said for dealing with difficulties and troubles as they come.  Face it, people are going to talk if we run to the door, waving a Louisville Slugger in the air and threatening something that isn’t even there.

Next time you have a problem or difficulty, make sure it’s actually in the room with you before you lash out.

More Quotes About Adversity.

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