Transcending traditional ideas to create purpose

Keywords

Resilience – Self-awareness – Authenticity – Creativity - Continuous Learning – Critical Thinking

In this episode of Resilience Unravelled Deevo Tindall talks about his problem-solving approach to customer service and his personal experiences of starting his own marketing agency. He emphasises the importance of self-awareness, authenticity in business narratives, and continuous learning and also discusses the pressure put on students within the American education system to achieve academic excellence and the importance of teaching students about alternative paths to success.

Deevo shares his personal experiences of questioning established norms and processes in the corporate world, the importance of critical thinking and the roles of creativity and conformity in organisations and society.

Main topics

• The 'superpower' approach in business

• Strategic growth and the importance of resilience in business.

• Personal and professional reinvention

• The importance of authenticity in business narratives and the dangers of businesses telling inauthentic stories.

• The concept of "shadow work,"and redefining one's identity.

• The different paths to success and the importance of introspection in life.

• Pragmatic, creative approaches to problem-solving

• Is tension in organisations necessary or beneficial.

• Why finding a sense of identity and fulfilment, regardless of whether one is creative or not, is key to a satisfactory life.

• The concept of resilience in setting smart goals.

Action items

Find out more about Deevo at Fusion Creative or through his social media at LinkedIn and Instagram.

 You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.   

Controlling our emotional states

Keywords 

Resilience – Neurodiversity – Neuroplascity – Creativity – Brain - Emotions

In this episode of Resilience Unravelled Chris Marshall, a behavioural scientist who specialises in decision making and foresight. discusses the relationship between stress and pessimism.

Chris has a wealth of life experience and a unique perspective. As a High Functioning Autistic (HFA), Chris has always seen the world a little differently. But this different perspective has fuelled his curiosity and led him on a series of adventures – from ski racing to behavioural science to global macro strategy – to becoming a Master Distiller and owning an international award-winning distillery. 

Chris is now director of the Fast Paced Complex Environments (FPCE) Institute, which brings together a wide range of fields to address some of the most complex challenges facing society today and he uses his unique perspective to offer fresh insights and new ways of thinking about the world around us.

In this podcast Chris discusses neurodiversity, the diversity in both brain wiring and thoughts and talks about how it has been seen as a disorder or disease in the past, but now it's being seen as a real source of creativity and different thinking. He also talks about his work in foresight, where he looks at trends and megatrends driving change globally. He believes that if we can harness humanity's natural abilities to be innovative, adaptable, and creative, we can overcome all obstacles ahead of us.

Main topics

• How stress can elevate pessimistic viewpoints due to neuroplascity effects on our brain circuits

• Why becoming aware of our emotional state is important for controlling it.

• How emotions are just signals representing ease of thinking about a specific concept and not necessarily positive or negative.

Timestamps

1: Introductions (00:02 - 00:45)
2: Discussion on Chris’s research on behavioural science, risk-taking, and foresight (00:45 - 07:52)
3: The relationship between creativity, innovation, adaptability, and resilience (07:52 - 11:37)
4: The role of self-inflicted stress and pressure in creativity (11:37 - 14:34)
5: The importance of understanding the wider context and the uncertain and unsettling landscape of change (14:34 - 23:08)
6: Human history's ability to be innovative, adaptable, and creative (23:08 - 24:27)
7: Chris Marshall’s book, Decoding Change, and how to find more information about it (24:27 - 29:16)
8: Conclusion and final remarks (29:16 - 29:42)

Action items

• Find out more about Chris at Fast Paced Complex Environments (FPCE) Institute or https://www.theuncertaintyscientist.com/ or https://www.chrismarshall.uk/

• Chris’s book is "Decoding Change"

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.  

Unlock your core creativity

Dr Ronald Alexander is a pioneer in the field of holistic health, psychology and behavioural medicine since 1976 and was of the original founders of the very first holistic health and medicine at the Cedar Sinai medical office towers in 1978. He has been teaching and writing books on mindfulness, positive psychology and creativity since 1976.

When he was a teenager he lived in Boston and often spent much of his spare time at the weekends at the Harvard book store reading about philosophy and Zen Buddhism. In the evenings he would go to different music venues initially to listen to folk music but then to the bands that made up the ‘British invasion’ including The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who and Jethro Tull. He also started playing in a group at high school and became fascinated by the creative process in both his own group and through sitting, listening to and being mesmerized by high profile bands.

When artists describe their creative process, they inevitably talk about being in an open mind state where the download of core creativity can happen. Musicians such as The Band’s Robbie Robertson’s description that “Creativity comes from the womb of emptiness” to James Taylor’s observation about “waiting to hear it” and having “to be in a place where you can receive the song” reveal that creativity isn’t a rational, calculated activity. It’s about allowing oneself to become receptive. 

Whether its creating from scratch, interpreting music and adapting music, Ronald feels the processes are similar or are derivations of each other. There is a similarity between all creative processes in music and other forms of art in that the thread is in innovation, invention and a development of a particular musical or artistic theme. Then there is core creativity and that's something that is very unique and special. For example Paul McCartney wrote the song ‘Yesterday’ after dreaming it. When he woke up and wrote it down and played in on the piano. For a month or so he took the song round London asking people if they had heard it before realising it was his and that it had come from a creative unconscious.

Pure originality is core creativity and arises whether its Mozart or Beethoven. When they are composing they actually hear simultaneously the various parts of the symphony and its as if it’s coming from some sort of mystical other. If we want to de-mythify the thing Ronald calls the mystical other, we could say it comes from ones pure core collective unconscious. From all cultures, all histories all times, for example the Greeks organised and articulated creativity through the metifor of the nine goddesses, the sense of the muse.

Most of the creatives Ronald has interviewed, whether they have a formal meditation or prayer practice or something more informal such as sitting outside of their studio on their front deck have a cup of coffee or tea, smoke a cigarette and look at the sky, what they are really doing is creating their own meditative state to access or tap into their creativity. Mindfulness meditation takes us out of overthinking and into the mind state of receptivity. The stillness and focus involved in meditation alters our brainwaves, and therefore, our mind state. Distraction-free time leads us to an open mind. Both core creativity and intuitive wisdom and knowledge can be accessed in an open mind state — not because we have an open mind, or are trying to be open minded, but because we’re in a state of pure receptivity after giving ourselves over to emptiness.

You can find out more at www.CoreCreativity.com or at https://ronaldalexander.com Dr Alexander is also the author of the highly acclaimed book, Wise Mind, Open Mind: Finding Purpose and Meaning in Times of Crisis, Loss, and Change (2008), and the new book, Core Creativity: The Mindful Way to Unlock Your Creative Self.

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.

Meditation for gratitude and forgiveness.

Lori Saitz is the CEO of Zen Rabbit and host of the podcast “FINE is a 4-Letter Word.” She’s an award-winning writer, speaker, and broadcaster, and a nationally recognized expert in using gratitude and meditation to manifest goals faster. Lori has over twenty-five years experience in marketing and is now teaching the concept of gratitude and meditation. Her mission is to teach the world to become grounded no matter what is going on around them. This means taking a pause to respond to situations instead of jumping straight away by reacting as though your hair is on fire - which seems to be the way the world works right now.

There is an overwhelm of information being thrown at us on a daily basis. The amount of information we are exposed to every day is the equivalent of what our grandparents were exposed to over their entire lifetime. We have not evolved to the point where we can process all this efficiently and discern what’s true, what not true, what do I need to pay attention to or what can I ignore.

In a busy world where there is a lot going on around us we are often told that we need to spend a lot of time meditating each day. Lori doesn't agree with this. There is no one right way to meditate there are many. It’s about finding the thing that works for you. It doesn't have to take a lot of time. You could spend just ten minutes and she sees this more as an investment of time because meditation helps you be more focused and productive so fifteen minutes meditating is actually buying yourself time.

Research and science shows that meditation actually enhances creativity so you can come at a problem with several different angles and be more creative about solving it. It decreases anxiety and in a more relaxed state you are open to getting more insights and having more breakthroughs. The other thing that meditation can do is enhance emotional intelligence which makes you more empathetic, less likely to act impulsively and get frustrated in an emotionally charged situation and make interactions easier.

Gratitude is another powerful way to reprogramme your brain because you are strengthening your neural pathways. When you are practicing gratitude they get stronger. The more your can find gratitude for what’s happening in your world the stronger the neural pathways will become. The brain chemistry actually changes. Feelgood chemicals like dopamine increase and cortisol the stress hormone reduces so you can get a reduction in physical pain and an increase in the effectiveness of your immune system.

On a practical everyday basis, we live in a world that loves complaining and criticising When you want to become more grateful recognise when you are complaining or criticising and add on this phrase – but I’m grateful for it. The more you do that, the more proactive you get into doing that the more you will catch yourself and naturally start seeing more things to be grateful for. Sometimes it’s had to find the greater good about a situation until you are a little more removed from it but you can still find some element of gratitude in it.

Forgiveness is releasing gratitude within yourself. Again can you find gratitude in a situation where someone has wronged you?  By allowing forgiveness nothing changes for the other person but everything changes within you. Forgiveness doesn’t absolve the other person from their guilt rather its actually forgiving yourself. You have to be able to learn the lesson – if you can find gratitude for that situation then again you’re giving yourself that piece of mind and sense of calm.

You can find out more about Lori at https://zenrabbit.com/

 You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.

Creation Spirituality – Creativity, compassion and justice

Matthew Fox is a spiritual theologian, an Episcopal priest and an activist for gender, racial and eco- justice. He has written more than 39 books that have been translated into over 60 languages. As founder of the University of Creation Spirituality in California and The Cosmic Mass, he conducts dozens of workshops each year and is a visiting scholar at the Academy for the Love of Learning. He is the recipient of many awards including: The Abbey Courage of Conscience Peace Award. Recent projects include Order of the Sacred Earth and Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox as well as The Cosmic Mass. 

In 1993 he was expelled from the Dominican order of the Catholic church after 34 years, by Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI). His mistake was reviving Creation Spirituality, which decries original sin (the doctrine that we’re all born sinners) in favor of Everyone Born is a Blessing and all of creation being an original blessing.  Creation Spirituality blends teachings from the Christian mystics with science, the arts, social justice, environmentalism, and ideas from other spiritual traditions worldwide (including those of indigenous cultures). He then became an Episcopal priest on the basis that he wanted to work with young people to bring life back to ritual and worship.

Matthew feels the difference between spirituality and religion is that religion has evolved to become mostly about social structures whereas spirituality is the essence of the inner work that we do. Awe and wonder at the joy of living, grief and suffering, silence and creativity. We need creativity to help us find some balance in our lives, compassion and justice. A lot of people want these things but don't want to go through the church to find them. Religion comes and goes in different eras or moments in time and at certain points in the west has become linked to empire building and politics but spirituality is the essence.

Nowadays we can’t take things like clean air or clean water for granted. A return to a sense of the sacred is at the heart of spirituality. We need to learn and appreciate the simple but necessary things in life. The natural environment and nature are sacred and the indigenous people know this. More people though are now finding that nature is a gift as science is telling us there is no planet that is as hospitable, beautiful or diverse as earth

We have come through lockdown and started to realise that human beings are social animals and need to collaborate but we now seem to be going in the opposite direction and starting to fight and fall out with each other. We seem to have lost the sense of community that spiritualism and belief can give us. There was a shared consciousness that religion gave us through the symbol of going to church. It is having a shared ethic or view of the world that helps hold a community together.

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.

You can find out more at www.matthewfox.org or www.dailymeditationswithmatthewfox.org