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Find Therapy and Counselors near Minnetonka, MN
Tags: Therapy

When you experience some challenges in your personal life, then we can bring a lot of relief to ourselves by talking to friends or family. Sometimes, even they are unable to help, and you need professional counsellors. So, when you have some issues that are too much for yourself to manage on our own, then you can seek professional support by visiting for Counseling in Minnetonka, MN.

A counsellor is a trained professional who has the power to heal the people. They can offer various kinds of assistance and can also offer effective talking-based therapy styles.

Counselling is a process in which there is a lot of conversation involved, and you can openly discuss your problems with the counsellor. The counsellor will guide you and address your issues in an optimistic to inspire and motivate you to look at the brighter side. He will assist you to clarify your issues, explore more options, develop ways and means to help yourself, etc., for many people, just visiting the counsellor and talking to professional help.

A counsellor is someone who offers talk-based therapy. There are various types of talk-based therapy, such as one in which a medical doctor is also involved. Counselling provides support and maintains confidentiality too. You can discuss all the private issues between you and your counsellor. You can approach the counsellor for Therapy in Minnetonka, MN too.

The people struggling with a personal issue and seek counselling must consider visiting one of many therapy providers in Minnetonka, MN. You may hesitate thinking that the issue is not too big, but do not shy away from asking for support. The people can get various issues such as grief and loss of a loved person in life, inability to communicate issues, relationships issues, work and profession issues, stress and anxiety, depression and frustration, life transitions like the birth of a new baby, postpartum, infidelity, separation and divorce, someone’s death in the family, etc. can get in touch with the counsellor for all the kinds of therapies and issues.

Counselling session has also found to be effective in the cases of substance abuse and addiction. Also, in the cases of trauma, self-esteem difficulties, gender identity, sexual orientation, and many others. Talk-based therapy has proven beneficial. Do not get confused between counselling and psychotherapy, as they are different treatment options and are given as per the needs of the person.

Sometimes the therapies are also clubbed with mood-altering medications to manage the symptoms better. It is more in severe cases of mental trauma and illnesses like depression and anxiety. A counsellor is different from a medical doctor and does not prescribe medication ever.
Do You Love And Accept Yourself The Way You Are?
By: Andra Cioltan-Draghiciu
Tags: Beyourself, Self Improvement, Personal Development, Therapy, Self Love

Lying in bed last night, I was bursting with excitement and gratitude. I wanted to fall asleep early in order to wake up first thing. After all, I had planned the perfect quarantine schedule. I couldn’t wait for morning to come.

Ticking things off a list brings me great satisfaction.

Of course, sleep eluded me. I kept getting inspired ideas. I was restless. And bummed because I couldn’t fall asleep fast enough to rest and wake up refreshed at 6 AM to start my perfect day.

I tried to focus. I reminded myself of all the things I was grateful for: the fact that we had arrived home safely, that we were healthy, that I get to spend quality time with the people closest to me. I felt blissful and somewhat overexcited — so I asked myself what could hide behind this over the top gratitude.

This is how I realised I still am nothing but a control freak.

If I’m being completely honest with myself, having to be quarantined for 10 days is no drag whatsoever.

On the contrary. I love it!

I’m in a controlled environment and I’ve got everything I need: safety, food, a yard, good company. And we can’t even leave! These people are stuck here, which leaves them no option but to spend time with me, to give me their attention.

I revel in this. It’s high-school all over again.

Living in a house with my closest friends, being with them every day, planning activities together, hanging out. I haven’t had this since then. That’s why I’m so nostalgic. That’s why I consider that time to have been the best of my life.

Emotionally at least.

Because I was part of a system, of a group. I was liked and accepted for who I was. No environment gave me that feeling ever again. Now I’m consciously-unconsciously recreating it. That much I’m able to admit.
Poetry Is Therapeutic
By: Terry Mansfield
Tags: Self Improvement, Humor, Therapy, Poetry, Self

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Trauma Healing is Messy!!
By: Sharon M. Slate
Tags: Therapy, Sexual Abuse Survivors, Healing Journey, Healing From Trauma

Trauma Healing is Messy!!

There are as many ways to work with trauma as there are ways to be traumatized. Everyone is different and will need to follow their own path. My own journey continues to be an evolving path of the most excruciatingly difficult lows as well as profoundly healing and connecting experiences.

The more I travel down my healing path, the more I see how insidious trauma really is, especially childhood abuse. As I am unraveling this tangled ball of beliefs, ideas, feelings, sensations, and memories, I am realizing that nothing is as it appears to be. The gaps in my memories painted an incomplete picture of the childhood I thought I had. The beliefs I had about myself being unloveable, damaged, alone, all trace back to seeds that were planted when I was too young to understand anything else. These seeds grew into noxious weeds that I have spent the better part of 3 decades trying to eliminate. From the early attempts at CBT and changing my “distorted thoughts” to learning how to treat myself with self-compassion. My path recently has taken me into my body; literally. I am gaining a profound understanding of how much of my trauma my body still holds. The modalities that have been most helpful in this area has been integrative breathwork therapy, somatic approaches as well as various other alternative therapies.

I used to covet my rational thoughts and relish in logically understanding my experiences. I used to think about feelings instead of feeling them. I used to think about my trauma vs. feeling into the edges and the depths of the sensations. The thoughts are only a fraction of the story. What I realize is that I was bypassing the feelings, sensations, and emotions and jumping to the narrative and the meaning of my experiences. I was missing so much, but now I see that I can’t out-think my trauma. I can’t out-run my emotions or those sensations that are trapped in my body. The only way I can transcend my past is to feel the depths of what I have experienced and move through the healing stages. Is it fun? NO! Would I rather do ANYTHING else? YES!!! But let me assure you, the relief that I feel- the expansive and energetic shift in my body after somatically processing or after I come through a breathwork session is glorious. It’s what keeps me coming back for more. Despite the challenges of moving through the process. It is worth it! The freedom I feel afterward reinforces the courage that it takes to stick with the hard shit.

I don’t know what lies ahead, but I do know that I have the tools and resources to help me continue moving forward to help process the things that were done to me years ago. It doesn’t change the grief I feel about what happened to me, but it does help me feel more empowered to decide how I move forward and ways I can leave these experiences in my past; digested and processed and not centre stage in my life. It allows me to move towards a life full of connection, energy, play, and fun. That sounds like a good path forward from where I stand!!!
What Does it Mean When Your Therapist Ditches You?
Tags: Therapy, Mental Health, God, Poetry, Poem

Leaves in Snow — Image from Katherine Hala on Flickr

Today my therapist ditched me.

Half passed two

Waiting; please pick up the zoom

Today I really need you.

Now more than last week

Perhaps more than next week

My knees are weak

Eyes are starting to leak across the keyboard.

Have my headphones in

Clinging to a vape pen

She’s always here for me

She doesn’t ditch me like you do

Lies about technical difficulties, like

Girl, I’ve used that one too

It’s okay just give me the truth.

What does it mean when your therapist ditches?

When you pay twenty-five dollars a session

But she still doesn’t want to listen

I just needed your wisdom

Someone to talk to

A lesson

Maybe I’m better off going to confession.

Sitting behind grated wood

With a screen between me and God

A priest promises me he’ll answer my call

Say three Hail Mary’s; kneel, but don’t fall

He promises me God has a plan for us all

But right now I feel so small.

Suffocating with anxiety

Stunned by the falling leaves

That drift to the ground

Until they start to drown

Giving themselves back to the Earth

So merciful, I could never.
Nothing has changed really
By: Kevin Costa
Tags: Ramblings, Reflections, Therapy, Thoughts, Hemolo

Nothing has changed really

These four walls are still the same.

I am free to do as I please.

On this same day last year, I was out of work,

So I really shouldn’t complain.

Just a few months ago I would have scoffed at the feelings I have now.

Being independent and free has always been my modus operandi.

So why is now any different?

Why can’t I just go back to how things were?

Weren’t they better back then? Back even just a few short months ago?
Personal Ad
Tags: Dating, Therapy, Poetry, Poetry Sunday, Creativity

I need to have a real conversation

to talk to someone

connect,

complete,

comprehension,

understanding,

empathy,

eyes looking into eyes

I want to find someone to talk to

I need to talk to someone

I’m not depressed

I’m just tired

I’m tired of separation

of loneliness when I’m busy

I make a lot of art

I have a tattoo studio

I make a lot of art

art gets in the way

it takes over, it will push you aside

it loves solitary times and hidden times

and bird watching and music surrounding my mind

and wakefulness and insomnia and going

until the energy is gone

I need to finish

I need to go

I must make and that will push you out

it makes me want to be alone

but I need someone to talk to

I need someone to connect with

I need time away from the hunger of inspiration

when I’m done devouring the endless

I still need my back filled with your warmth
The Stress of Uncertainty
By: Dr. Jonathan Hoffman
Tags: Therapy, Self Care, Psychology, Uncertainty

We are now living in a time of so-called heightened uncertainty. But perhaps it’s more of a rampant and irrational need for certainty in our culture that is just being exposed.

Certainty is impossible … It just is. I’m completely sure of this fact.

And wanting the impossible is stressful! That’s beyond a shadow of a doubt too.

Stress may be defined in many ways. However, it basically boils down to these two related ideas, the first being that stress involves:

1. Perceiving pressure.

2. Not being able to manage or adapt to that pressure.

3. Or some degree of both.

The second core idea is that possible stress responses are:

1. Reducing pressure.

2. Learning how to manage or adapt to that pressure (AKA coping).

3. Or some degree of both.

Expecting certainty in any way, shape, or form sounds like pressure to me. And responding to stress by seeking certainty as an answer will only make matters worse.

To keep it top of mind: Certainty is irrational because it simply cannot be. Sorry to be redundant but this truth is so easy to forget. I forget it all the time.

Don’t bother trying to think of a counterexample. Something as “obviously” certain as 1+1=2 has been convincingly disputed (at least to me) by some philosophers and mathematicians. If you did come up with a great counterargument, it wouldn’t really matter anyway. In real life, nothing whatsoever is certain. Got it yet? Me neither.

Knowing that certainty does not exist, should we go as far as to never say to anyone “it’s going to be OK? Even to a terrified child or a scared elderly person?

Let’s think it through. It sounds humane and caring. And people like it. Including me.

There are more honest and effective ways to verbalize compassion and empathy, no matter how dire the situation. They do, however, take more presence of mind and an actual skill set.

For instance:

1. “I’ll be here for you come hell or high water.”

2. “This is a tough one, so let’s come up with a plan to deal with what’s happening as best we can.”

The above statements encourage acceptance and using coping skills, which are real stress management strategies — unlike spouting nonsense that provides a false and fleeting sense of security and can’t teach anything useful to anyone.

Since nothing is certain, my opinion is not the be-all and end-all on this topic But that’s the best I can muster under the circumstances of reality.

Of that, I really am certain.

Oy!

Jonathan Hoffman, Ph.D., ABPP

For more content, you can follow NBI on Instagram or Facebook. Or click here to learn more about Anxiety and treatment options.

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3 reasons why I was rejecting the idea of going with a psychiatrist
By: Erika Becerra
Tags: Wellbeing, Psychiatrist, Therapy, Mental Health, Help

Information overload vs Awareness

I knew having the amount of anxiety I was experiencing was escalating. I was expanding the use of defense mechanisms, especially intellectualization. Having access to an immense world of information helped. I spent hours reading out about mental illnesses and mental health, trying to check which type of therapy activities were done to improve the life of an individual with mental illness.

Getting aware of the many reactions a person could have it’s informational. It’s good that I learn about it, but it was not good to keep on self-diagnosing. I was scared of not being taken seriously and wanted to “beat this” on my own.

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

2. Already seeing improvement thanks to therapy

After a year of therapy, I wasn’t planning on leaving it, but there was this discussion about how I was all over the place, that sometimes my therapist couldn’t say what I was trying to solve. Then a close relative asked how long I had planned to be in therapy, I responded “A long time”. Non-stop nodding of the head and then: “You are relaying in your therapist and that is not healthy, you should have planned to stop therapy at some point”.

There were so many improvements in how I was reacting to triggers. Before I could have been an emotional wreck, but this time I was managing. It all goes downhill with stress, but I felt it was a relief and that with that, it was enough. That I just needed to keep doing the same thing that worked before to improve.
An Insight Into The Emerging Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
By: Viktor Marchev
Tags: Psychedelics, Neuroscience, Therapy, Mental Health, Psychology

“The MDMA assisted therapy allowed me to communicate the truth of my experience while remaining connected to my therapist.” Those were the words of Elizabeth Matthews, in the MAPS Bulletin Annual Report, when she talked about her experience with dealing with a long-lasting PTSD. “Before MDMA,” she argued, “I couldn’t tell my story without being rocked for days by the shame that surfaced in the telling.”

Psychedelics have become a hot topic in the past few years. Due to this fact, today, dozens of personal stories and scientific studies about the effects, both negative and positive, of substances such as LSD, MDMA, DMT, psilocybin, and ayahuasca, have flooded the world of the Internet. Although national news outlets are still not really keen on such topics, people still get their hands on the information they need.

Hallucinogens are currently seen as something people should avoid at all costs. Psychedelics research started all the way back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, however, the efforts stopped in the early years of the ‘70s, as the media outlets back then deemed the substances as dangerous for the people. This all ultimately resulted in restrictive regulations and misperceptions of the actual effects.

Until recent years, they had been seen as extremely potent and unpredictable — thus dangerous — by the wide public. As these substances, in the past, were used mainly during “large gatherings of people, where everyone is as high as a kite” — as one of my friends prefers to put it — today, the situation has changed dramatically.

As information about psychedelics becomes more easily accessible, mainly because of the Internet, so does the knowledge of the people of it. More scientific studies by renowned bodies would mean that more and more insights into the substances’ actual effects. With more knowledge better understanding, hence more acceptance.

Psychedelics are no longer seen as something “shady.” Rather, many people have started realizing there is more to the drugs than their “party effects” — Psychedelics-Assisted Psychotherapies have started to emerge; and the forecast is that they are here to stay.
If the universe had a plan
By: Anais Covarrubias
Tags: Therapy, Mental Health Awareness, Personal Growth, Personal Essay

The first time I attempted suicide, I was 9. I had thought of three different ways. The first option was through the window. I always fantasized about flying, so why not test the theory? The second option was to tie the rugrat sheets from the top bunk; I was small enough to hang. The final choice was to drink the neon blue and green lava lamp liquids that reminded me of myself. We just slowly exist alone until someone notices us.

Illustration by Anais Covarrubias

If it was the universe’s plan for me to die, I was going to.

I decided the lava lamp was my best option, so I popped off the top and tried to turn the cap so I could drink it. I finally got it open. When I brought it to my lips and began to sip, the taste was so terrible my stomach became upset. I lay on the floor, trying to fight my inside’s feelings, trying to regurgitate the toxins that clearly signaled this was unsafe.

I am alive.

My grandmother thought I just had an upset stomach when she found me. She was the only person I didn’t want to hurt by taking my own life, so I put the lamp away. I told her I needed to throw up. As I did, I felt better, and she made me an egg soup that she always made when I was sick.

Whenever I fell into a deep depression, my chest felt like a rack of dumbbells just fell on top of me and I would cry myself to sleep. There was nothing to cull the darkness inside of me that kept me from being what I thought was normal. Only being 9 was a confusing age to be depressed and not even know what it’s called because all we ever learned was that the opposite of happy is sad. There was no spectrum to it. I grew up in a religious household that believed God could fix mental health issues if I prayed hard enough.

It was not that simple.

I decided I wasn’t ready to die and that maybe I just needed to keep pushing forward to see if things get better; perhaps the fifth grade would be different from the fourth. The older I grew, I witnessed and consumed moments of torture at school and home.

My friends at school never understood why I was so anxious and paranoid all the time, not understanding they’d never met my father. When my family would ask how I could allow myself to get bullied, they never walked in my body through my school’s halls.

I lacked emotional support from the people who were supposed to love me endlessly and friends I thought would be there for me. My worlds never coexisted beautifully; they were always battling between themselves to decide which would be the one to break me down. Eventually, I let them both win.
All of us non-poets are just temporarily visiting strange spontaneous ideas and quickly living in…
By: Lennie Varvarides
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Appreciation, Feedback, Creative Process, Poetry

All of us non-poets are just temporarily visiting strange spontaneous ideas and quickly living in others temporary shoes. 👏🙏👏🙏
Morphological Zwicky Boxes vs. Feature Model
By: Laurens Lang
Tags: Configuration, Creative Process, Configuration Management

Two perspectives of the same problem: Configuration.

Zwicky Box

The idea of morphological analysis goes back to Fritz Zwicky, a swiss astro physicist, who introduced them for the first time for the structuring and efficient presentation of ideas.

The term morphology derives from classical Greek and means the study of shape. It is a creative heuristic method to wrap one’s mind around a problem and helps to find solutions unprejudiced. It focuses on the structure and arrangement of parts of an object.

Essentially, general morphological analysis is a method for identifying and investigating the total set of possible relationships or configurations contained in a given problem complex and is therefore used to model variants of components.

It is designed to be created in groups and therefore is adequate to be built in interdisciplinary teams. Attributes are defined and written one below the other. The attributes are independent from each other. After that the manifestations of the attribute are placed next to the attributes, by which a matrix is created, in which every combination of manifestations of all attributes is a possible solution.

The first step of the approach is defining or identifying the dimensions of the problem complex to be investigated, and assigning each parameter a range of relevant manifestations. A morphological box, also known as Zwicky box, is constructed by setting the parameters against each other in an n-dimensional matrix.

Thus, each cell of the zwicky box is a configuration of the problem complex.

To make it more understandable, we construct a Morphological Zwicky Box for a real-world issue.

Domains contains the values, which can be assigned to the attribute. The attribute material contains the domains black, red and blue and material contains alluminium, steel and titan.

As desribed above, the

Feature Model

The focus of Feature Oriented Domain Analysis is the identification of reusable, parameterized features of a software systems in a domain, which includes Context Analysis, Domain Modelling, Architecture Modelling, and its limitations. The cardinality-based feature modeling notation is presented which is an extension of several other extensions of the feature model. Thereby the lower and upper bound of the number of subfeatures can be set. This enables not just the variability, but also restriction with concrete constraints within this visual notation, which is a good basis to model a product line in this context.
I Hate Revising. I Love Revising.
By: Josh Spilker
Tags: Writing Tips, Creative Process, Creativity, Writing, Motivation

I Hate Revising. I Love Revising.

Photo by Simon on Unsplash

Revision is incredibly important and way different from editing.

Before I dive into why my love-hate relationship with revising, let’s make a clear distinction between editing and revising:

Editing:

Checking grammar and punctuation

Spelling

Word choice

Line editing

Proper linking and sourcing

Rewriting for clarity

Revision:

Story structure

Expressing key details

Consistent style

Great detail and supporting points

Sentence flow

Rewriting for the intended purpose: (i.e., narrative storytelling, sales page, short story, argument)

Why I Hate Revising

It feels like my first thought was wrong It’s too much work to move stuff around I don’t want to think critically

Why I Love Revising

It improves my writing It forces me in new directions It solidifies the purpose of my writing It makes me try new approaches

I always thought revision was about taking the bad out, but it’s really about putting better stuff in.

Revising helps me rebel against my natural storytelling abilities, which to be quite honest — aren’t good. Years of writing and I’m trying to get better at how I set up a story, reveal details, and communicate a point.

To be honest, I’ve only done this well a few times. I think I was able to do it in one of my most popular stories — this one about me and a guy who needed a ride.

I could have told that story in a vastly different way, just said something like “Oh yeah once I was at a grocery store and this guy wanted me to give me him a ride home, and I said yes, but I wasn’t completely sure of my decision.”

That’s essentially the story.

But it’s told in an uninteresting way. With not a lot of detail.

And with that story, I spent a lot of time on it. It was an important story for me to think about and one I really wanted to tell.

Not every story deserves that much attention, as any regular blogger or Medium writer will tell you.

In general, the amount of revision depends on:

The type of story or writing you’re doing The purpose of your writing Your own personal comfort level and satisfaction

I have published things too quickly, and then not quickly enough.

The more you write, the more you will become aware of your own quirks and deficiencies, as well as your own style.

The more you write, the better you will become at finding that equilibrium, and the faster you will respond.
Have you done the challenge before? If not, I highly recommend.
By: Lennie Varvarides
Tags: Self Improvement, Meditation, Creative Process, 21 Day Challenge, Self-awareness

“accept” and “expect” : the two objectives I’ve been working through on the 21 Day Meditation…

18 2
“… take your silver back home”… I read this poem a few times.
By: Lennie Varvarides
Tags: Poetry On Medium, Appreciation, Feedback, Creative Process, Poetry

“… take your silver back home”… I read this poem a few times. That image really swepped me away. Would love to know what inspired that phrase? 👏👏👏
Merry Christmas, I am very board reading your poems. 💜💜💜
By: Lennie Varvarides
Tags: Feedback, Poets On Medium, Creative Process, Relationships, Poetry

in The Bazaar of the Bizarre
i get so lost in my head as everyday passes.
By: Valeria Garcia
Tags: Creative Writing, Creative Process, Psychology, Writing, Philosophy

i get so lost in my head as everyday passes. sometimes i feel stuck on the same hour for days and forget time stops for no one. i understand i cant waste time, but i do. i feel like i have so much potential to create stories. but its so hard for me to write. so many thoughts in my head but i don’t know how to put them in words. I will try to, and if i fail at least i know i tried.
Love the imagary.
By: Lennie Varvarides
Tags: Critical Thinking, Creative Writing, Poets On Medium, Creative Process, Community

Love the imagary.

Highlighted a line too.

I’m scared of poetry/writing sometimes… it has an incridible ability to tell us the truth, even when we are not ready for it.
Humans are hard-wired to create.
By: Devin Arrigo
Tags: Personal Development, Creative Process, Human Behavior, Creativity, Self-awareness

Humans are hard-wired to create.

There’s something so satisfying about creating with your own two hands.

A treehouse. A poem. A song. A meal.

Human beings have an innate desire to build. To create. To make.

It feels so good to create something from nothing. To make something. To produce. To imagine. To invent.

Whether it’s a song, a story, a house, a painting, a bird box, or a picture — human beings are hard-wired to create. It’s in our DNA.

Don’t fight it: embrace it, accept it, and relish in it.

And then use it as fuel to create. To make your thing.

The feeling of satisfaction after stepping back and looking at your thing is gratifying. Building something that will last is purifying. And inspiring others to build their thing is unifying.

Go build your thing. And in the process, inspire others to do the same.
Maybe Your Art is not Good
By: Jon Kuhn
Tags: Freelancing, Stand Up Comedy, Creative Process, Creative Professionals, Self-awareness

Lessons from being a professional creative.

Photo by Travis Hoskin at “Comedy in a House”

Art is hard. Art is subjective. The ability to make a living as a creative professional is at an all time high. It is an awesome time to be alive.

To make money from your craft you have to subject it to the opinions of potential buyers. In order to do this you have to transition your art from being a personal endeavor that serves you, into this thing that can serve and solve problems for other people. This means you have to be actively focused on making your art “better”.

I have thrown my hat into many arenas. I performed stand up comedy multiple times a week for four plus years. I was in a band for years. I made short films in high school and I am now currently working as a free lance creative consultant and videographer. I never figured out how to “make it” doing the first three.

The creative process is much the same for a lot of people. You see someone doing something and it inspires you. You go out and try it yourself. You are excited to do something new. Then you try it and when the excitement wears off you start to become aware of how bad you are at the medium you are expressing yourself in. Generally when people stay in a creative medium for long enough this level of self awareness humbles them and they start getting better over time. It is an exciting thing to watch. There however are some people who never improve and they are wildly unaware or so it seems. These people are always blaming the audience for jokes not working, clients for hiring someone else, venues for not booking them.

There are two potential truths when your art is not working. You either have not found your people or what you are making is not good, yet. Art does not have to be subjectively good. If you derive joy from what you are making then keep going at it. If you want to deliver it professionally it has to serve someone else. If your art is not doing that right now that is fine, but you can not just keep trying the same thing over and over. Adapt, improve and redeliver.

Self awareness is crucial for self improvement. Being self aware does not make you a better artist. What it does do, is it allows you to see the parts of yourself that you can work on and improve.

The creative process is best summarized by Ira Glass. Every time I explain it I think of this short clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbC4gqZGPSY&t=12s
Why Creativity is Important Now?
By: T. N. Tomlin
Tags: Self Improvement, Creative, Life, Creative Process, Creativity

For a last few years, I have noticed that a word “creativity” frequently appears in the business world. Google also thinks the use of word is increasing steadly since 1950. It looks like we have been curious about “creativity”. I wondered why creativity gained so much attentions.

Google search result on 16 December 2020

I work in consulting space and the word “creativity” appeared in many places from leadership to day to day operations these days. Here is my observations of why creativity gained popularity in business.

VUCA world

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

The management scholars and publications claim that we are in VUCA world (it stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) and existing wining formula for business are not guaranteed to work or no longer working. So, the management needed to explore new business ideas or oppoorunities. This led companies to foster innovation and creativity to develop new products and services that may win in VUCA world.

Shorter boom time

Photo by wisconsinpictures on Unsplash

The popularity of products and services don’t stay on top for long these days. Naturally, it forces companies to continuously develop new products and services more frequently than ever to retain their customers and clients. Consequently, many companies ask their employees to bring more ideas for new products and opportunities — come up with many ideas, evaluate and test them and turn to new products and services quickly. So, we, as employees or business owners, look out for ways to come up with new ideas quickly and exploring how we can enhance our creativity.

Ease to create

Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash

We are virtually connected with anywhere, anything and anyone in the world and continuously stimulated by various information and images. Advancement of tools and technology makes it easier and affordable for us to test own ideas. For example, we can design with Canva, create illustration on a tablet, compose music and develop AI and machine learning model on our computers. So, act of creation became easier than ever — less cost, time and effort. We can test our ideas relatively easy and quickly.

Now, we understand why creativity gained attentions in business, but I thought creativity was generally associated with art like painting, photography, writing, music and films. It made me wonder “How can we apply creativity to business?”, and most importantly, “What is creativity?”.

So, I will have a look at creativity closer and figure out how we can come up with more better ideas in the next a few articles.
Mood vs. Melody?
By: Christopher Boardman
Tags: Film Music, Filmmaking, Film, Creative Process, Film Music Composer

Which is a better approach to film music?

Every story is different. Every film is different. Every production is different. Every filmmaker has different tastes and preferences.

So how do you decide what type of music would be most appropriate?

I started getting opportunities to score films because I was a competent, if not precocious, musician and composer. That got me in the door. But, it didn’t adequately prepare me to be a film composer. The reality was my hubris propelled me forward but I was hopelessly unprepared. I would follow my emotional reactions to what I saw on screen but, if I misinterpreted the story I was lost. Making matters worse I had a difficult time communicating with filmmakers. They didn’t understand me and I couldn’t understand them. After a particularly bad experience I realized that I had a big problem and, if I wanted to continue to write music for film I would have to change my approach.

I figured that if I learned a few buzz words to help me communicate with director’s I’d be cool. Problem solved. So, I took a screenwriting seminar. It was a 4 day affair held in Hollywood with actors, directors, writers, producers in attendance. I think I was the only musician. I learned about story structure, characterization, how scenes were constructed and what their purpose was in the overall narrative and more. To be honest, it was overwhelming.

After sitting for 4 days I was transformed. I had entered the seminar as a musician and when I left I had become a filmmaker…whose contribution was music.

So, back to the original question: how do you decide what type of music would be most appropriate for the story/film?

The answer is you have to have a thorough understanding of ALL aspects of the film. You need to know the goal of the protagonist. You have to know where and when the movie takes place. You have to know the motivation of the protagonist, the antagonist. You have to be able to identify subplots. Does the audience discover the story simultaneously with the protagonist? Or, is the audience given clues so they know the challenges the protagonist will face in advance?

All of these issues are relevant to how the music is constructed in a film. Why? To be an effective film composer means you have to think like a filmmaker who makes music. Trust me: if you approach writing a score from a musician’s perspective you’ll more than likely run into the same issues I faced early in my career.

Mood music vs. Melody?

The film will tell you. If you know how to listen to what it is telling you. The added benefit is that you will find it easier to communicate with your director and producer.

Understanding how movies are made is a huge hurdle to overcome for most musicians…but absolutely necessary if you want to build a career as a film composer.

The unintended consequence is that if you understand how stories are constructed you’ll become a better composer, songwriter etc.

I outline a process I developed to help me organize my thoughts in my ebook: “Finding Your Way Forward”. Check it out…
#0 WHAT I KNOW
By: David Negrin
Tags: Artist, Writing Tips, Creative Writing, Creative Process, Writing

WHAT I KNOW

No one just knows how to be an artist.

So how do you formulate a plan for a creative endeavor of which you are not yet a master? How do you know your theme before you write your story? How do you know your destiny before you explore the world? — Not possible, can’t do it. But if you can be aware of this paradox, you can push off feelings of paralysis and get strategic.

We work by copying, transforming, and combining what we see from other artists and what we feel inside. We labor. We express a vision. We study and employ the craft of our medium. But the labor is non-linear, it’s chaotic, it’s abstract, it can be lonely, it can be desperate, it can be painful. Though if we are lucky, a piece of work emerges.

But why don’t we spend more time reconciling and analyzing how we work on our art? In between our work. This other thing. Separate from the work. Our creative process.

We need to think more about why some projects take longer and others come quickly. We need to think deeper about how the work we abandon is different from the work we complete. We have the chance to develop and refine our creative process each time we attempt a work, large or small. Thinking about creative process is always generative. Even a work that feels like a failure can improve our process.

A good creative process should move us forward, allow us to pick up where we left off, and to finish. If we can be aware of our creative process, then we can sense what steps are not working for us and let those go. We can try new steps and notice how they fortify us. We can make our future labor more efficient, repeatable, authentic, and our inspiration more available.

We take our creative process into our next project, whether we like it or not. In fact, we take our creative process into every endeavor in life that’s non-linear, chaotic, abstract, lonely, desperate or painful.

You have a process for that. You should be in touch with it.

When I collaborate, coach, and teach artists, this is how I ask if their creative process is going well:

Are you working? Are you finishing? Are you happy?

Strategic will lay out a series of creative process case studies to spark a conversation. I want to discuss with you how we can create more often, how we can finish sooner, and how we can be happier as creatives. And I’m happy to have your voice.

// David

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How Creative People Work
By: Caitlin Kunkel
Tags: Writing Life, Writing Tips, Creative Process, Creativity, Writing

How Creative People Work

Recently, I’ve been doing two things that have really helped my writing:

1. For the past year, I’ve been using a spreadsheet to track my writing, input, and a few other factors. I’ve found it really illuminating to see how streaks of writing daily can benefit me, when I really need to take a break to recharge, how reading/watching in new genres has helped me break out of ruts, and how exercise, unfortunately, is very highly correlated with me writing more, and drinking alcohol is not. This is not about productivity as much as finding a balance that lets me enjoy the act of creating, and make it special and distinct from my other work.

Here’s the spreadsheet I use, which is a version of something I saw from writer Leigh Stein (if you haven’t read her excellent satirical novel “Self Care” yet, buy it here!). Feel free to make a copy and give it a try yourself, or adjust the columns, or create something totally new.

2. Since October, I’ve been using a simple word count template (created by author Hannah Orenstein) to track the progress on my novel draft on Instagram. This works for me because as a short piece writer, I was used to creating, submitting, and publishing on a much faster pace, and I missed the engagement with other people as I went. So now I get people weighing in, cheering me on, and giving me little bits of encouragement to keep going. Follow me on IG here to see them, and if you DM me there I’ll share the template with you!

These two systems work for me. What hasn’t worked for me? Trello, A paper journal. My Notes app. Voice dictation. Many other things. But as you’ll see below, those tools DO work for a lot of other writers! I asked people to share their creative working systems as well as something they wanted to shout out this year. Check them out, and see if any of them might be something to try in 2021:
Why is there music in Film
By: Christopher Boardman
Tags: Film Music, Filmmaking, Film, Creative Process, Film Music Composer

Music is a curious thing. Ask a million people what music means to them and you’ll probably get a million different answers. This is largely due to the fact that music subconsciously triggers our memory. Understanding how music relates to memory is crucial to understanding why filmmakers rely on music to help tell their story.

“There are different kinds of memory, including explicit and implicit memory. Explicit memory is a deliberate, conscious retrieval of the past, often posed by questions like: where was I that summer? Who was I travelling with? Implicit memory is more a reactive, unintentional form of memory.”

When someone hears a piece of music their memory is involuntarily triggered.

Think about that for a second.

Every audience member can have a different response, recall a different memory, to every piece of music they hear.

This idea alone will give you a sense of how powerful music is in film, and why it is so important to interpret the wishes of your director correctly. This is also why directors can get nervous working with composers. This is also why directors continually work with the same composers.

As you can imagine, everyone will have a different opinion about why music is in film. But it all comes down to the same idea: music in film is used to evoke an implicit, subconscious response in the viewer to support the story being told. What I’ve found is that if I want to trigger a specific emotion then I have to find a sound or register that is associated with the emotion I wish to evoke.

When you come right down to it… we are all animals and are susceptible to being controlled by conditioned responses. For example: if you hear a loud, sharp noise there is a good chance you’ll jump. If you hear a low, sustained, slow moving sound (think low cellos playing whole notes)) you might feel a little anxious. If those low tones have a rhythmic pulse (think Jaws) your anxiety will increase. When you match those sounds with an image the response is heightened. Or, if an inappropriate sonic convention is applied, the meaning of the scene can be changed. This can mean a drama can become a comedy. A comedy can become serious or scary and on and on . The thing is: every story or film is different which can make writing appropriate music a minefield with few markers to guide you. Knowing how to identify those markers will determine your success or failure as a film composer. Therefore, it is important to understand that there are two parts to film music. There is the intuitive, emotional reaction (right brain) and the analytical (left brain).

Never forget: music in film is a tool that is used to manipulate an audience’s emotional response.

The challenge for the film composer is to match the convention that evokes a specific emotional response or reaction with the specific need of the story.

Sign up for “Crib Notes”- a free resource and community for composers to learn more about film music, compositional techniques and more. Sign up here.
Vinea Frizzante: Vášeň pro hrozny jako brand identita
By: Milenka Morongová
Tags: Branding, Identity, Design, Creative Process, Shooting

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Create Something
Tags: Creative, Creative Process, Creativity, Writing, Motivation

“Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.”

― Joss Whedon

Photo by Alice Dietrich on Unsplash

Take out your pen, turn on your screen, and start creating

Write one word, draw two lines, shoot a 1 min video, write to declutter, draw to feel, make a video to tell a story, create to turn imagination into reality

“Create. Not for the money. Not for the fame. Not for the recognition. But for the pure joy of creating something and sharing it.”

― Ernest Barbaric

Write to know what you are thinking, draw to make the world a better place write for your own self, create to feel more, do it daily at your own pace.

Paint, draw, write, shoot like a child who doesn’t care about the critics do it for the fun part, and when you are done with it start the next one.

Push your limits and challenge yourself, to feel the “creative rush” that feeling when the whole body seems like it is shivering that a magnet is pulling your soul out of your body, that moment when you feel like an idea was just placed in your head, create something because I assure you that feeling is the best thing you could ever feel.

Make art primarily to enjoy the process. It’s fun making things, as creators, we are the happiest while we are in the flow of creation — NOT when we are consuming.

and no matter what the result is, keep creating.