Sleep's Mysteries

During the first stage of sleep known as half-sleep, rapid, electrical activity is replaced by slower, higher voltage activity. Sleep specialists cannot pinpoint the precise moment of falling asleep because the transition from relaxed wakefulness to sleep is so gradual.

Two types of waves (alpha and theta) occur together on the sleep monitor for several minutes, each seeming to fight for attention. In the transition, called hypnagogia, the individual is a passive spectator of random associations, neither awake nor asleep.

Artists, scientists and inventors such as Charles Dickens, Albert Einstein, and Johannes Brahms experienced moments of creativity during times of half-sleep. Thomas Edison napped in a chair holding steel balls. When he dozed, the balls dropped onto pans on the floor and awakened him suddenly. This aroused ideas of discovery.

Sleep scientists do not understand the causes and implications of these creative surges. They search for some connection between creativity and alpha-theta brain waves or between creativity and intense visualization. Many theorists believe the half-sleeping mind, removed from rational categories, can integrate opposites and accept uncertainty. 

Our cognitive restrictions loosen in half-sleep allowing for unusual and illuminating associations. For example, as he rose out of bed one morning, Einstein realized space and time are not separate entities.

The space between sleep and the edge of awakening remain mysterious and symbolic. Meanings shift and deepen to create possibility. Taking advantage of sleep's nuances may nurture creativity.


Keep a notepad by your bed and notice thoughts and feelings during sleep time. Do you feel creative notions appearing if you awaken suddenly?  


Write your first thoughts and feelings upon awakening.  Where will they lead?

Find Your Playground

"Zen is to have the heart and soul of a little child." - Takuan Sōhō

             

To inspire himself, novelist William Gass wanders outside taking photos of rusty, derelict and overlooked places. D.H. Lawrence liked to climb mulberry trees naked to enerigze his creativity.

What do you do to draw on your sources of inspiration to arouse your creativity cycle?

Wisdom grows when you expose yourself to intrigue.

Fnd your playground amidst challenges. Strive beyond struggles 

to discover capacities building inside.

Find the Shine

"If you see yourself in the correct way, you are as much extraordinary phenomena of nature as trees, clouds, the patterns in running water, the flickering of fire, the arrangement of the stars, and the form of a galaxy. You are all just like that, and three is nothing wrong with you at all." - Alan Watts

When analyzing ourselves, we often find the fissures. By accepting them and letting light in, we find the shine.

Take time to appreciate the amazement that is your life.

Express your individuality and ways you enrich each day.

If a negative thought, fear or frustration floats into the mind, replace it with a gratitude.

Find the shine.

Write on!

When a day presents challenges, we have fingers and words that will mesh and flow to keep us in the present moment. 

While you're reading, let each word take the place of an anxious feeling or thought of the future.  Emerson writes a simple truth. We are in charge of our balance and focus on life's benefits. 

Let yourself move from the inside out without distractions of the world you cannot control.

When a situation arises that causes tension and frustration, push past it. Then let humor in to circulate and re-arrange the activity. 

Get a pen or let those fingers tickle the keys. 

Write about the funny. Let silliness dance into wonder.  

Go for an exploration in explanation.  Detail color, sound, and scent across the page.

Remember as you write on, you stay focused on the mom ents in movement.

WT . . . Fun

Find the Fun in today's challenges.

During the day when troubles arrive, surprise them by a turn downside up.  

If your mind misbehaves, invite it to dance.

When worries tangle in your brain, write them in your mental sand and let the next wave delete all.

If you feel sad, follow a bee's attention span.

When anger nags, tickle its tummy.

Make fears into chocolate cupcakes and celebrate. Don't forget the topping.

If you feel a regret or resentment challenge them to a foot race. You will win every time.  

When you play and create the exercise develops possibilities. 

Stay in the experiences of the moment and go for the FUN.

F - Fun - U- ndermines N-egativity

Friendship

We have four hundred or more religions in the world that divide us. The poet, Rumi, sought to find truth in competing beliefs. He said, "A life without love is of no account. Don't ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, eastern or western…divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water."

When Mongol armies got close to his home in Konya, Rumi walked out alone to speak with the general, Bughra Kahn.  Surprisingly, the Kahn felt such authority in Rumi's presence, he did not sack Konya. Legend has it that the general said, "There may be others like him."

Coleman Banks, who has translated the words of Rumi, speaks of friendship, "However it might be in this violent world, I would rather see us walking along inside the mystery of friendship, with its soul fury and its kindness, to sit down together finally at the table that Rumi, and many others, have set."

Of all the things that wisdom provides...the greatest...is the possession of friendship.” –Epicurus

Reach out to a friend today.  

Reconnect with someone you may have forgotten over the years.  

Write to a friend you need to talk to in words to resolve issues.  

Send a note to someone who has inspired you because of Friendship.

Everyone has a deep friend
and something that they love to do,
A beloved and a craft. - Rumi 

A Push for Positivity

 

In the 1980’s  Martin E.P. Seligman adopted the term, “positive psychology.” After years of studying the “learned helplessness” that characterized depression, he began to study how individuals could learn optimism. Seligman felt a search for “authentic happiness” made more sense than  relying on psychology’s one-sided focus on illness and disorders. 

Optimism, courage and perseverance result in well-being. Consider how to gather simple pleasures. The process itself will attract feelings of exultation.

When nature provides a feast, take time to savor all the flavors. Everyone needs to awaken to the positivity that explodes in blossom, branch, and sky.

Take a pleasure interlude from your busy life to revel in the marvelous around you. Squeeze out joy and appreciation for the living, growing creatures, plants and trees. 

Robert Louis Stephenson wrote, "There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. Happiness does not need to become the goal. We need a variety of experiences and moods to write about." 

Life throws a variety of challenges at us each day. We can choose to see them as flat lines of negativity or take action to draw a vertical line through the horizontals. Taking action always makes something happen to keep us moving, regardless of mood. Humor colors life with vibrancy.

The next time you feel frustrated or angry, see if you can hold your breath longer than your anger.

These exercises will help you create more Positivity in your life:

1. Focus on your sense of humor to provide buoyancy in all types of weather. Laughter strengthens the stomach muscles and releases chemicals in the brain, such as serotonin, to elevate the mood.

2. To practice laughter, begin with a breathing exercise. Take five breaths in and five out through the nose. After five repetitions, let the out breath go with: ha ha ha ha ha. Notice how energized you feel. Remember this exercise the next time you feel stressed.

3. When a negative emotion crosses your mind, write it down. How often do you write frustration, anger, worry or fear? What emotions counteract them? Give them names and write a dialogue between the opposites.

4. Make three columns and list your three greatest accomplishments. In each column, write ways you accomplished these Feats of Fantastic. Keep the list with you and add to it. Include problem solving techniques, strategies and anyone you contacted for assistance. If you feel frustrated during a challenge, refer to the list to see how you succeeded in the past.

Take time weekly to write about what makes you feel good about your accomplishments. Also probe in writing choices that get in the way of what you want to achieve. Continue to ask what you learned about yourself and how you meet challenges. Bring these talents to a new situation?

5. Who is a Hero in your area of expertise or life in general? How does this person achieve success? How do you suppose this person greets failure?

If you spend time working on the above five areas, you will develop Positive habits that will grow into your Best Friends during times of need. 

Observe Habits

Individuals and their traits travel through us. From Childhood onward, many of our behaviors become composites of watching and emulating others. Preferences may arise from both positive and negative experiences that build character and personality.

During the day keep track of behaviors you attribute to influence from family members or friends. Who taught you to roll socks into a ball or fold them over together to place in the sock drawer?  Did someone suggest you try catsup or vinegar on French fries?  

Did a sibling throw the baseball and football with you and show you form?  Did you ever skip a stone on a lake?  Who taught you to tie shoelaces and how do you tie them?  Who dared you to become courageous?

Does science appeal after watching the celery experiment revealing capillary action with blue ink that traveled up into the leaves?  Do you like jelly with scrambled eggs because your father ate them that way?  

Who read your first book to you or revealed the alphabet?  Do you count on your fingers?

Notice how you respond during the day.

Rewiring the Mind

Do you ever feel challenged to do something opposite of what your mind seems to lead you to do automatically?

Take a look at the words above.
                                             Say the colors out loud, not the words.

Observe what an effort it took just to focus the mind to change your way of thinking!

Your brain wanted to read the word as you battled it to say the color.

It's the same when you struggle with the negative thoughts that arrive when your monkey mind jumps around. The same way you worked with colors and words, focus on a positive and concentrate until you override the negative.

Changing negative thought patterns takes mind control and diligence. 

You can do it. You just practiced.

Celebrate Summer Solstice

Summer Solstice began June 20. It occurs when the sun reaches its zenith and provides the longest period of daylight in the northern hemisphere. Summer solstice derives from the Latin sol (sun) and sistera (to stand still).

Cultures around the world hold events to celebrate Solstice. 

The Celts & Slavs celebrated the first day of summer with dancing & bonfires. They feel it helped to increase the Sun's energy. 

The Chinese marked the day by honoring Li, the Chinese Goddess of Light.

The Pagan Festival of Litha, celebrated by Druids, venerates the Solstice as the "wedding of Heaven and Earth.” 

Druidism worships nature and believes in the spirits of mountains, and divine guides.

Stonehenge, in southern England, holds the largest festival. Here, more than 350 mounds surround a stone circle at the center. Dating back to 3100 BC, Neolithic people started the construction. Experts cannot agree on whether Stonehenge served as a temple, a burial ground, or an astronomy site. Nobody can figure out for sure how the stones were erected. Mysteries abound in the region.

Starting at midnight on the eve of Summer Solstice, revelers, spiritualists and tourists gather to dance around the fire, star gaze and hug the stones at Stonehenge. They wear robes and flowers to celebrate the year’s longest day.

The summer solstice is one of the rare occasions in the year when open access to the stones is allowed by English Heritage, custodians of the monuments.

Enjoy your celebration of Summer Solstice. 

Imagine yourself reveling at Stonehenge near the fire. Think about Shakespeare and have a "Midsummer Night's Dream."

Happy Father's Day

"When I was a kid, I said to my father one afternoon, 'Daddy, will you take me to the zoo?' He answered, 'If the zoo wants you, let them come and get you.'" - Jerry Lewis

My father had a great sense of humor.  An entertaining prankster, he always shed a positive light on life. He certainly would have teased me with the above joke.

I swarmed him with questions about the world. One right after another. If he couldn't answer them, he would tell me a story. We shared our love of sunsets which he called, 'the great ball of fire."  

He left this earth 43 years ago. He'd always say, "I can't leave till my work on earth is done."  Unfortunately, I think he had much more to do.

One of the tricks he played on my husband (then boyfriend) involved the day Michael asked him "for my hand in marriage." He knew my father would respect that tradition. Close friends, my Dad and Michael's shared delight that we had started dating four years earlier.  

Michael walked into his office and asked if they could talk. He stood but my father motioned him to the chair across from his desk. This chair had held many dignitaries who would sink low in the cushion and have to look up at my father. Not many out-negotiated him from this position.

"Penny and I would like to get engaged," Michael said sitting tall.

"Engaged in what?"  my father's straight-faced response. Then he burst out laughing and shook Michael's hand.

He rose, went to the closet and called me, knowing I had my ears tuned in the next room. He brought out a tray with three glasses and a bottle of Ballentine's Scotch.  

My father never drank so our eyes widened.  He asked Michael to stand and for me to stand next to him. Then he offered the glasses to us. When he turned the top on the bottle, music flowed !   He had us.

Michael and I will celebrate our 52 Anniversary the 29th of June. I know my father's thinking of something clever for our day.

Happy Father's Day.

Opportunity Calls

Look up and the magic appears.

No hurry. No worry. 

Opportunity awaits.

A bird clutches a branch eager for its wings to extend into flight.

How does your day?

Observe nature's journey.

Find the miraculous.

What Happens?

What happens when one grows weary of news and negativity? 

How do we move forward into possibility and not pause for pain?

Frustration occurs when we only learn what's broken. Consider all the creative lives that have pushed forward into solutions.

Today, take a look at: internet, cell phone, electric cars, other creations and developments that both amaze and amuse us.

Why did creative individuals focus on what would work? Think of how those brains made them happen.

See what you can do today to make possibilities happen and push beyond problems.

Inspiration Quest

Wolfgang Pauli and Niels Bohr, Nobel prize-winners, presented many counter-intuitive theories. Once while Pauli presented his ideas about a radical new hypothesis, Bohr came out of the audience to the stage and interrupted his colleague. Bohr said, "We all agree that your theory is crazy. What drives us is whether it has a chance to be correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough."

Consider your ideas and possibilities. Could they be crazy enough to be true? 

Go on an unpredictable quest to free trapped vitality. 

Try an experiment to awaken sluggish magic. Look into nature for nurture. 

Try combining creative ideas to develop music, literature, and another art form. 

Synthesize and coordinate all aspects of life you do the best. 

                    Express yourself with a flourish. 

Notice with renewed awareness areas of life you take for granted. 

Look. Listen. Locate inspiration through imagination