3 Women Who INSPIRE Me!
Posted on 30. Aug, 2010 by Whitney in Amazing books!, Creatively Fit, Things I love!
One of the elements of my teaching is that when we balance our mental energies, which usually means interjecting more “right brain thinking” into the picture, we will feel more connected. That is because our left brain voice is our ego voice. It is the individualistic side. It is the side you are tapped into when you are feeling alone, like the world is against you, or like nobody cares. On the other side, our right brain voice is there to balance the voices in our mind perfectly, if we give it a chance. Since we are all so busy, busy and have SO MANY items on our to-do list, etc. we are typically plugged into “left brain land” and our right brain voice does not have a chance to communicate to our consciousness. BUT when we give it the platform (read ways to do so HERE with Creativity Workouts) we access a voice in our minds that is CONNECTED rather than alone. We are part of one global family. Our lives are interconnected. Tragedies suffered by our “sisters” on the other side of the world become part of our story.
I will be forever grateful to Zainab Salbi (founder of Women for Women International) and Queen Noor of Jordan for their powerful and beautiful stories. They have CREATED within me an entirely new sense of CONNECTION to our greater world family.
I have gained amazing insight into the heart and soul of the people of Jordan, Iraq, & the entire Middle East (follow link to a valuable CNN resource) as a result of the brave storytelling of these two women. I have been exposed to the very real possibility (I am erring on the side of political correctness here) that we have not received the most accurate picture of the struggles of the Middle East region & the struggles of the people. The results have created an isolationism and disconnect within our global family. We can CREATE greater understanding (follow link to understand) and tolerance AND we can do so from where we sit, reading this blog, in whatever minimal or great way we can. But we have to CREATE some CHANGE.
I have read about Queen Noor’s husband, King Hussein (now passed away), and his unfaltering commitment to peace and unity. He consistently chose the “right brain voice”, the one who dreamed of a unified Arab family, over the “left brain voice” that would act more like most world leaders, seeking personal power and financial gain. I was challenged as I read, from beginning to end, of Queen Noor’s journey from a young American woman to a warrior of peace and woman who continually scarficed to serve.
I have read about how the people of Iraq were literally held prisoner by Sadaam Hussein, through his subtle and not-so-subtle fear tactics and mental abuse. I have found a connection between our Western lifestyle and the lifestyle in Iraq. The Bagdhad of Zainab Salbi’s early childhood sounds like a wonderful place. Watching her father water ski on the Tigris River, large family gatherings, and a love of learning and art.
It is interesting that I read these two books (one my mother thought to hand me this summer and the other one I had been meaning to order for months) just after a dear woman on the other side of the world reached out to me.
On July 14th I received an email from Vivian in Nigeria. She had found me online and wondered if I had an “African branch”. She went on to describe the seemingly insurmountable plight of women in Nigeria. She told me that she felt Creatively Fit would bring a new kind of hope to the women there. Within 24 hours TWO people in the remote, rural area of Oregon where I spent July, mentioned two other people in the county who are from NIGERIA! I did not even mention Vivian–it just came up! That, my friends, is a sign. It is a “right brain” sign. It is not the kind of sign you can take to a bank and ask for a loan, but it precipitated many emails, a phone call, and NOW, officially, Creativley Fit’s “Project Nigeria . It Takes a Village”. (Read Vivian’s email here.)
Amidst the voices of Queen Noor, Zainab Salbi, and Vivian, I have created a new element to Creatively Fit. Vivian and a “village” of 15 other women from around the country are going to participate in a training program to become “certified” Creatively Fit Coaches. The “village” is going to act as Vivian’s support group, her advisory board, and support her as she CREATES her own business in Nigeria that coaches women in personal empowerment through the arts. We start Friday!
Now, I envision groups of women in the United States matched with groups of women around the world creating art together, connecting the ART that is their LIFE to their own “Artist Within“. How exciting is that!?!?
There are no boundaries except those that we impose on ourselves. Zainab Salbi and Queen Noor have demonstrated the tremendous impact one person can have on the world and the CONNECTION that we can CREATE if we simply open our minds and our hearts AND, then, take action. I am so grateful for their example, and for their honesty about the reality of the process, the good and the bad days. I am also grateful for the new understanding and connection I feel to the people in the Middle East.
Let me know if you have an idea of how to connect women in other parts of the world to our Creatively Fit “Village” here. Comment and share other books and women we can learn about and support. All of the change that is going to happen in our world is going to be the result of a new “whole brain” approach to the same problems surrounding politics, culture, economy, etc. There will be a loosening of the “personal power and greed” grip and a new appreciation for tolerance, peace, kindness, and taking whatever action will serve the greater good.
Frankly, ladies, it will be when the feminine voice is just as respected as the masculine voice. Zainab wrote about this beautifully as she recounted interviewing rape victims in Bosnia and Africa. The women wanted their stories told, rather than keeping quiet out of fear, if it could spare even one other woman from the ordeal to which they were subjected. This is something we can all remember daily. I will be attending the Women & Power Conference at Omega this September. There is a different wind blowing. I sense some major shifts around the corner. It is exciting. I hope you feel excited.
Peace & Creativity.
Whitney
“Right Brain” Review of Invictus
Posted on 22. Aug, 2010 by Whitney in Creatively Fit, Things I love!
I recently watched the movie Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood, and was so encouraged by the leadership of Nelson Mandela, as portrayed by Morgan Freeman. Mandela’s leadership was completely rooted in his constant decision to choose love over fear, to choose whatever would serve the “greater good” rather than his own needs, and to choose to overlook discouraging details and to focus on the bigger picture–his “rainbow nation”. His choices are characterisitic of the physiological functions of the ”right hempisphere”. We each have a choice, each day, to make the same choices, at work, in our relationships, as parents. When you learn something that makes you mad, stressed or hurt, you can choose the ego-dominated, inner-critic and judge “left brain” voice in your mind, OR you can choose the love-based, holistic, compassionate “right brain” voice. I’ll explain more.
First, here is a picture of the real Nelson Mandela shaking hands with Francoise Pienaar after the South African Springboks won the World Rugby Cup, beating the “unbeatable” All Blacks Team of New Zealand in 1994, just after Mandela became president. To understand the true significance of this picture, one does not have to go far to learn about the tremendous racial tension South Africa faced (and continues to face) when Mandela assumed the presidency and the remarkable synergy Mandela experienced when the Springboks (a dominantly “white” team, with a predominantly white fan base) won the World Cup. The true “right brain” highlights in this movie come, however, in the role played by Mandela behind the scenes.
In Dan Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind, Why Right Brainers Rule the Future, he describes the consumers attraction to product and services that tell a STORY. Dan writes, “Story is where high concept and high touch intersect. Story is high concept because it sharpens our understanding of one thing by showing it in the context of something else.”
Mandela, at least according to the movie, very consciously focused his precious energy on supporting and encouraging the Springboks to win the World Cup in order that he might create a new paradigm within which South Africans could unite. Some of the most touching scenes in the movie is when Mandela insists that the Springbok team hold rugby clinics around the country. There is a lot of grumbling in the locker room when this is announced, but the result was powerful. Little boys, who previously would not even wear a hand-me-down Springbok jersey for frear of being beaten up, jumped up on broad, white shoulders, laughed and hugged the team.
In fact, Mandela’s advisors questioned his preoccupation (again, in the movie) with the rugby team and he quietly told them to just watch. Even when his daughter bristled at a picture in the paper of Mandela and Pienaar shaking hands because she said he reminded her of the police who kicked them out of their house after her father was arrested, Mandela pointed out to her that her feelings were based in selfishness. She was only considering her own feelings, not considering what would help her country move forward, or serve the greater good. Any of us could understand her reaction, she was certainly “justified”, but it is also easy to see how that “justified” type of anger could only lead to further division and misunderstanding.
What was the source of Mandela’s seemingly unfaltering compassion and strength?
I teach my students to paint and my readers (The Arist Within, A Guide to Becoming Creatively Fit) to “cover a page with color” or collage with images from magazines in order to access “right brain thinking”. A result of this regular “right brain exercise” DOES result in a more balanced mind and a voice that compliments the voice of the ego with the voice of unity. It works. But, in Mandela’s case, there was a poem. It was a poem entitled Invictus (read it here). He read it over and over while he was in prison, and he told the Springbok captain that it sustained him and gave him strength when his circumstances could not. So, it was ART that built up the mental ability within Mandela to choose forgiveness over revenge. This is my hypothesis.
Watch this powerful delivery of Invictus by Morgan Freeman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWopojHSAM4
“I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.”
These are the final words in the poem.
They sound a lot like my own quote, “You are both the ART and the ARTIST.” ~Whitney Ferre’
You CAN create the change you want to see in your world. This is the work of CREATIVELY FIT.
Peace & Creativity. Whitney
Meditations from The “Ranch”
Posted on 15. Aug, 2010 by Whitney in Creatively Fit, The RANCH, Things I love!
I’ve been back in the “real world” for a couple of weeks now, but I had some insight while at our ranch in Oregon that I wanted to share.
First, I have to confess…I did not paint one brushstroke the entire time I was there! I barely did anything “creative” or “artistic”–or SO I THOUGHT. Then, I realized that in everything I was doing–or, at least, in most things–I had my right brain tuned in. My “Artist Within” was still contributing. Let me show you what I mean.
I took this image while my husband and I were installing “wainscoting” in the art studio. This was a chore we thought would take a couple of days and we never even finished it. The wood was milled from trees we had to cut down right on our own property. They had dies and disease could have spread. Milled wood is not the same as wood you buy from Home Depot. My new appreciation for straight, square wood is boundless, but that is another blog entry.
The POINT is–look at the art within the wood! Mother Nature was showing me her “artist within” over and over on this trip. I thought of the mandalas, that you know I love so much, and, of course, my FAVORITE shape is the circle.
Lesson learned? NO MATTER WHAT YOU ARE DOING, you can choose to see the “art” in it.
Another example….
This is my “have-to-sort-the-old-dismantled-barn” sculpture.
This was not a fun “chore”. BUT as I piled the wood that was too far gone into the “burn pile” I caught a glimpse of the “artist within” again. As I threw or placed the wood pieces into the pile, I started to think of Indian tee-pees, the nature of human shelter, and how the wood pieces pointed to the sky (it is big sky country out there). It triggered all kinds of images and thoughts and I became more and more thoughtful as I arranged the wood (for future burning during a WET month in Wallowa County). AGAIN, where can you find the art in the daily, routine, or less-than-exciting parts of your life? How do you do that?
To get better and better at finding the art within your life, you have to access and create a new awareness within your mind. These are mental muscles that, perhaps, you don’t tend to use as much in your daily routine OR you are not used to applying to every element of your life. You simply have to get those mental muscles into shape. This is Creatively Fit.
It does not mean that you HAVE TO make art–as I found this July in Oregon. BUT, to inititally create this new awareness art making is like signing up for a personal trainer at the gym when you first approach a new fitness goal. It is going to jump start it and give you some structure. Click HERE to read “My Story” and to learn more about the history of Creatively Fit.
For now, look for the art around you, within your daily routine, and comment here to let us know how it shifts your perspective.
I will leave you with some of the last images I took at The Ranch. We “go out” for dinner a lot while we are there! 
Meal time is another “blank canvas”. How can you change that up this week to express your creativity?
“Leftovers” from the last night’s dinner gathering.
Peace & Creativity. Whitney
I am in LOVE!
Posted on 05. Aug, 2010 by Whitney in Creatively Fit, Daily Entries, Things I love!
I just have a minute…but wanted to share two of my new most favorite places online to just go “window” shopping. It is therapeutic and inspiring!
First, go HERE: http://www.svenskttenn.se/en-us/products/0118/textil.aspx
I want this fabric all over our new house in Oregon! Super expensive? We do not know–YET! Ignorance is bliss. For now I will imagine…. [I have edited this post now to share my "creativity workout" that was inspired by the fabric! SEE BELOW...]
The next site is Heath Ceramics: http://www.heathceramics.com/go/heath/our-story/
Read their story. Robin and Catherine are CREATIVELY FIT! So love what they are doing.
I think I may put them in my “future friends” category.
Ok. I have to go. Peace & creativity. Whitney
I will add more images from the ranch soon!
5 hours later…
After dinner, it was too soon to put the kids to bed, so I suggested we bust out my new Sharpie multi-colored set of markers and get inspired from the Josef Frank fabric designs we saw on the website I shared above. I do think the exercise was equally inspired by the new set of Sharpies AND the gorgeous fabric. It’s the little things….
So the image above is how it started. Doesn’t look so great, right? You could do that, right? Of course. THIS is also where I used to stop and think, “I’m not good at this.” I would think that up until I was 26 years old and opened The Creative Fitness Center. I was a “wanna-be artist” and, in hindsight, would just stop way too soon in my creative projects. So, NOW, I keep going…
…and going…but now the kids were in bed and I could bust out the watercolors. I LOVE the Pelikan set (image at the bottom is my set since they don’t have a pic on the Plaza site) you can get HERE at Plaza Artist Materials (my favorite art store). I DO let my kids paint with watercolor whenever they desire, BUT it was bed time and bed time is KING at our house. THAT is a good thing.
and going!
The real learning in this Creativity Workout (much like the “Drawing is Energy” or “Cover a Page With Color” exercises from my book, The Artist Within) comes when you take yourself past where you would normally stop.
Think about that….where do you normally stop? or give up? or justify the outcome? or simply move on to something else? What if you took it just one or two steps further? What if you ventured into that uncharted territory that was not as comfortable? What might happen? Something different? You bet! So, while that can sound a little intense with the things that are probably going on in your life (certainly it is for me!), the beauty of this is that for now we are just talking about a piece of paper, a Sharpie, and some (very washable) watercolors. You can learn through art making how to take your creative performance in ANY area of your life (well, only the ones where you have problems to solve, or new clients to serve, or….) to the NEXT LEVEL! Woo hoo!
So get your own art journal (check out MY faveorite one HERE), and some Sharpies and watercolors. Go to the website of Svenskt Tenn, or any other site that inspires you, and start making your mark!
Comment and let me know websites that inspire you! Share YOUR creativity workouts on our facebook page.
Here is my watercolor set–the colors are LOVELY! Have fun, everyone! Peace & creativity! Whitney
“The Creativity Crisis” via Newsweek
Posted on 21. Jul, 2010 by Whitney in Creatively Fit, Whitney Ferré
On July 10th Newsweek offically announced that America was in a “Creativity Crisis“. The subtitle of the COVER article is: “For the first time, research shows that American creativity is declining. What went wrong—and how we can fix it.”
For those of you who know me, have taken one of my classes, or heard me present, know that I have been speaking passionately since 1996 about the ability we each have to both access and strengthen our right brain/creative muscle and about the importance of creative thinking on every level of our lives. The amazing results experienced by my “art” students is what led to my book, The Artist Within, A Guide To Becoming Creatively Fit. My students started painting and creating with NO art experience. The result was that because they were physiologically accessing and strengthening their creative muscle, they started to CREATE change in the art that is their life! They would come back to me and say, “Guess what I did!? I have been meaning to do “it” forever!!!” As they learned to create change on the canvas, they also learned how to create change in the art that is their life. I think you all would agree, life is much more like a BLANK CANVAS than a multiple choice test! (Click HERE to see our “Student Gallery”.)
Image above is an example of the Creatively Fit CREATE CHANGE Paint Kit. SHOP Creatively Fit.
In the Newsweek article they announce the results of an IBM poll of 1500 CEO’s who identified CREATIVITY as the No. 1 leadership skill for the future! It is going to be the ability to both generate and implement new ideas that will determine business success. Over the years I have created some fabulous memories with corporations like AMEX, the YMCA, Columbia HCA, Family Heritage Life, Gaylord Entertainment, & more. When I take a group of 50 to 250 from “I can’t do that (paint, create art…),” to “Wow! Look what we did!” there is a shift that happens within the whole group. They recognize their ability to break previously held belief barriers AND their minds automatically go to (because the subconscious mind “chunks” related information together) other areas where they have been telling themselves, “I can’t do that.” (Below is an example of my “Group Mural” exercise, created by the Nashville Chamber of Commerce.)
Newsweek also announces that, according to the “Torrance Test” (a test that measures creative intelligence much like the IQ test-read more about the test and view sample questions from the link), creativity scores of American children has been on a steady decline since 1990. Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William & Mary made this discovery by studying almost 300,000 test scores, of both children and adults. The cause? Newsweek does not say officially, but hypothesizes that the increased time spent in front of TV, video games, and computers is the likely cause. As I read this article, I became overwhelmed by the validation this article was providing for Creatively Fit. Not only do they state that scientists have proven that creativity can be developed, but they draw the connection between the global problems facing our world today and our need for creative solutions that can only come from CREATIVELY FIT minds! It was like I was reading my own words! This was one of my favorite parts of the article:
“University of New Mexico neuroscientist Rex Jung has concluded that those who diligently practice creative activities learn to recruit their brains’ creative networks quicker and better. A lifetime of consistent habits gradually changes the neurological pattern.”
Creatively Fit has a SYSTEM that you can use to develop your creative muscles. Our ONLINE PROGRAMS provide visually stimulating, thought provoking, and action packed email lessons that will get your creative muscle in shape.
If you are a parent, you will want to read my book, 33 Things to Know About Raising Creative Kids, AND learn how to embrace and nurture your own creativity! Read more about our Meet Your Artist Within Online Program and allow it to help you raise creative kids! You may want to learn to paint along with your kids with our Painting Made Easy Online Program OR, for those of you who love a challenge, join our next CREATIVELY FIT Marathon starting September 3rd. You can also learn fun creative activities, and see step-by-step pictures, from my Cre8tiv Kids blog category–go HERE. Follow me on twitter @creativelyfit and @cre8tivkids.
I hope that you will comment below and let me know your thoughts on creativity, what YOU do to keep your creative muscles in shape, and any ideas you have about how Creatively Fit can support your creative goals.
I believe that we CAN CREATE the CHANGE we want to see in our world. Albert Einstein said, ”We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” When we start saying, “I am creative;” when we start to see the role we play in CREATING our own reality; when we learn to harness all of the incredible mental potential that we posess; and when we become Creatively Fit, we will see the solutions we need sweep across the globe.
I also want to recommend as resourcces the Creative Education Foundation and the American Creativity Association. I am a member of both of these associations, have presented at their annual conferences and have met the people who worked alongside creative pioneers such as Paul Torrance, Alex Osborne & Sidney Parnes, and who have continuted his work and passion for creativity.
Thank you for sharing this with your friends and colleagues. We live in exciting times. This Newsweek article is simply a call to action. Let’s acccept that call and have fun along the way!
Creative wishes, Whitney Ferre’
Step One: Buy my books, The Artist Within… & 33 Things…
Step Two: Join us on Facebook
Step Three: Sign up for the “Meet Your Artist Within” Online Program
*If you have already read my book, please go to Amazon.com to write a review. Click HERE.
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