Art journaling is a way to visually express thoughts and emotions. It can be through abstract shapes, lines, colours and words. The good thing about this is that anyone can do it even the less artistically minded person. Benefits: Like regular journaling, this type of journaling can have the following benefits: It is a good activity that has multiple benefits and linked to the topic that I covered last week. Children and adults both get […]
Tag Archives: Creativity
How to use a colouring book mindfully?
Now as I mentioned last week (see here), to get the benefits of colouring it is important to understand the difference between mindlessness and mindfulness. When someone is mindless, they are using a form of escape. To escape what? Often it can be as simple as escaping boredom or as complex as escaping our thoughts, feelings or even behaviours. Using mindless activities to procrastinate for example. When someone is mindful, they are rooted in the […]
What is colouring for adults?
I’ve recently been watching a fantastic artist on YouTube. She does a lot of colouring in colouring books but her final results are amazing. It made me think of a fad a few years ago (that is probably still going on… though because I no longer work at an art supply store I can’t really say anymore) about adult colouring books. Are they relaxing or are they stressful? Is there benefit to doing this regularly? […]
What is colour psychology?
I was hoping I could get enough reading done on this topic this week to get a good article out if it. Though it is a fascinating subject… How can colour affect our moods, behaviours and feelings the way they do? What makes one person prefer one colour over another? Marketers, designers, artists, and others use colour for a living. Yet as I was diving deep into colour theory and colour psychology, I realised that […]
Perfectionism: Tips and Tricks
There is a principle that helps to understand the cause and effect between two related things. This is called the Pareto principle and it states that 80% of the results of an action can be attributed to 20% of the cause. It is most likely where we get the phrase “work smarter, not harder”. Unfortunately, for the perfectionist that always tries to get 100% and do 100%, rather than coming to understand that maybe 80% […]
What are other problem-solving techniques? – Part 3
Design thinking: Is a variation on creative problem solving by combining steps and renaming them: This method is often used for design as the name suggests but is also used in business to come up with creative solutions to problems faced in business situations. These next techniques may help at one or more stage of any of the creative problem-solving methods: Creating a problem story: This technique helps to identify the problem by creating […]
How to improve your creative problem-solving skill? – Tips and Tricks
As we saw last week (see here if you missed it), there are specific steps in order to come up with creative and innovative solutions. There are also ways that these steps can go horribly wrong and not get the results that are needed or wanted. Things to watch out for in general: First, each step must be balanced with the others. It is easy to get caught in an overthinking cycle at each of […]
What is creative problem solving?
It was interesting this week to discover that creative problem solving was a named process created by Alex Osborn and Sid Parnes in the 1940s. Despite its age, this process is still around. It has also inspired several modern updates. This creative problem-solving process is usually used to generate innovative and effective solutions to problems, obstacles, and challenges. It is a process that helps to encourage creative thinking and helps to discover new solutions that […]
On the journey – Part 2
I started this blog three months ago. It is already my 15th post. Taking stock occasionally is a good practice to get into. Have I succeeded? Not yet. Not my ultimate goal of making a living with writing at least. However, I am consistent and have been posting once a week for the last 15 weeks. That is a win for me. Another win is the fact that by researching these articles I’m understanding a […]
How to increase motivation and how to mitigate the overjustification effect.
You can boost your motivation for a task in many ways, but always start by acting first. Even if it is five minutes at a time, as long as you start, it can be a good way of boosting motivation that is already there. Understanding the difference between the internal motivation factors and external motivation factors is important here because piling on more rewards isn’t always the best way to move forward. (See my What […]