[LAUIL601] Secondary Research: Podcast - SuperCreativity Podcast with James Taylor: CL254 - Mindfulness For Creativity and Writers Block. Interview with Diane Gehart

SuperCreativity Podcast with James Taylor: CL254: Mindfulness For Creativity and Writers Block - Interview with Diane Gehart 

• Dr Diane R. Gehart. rofessor of Marriage and Family Therapy at California State University, Northridge. Therapist, author, speaker. Practicing psychotherapist. 
• Mindfulness comes from Buddhist practices. In the past 30 years we've come a long way in separating the religious practices from the core practice of mindfulness and seeing the phenomenal results and benefits. 
• Mindfulness is an antidote to an overstressed and overstimulated culture that we have created. A lot of it is coming from technology, we are always connected and there is always an ongoing dialogue. There is more information than ever coming at us and available to us. It has an addictive quality and it's hard to turn off. It's hard to disconnect. There is a strange quality to it where it's hard to unplug.
• Our nervous systems are not built for the type of technology that we have. It's constant stimulation that we are not designed to have. We are meant to be in nature most of the time. 
• Mindfulness is the antidote because it helps us to focus on one thing in The present moment where you quiet the mind and it naturally triggers the relaxation response.
• The relaxation response is a physiological response that is the opposite of the stress response. We have had to adapt to the level of stimuli each day in the present times so have had to put practices such as mindfulness into daily routine intentionally otherwise the stream of stress is unstoppable.
• Generational thing. Millennials are attracted to it because of the scientific results and difference it makes to people's lives. For the first time in my career of 3 decades there are brain images of the work I'm doing. Fully separated from the religious roots. Mental health intervention that is compelling. 
• Mindfulness, in its simplest form, is intentionally focusing your mind on something on the present moment. It can be focusing on your breath - the most classic form, it can be focusing on water and suds when doing the dishes, it could be what your drawing, or it could be what you're eating. You're quietening the inner chatter in the mind. You never totally silence that inner-chatter, the only times that would happen is if you're in a coma or if you're dead. It ebbs and it flows and that's the process. 
• For creative types, it creates a space to perhaps step back and look at something from a different perspective, the beginning of new ideas emerging. The inner critic is the most poisonous thing to our creative self, which kills our creativity, so the process of mindfulness and quietening the mind and pauses in your thinking, allows space for new ideas
• By putting pauses in our automated thinking and our ruts, it is very fertile for the creative process to come through. Similarly in Tibetan Buddhism they tell you to pause several times a day.
• Writer's block. The critical voice comes in and you get more hopeless and helpless. Speed writing from the right part of the brain, the creative part of the brain. 
• 5 minute speed writing getting everything out and using the creative part of your brain. Keep typing anything even if you can't think of anything to say. It keeps the channel open. Some days will be better than others. Don't give up because there's a few bad days or a few bad weeks, keep the rhythm flowing.
• The mindfulness really builds this acceptance that you can bring to the creative process. Move with it rather than fight it. Streaming, not attaching, don't edit. Just get those ideas out onto the page
• Key lessons or lightbulb moments when writing my own work? Buddhist psychology "The Friending Problems" where in the west we fight, battle and the Buddhists question whether to fight. Befriend the problem, become curious about it. Curious rather than combative stance to the struggles in our life. Shifting that perspective, slowly taking root in the mental health world, example cognitive therapy. Accepting that problems are in our lives. Mental health doesn't mean we'll never have problems ever again. Befriending our problems, learning how to move gracefully with them. 
• Elizabeth Gilbert of Eat Pray Love talked of her imposter syndrome and her negative self talking and would mentally turn to this voice and acknowledge it and thank it for joining her. 
• If you shift your relationship to something, new possibilities open up that you never imagined before
• Online app or tool or resource that you find useful as a psychotherapist, writer, researcher? I use my insight timer. It's a meditation timer where you can choose different gongs bit i use it to writer and do my five minute writing with it. I use it with my students. There's something about that peaceful sound that reminds me to take a breath and a pause. 
• Music keeps me buoyant and affects my mood and it's important for me to notice if it lifts me up and the sort of message it's sending out. To be critical and thoughtful is it lifting you up or creating more stress and worry in your life? Jason Mraz encompasses that for me
• How would I restart things? I love to run in the morning and then write. My best ideas come when running on a trail. That process of running and writing. Write from the right side of the brain to keep my writing fun and alive and to write the big chunks. The smaller pieces can be filled in later. Be in a good state of mind do that the writing flows for me.
• When running my pace would pick up too!
• dianegehart
• mindfulnessforchocolatelovers.com

Reflection of this podcast:

I came into this podcast with hopes of having help and inspiration with my writing and, while I obtained that, it also built into the foundation of research I already have. Nuggets of information can still crop up when you least expect it!