In the face of all the end-of-the-year lists (Best of 2013, Worst of 2013, etc.), we’ve got a challenge for you! If you’ve gotten our newsletters before or you’ve attended one of our workshops, you know we are always touting the research from positive psychology on the benefits of gratitude.

The other day, while Rebecca was sharing with Gioia doubts about buying a new home, Gioia was reminded of a time when she was about 23 years old, struggling with making the decision to go to graduate school. At the time, her friend Jake, who had been supportively listening to her labor over this dilemma, grabbed a pen and piece of note paper.

Whether you’re in the Mid-Atlantic East Coast or somewhere else, you likely know that things have been very stressful in DC over the last couple of months. We had two harrowing shootings. The government furlough has created an insidious sense of doubt about our nation’s health and can be felt tangibly here in the capital with many services reduced or unavailable and many people out of work temporarily or permanently.

Many of us struggle with an inner voice that chatters a low-grade stream of discouraging negativity.  In the world of creativity, this voice has been christened “The Inner Critic” but we’ve heard other much more evocative and telling names such as “The Wicked Witch” “Nagging Nelly” or “Perfect Pete” which capture the discouraging power of this “personality”.

Gioia and I frequently open workshops with a simple exercise “Think of three things that went well this morning or three things for which you are grateful.”Small blessings often get mentioned “I was able to find a parking space close by”, “there was a fresh breeze in the air this morning”, “traffic was light and I made it here on time”, “I had a tasty cup of coffee.” More weighty reflections emerge as well, “I’m grateful for my husband and my kids,” “that I can walk and talk,” “that I love my job and I am able to work”.

Paul Holdengräber, who interviews cultural icons through the New York Public Libraries, always asks his guests to provide a 7 word biography. He calls them biographical “haikus” or “tweets”.
Here are some wonderful examples he has elicited:

Rebecca’s sister Jenny loves to liven up dinner parties by asking guests around the table “what is your ‘Super Power’–some quality that others know you for, even if it’s something outrageous and seemingly useless?” Initially, when the first identified speaker has to “toot” his own horn, there is an awkward pause, but then the energy mobilizes as people coin phrases for their outstanding characteristics such as “Social Ambassador,”  “Cyber Jockey,” “People Magnet,” and “Baby Whisperer.”

What we “see” objectively can often change very quickly.  We recently ran a workshop at Montgomery County Government with Building Site Inspectors.  We had made a powerpoint on a simple white slide template and, because the facility did not have a screen on which to project the powerpoint, we projected it onto the wall made of grey cloth paneling.  When we asked the group to identify the background color of the powerpoint slide, several spontaneously declared “white!” but then corrected themselves and dubiously said “at least I think it’s supposed to be white…but it actually looks light blue.”  They quickly understood that their assumption had led them to “see” what they presumed.   

Gioia and I wanted to share with you that we have just published our second article about positive psychology and art therapy, a topic that most of you who know us know that we are passionate about and deeply committed to.

Sometimes when “good” things happen to us we feel like we had have stroke of good luck–we find a hundred dollar bill, we’re running late for an interview but we hit a string of green lights and find a parking spot right in front of the job site, we are in “the right place at the right time”.  And then we may feel unlucky when we hit roadblocks–our flight gets cancelled on our way to visit family, we don’t get the job that we had been hoping for, we lose something important to us.

We recently held a lecture with the Potomac Fiber Arts Guild on accessing and increasing creativity and engagement with 50 attendees.  Later 20 of the Guild’s members joined us for an afternoon Altered Books workshop in which we combined journaling, bookmaking, and strategies for increasing inspiration and happiness. Many of the Guild artists identified that their “Inner Critic” often gets in the way of their creativity. 

Hello! We are writing you from NYC where we just presented a sold-out workshop on Positive Psychology and the Creative Arts Therapies with psychodramatist Daniel Tomasulo, PhD, TEP, MFA, MAPP at the Expressive Therapies Summit. We had attendees from as far as Ghana, the Netherlands, and Taiwan.  Closer to home, we had someone from the New Jersey Coast whose apartment had been flooded by Hurricane Sandy and whose neighborhood had just been hit again by the snow storm but who was determined to make it to the workshop despite these setbacks.