Tag: Boosting Creativity

Posted in books, creativity, education, guest post, hooked on books, reading, reading everyday, sparking creativity

Guest Post: The Importance of Reading For Education

Posted on by Cynthia D. Griffin

By Linda Mills

Reading is one of the most vital habits and hobbies a parent can cultivate in their child, or a person of any age can take up, because reading develops the minds and opens up new avenues that are important in the pursuit of education. Reading about any subject is an indispensable resource that cannot be replaced by any other medium even in today’s technologically advanced era.

Reading Better Leads To Speaking Better

Self-expression is a vital tool for every human being, giving individuals the power to express themselves clearly with better vocabulary as well as enabling them to have an impact. The more someone reads, the more they are able to shape and express their opinion, which is vital for critical thinking and for educational purposes. Reading widely also means various sources of information can be triangulated and compared with each other, which again lends itself to effective speaking and articulation.

Widen The Scope

Reading widens the scope of a person’s mind. Readers are able to empathize with others who may be completely different from them, and they are able to experience different cultures. One of the main objectives of education is to widen the scope of one’s mind and teach a person about the world in general including history, philosophy, and science without being restricted to the area one is born in or the culture one belongs to. Reading also makes individuals more creative and imaginative as reading uses many different neuron networks in the brain, which no other stimuli including visual can command. No wonder reading makes people smarter!

Read Actively Not Passively

Passive reading means you read the words, but don’t pay extra attention to them or employ critical thinking to ascertain the various meanings of the text. For educational purposes, critical thinking is very important because it encourages asking questions, seeking multiple sources of information, and seeking a greater understanding of context. Active reading is better reading, because it allows for greater retention and benefit for students.

Reading And Comprehension

Comprehension of the written texts is very important for educational purposes and the most basic way is when someone––student or otherwise––can answer questions after reading any text. This sort of fluency and concentration also affects a student’s ability to write effectively because they are more able to retain information, express their opinions after evaluation, and write it all down.

Many techniques help with comprehension especially for younger readers, such as the following:

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Posted in self-care, self-care practice, self-empowerment, self-improvement

How To Start A Self-Care Practice

Posted on by Cynthia D. Griffin
Image from Pixabay

Last weeks post, Why Is Self-Care Important?, I got the ball rolling on what I hope will be a regular blog series talking about self-care. I say hope, because self-care is my number one priority. It comes before even committing to do things like writing posts for this blog.

Be Aware Of Triggers

In fact, I try to stay away from any hard commitments on purpose, because I can’t stand being on hard deadlines. It’s one of the things I have recognized as a trigger point for me, so I try to soften this trigger point as much as I can.

That, my friends, is one important aspect of self-care. Recognizing your triggers, and being kind enough to yourself to stay away from them, or find a way around them, or soften things until you can face the trigger more head on.

Learn To Know How You Feel

Self-care is about being aware of how you feel. It’s about noticing when you get angry or upset and asking yourself why. And asking––Is this really worth getting upset about? Is this worth my peace of mind?

Does something, someone, or a situation make you feel bad? What can you do to minimize or cut any of these feel bad things from your life?

Minimize what feels bad and increase the good feeling stuff (whatever that might be for you). Do more of what you love. Do more of what you feel passionate about. Do more of what lifts you up.

Build Up More Awareness Of Yourself

Self-care is about getting in touch with yourself and recognizing what feels good and what doesn’t. Do things on a daily basis that’s going to help you get the awareness you need to identify your emotions.

For me that has been meditation and yoga. These two things have allowed me to raise my awareness significantly over time.

There are other ways to do the same thing if mediation and yoga is not for you. Do some research and see what resonates with you. I personally think that any sort of regular exercise, even just walking everyday, would be helpful. Regular movement of the body and mind are important for not just physical health, but mental as well.

An important part of self-care is taking care of yourself. That means implementing choices that are going to help you on a physical, mental, and emotional level.

Do Something For You First Thing In The Morning

The best way to get the day going on the right foot is to do something for you as soon as you roll out of bed. It doesn’t matter what it is or how long it takes, the main priority is to get those good feelings going right away. When you feel good, the day will go a whole lot better for you.

My usual go-to first thing in the morning is to journal. I do this either in bed before breakfast, or first thing after breakfast. I can spend anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes journaling. It just depends on what I need for that particular day.

My journaling can include releasing negative thoughts and emotions, but I also make sure to end my journaling session with some sort of uplifting writing that sets me up for my good mood to start the day. This is why I created the Journaling To Feel Good series.

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Posted in Boosting Creativity, creative writing, The Writer's Toolbox, writing, writing exercise, writing practice, writing prompt

Writing Prompts: Daily Writing Prompt App

Posted on by Cynthia D. Griffin

Recently, I decided to start doing daily writing prompts to get my creativity moving a little more fluidly. I have two apps I’ve been using specifically for this. Both have been useful in their own way, but today I want to talk about the Daily Writing Prompt App.

I have been using this for the last week, and I’ve really been enjoying it. This app has a new writing prompt every 24 hours. Sometimes it will have pictures, a list of words, or an idea as a prompt. It’s always fun to see what they have, and within a few moments it sparks an idea, and I’m writing!

I really look forward to doing these prompts each day, because I’m usually pleasantly surprised with what I come up with. And it’s just a great way to have fun writing. I sometimes get a little too “serious” with my writing. I put so many obligations on myself that it’s fun to make a connection with a carefree approach.

This app is available for iphones. You can do a search for writing prompts, and it will come up. This is a free app. It doesn’t have the best reviews, but that’s because many people would like to go back and edit (which it doesn’t have an option for). I personally don’t mind. I believe these quick prompts are for spurring creativity, not perfecting editing skills. In fact, I like the idea of not being able to edit. It leaves me free to create, and that’s it.

Want to give one of the writing prompts a try? This is the first prompt I did. I only spent about 20 minutes on this so ignore any “issues” it might have. Anyways, this prompt was submitted by Libby Anderson (which––by the way–– you can also submit your own writing prompts too). Here it goes…

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Posted in better writing, Boosting Creativity, build confidence as a writer, creative writing, creativity, creativity blues, finding the muse, finding the right words, finishing stories, good writing, great writing, how to write, inspiration, learning to write, love of writing, sparking creativity, the art of writing, the creative process, The Writer's Toolbox, the writing journey, the writing process, write, writing, writing advice, writing better

Creating Opportunities to be More Creative

Posted on by Cynthia D. Griffin

As a writer, being a creative person is a pretty big deal. We pride ourselves on how creative we are and yet there are times when we feel we just aren’t creative enough. It’s sort of a Ping-Pong match between the two. Some days it’s one, and a whole lot of other days, it’s the other. There have been quite a few times when I personally felt like I lost the game all together. Many times I found myself asking “Am I creative enough to be a writer?” or “What can I do to be more creative?”. In the end though, maybe it’s more of a question of how can we be the right amount of creative to accomplish our goals?

I want to tell you a story. Something that happened to me over the last few years that changed my life forever (causing me to abandon my blog for awhile too––sorry!) and made me see things in a little different light, especially concerning the way creativity works.

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Posted in Boosting Creativity, creativity, inspiration, the creative process, The Writer's Toolbox, the writing journey, writing, writing exercise

Writing Exercise: Blue Moon

Posted on by Cynthia D. Griffin

MC900441149Why are writing exercises are so important? How often should you do writing exercises? Where do you look to find writing exercises?

First, I want to say that I love to write, but it doesn’t come without inspiration and a lot of hard work. Sometimes a writer has to write without inspiration to get the job done, but eventually writers do need to be re-inspired to find that spark of creativity that caused them to write in the first place. A great way to rediscover that spark is through writing exercises.

Every writer is different. Some writers need the jolt of a writing exercise every day before they begin writing. Others just need the help when beginning new projects or to come up with new project ideas. And there are others (like me) who only use writing exercises every once in a blue moon to take a break from regular writing so to relight the candle of creativity inside.

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