Though it was once believed that only mammals played, researchers have observed playful behavior in surprising corners of the animal kingdom:
octopuses playing with Legos,
turtles batting around balls, and
crocodiles giving each other piggyback rides.
Think about it: Octopus playing with Lego! Are you playing with Lego?
(From “Joyful” by Ingrid Fetell Lee.)
Aromas are therapy for the soul. The sense of smell is a critical element in the creative environment. It directly stimulates the brain – the limbic system – that is responsible for our most primitive emotions and memories. For a constant stimulation of your brain, and your thought processes, change the smell on your desk dramatically. Don’t bring air refresher or the expected smells. Bring barks of trees, steamed herbs and teas, leather, or if you can pack the smell of a brand new car, box it! Whatever ways to transport you into a new world, instantly, even if for a brief moment.
Here are examples of best-known scents and their therapeutic benefits suggested by Jordan Ayan to free your creative spirit and find your great ideas. Smell …
Sandalwood for tranquility
Jasmine for passion and excitement
Cedarwood for relaxation
Ginger for stimulation of the mind
Citrus (rockrose) for mind expansion
Clary saje (lavender) for anti-depression
According to Cynthia Watson, M.D., a noted expert in holistic medicine, certain negative mental and emotional states can also be improved by using aromas, as follows:
Lethargy can be mended by rosemary, ylang-ylang, eucalyptus, lemon, pine
Stress can be mended by rose, tarragon, vervain
Inability to concentrate can be mended by carnation, bergamot, coriander, jasmine, lemon
Stale or toxic air can be mended by basil, peppermint, pine
Start paying attention to the different smells you encounter in your environment over the course of a week. Do they transport you mentally to any particular place or time in your life?
Take this as a good excuse to shape up your workstation and bring your nose to the high level it deserves. Scent your environment with natural flowers and fruits. Even peeling an orange or a lemon, or drinking a strongly scented tea, will give your brain an aromatic boost.
Celebrate your nose.
If you’re not doing this already, start it today. Don’t skip that lunch break no matter what. Don’t sit at your desk to work while eating. That’s the opposite of taking care of yourself, and a sure way for a dreadful and soon burnout. Make no exceptions. Bring no excuses.
Happiness expert and CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, Meik Wiking, reminds us to create rituals of food and fire; making time to eat, reclaiming our lunchtime and sitting with colleagues to enjoy eating our food slowly and with company. In his book “The Little book of Lykke: The Danish research for the world’s happinest people,” he advices to eat like the French. While most countries have official diet recommendations about how many portions of fruit and vegetables we should eat per day, one of the official recommendations in France is that we should eat with other people.
If you’re already eating with others during lunch and taking care of your physical and social self, try changing the rules. If you’re used to eating out daily, bring a lunchbox instead. Have the courage to sit with other people you’re not usually eating with. Call it an experiment. Tell them you lost a bet. Whatever you need to get moving around and getting new experiences and new perspectives.
It’s easy for us to have goals and plan for them. But how many of your goals are experience-based?
Same process applies.
Start with the end in mind.
Visualize objects, concepts, systems, groups and processes as you plan your next successful creative achievement. Ensure richness of imagery you create; varied, strong, vivid, lively and intense images that help you feel your successful future now, experiencing what you hope to feel then. Create a picture that brings your full senses into action. Illustrate in front of you as your hand coordinates with your mind and your third eye vision.
Scribe or draw it. Play around with colored pens to highlight connections of the parts, or even use different types of markers to emphasize importance. See what speaks to you the loudest.
When you have decided on the direction you’re moving towards, figure out the experiences you wish to engage with.
What roads do you take? Are you hiking or sailing? Do you prefer to travel alone and fast or with others and far? Do you collect things or you connect them instead?
These are your experience decision principles. You consult them every time you’re faced with conflicting signs for roads ahead.
There are no good or bad choices. Only good or bad for you.
That’s why many people miss out on happiness and waste their energy choosing the roads without much planning. To avoid this, align your intentions with your compass, write them down in a journal and then embrace your experiences will full heart and mind.
To happiness and beyond,
Randah