As much as I love and devour fiction, particularly picture books, middle grade and young adult novels, the book that impacted my life and writing this year more than any other was Dr. Barbara Fredrickson’s POSITIVITY (Crown, 2009).
I needed a post-it note on almost every page to keep track of all the salient points!
The most important tool in my “writer’s toolbox” is my resilience, learned almost two decades ago and still practiced daily. Without it, all my other skills would not be as accessible to me, and I would not be able to continue to grow as a writer.
POSITIVITY is a reader-friendly influx of information that jolted me into a new level of commitment to my work with writers, and helped me to take my own writing to a deeper place.
The research Dr. Fredrickson discusses, as well as other research that validates the capacity of the brain to grow and change, offers not only hope but specific techniques to those writers who crave resilience but struggle with natural tendencies toward negativity.
The snow-laden prairie grass in my backyard
has the capacity for resilience; in the spring it will again look much the way the grass on my blog header looks.
Just as I know this about the prairie grass, I believe so many of us have the capacity for resilience even when times get hard. It’s there, right under the surface or deep inside, and you can feed it with knowledge and practice.
In this new year to come, I’ll continue to share information, examples and tools for creating and maintaining resilience with the community of writers who need that resilience in order to flourish.
Wishing you a new year of meaning, productivity and peace.
Carol,
I found the first part of POSITIVITY fascinating. It got me all charged up about trying to lead a more positive life. However, for me, the second part was a bit disappointing.
I had to return the book to the library, so I don’t have it to refer to now. But as I recall, Fredrickson provided suggestions for increasing positivity, for example, by practicing mediation, but then she only discussed meditation in general terms without giving specific tips on how to do it. (I think she suggested signing up for a meditation class.)
I wanted the book to provide a step-by-step process (much like your Dec. 25th post) on how to create more postivity in my life. I ended up returning the book to the library without finishing it.
Hi, Carmela:
Thanks for your response about POSITIVITY. I actually had an associated, if not similar, response to the section of the book on meditation. I would have loved some top-notch suggestions for meditation tapes or books. I didn’t expect a step-by-step guideline on meditation, though, since I guess I saw that discussion as part of the research section of the book. I did a little research, and ordered Daniel Coleman’s CD, “The Art of Meditation”. As soon as I begin using it (maybe today?) I’ll post about it.
Fredrickson’s “Toolkit” is in the last section of the book, and does provide specific techniques for building positive emotional experiences. I’ll be blogging about some of those, as well.
Oh, then maybe I should give the book another shot and look at the Toolkit. I look forward to reading your thought on “The Art of Meditation.”
Hi, Carmela -
…And look to my next post for my own experiment with one “mini-tool”…
Sounds like a great resource! Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll have to add this one to my list.