By Carol Grannick on October 20, 2010
I’m in the rhythm of a changing season, the cycle of the moon, the ebb and flow of life.
It’s been almost a year since I created The Irrepressible Writer, a site to help writers build and maintain psychological resilience. In the past couple of months I’ve wondered if I have much left to say, since [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It, Lessons From Life | Tagged positivity, writers' resilience
By Carol Grannick on October 6, 2010
Last weekend I had a long, mutually empathic conversation with a visual artist friend. She said, and I agreed, that it felt good to talk with someone who didn’t ask, “So have you sold anything yet?”
I told her about my Michelangelo’s Advice blog post, and the experience of walking down the hallway of the Accademia [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It, Lessons From Life | Tagged writers' resilience
By Carol Grannick on September 30, 2010
In Florence my husband and I often sat on one of the stone benches framing the Piazza del Duomo in the late afternoon and early evening, after whatever intense experience we’d had during the day and before (and after) our pre-dinner naps. We began this ritual because of the very real physical and emotional need for [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life | Tagged Transitions, Writing
By Carol Grannick on September 23, 2010
Unwanted empty writing time can be a breeding ground for gratuitous negativity.
If you’ve ever faced unwanted empty writing time between projects, or while waiting to hear from an editor, critique partners or agent, you may know what I mean.
Sure, you know the solution: “Get to work on something else.” But what if nothing else is [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It, Rethinking Writing Obstacles | Tagged dispute pessimistic thinking, downward spiral, how to dispute, negative thinking
By Carol Grannick on September 14, 2010
My favorite part of the Rosh Hashanah service, which I find in my synagogue’s Harlow Machzor each year, are these paragraphs of not only Jewish, but universal significance:
Every person born into this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique…Every man’s foremost task is the actualization of his unique, unprecedented [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It, Lessons From Life | Tagged Rabbi Susya, resilience
By Carol Grannick on September 8, 2010
I’m more comfortable being left than leaving. I discovered (or probably re-discovered) that the other morning as I said goodbye to family and friends in New York. The feeling surprised me. But naming and accepting it was a comfort.
The last time I recall feeling this way, I was leaving New York as a young adult. [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It, Lessons From Life | Tagged explanatory style, resilience
By Carol Grannick on August 31, 2010
The word “optimism” appears liberally in the tour literature when describing the Renaissance in Florence, Italy.
So the connection between optimism and creativity is not information only provided by modern neuropsychology research. Whatever inborn genius existed, the belief in human capacity created an environment in which genius could practice and flourish.
The connection between this and the [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It, Lessons From Life | Tagged Creativity, Michelangelo, optimism
By Carol Grannick on August 24, 2010
My memory improved during my month-long vacation. It was too noticeable to ignore. Although my pre-vacation memory hadn’t been bad, I had noticed a change in how much I recall after I’d read something.
Yet on my journey to Italy, I found myself reading, then conveying information to my husband at later times with complete [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life | Tagged Positive Thinking
By Carol Grannick on July 20, 2010
Journey: a noun and a verb. A process and an activity.
There are plenty of events in the world that cause heartfelt, even essential, sadnesses. Events of the cycle of life. Events of the world. We would not be fully human if we thought or acted as if these negative emotions were bad or inappropriate.
But the [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged Disputing Negative Thoughts, learned optimism, resilience
By Carol Grannick on July 13, 2010
I’ve had more than one email that conveys to me the pain inherent in the writing life. And the question the emails ask is always the same: when should I quit?
If you’re a writer who’s faced self-doubt, failure, rejection, and despair you may know how difficult it becomes to maintain hope. Hope that someday someone [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It, Rethinking Writing Obstacles | Tagged negative thinking, quitting writing
