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 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
By Carol Grannick on June 29, 2010
If you’re going through a difficult time with your writing or your life, you may find that positive emotions of joy, interest, and inspiration are available in the restorative experience of re-reading a favorite book.
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It, Lessons From Life | Tagged Kerry Madden, writing life
By Carol Grannick on June 15, 2010
For most of us, positivity does not come naturally, and even if it does, it takes hard work to hold on to it.
Why? Because for most of us, creating and maintaining positive thoughts and emotions requires thinking. And when our brains are cluttered with worries, self-doubt, internal and external expectations, and more, it’s hard to [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, positivity
By Carol Grannick on April 13, 2010
If you want to stay in an upward spiral of positive emotion, or need to nip a negative spiral in the bud, it’s helpful to think of yourself as a hunter-gatherer, searching for and collecting events, experiences and mementos of positivity that you can pull out and use as you need them. It will create [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged creating positive emotions, Poetry
By Carol Grannick on April 6, 2010
When you welcome or tolerate them as natural responses, negative feelings pass. That’s the good news.
The bad news? Positive feelings pass, too! And since positive emotions are “lighter” than negative, Dr. Barbara Fredrickson’s research has shown, so far, that a 3:1 ratio of positive emotions to negative emotions is helpful in maintaining an Upward Spiral.
Which [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged Barbara Fredrickson, feelings, Ph.D., Upward Spiral
By Carol Grannick on March 29, 2010
I was honored to guest post this week at Meredith Resnick’s Writers’ Inner Journey. If you mosey on over to check out the post on “Letting In The Light: Overcoming Negative Self-Talk”, I encourage you to dive into the site’s wonderful explorations of creativity. Meredith’s interviews are concise and perceptive, probing authors’ and writing professionals’ [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged negative self-talk
