By Carol Grannick on October 28, 2010
Sometimes you have to trade one kind of positivity to get even more of another.
In the writing life, that can mean putting aside a manuscript you’d love to keep working on because you’ll have a fresher, probably stronger, perspective for the “re-visioning” to come.
In the first years of writing for children I didn’t have [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life, Rethinking Writing Obstacles | Tagged positivity, positivity for writers
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 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 June 8, 2010
I’m not one to recommend or partake in food as a way to increase positive emotion, unless I happen to be hungry and the food is nourishing and delicious.
But yesterday a soft-serve ice cream cone brought me unexpected and to-be-savored moments during a difficult time. My husband, a chocolate milkshake lover, said he was heading [...]
Posted in Lessons From Life | Tagged positivity
By Carol Grannick on February 17, 2010
Hey, I’ve been getting some private email questions about “positivity” and one of the crucial tools for changing negative thinking to positive – learning to dispute negative thinking. “Do you think people should be happy all the time?” is the gist of many of the questions (which I have permission to post).
Here’s a little quiz [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged positivity
By Carol Grannick on January 19, 2010
The ability to “dispute” your negative thoughts is a cornerstone of changing pessimistic thinking to optimistic. For me, and for many clients, learning to dispute is an invaluable skill.
But it is not the only technique for creating positive emotions. For those of us who “flow” more naturally toward negativity, a variety of tools are helpful [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged positivity, tips for positivity
By Carol Grannick on January 7, 2010
I have a choice to think one way or the other. The positive choice energizes me to blog, write and enjoy the day inside.
That choice – and learning how to make and benefit from that choice in an ongoing way – is what The Irrepressible Writer is all about.
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged learned optimism, negative self-talk, positivity
By Carol Grannick on January 5, 2010
THREE TIPS for your 2010 journey to becoming and staying an irrepressible writer:
1.Find comfort with your feelings.
Feelings are transient, but significant: what you think affects how you feel. Welcome feelings without judgment, but work to create more positive emotions by challenging irrational or prolonged negative emotions. If you [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged positive emotions, positivity, Tips
By Carol Grannick on December 30, 2009
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 [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, positivity
By Carol Grannick on November 12, 2009
Any journey towards change is also a journey away from where you’ve been, whether it’s a decision to work towards more positivity in your responses to the ups and downs of the writing life, or sit down with a work-in-progress to revise or do necessary research.
Every time you begin to work at something, you begin again. There are first [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged first steps, positivity
