Yes Virginia There is a Santa Claus or Holiday Spirit if we Create IT!
Yes Virginia There is a Santa Claus or Holiday Spirit if we Create IT!
Here are a few photos of the extent/amount of HOLIDAYS decoration I have done on the inside of my house for 2017. Chances are I will be the only person who will see them this season.
my son and his family live in Lake Worth, Florida and will not be visiting
my daughter and her family have not been to my house in years
"FAMILY" in my life has not been the "supposed ALL LOVING AMERICAN MODEL" that is depicted so often in media, especially at this time of year.
My FAMILIES during my 73 years so far...
Birth family
1st marriage and in-law family
2nd marriage family after Merry and oldest son's deaths
I create or find small amounts of humor, laugher, cheer no matter the mood around me. I have learned or created many emotional coping strategies for mood swings and mild to moderate to serious (occasional) periods of depression over the past 40 years.
One, I learned during my first CPSI in my first NITE FLITE put on by Joel Goodman founder of the Humor Project. Over the past 39 years Joel and I have become strong professional friends and our lives have crossed paths through CPSI, ACRE, NSA conferences or conventions.
The major strategy that Joel shared that NITE FLITE in 1978 at CPSI was
"When something bad happens ask this question:
"Will I laugh about this some day in the future?"
if your answer is even a mild yes, then start laughing now. FIND THE FUNNY. Create the FUNNY.
Whether it has been deaths, health or financial challenges or societal crap such as today in the US or South Africa or other countries I have been in I deliberate find ways to smile and laugh each day.
Yes Virginia There is a Santa Claus or Holiday Spirit if we Create IT!
Also during that same CPSI during the very first concurrent session I attended I learned another of the mental or emotional strategies I use nearly daily from Dr. Sidney X. Shore, my 2nd creativity mentor and role model
keep asking "WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT?"
keep asking until you find or create a list of benefits, positives, learnings, etc.
Yes Virginia There is a Santa Claus or Holiday Spirit if we Create IT!
I have shared these two and many other strategies for living either personally or professionally now for over 40 years through speeches, workshops, training programs or university courses I have taught and/or through writing: books, articles, newsletters, blogs
You see I began these learnings by reading motivational or self-help books, then through taking workshops, then a masters degree in Guidance and Counseling focusing on gifted, talented and creative people. I met Merry when we were taking the same classes in our individual MEd degree work from the Fall of 1977 to June of 1979.
These are the same along with others that I used during the 4+ weeks of being behind bars not knowing when or how I might ever return home.
IWWMI....a primary CPS process I first learned in 1978
C - Collect Challenges and Choose one to creatively solve or remove
r - read, reap what you already know and need to know
E - Examine your Chosen Challenge
8 - Ide8 using at least 8 different S.T.A.M.P.S. to generate or discover creative ideas
N - Narrow down the ideas to a few to use to generate a doable solution/
G - Gather resources of all kinds, Generate a Possible Solution and GO FOT IT!
along with many creative thinking S.T.A.M.P.S. is how I have learned since I met Bob Eberle at a gifted education workshop in Orlando, Florida in the Spring of 1976 and he shared the very first CREATIVE THINKING TOOL I had ever learned about
S.C.A.M.P.E.R.
Substitute
Combine
Adapt, Alter
Minimize, Maximize, Moderate
Put to other uses
Eliminate
Reverse
When began my zealous obsession with discovering, learning, creating, researching, teaching or training others in the use of CREATIVE THINKING...
SYSTEMS
TOOLS/TECHNIQUES
APPROACHES/ATTITUDES
METHODS
PROCESSES
STRATEGIES
Yes Virginia There is a
Santa Claus or Holiday Spirit
if we Create IT!
Alan
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