Posts Tagged ‘inspiration’

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They’re back! For many years, I’ve made “Inspiration Bags”, dedicated to Love, Prosperity, Dreams, Passion and Joyful Living! These magical bags are part of my divine heritage and ancestral roots growing up in Louisiana, surrounded by wise women who made gris gris bags filled with powerful magical affirmations. Inspiration Bags are my way of carrying this tradition forward using the magic of the Divine Feminine to spread love and light in each one.

Inspiration Bags by Kala are filled with the blessings and magic of the universe. Inside each bag is a diverse mixture of herbs, crystals, seashells, oils, feathers, plants and nutshells carefully blended to create the energy desired. Each bag has been energized and sealed to stimulate the universal energy created. Place your bag in an area where you can see it at least once a day to attract good energy into your life.

The Divine Feminine has spoken and I’ve answered the call and will be traveling  this Fall, delivering a variety of Inspiration Bags in many cities. My journey begins with the Southern Women’s Show, in Charlotte, NC where I’ll be partnering with Serene Bath & Body. In our booth, I’ll share my magically inspired Inspiration Bags with women who desire to be empowered, inspired and revitalized with the spirit and essence of the Goddess within!

Come visit me at our booth! There with Serene, we’ll be the best smelling and tantalizing booth in the place. Serene Bath & Body offers an all natural metaphysically inspired bath product line to nourish the body, inspire the mind, and soothe the soul. They use all natural essential oils and add charged crystals and gemstones into all of the products.

My first Southern Women’s Show is scheduled for September 16-19 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Over 30,000 women attend this show and enjoy makeovers, wine tastings, and shopping.
I hope to see you there! The rest of my fall schedule will be posted soon and if you can’t make it to one of the cities that I’ll be in, information on the Explore Your Spirit website will be posted soon as to how you can special order your very own Inspiration Bag.

Much love and joy,

*~Kala~*

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Michael Gelb is a leading authority on the application of genius thinking to personal and organizational development. A pioneer in the fields of creative thinking, Gelb leads seminars for organizations such as DuPont, Merck, Microsoft, and Nike. A former professional juggler who once performed with the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, Gelb introduced the idea of teaching juggling as a means to promote accelerated learning and team-building.

Recently, I chatted with Michael about his work and his books.

Kala: Michael, you’re the author of 12 books on creativity and innovation, including How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day. In your research, what did you find about Da Vinci and how his thought process differs from the average guy?

Michael: It’s like asking how does the inner life of the Buddha or Jesus differ from the average! Just as the Buddha or Jesus can be appreciated as embodiments of our highest spiritual nature, a nature shared by all, so Leonardo can be understood as a manifestation of our highest creative possibilities.

Kala: In the Da Vinci book, you share seven steps to reaching the genius level. One of these is: ‘Sensazione: The continual refinement of the senses, especially sight, as the means to clarify experience’. Explain this step to our readers.

Michael: Leonardo da Vinci wrote, ‘The five senses are the ministers of the soul’.  He trained his sensory awareness like an Olympic athlete trains his body for competition. But five-hundred years ago, in Tuscany, Leonardo reflected that the average person “looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odor or fragrance, and talks without thinking.” Sensazione refers to refining our sensory awareness as a means to deepening our enjoyment of life and nurturing the soul. Leonardo counsels us to surround ourselves with beauty to help enliven our inner world.

Kala: You then went on to write – Innovate Like Edison: The Five Step System for Breakthrough Business Success. With the current economic crisis, many leaders say that innovation is key to getting us out of this situation. Edison was quoted as saying – ‘If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves’. What are your thoughts about innovation and how it’s being used or not used in businesses today?

Michael: Leonardo was probably the most creative person who ever lived but Thomas Edison is history’s greatest practical innovator. Beyond his invention of the phonograph, motion pictures and a system to light the world, Thomas Edison invented the rigorous, disciplined process of innovation. His methods are more relevant now than ever before. Businesses are waking up to the critical importance of making innovation an integral aspect of the way they operate but they need to pick up the pace!

Kala: Many people feel that the companies they work for have lost their sense of perspective and innovation. What tips can you give our readers to become more innovative and creative in their personal and professional lives, especially if they work for a company that has lost their innovation and edge?

Michael: Many individuals and organizations lose their perspective in the face of grave challenges. Others embrace an expanded perspective and recognize that in stressful times innovation is essential. Although it’s not always possible to change an organizational culture, especially in difficult times, it is always possible for individuals to learn to think more creatively-to cultivate what my co-author Sarah Miller Caldicott (Edison’s Great Grand Niece) and I refer to as ‘Innovation Literacy’.

Kala: In the five step system, you discuss ‘Full-Spectrum Engagement: how to manage and balance a massive workload with social life, family and other obligations’. I’m hearing from many people in corporate america that they are being told indirectly, that to keep their job, not much else matters to the company except that the employee work 60, 80 and sometimes even more hours a week. Even with this, many employees are being told this is not enough and they are often required to do the work of two people and the economy is being blamed as the culprit. What do you suggest people do to balance their intense workload and stress at work in these most difficult of times?

Michael: Most of my clients are being asked to do more with less. This makes creative thinking about how you prioritize and order your life essential. Of course, many folks are too stressed to make it to the stress management class and they don’t have time to come to the time management program. But, if we don’t discipline ourselves to make time to reflect on our own priorities then we are doomed to follow the priorities set for us by others.

Kala: How does one maintain ‘creative resilience’, what you describe as ‘optimism in the face of adversity‘?

Michael: It helps to have role models, like Edison, for example. He overcame adversity many times. One particularly notable example occurred in 1914, when he was 67. A fire ravaged the phonograph factory at his West Orange, New Jersey complex. Edison lost approximately $5 million that night – the equivalent of $75 million today. His son Charles, ran to his father’s side, thinking Edison would be devastated. Instead, Charles was amazed to see his father smiling. Edison told his son, “Go get your mother. She’ll never have a chance to see anything like this again in her entire life.” Edison then called his senior team together and began organizing the recovery campaign on the spot. He urged his team to focus on rebuilding the phonograph factories in a manner that “took advantage of the latest improvements in factory design.”

Edison’s response to the fire highlights the deeply embedded nature of his optimism. As Biographer Dr. Paul Israel describes it, “Where others might see disaster and failure he was always optimistically looking for opportunities and seeing the possibility of new directions for improvements.”

Kala: Speaking of stress relief, your new book is – Wine Drinking for Inspired Thinking: Uncorking Your Creative Juices. The history of wine goes back over 5000 years, with new findings recently of over 8000 years ago in Georgia and of course, in Egypt, with a white wine recently located in King Tut’s tomb and we all are aware of the Greek’s love of wine. What is it about wine that works so well as a creative Muse?

Michael: Fine wine is complex, subtle and nuanced. It invites us to combine camaraderie, contemplation and relaxation. As we relax in a contemplative mode we invite the Muses to emerge. Plato, the father of Western Philosophy summed it up when he wrote ‘What is better adapted than the festive use of wine, in the first place to test, and in the second place to train the character of a man, if care be taken in the use of it.? What is there cheaper or more innocent’?

Kala: Wine Drinking, the book, encourages us to ‘think outside the bottle’ to tap into our creative potential. Albert Einstein said – ‘We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them’. Explain how innovative thinking outside the bottle works…

Michael: The best wine isn’t usually found in a box. And the same thing is true with thinking. Creative, ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking involves generating and exploring lots of new ideas, thinking analogically and metaphorically, and nurturing different perspectives. This kind of thinking is much easier to do when we relax, let go of our preconceptions, and begin to engage the imagination. For the last thirty years I’ve been exploring the most effective means for helping people relax, let go, and engage the other half of the brain. Sharing wine and poetry is at the top of the list. It is a delightful and creative way to liberate the muse and free us from the habit of using only half the mind.

Kala: One of my favorite quotes about wine is from Dom Perignon, when he said after his first sip of champagne – ‘Come quickly! I am tasting stars’! I ascribe to the philosophy that ‘we are all one and thus all interconnected, therefore in each sip of wine there lies a universe, the same as within each person’. What is your philosophy with wine?

Michael: It sounds wonderful but Dom Perignon didn’t say it (those words were written by a marketing department 200 years after his time to promote champagne sales).

Kala: History miscommunicated through a PR campaign, always fascinating to me.

Michael: He actually spent much of his time preventing the formation of bubbles in wine as they were considered a flaw in his day. Dom Perignon was, however, a genius who pioneered many of the best practices that still influence wine makers today. And I agree with you about our essential interconnectedness and the role of wine in attuning us to our oneness. As Socrates noted twenty-five hundred years ago on the effects of sharing wine and poetry : ‘You will find that suddenly something extraordinary happens. As they are speaking, it’s as if a spark ignites, passing from one speaker to another, and as it travels it gathers strength, building into a warm and illuminating flame of mutual understanding which none of them could have achieved alone’.

Kala: ‘Conscious Capitalism’ is a new philosophy being referred to in 21st century business ideals. Many small business owners build their company on just these types of principles. Do you think that the ideals of conscious capitalism can be maintained by a business or company, when it evolves into a conglomerate or massive corporation?

Michael: Yes. It can be maintained, but it takes profound commitment, visionary leadership, and a culture of continuous learning.

Kala: What do you feel holds people back the most often? If a person could work on just one of the tips from your Wine Drinking book that would have the greatest impact on their life, what would you say that would be?

Michael: Our self-imposed limitations hold us back, more than external challenges. The one tip that will have the greatest impact on reader’s lives is to ‘Put more Dolce in your Vita’.

Kala: In my work as a Business Intuitive, I feel that we are in a new Renaissance period. I’ve been quoted as saying - ‘In this new decade, we are moving into a new Age of Enlightenment. The Aquarian information from the gods can no longer be contained, the Divine Feminine is being released in all her glory and we will once again see a Renaissance period, where great art, architecture, philosophy, literature and science will develop and flourish. During this decade the greatest minds will stir, to share, to illuminate and to build and create works and ideas that will be marveled around the world’.

There are certain people whom we can look at around the world and say ‘Aha, there is one of the leaders of this new renaissance’! I would list you as one of these leaders. So Michael, as a leader of the renaissance of the 21st century, what do you see coming for the world in this decade?

Michael: Thanks, Kala. I agree with you that we are moving into a new Age of Enlightenment. Consciousness is shifting to better integrate the modalities of empathy, intuition, and receptivity. Once considered primarily within the province of the “Feminine” these modalities are now essential to the evolving Modern Renaissance Man/Woman. In the United States, over the past 30 years, we’ve seen a dissolution of the John Wayne version of masculinity and a corresponding ascendancy of women in politics, business and social life. But, this has created lots of confusion as women adapt to more freedom and power and men try to deal with it. One of the most exciting developments that I look forward to in the next decade is the emergence of new, healthy models of both masculinity and femininity. All of my work is devoted to helping others find this balance between yin and yang, rationality and intuition, logic and imagination.

Kala: Michael, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate you taking the time to chat and share your wisdom and inspiration.

Michael: Thank you for your wise and inspiring questions.

More about Michael Gelb…
Michael J. Gelb, is a leading authority on the application of genius thinking to personal and organizational development. Gelb is the author of 12 books on creativity and innovation including the international best seller How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day. (1998) How to Think Like Leonardo has been translated into 25 languages and has appeared on the Washington Post, Amazon.com, and the New York Times best seller lists. In 2007 Gelb released Innovate Like Edison: The Five Step System for Breakthrough Business Success, co-authored with Sarah Miller Caldicott, the great grand niece of Thomas Edison.

In 1999, Michael Gelb won the Brain Trust Charity’s “Brain of the Year” award; others honorees include Prof. Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, Garry Kasparov and Gene Rodenberry. In 2003, Michael was awarded a Batten Fellowship by the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business. Michael co-directs the acclaimed Leading Innovation Seminar at Darden with Professor James Clawson. Michael Gelb also serves as the Director of Creativity and Innovation Leadership for the Conscious Capitalism Institute. His latest book, Wine Drinking For Inspired Thinking: Uncork Your Creative Juices, will be released by Running Press on March 23, 2010.

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You’re probably familiar with a bunch of techniques for getting through moments when you’re feeling creatively empty.  Some suggest forcing yourself to write (or sculpt, or whatever activity you’re doing)—if you just get something on paper, some say, inspiration will strike.  Other common examples include free writing, listening to certain kinds of music and mind mapping.

If these techniques work for you, more power to you.  But if you’re still finding the creative process agonizing, I invite you to try another approach.  The novel exercise I’ll give you for dealing with writer’s block is this:  just sit there.

In other words, next time you run out of ideas, try breathing deeply, relaxing your body, and simply allowing that creative emptiness to be, exactly as it is.  Hold your attention on that blank sensation until it dissolves.

Welcoming Writer’s Block

What I suspect you’ll find is that the emptiness will fade within a few minutes once you choose to let it be.  And when that blankness is gone, in its place you may discover some of the best ideas you’ve had all day, all week or even all month.  I think you’ll be surprised at the results.

The power of this approach lies in its willingness to treat writer’s block as a friend rather than an enemy.  Like meditation practice, this method has us let go of the judgments we usually make about our experience—”this tightness in my shoulder is bad,” “the vacation plans arising in my mind are good,” and so on.  When we drop our resistance to what we’re experiencing, our suffering falls away.

Creative blankness is like any other thought or sensation—as long as we don’t grasp onto it or resist it, it disappears quickly.  As Buddhist monk Martine Batchelor writes in Meditation for Life, “if you just let your thoughts come and go, and do not stick to them or magnify them, they will soon disappear of their own accord.”

Beyond “Fighting or Fleeing”

Of course, this isn’t the way we usually relate to writer’s block.  Most of us, I think, treat creative emptiness like any other experience we’d rather not have—we either fight it or flee from it.  That is, we either shame ourselves for being uncreative and try to force ourselves to come up with something, or we turn our attention to something else, hoping we’ll get inspired later.

At a deeper level, I think, this is because blankness can be a scary experience to confront—particularly in our culture, where we’re usually surrounded by noise and we spend little time in silence.  We’d rather do practically anything than stare down the abyss of an empty mind.

Unfortunately, as I’ll bet you know firsthand, the normal approach often falls short.  If we try forcing ourselves to produce, we usually just get frustrated, or we end up churning out mediocre work that we scrap in the end.  And we won’t create anything, of course, if we take our attention off our work.

We might think of writer’s block as a test of our faith in our intelligence and creativity.  If we resist the emptiness, like anything, it persists.  But if we trust that we have the resources to excel at whatever we’re doing, and that the emptiness is a chance for us to show our trust, the inspiration we want will arrive.  As psychologist Nancy Napier writes in Recreating Your Self, imagination operates best when we “think of the blankness as a creative void, a place where your unconscious takes its own time to give you whatever awareness it wants you to have.”

More about Chris Edgar….
Christopher R. Edgar is an author, speaker and personal coach who specializes in helping professionals transition to careers aligned with their callings, and find more satisfaction and productivity in what they do.  Chris’s new book, Inner Productivity: A Mindful Path to Efficiency and Enjoyment in Your Work, uses insights from mindfulness practice and psychology to help readers develop focus and motivation in their work.  You can find out more about the book and Chris’s work at www.innerproductivity.com

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