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Catalyst News and Views from AnnA
4 April, 2008
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We all want to be happy, but can you actually buy it? A couple
of ideas that might make you think differently about it are up
for grabs, plus an amazing restoration project to lift your
spirits and finally news of the London Book Fair - the greatest
showcase there is for writers and readers. To your continued
love of life, creativity, and all that is around you.
Best wishes from AnnA
IN THIS ISSUE:
- HOW TO BUY HAPPINESS
- POTTERY PERFECTION REGAINED
- LONDON BOOK FAIR
- PUBLISHING NEWS
- BEST NEW ILLUSTRATOR EXHIBITION
HOW TO BUY HAPPINESS
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I think that the relationship between money and happiness is
one of the most interesting, most complicated, and most
sensitive questions in the study of happiness. Studies show,
unsurprisingly, that money's impact on happiness is greatest
when you have the least amount of money. But if you're one of
the lucky people who has enough money to cover the basics -
food, shelter, even a car -- does that mean that money can't
make a difference to your happiness?
We have always been told that money can't buy you love, but
maybe it can buy you a little happiness. At least it will if
you spend it on someone else, as researchers at the University
of British Columbia and Harvard Business School have reported.
Elizabeth Dunn is a psychologist at the University of British
Columbia and she set the study up to test the theory that how
people spend their money is at least as important as how much
money they earn. And it doesn't take a lot to make yourself
happy; apparently spending as little as $5 a day on someone
else could significantly boost your happiness.
Make yourself happy, buy something for someone else today - even
if it's just a coffee - that should take up almost the whole $5!
AND GET EVEN HAPPIER
This really comes under my favourite category of 'how did they
get money to research that', but it ties in nicely with the
previous item, so here goes. In a study commissioned by the
National Lottery, Dr Richard Tunney of Nottingham University's
School of Psychology found that it's the simple things in life
that impact most positively on our sense of well being. Whoever
would have guessed it?
Apparently this study compared the 'happiness levels' of lottery
jackpot winners with a control group, using a 'Satisfaction with
Life Scale' developed by the University of Illinois. The two
groups were asked how satisfied they were in relation to
different
elements of their life, their different mood states explored,
how often they treated themselves and what form this took.
So if you won the lottery what would make you happy? Flash car,
luxury home, diamond buckles on your shoes? Apparently the most
common things said by the lottery winners that made them happy
was listening to music, reading a book, or enjoying a bottle of
wine with a takeaway. In other words, the everyday, obtainable
sources of happiness that we take for granted.
That sounds like a well balanced approach to me, though a
lottery
win would mean I could listen to my favourite music on a much
better sound system and probably with a permanent supply of
organic pink champagne on tap!
POTTERY PERFECTION REGAINED
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If you are accident prone, you will have had many a pang of
sympathy for the poor visitor to the Fitzwilliam museum in 2006
who fell down a stairway and smashed three valuable Chinese
porcelain vases to smithereens. Bet they have never gone in a
museum again, but were they to return to Cambridge they would
be able to see the wonderful restoration job that has now been
done. The whole fascinating process is available to see on the
Fitzwilliam website and it is a tribute to patience, hard work
and a desire to restore beauty - something we need more of in
the world.
It's worth spending five minutes looking at the amazing pictures
and the fascinating detail of how the job was carried out. To
see
it visit the website :
http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/pharos/sections/conserving_art/chinesevases/pots/pots_3.html
LONDON BOOK FAIR
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The greatest annual event in the book calender is the London
Book Fair.
Held this year from 14-16 April at Earls Court it holds more
publishers,
pr's and agents than any other single event. It is a
good idea to go and look at what is on offer, to see what
publishers are looking for and if yiou have a book to promote or
sell, then you can get the opportunity to speak directly to
editors
and agents. More information on their website at http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk
PUBLISHING NEWS
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Are you a non-fiction author looking for a publisher? Then you
would be advised to steer clear of Weidenfeld & Nicolson at the
moment as it is rumoured to have written off a number of author
advances as they continue to cut their non-fiction list. They
reduced their number of non-fiction editors and are apparently
aiming to reduce their non-fiction output to 50 titles a year,
down from 100.
Amazon's dominance in the book sales world continues with news
that they are now big news indeed in the second-hand book market
too. A recent survey of undergraduates found that 42% of
students
bought their last second-hand textbook from Amazon Marketplace,
rising from 28% the previous year. Well over half (57.7%) of
students said they were buying second-hand through online sites,
including eBay, Abebooks and Studentbooks.com.
If you know a hard up student, then suggest they spend their
book
allowance online as they will get better value for money, and
they
can sell the books back on Amazon Marketplace for resale when
they
have finished with them.
BEST NEW ILLUSTRATOR EXHIBITION
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I love illustrated books, and some of the ones for children are
just mouthwateringly desirable and pull you into a magical world
of colour and delight.Booktrust is a charity that has
collaborated
with Bookstart, the national library scheme to encourage young
readers, to put on an exhibition.
If you are in London between 17 April and 3 May then please go
along and support this event which is part of the 'Big Picture
Campaign' which aims to raise the profile of illustrated books.
The work of 27 top flight children's illustrators can be seen at
the Illustrations Cupboard in Piccadilly, including Deborah
Allwright, Thomas Docherty and Polly Dunbar.
If you can't get to London then keep an eye out for the free
book called The Rough Guide to Picture Books which are available
now from Waterstone's and Tesco stores.
For news of the exhibition, and to see who are the top 10 Best
New Illustrators visit www.bigpicture.org.uk
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Any creative questions, comments or criticisms? Please do
contact
me either via my website: http://www.catalystonline.co.uk/ or
email to anna@creativecatalyst.co.uk
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Catalyst News and Views from AnnA
18 April, 2008
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How would you like to be creative all the time, no barriers
in your way? Read on and you will find the answer, as well
as a chance to join in one of the greatest online personal
developments forums, ever. We haven't had a writing exercise
for a while, so I hope you enjoy playing with the natural
world. To your continued love of life, creativity, and all
that is around you. Best wishes from AnnA
IN THIS ISSUE:
-NEVER TOO LATE TO SAY SORRY
-OPRAH AND ECKHART
-OVERCOMING CREATIVE SABOTAGE
-CREATIVITY COFFEE BREAK
NEVER TOO LATE TO SAY SORRY
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What marks us out as having the potential for change and
development? I believe it is the ability to admit you are
wrong, apologise sincerely and then move on and use that
new knowledge to benefit others and ourselves.
In the normal course of things, that is what we do as
human beings whenever we see the error of our ways; it is
much rarer for a Government to do the same. That's why I
was pleased to see that the Australian Government issued a
public apology to the Indigenous People's of that fair land.
The first surprising thing, other than the fact they actually
did it, was that they honoured them as having the oldest
continuing culture in human history. Being there first has
never been a guarantee of sovereignty or dignified treatment,
but the forcible removal of many aboriginal children from
their families has been a hard thing for Australia to face,
then to acknowledge their mistakes and do something about them.
Below is part of the actual speech made in Parliament by
Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia. Let it cheer your
heart to see that, no however long it takes, it is always
possible to admit you were wrong. Let's raise a glass,
or a tinnie if you prefer, to the fact they have now stepped up.
"We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their
communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and
hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for
their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and
the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking
up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the
indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and
a proud culture, we say sorry."
OPRAH AND ECKHART
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Oprah Winfrey is an inspiring woman. Thousands of people
follow her advice in her books, magazines, talks and TV show
and they don't just tune in to see Tom Cruise behaving like
an overactive hamster who has swallowed one too many happy
pills and can't resist vaulting over harmless sofas and
knocking them to the ground.
One of her recent 'campaigns'has been an amazing internet
online 'class' where a record number of people (100,000 to
be exact) have logged on to hear about and participate in
a discussion of- the latest book by Eckhart Tolle. Regular
readers will know I have spoken of the effect of this Swiss
philosopher's work before, particularly in 'The Power of Now'
that has opened the minds of people all over the world.
His latest book that Oprah is championing is called 'A New
Earth' and the sheer volume of the interest has broken all
expectations.
Oprah can usually guarantee a good audience, whatever the topic,
but for a spiritually based work this is groundbreaking.
If you would like to see what all the fuss is about, and
catch up with the classes, you can view them now online at
http://www.oprah.com/obc_classic/webcast/archive/archive_watchnow.jsp
OVERCOMING CREATIVE SABOTAGE
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In the creative life, as indeed in much else, it is your
subconscious is in charge of the agenda. You may passionately
desire to write a novel and yet somehow an endless game of
sabotage gets played out. It's not just in your creative life
either as the large majority of challenges you have in your
life are a direct result of you being out of rapport with
your subconscious mind.
Consciously you want to write that novel,but your subconscious
is working to a different script. Its only desire is to
protect and take care of you, and there is a deep-seated
cultural and personal fear about undertaking any creative
project.
There is the fear that you won't make any money, that no one
will appreciate your work, and you may even be ridiculed for
going public with it. Your subconscious is sending out
negative messages with terrifying frequency and monotonous
regularity - is there anyone who is a greater critic of your
creative talent than you are? I thought not, so how can you
get your conscious and subconscious mind to work in harmony
to support, not sabotage you? At its simplest, you get them
to be friends and talk to each other. Here are a few tips to
get you started:
** 1 Most importantly, first stop beating your subconscious mind
up.
If you are endlessly belittling and criticising yourself,
you are not helping so give it up and practice
loving kindness - and treat yourself as well as you would
another struggling writer. In other words, be as supportive
and generous to yourself as to everyone else and you will
definitely reap the rewards.
** 2 Be lavish in your praise for your subconscious mind.
Tell it you appreciate the fact that you know it is trying
to help you. Tell it you love it, trust it, and thank it for
looking out for you. When you have gained its trust then you
can tell it what is appropriate behaviour and what isn't -
you like it when it stops you working for 18 hours straight
so you ruin your health and you would prefer it to trust you
to know that when you want to write you need its encouragement.
** 3 Do you get gut feelings?
Do you have intuition about certain things or people? If you are
creative, of course you do but do you actually listen to them?
Your subconscious mind is talking to you at those times so give
it some respect and pay attention.
** 3 Give your subconscious something to do, other than
criticise you.
Ask it to give you a signal when you need
some help or inspiration. Just settle yourself down and
meditate, or think in a relaxed way about what you want help
with.
Just trust the process, repeat where necessary, and activate
the powerful force of your unconscious knowing. If
you have my meditation CD, then Track 6 on Creativity will
help take you to that place too.
Why do you need to do any of this? Because if you are
blocked in your creativity then there is a conflict between
what your conscious minds wants you to do - write - and what
your subconscious is trying to protect you from - usually fear
of failure, or not being good enough. If you make friends
between these two states you can negotiate with them, and
once they are aligned in their common purpose
(to free your creative expression), then you will be truly
unstoppable.
CREATIVITY COFFEE BREAK
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This particular creative exercise was inspired by a day I
spent recently in Vigo, in Spain, when I arrived to black
clouds rimmed with gold where the sun was bravely trying to
force its way through. I walked round the town and within
the space of an hour took out my sunglasses, raised high my
umbrella and finally took shelter in a doorway to avoid the
hailstones that were pelting me. Through it all I saw some
beautiful buildings, trees with oranges and an avenue lined
with pink flowering bushes glistening in the wet.
The weather is a key component in descriptive and mood writing,
so please describe an incident where you were at the mercy or
delight of the elements. It could be a wedding or funeral that
was marked by freak weather, or a glorious sunny day when you
strode off to enjoy some communication with Nature.
Whatever you choose, make it come alive and remember to use
all your senses: sight, sound, touch, and smell.
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Any creative questions, comments or criticisms?
Please do contact me either via my website:
http://www.catalystonline.co.uk/oremail to
anna@creativecatalyst.co.uk
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