Baseball great David Ortiz was the once-ferocious hitter who could not
hit anymore. His futility grew week after week and left the Boston Red Sox
wondering if he would ever be formidable again. When Ortiz was beyond weary
about being unproductive, he decided it could not hurt him to try to an
altogether different approach to resolving his problem. He decided to play the
carefree 12-year-old he once was. He simply woke up one morning and told
himself “to act like a kid and just go and play baseball, that’s it.” Ortiz
stopped taking extra batting practice, stopped obsessing over videotapes and
stopped listening to every tidbit of advice. Not long afterward, he became a
solid hitter again. He is still playing
today, years later, near retirement, but still playing....like a kid.
The point of this story is to demonstrate the power of
the left brain, the side of our neural anatomy that works analytically,
logically, processes everything as if it were measurable data. Today research
has shown that when trying to solve a problem—any type of problem --
it can be greatly beneficial to go offline, mentally. That is, rather than
fixating on analysis, a more productive approach is to engage the right brain
and allow your thoughts to wander. The result: fear diminishes, new ideas flow, and your
personal growth surges.
The left brain is the seat of scientific, logical, or linear thinking which is
based on the objective weighing of fact and detail. The left brain calls on a
mode of seeing devoid of imagination, and therefore incapable of refreshing the
conscious mind and anxious body. Right brain thinking, on the other hand, is
nonliteral, nonlogical, instinctual. It draws on the imagination and is
therefore imbued with imagery color, texture, and detail. Determinations, such
as Ortiz’s to return to an “instinctive” way of playing, are invigorating. They
interrupt futile repetition and propel personal growth by introducing new
energy and ideas into stagnant situations.
Creative writing workshops, such as RADICAL WRITING, allow the
hand, work with the right brain to allow your fingers rather than your head to
do your thinking. The result is an immediate intimacy with your thoughts in a
safe, supportive creative environment. By writing out feelings in the free and
exaggerated way RADICAL WRITING teaches your become fluently self-expressive.
The writing stimulates awareness and thereby perpetuates personal growth. This
act of writing purely for self-expression alchemizes your mental activity and
provides fuel for liberation, creativity, transformation, and healing.
Right-brain writing, which is to say creative writing, provides
direct access to the imagination. As it expands your awareness, your instincts
grow keener. You relax in making choices and decisions. You breathe easier.
RADICAL WRITING makes creative writing as fluid as a reflex. RADICAL WRITING
makes personal growth effortless. RADICAL WRITING holds up to you a forgiving
mirror in which, like David Ortiz, you can go out again and play.
For more information on creative writing go to:
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