Wake Up and Dream Catalyst: Short inspirational thoughts for the day. Raising questions & hopefully opening a dialogue with people interested in learning how to turn their dreams into plans and start navigating their way towards them.
Thought for the Day: The last couple of months have been extremely stressful for many people. Thanks to Mother Nature, snow storms have battered the northeastern states of the United States in rapid succession. Record inches of snow have left it's residents house bound, stir crazy, and exhausted from shoveling snow from driveways and roofs. The beginning of more spring-like weather, may help, although the forecast for this weekend is for yet one more slushy snow storm followed by a cold snap. Today's Psychology Tip may help those of you suffering from yet another snowbound Friday! It may surprise you, but pull out the crayons and start drawing!
Researchers have found that coloring can help reduce stress. When drawing, we activate both sides of the brain, stimulating both logic, creativity and pleasure, reminding us of positive aspects of childhood. Different colors help us express different emotions, which is another reason that drawing can be therapeutic and help eliminate stress. The repetitive motion and focusing on coloring also appear to produce a form of active meditation. Currently, there are many books coloring books created for adults. For an array of "Anti-stress gallery" of coloring books for adults take a look here.
If want a free sample mandala to try to color for relaxation, you can click here (http://www.colormandala.com/) and download an art project from a number of wonderful designs and see for yourself how it helps this weekend. Use crayons, not markers which will seep through the paper. Let your creativity flow. If worries enter your mind, simply tell yourself to let them go and keep on coloring. You can add some relaxing music to enhance the relaxation as well. I'd love to hear how it works for you.
Thought for the Day: It's Friday and time for some #FF Fabulous Finds. Since Sunday is #MothersDay I chose an article with some suggestions for Mother's Day gifts. a clip from the Ellen Show of an adorable 5 year old Kai Langer covering Katy Perry's "Roar," and 29 creative photos of newborn infants. Then I found some animated movie posters that are a lot of fun....
Thought for the Day: I am still learning how to maximize the power of Flipboard to bring you some wonderful finds. Today's magazine brings a mix of stories, amazing photos and one hypnotic video of designs drawn on a spinning wheel. The story from Africa shows pictures of how they are fighting the spread of a deadly attack of Ebola in Africa. It is striking how courageous the doctors are as they battle a deadly image in such remote place with minimal supplies. Another story explains the dire conditions for the mentally ill in our country. Hopefully, ObamaCare may help turn around and end the trend of warehousing the mentally in our jails. Have we returned to the dark ages? What can we do to stop this trend? I hope you like the photos of nature and architecture as much as I did. Take a look...
Image looking for a title by Michael Bogdanow Suggestions welcome
Thought for the Day: When I viewed this video earlier this week, I knew I had to share it today on Songs for the Soul. It is a very moving tribute to Zach Sobiech, a songwriter who who died of cancer at age 18. In a video about his last days of life, he said, "You don't have to know you are dying to start living." Last May I posted Zach singing this song, Clouds, a few days after he passed away. It is hard not to tear up while listening to this as many of the members of the choir were also wiping tears as they sang. His parents were there as well. His song is offering support to his loved ones and generating donations to fight cancer.
This morning, on Facebook, my brother, Michael Bogdanow, posted the amazing new piece of art which I posted above, with a request for suggestions for a title. I asked his permission to post the image on my blog & he graciously agreed. I am biased, since he is my brother, but really love the image & think it fits with the song which I had chosen days ago. So please feel free to post ideas for titles to the image above.
Thought for the Day: This week I had too many finds to fit the post, so I held on to some for next week. By then I may have 15 or more to choose from! Let me know if you would like more or less finds each week. I have 5 great finds for you to explore. There are stories about amazing teachers who go above & beyond the call of duty, endangered artwork on part of the remaining segments of the Berlin Wall, a mind boggling viral video about the distribution of wealth in America, a mom's invention, that was right beneath her son's feet & how a woman overcame adversity & became a supporter & role model for homeless teens.
I hope you will have time to check these out over the weekend. While you are at it, you may want to come back to listen to Saturday's Songs for the Soul (last weeks segment featured Psychology & Music). This week I feature a songwriter who's songs have been covered by Elton John, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt & Faith Hill to name just a few. I have been fortunate enough to get to know this amazing writer who taught at one of the songwriting retreats that I organized. She has used music as therapy & in the process has helped others as well. On Sunday you can check out Sunday's Comic Strips (last week's Sundays Comic Strips) which bring a humorous look at psychology. Have a great weekend!
Here are this week's Fabulous Finds-->
1) The first find is byJulie Fishman
from Mom.Me.In a slide show: Leaders to Admire, she features teachers who, "Despite budget cuts, pink slips & unions
under fire, a lot of our nation’s teachers are working harder than ever.
From raising money, to starting clubs, to working without pay, the
10-plus following teachers have inspired students, parents and community
members with their tenacious efforts and huge hearts. Read on for your
daily dose of optimism."
2) The second story is a find that may soon be lost. It is endangered artwork which is an integral part of the history of the Berlin Wall. A picture is worth a thousand words & this link takes you to my third fabulous find, a video on Huffington Post Arts & Culture with pictures of the historic artwork which may be destroyed. I'm not an architect, but I would suggest that they find a way to incorporate the wall into the plans. Any hotel that did would become a destination & an instant landmark.
3) My third fabulous find is a Video explaining the distribution of wealth in the United States.
The differences between people's impression of the distribution of wealth, the ideal people imagine & the reality of how wealth is distributed in our country may surprise you.
4)Marlo Thomas's blog share wonderful inspirational stories about women achieving their dreams. This week a story she shared is my fourth fabulous find. It tells the story of how a mother faced with her husband's chronic illness & the need for a source of income found an unmet need on a baseball field & persevered till she created a solution: Cleatskins,
5) Finally, my fifth find is another inspiring video about how a woman, Lauri Burns, overcame her abusive & tumultuous upbringing & what led her to
becoming an advocate for foster kids & homeless teens with the Teen
Project. -->
I hope you like these finds & share them with your friends. Let me know what you think. Would you like me to share more or less finds? What do you think about them?
Thought for the Day: This week I heard about YouthLit.org & the Art4Literacy Project. I decided to help them by creating a one minute What If? Wednesdays video. The clip presents a creative organization's plan to impact the education crisis in this country. They hope to bring literacy & opportunity to America's "New New Poor," the 65 million intellectually & educationally impoverished children of the United States who either cannot or can only barely read. Take a look & see how they plan to use children's artwork to reverse the literacy crisis in America. Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions for the Art4Literacy project will be forwarded to them. Let me know if you have a "What if?" dream project that you would like to have featured in this blog. Have a great Wednesday & see you on Friday for #FF Friday's Fabulous Finds & on Saturday's Songs for the Soul!
