Book Read Free

Around the Writer's Block

Page 24

by Rosanne Bane


  5.Herbert Benson, The Relaxation Revolution: The Science and Genetics of Mind Body Healing (New York: Scribner, 2010), 56.

  6.Howard, The Owner’s Manual for the Brain, 349.

  7.Ibid., 730.

  8.Ibid., 821, 828.

  9.Ibid., 821.

  10.David Bayles and Ted Orland, Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking (Santa Cruz, CA: Image Continuum, 1993), 29.

  11.Howard, The Owner’s Manual for the Brain, 723.

  12.Kenneth Blanchard, Whale Done! The Power of Positive Relationships (New York: Free Press, 2002), 34.

  Chapter 10. Why It Matters

  1.Dylan Loeb McClain, “Harnessing the Brain’s Right Hemisphere to Capture Many Kings,” New York Times, January 24, 2011, accessed January 28, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/science/25chess.html?_r=1&ref=science.

  2.Ibid.

  3.Merim Bilalic, Andrea Kiesel, Carsten Pohl, Michael Erb, and Wolfgang Grodd, “It Takes Two: Skilled Recognition of Objects Engages Lateral Areas in Both Hemispheres,” PLoS ONE 6(1), accessed January 28, 2011, from http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0016202.

  4.McClain, “Harnessing the Brain’s Right Hemisphere to Capture Many Kings.”

  5.Pink, Drive, 126–27.

  6.Bayles and Orland, Art & Fear, 5.

  7.Doidge, The Brain That Changes Itself, 59.

  8.Ibid., 60.

  9.Bayles and Orland, Art & Fear, 17.

  10.Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (New York: Scribner, 2000), 209.

  11.Bayles and Orland, Art & Fear, 14.

  12.Ibid., 10.

  INDEX

  The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. To find the corresponding locations in the text of this digital version, please use the “search” function on your e-reader. Note that not all terms may be searchable.

  Acetylcholine, 159, 164

  Adrenaline, 20

  Allende, Isabel, 135

  Alpha waves, 53, 97

  Alzheimer’s disease, 128

  Amabile, Teresa, 161–62

  American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 154

  American Sleep Association, 99

  Amygdala, 15, 104, 123, 144, 142, 226

  fear response triggered by, 20, 23, 223–24

  Angelou, Maya, 186

  Anxiety, 64–68, 86, 200, 201, 229

  alleviation of, 104, 117, 136

  limbic system triggered by, 27, 29, 216

  respecting, 237–38

  Anxiety disorders, 97, 104

  Aphasia, 211, 212, 216

  Appreciation, 230

  Appreciative Inquiry (AI), 240

  Arousal system, 224. See also Amygdala

  Art & Fear (Bayles and Orland), 232, 251, 268

  Artist’s Way, The (Cameron), 40, 259

  Asile de Bel-Air hospital (France), 23–24

  Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) 104, 105

  Attacker Saboteur, 185, 187, 189, 192

  Attention. See Focus

  Audience, 262

  first, careful selection of, 263–64

  overemphasis on, 262–63

  Balzac, Honoré de, 135

  Barry, Dave, 217

  Barth, John, 107

  Bayles, David, 232, 251, 268

  Becoming a Writer (Brande), 41

  Begley, Sharon, 43

  Bellow, Saul, 135

  Benson, Herbert, 225

  Bernays, Anne, 136

  Berninger, Virginia, 42–43

  Bilalic, Merim, 248

  Bite-size pieces, breaking tasks into, 229

  Black, Ira, 32

  Blanchard, Kenneth, 243

  Blooming of a Lotus, The (Thich Nhat Hanh), 122

  Blowing off steam, 229–30

  Bogart, Humphrey, 126

  Braille, 33

  Brain That Changes Itself, The (Doidge), 33, 127, 198, 252, 254

  Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), 103, 128

  Brain Rules (Medina), 109

  Brain stem, 16

  Brainstorming, 67, 68, 76, 107, 250

  Saboteur’s rap sheet, 196

  tools for, 61, 76, 77

  Brande, Dorothea, 41

  Bravo, 72

  Breathing, 227

  British Columbia, University of, 103

  Broca’s area, 19

  Brown, Stuart, 129

  Buddhism, 120, 202

  Bullock, Sandra, 226

  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (film), 209

  Butler, Robert Olen, 106–7, 137

  California, University of, 95

  Los Angeles (UCLA), 198

  Cameron, Julia, 40, 259

  Capote, Truman, 136

  Carlsen, Spike, 64–65

  Carroll, Lewis, 136

  Casablanca (film), 126

  Case Western Reserve University, 240

  Caudate nucleus, 201–2, 249

  Cerebellum, 19, 108–9, 120, 128

  Cerebral cortex, see Cortex

  Chandler, Raymond, 178

  Cheever, John, 136

  Cherokee, 252–53

  Cingulate gyrus, 18, 200–201

  Claparède, Edouard, 24–26

  Clustering, 61, 67, 68, 72, 75–77

  Commitments, 6–8, 148–52, 157, 203–4, 238, 280–81

  honoring, 8, 40, 44, 56, 219, 244, 252, 275

  Process, 39–40, 54–57

  Product Time, 65, 70, 80, 82–85, 88, 112, 152, 251

  Saboteur and, 193, 194, 267

  Self-care, 100, 119, 121, 131–32

  shared, in support and accountability groups, 278–82

  Confusion, 215

  Cook, Jean, v–vii

  Cooling down, 227–28

  Cooperrider, David, 240

  Copernicus, 32

  Cortex, 15–23, 109, 223, 225, 237

  creative, 27, 80, 123

  focused attention of, 109–10

  frontal, 29, 128

  lobes of, 19

  orbital frontal, 200, 201

  prefrontal, 19, 121, 123–24, 128

  reticular activating system and, 19–20

  somatosensory, 33, 120, 153

  visual, 23, 33

  See also Limbic system, takeover by

  Cortisol, 20, 103, 124, 126, 207

  Counting to ten, 227

  Courage to Write, The (Keyes), 136

  Creative Habit, The (Tharp), 136–37

  Creative play, 34, 42–44, 52, 129

  Creative Process, 51, 66

  rewards and, 160–63

  stages of, 69–79

  Creativity (Csikszentmihalyi), 154

  Creator archetype, 180

  Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, 77, 120, 154

  Dalai Lama, 121

  Dancing in the Dragon’s Den (Bane), 69–70, 180

  Danticat, Edwidge, 43

  Davidson, Richard, 121–24

  Deci, Edward, 161

  Delta waves, 53, 97

  Denial, 214

  Desert Storm, 156

  Diary-keeping. See Journaling

  Dickens, Charles, 135

  Disappointment, hope in face of, 270–71

  Discovery, 72

  Disney Hyperion, 270

  Disraeli, Benjamin, 136

  Distracted (Jackson), 107–8

  Distractions, 54, 213, 221, 257

  culture of, 107�
�8, 111

  procrastination and, 83

  rituals for resisting, 136

  self-medicating via, 231–32

  susceptibility to, 3, 6, 30, 216

  in work space, 178

  See also Multitasking

  Diversifying portfolio, 260–62

  Dog agility training, 105, 125, 165, 171–73

  Doidge, Norman, 33, 127, 198, 252

  DoNotDisturb application, 116

  Dopamine, 157

  exercise and, 103–4

  play and, 127

  rewards and, 159, 164, 172, 175–76

  Drawing on the Artist Within (Edwards), 70

  Dreams

  Drive (Pink), 159

  Drozdal, John, 65, 84, 193–94, 204

  Dumas, Alexandre, 135

  Dweck, Carol, 165–66

  Edison, Thomas, 100

  Edwards, Betty, 69–70

  Egyptians, ancient, 153

  Einstein, Albert, 32, 100

  Electroencephalogram (EEG), 120

  Elvis & Olive (Watson), 45

  Emerson College, 184

  Emotional Brain, The (LeDoux), 15, 22, 25, 224, 286

  Endings, writing, 272–73

  Entering the Flow, 122

  Enticer Saboteur, 185–86, 189, 192

  Environment, changing, 232–34

  Exercise, 100–106, 228

  Experience, impact on neural connections of, 140–42

  Facebook, 31, 62, 213, 261, 273

  Family Matters Parenting Magazine, 262

  Fear response, 223–24. See also Fight-or-flight response

  Feedback, 154, 162, 183, 225, 242

  from first audience, 263–64

  Product Time and, 62, 68

  rejecting, 31, 214

  in writer’s groups, 276

  Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway (Jeffers), 223

  Fifteen Magic Minutes, 80–81, 85, 251

  Fight-or-flight (stress) response, 29–30, 142, 225, 228, 231

  First Insight, 67, 70–73, 76, 78

  Fletcher, E. S., 119, 121

  Fletcher, Jacquelyn B., 60–61, 85, 183–85, 197, 204

  Focus, 106–18

  tracking and, 166

  Forgetting, 215

  Fornix, 18

  Frank, Loren, 95

  Frankenstein (Shelley), 100

  Freewriting, 41, 59, 61, 67–69, 72, 75, 195

  using Product Time for, 73, 76

  about public success, 261

  about resistance, 238, 241

  in response to challenges, 8–9, 221, 255–56

  about Saboteur, 261

  Freud, Sigmund, 188

  From Where You Dream (Butler), 107, 137

  Frontal lobe, 19

  Full Catastrophe Living (Kabat-Zinn), 122

  Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), 120, 248

  Gamma waves, 120–21

  Gladwell, Malcolm, 35, 120, 171, 249

  Goldberg, Natalie, 8, 41

  GrandPré, Mary, 270–71

  Grass, Günter, 136

  Gratitude journal, 230

  Gulf War, 156

  Harry Potter books, 271

  Harvard University

  Brain Trust, 48

  Mind/Body Medical Institute, 225

  Hebb’s Law, 81, 138, 142, 147, 202, 306

  Hemingway, Ernest, 136, 144

  Hibernation, 69, 70, 78–79, 116

  High-Performance Mind, The (Wise), 53

  Hippocampus, 18, 140, 144, 224, 226

  History Channel, 72

  Hitler, Adolph, 189

  HMS Gloucester, 156

  Hormones

  sleep and balance of, 96

  stress, 20, 103

  See also Cortisol

  Horse’n Around magazine, 91

  Horses for Pauline (Peterson), 91

  Howard, Pierce J., 97, 99, 162, 231

  Hugo, Victor, 136

  Hypercriticism, 213

  Hypnagogic state, 100, 106

  Hypothalamus, 18

  posterior, 231

  If You Want to Write (Ueland), 41

  Illumination, 68, 70, 76–77, 116, 120

  Illusions of grandeur, surrendering, 86–87

  Immune system, 96, 124, 226

  Incubation, 68, 70, 74–76, 78, 100, 116, 154

  Initial Inertia, 83–84

  Inner Critic, 178–79, 183

  Inner Destroyer archetype, 180–81

  Innocent Saboteur, 185, 186, 189, 192

  Internet, 74, 111, 113, 213

  random number generators, 176

  website-blocking applications, 116

  Intuition, 48, 53

  Inventory, Interest, 72–73

  Iraq, 156

  Jackson, Maggie, 107–8

  Jacobs, Gregg, 225

  Jeffers, Susan, 223

  “Jell-O effect,” 225–26

  Jersild, Arthur, 108

  Jordan, Hope Dahle, 136

  Journaling, 46, 69, 72, 98, 150, 259

  to blow off steam, 229

  gratitude, 230

  as Process, 41, 149

  of responses to challenges, 9

  sabotaging, 187

  Jung, Carl, 180, 181

  Kabat-Zinn, Jon, 122

  Keats, John, 136

  Kerouac, Jack, 178

  Keyes, Ralph, 136

  King, Martin Luther, Jr., 245

  King, Stephen, 66, 136, 178, 233, 262, 272

  Kubla Khan (Coleridge), 100

  Kunitz, Stanley, 257

  Kurosawa, Akira, 211–12

  Kuwait, 156

  Lamott, Anne, 87, 199

  Language centers, 19, 157, 182, 208, 216, 235, 279

  Lao-tzu, 250

  Laughter, 230

  Learned non-use, 167–68

  LeDoux, Joseph, 15, 22, 25, 224, 286–87

  Limbic system, 17–18, 63, 109, 201, 226, 228, 234–37

  dopamine in, 159

  emotions and, 155, 157, 211

  responses of, 234. See also Fight-or-flight response

  takeover by, 15–16, 20–23, 26–30, 64, 80–84, 123, 142–43, 86, 156–57, 208–9, 211, 215–16, 224

  Loft Literary Center (Minneapolis), 10, 122, 277

  Lonstein, Ann, 39

  Lord of the Rings, The (Tolkien), 183

  Maas, James B., 99

  Mailer, Norman, 65

  Maloney, Mary, 63–64

  Mammillary body, 18

  Massage, 230

  Mastery, 201, 247–49, 271

  hours of practice required for achieving, 120, 171, 249–51, 257

  competitive plasticity and, 251–52

  Maximum heart rate (MHR), 105

  McAlister, Pam, 84

  McPhee, John, 136

  Medina, John, 109

  Meditation, 119–24, 202, 227

  visualization in, 230

  Mental vacation, 230

  Mind/body medicine, 225

  Mind & the Brain, The (Schwartz), 153, 199

  Mind-mapping, 61, 67, 68, 72, 77

  Minnesota, University of, 125

  Monkeys, research on, 153, 167–68

  Motivation, 37, 144, 154, 216

  of characters in fiction, 79

  emotional triggers for, 144

  intrinsic, 159–63, 166–67, 175

  Self-care and, 96, 102, 124

  Multitasking, 10
8–11

  Music, playing or listening to, 231, 233

  Myelination, 11–12, 81, 146–47

  Myss, Caroline, 179

  My Stroke of Insight (Taylor), 32, 48, 181

  Nass, Clifford, 115

  National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), 66, 270

  Neural pathways, 12, 56, 66, 253

  See also Myelination new, creation of, 141, 147

  Neurogenesis, 128, 226

  Neurons, 15, 120, 159, 182, 204

  connections between, 138–42, 147, 169

  dopamine, 157, 175, 176

  injury to, in stroke patients, 34–35, 167

  myelination of, 11–12, 81

  new, growth of, 103, 106, 128, 226

  plasticity of, 32–35, 251–52

  See also Hebb’s law

  Neuroplasticity, 12, 32–34, 63, 127, 138, 146

  competitive, 252, 254–55

  focus and, 114, 147, 153

  OCD treatment based on, 198

  Neurotransmitters, 103, 159. See also Cortisol; Dopamine

  Newman, Paul, 209

  Newsweek, 42

  Newton, Isaac, 83

  New York Times, The, 95, 114–15

  Non-use, learned, 167–68

  Norepinephrine, 104

  Nygaard, L., 150–51

  Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), 198–203

  Occipital lobe, 19

  On Writing (King), 262

  Optimism, excessive, 214

  Orland, Ted, 232, 251, 268

  Outliers, The (Gladwell), 35, 249

  Overscheduling, 214

  Owner’s Manual for the Brain, The (Howard), 97, 162, 227–28, 231

  Paquette, Gordy, 44

  Parasympathetic nervous system, 231

  Parietal lobe, 19

  Parker, Dorothy, 178

  Paul, Alice, 245

  Pavlov, Ivan, 143, 149

  Paying it forward, 257–63

  Peanut Gallery, 182

  Pearson, Peter, 158–59

  Perfection, surrendering expectations of, 86–87

  Perfectionism, 213

  Personal success, 259–61

  Pessimism, excessive, 213–14

  Peterson, Eileen, 79, 174–75

  Peterson, Pauline, 91

  Pets, stress-relieving with, 228

  Picasso, Pablo, 180

  Pineal gland, 18

  Pink, Daniel, 159, 249

  Pituitary gland, 18

  Plasticity, brain. See Neuroplasticity

  Play, 32–34, 110, 161, 271

  Process, 40–46, 48, 52–57, 59, 78, 87, 130, 205, 271

  Self-care, 93, 110, 119, 124–32, 226

  in stroke treatment, 167

 

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