We often look to the great masters for inspiration – usually regarding their subject matter, techniques, and style. But their thinking is what opened the doors to their creativity and can do that for all of us – regardless of what area of life we are searching for more creativity. We are all creative, each in our own unique way – it is a natural human attribute.
Leonardo da Vinci was a deep thinker and philosopher as well as an artist. Here are the categories he felt were most important to open and enrich our minds, leading us to become all we can be and to create our heart’s desire.
- Curiosity – an insatiable curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning. The world is bigger than we know!
- Â Demonstration – a commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence and a willingness to learn from mistakes. We learn by doing – creativity is not just a head trip.
- Â Sensation – the continual refinement of the senses, (for him it was primarily sight) as the means to enliven experience. We connect to the world and each other through our senses. For cooks it may be taste, for a musician, sound. What is your most developed sense and how often do you pay close attention to it? Some of us have found our sense of taste and smell damaged through bouts of COVID – how has that changed your connection to the world? Are you regaining these senses or compensating for their lack?
- Â Sfumato – a willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox and uncertainty. To not insist on only seeing black and white but willingness and patience to explore all the shades in between. This includes an ability to manage tension while waiting for new things to appear.
- Â Whole brain thinking – the development of the balance between science and logic and imagination, right and left hemispheres. We each tend to favor more of the right or left brain. Being willing to explore both opens a world of possibilities in all fields.
- Â Corporality – the cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness and poise. We only have one body, treasure it and let it support you.
- Â Systems Thinking – a recognition and appreciation for the interconnections of all things and phenomena. Again – the refusal to be stuck in black and white, either/or, us vs them thinking. Compassion and curiosity for all – we are all connected.Â
Ask yourself –
                 Which category have you most highly developed?
                 Any you have ignored most of your life?
                 Which are you most attracted to, want more of?
A big summer reveal from Suzanne and Patty:
We thought it would be fun and helpful to have an inside look at how we try to “practice what we preach” in these posts. And that we ask ourselves the same questions we pose to you. What do we (Patty and Suzanne) want more of?
Well, over some wine and chats about our lives, relationships and the frustration of age-related misconceptions held by the younger generations, we decided that our creativity was calling in a literary direction: we had another book to write but this time, it’s fiction with humor, issues about relationships, intimacy and sex. Popular topics for sure but can we pull it off? It’s rather different from our self help/therapy genre.
Our “Sfumato” moments of ambiguity and uncertainty come with the realization that this is a whole new creative process for us and really stretching our edges. We love writing together but are we up to doing this? Can we write humorous fiction? How would we get this published? And on and on.
The big reveal? We’re going for it !!! And we decided to share a little tidbit of the book with you first!! Hope it tickles your interest.
p.s. Wonder if Mona Lisa knew how to cook pasta?
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