Doing It

Doing It – Digital Art by Mary Mikawoz
Click link to see entire creation.

I have recently invested in a computer drawing tablet and so I am taking my creativity to the next level with technology. I have created with the same kind of flow that I would do with my old-fashion nibbed ink pen or coloured pens or pencils. It is vibrant. I have to admit, it took me a long time to deal with actually creating something. I was fearful of it and do not know all the hurdles I need to climb over quite yet. 

This is my creation called “Doing It” because it involves taking micro and baby steps in the right direction. It is about encouragement and “Going for it.” It is time for my new future! 

Thanks in advance for liking commenting, sharing and purchasing. Check out my other images and collections. Thanks for all positive feedback.

For bigger and fuller image, click here.

For a portfolio of creative work including art, photography and mixed media by Mary Mikawoz, click here.

For viewing recent images, click here.

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Mindfulness

 

Book: “What’s Beyond Mindfulness: Waking Up to This Precious Life?” by Stephen Fulder, Watkins Media Ltd., 2019.

Book Review by Mary Mikawoz

Book available January 15, 2019

It has taken me quite some time to read this book as I had to keep getting re-acquainted to the book as I needed to keep putting it down for consideration and reflection The book is about mindfulness. It is about Buddhism being part of our way of life that can be inclusive of already understood religions like the Judeo-Christian ones. Buddhism, as a way of life, adds to these existing religions in a way that is not adverse to them and so it is a good adjunct.

Stephen Fulder has done a lot of things including having Israeli-Palestinian workshops trying to give peace a chance in the Middle East. People leave behind their pre-conceived notions of the “enemy” and come to see that there is a humanity and spirituality in all people.

I appreciated the appendix as it offered a question/answer format. I would have, in many ways, preferred if the entire book had been written this way. Buddhism some may say is easy to learn, however, I find it much more difficult to understand and therefore difficult to write and read about.

I appreciated quotes from spiritual leaders like the Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi and the many Buddhist and Hindu spiritual leaders. The books goes into the stories of the bible like Jonah and Job, as well as into a number of psalms. Stephen also has written a number of poems throughout the book.

One quote early on I like is “We can live a wise inner life of reflection, creativity and inspiration, a life with wide horizons.” Another quote towards the middle that I like is “Consciousness is pure, it is our Buddha-nature, our pure being.” Finally, a quote near the end is that “The Sanskrit wordsamadhiis used for deep quiet, serenity and concentration, and it actually means to gather ourselves together. To bring ourselves back home.” The eight tenets of Buddhism were mentioned as well.

There is a lot of information provided but I am coming from a spiritual/New Age perspective so I found myself at odds with a number of the concepts. One example is karma. I disagree with what the books says. I do think it is about cause and effect. I do think that what you have done in a previous lifetimes affects you in your current life. Many situations that you are dealing with in life are as a result of either good intention or bad intention actions in past lives.

I appreciated the vocabulary of terms in the appendix in the back. I commend Stephen Fulder for the positive work he has done in society overall.

I am giving this book 3.5 stars out of 5 because it is informative but not in a structured way. Like I mentioned above, I think the book would have been more logical to understand and also more focussed if it were a question-answer process as the concepts are difficult to grasp due to our dualistic way of thinking.

Tags:Buddhism Buddha, Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi. Judeo-Christian, Jonah, Job, Psalm, karma, situations, dualism, cause and effect, spirit, spirituality, New Age, lifetime, consciousness, reflection, creativity, Sanskrit, Mary Mikawoz, Mikawoz, Book Review.

Book: “Quantum Creativity” by Amit Goswami, Ph.D.

Book Review

Book: “Quantum Creativity” by Amit Goswami, Ph.D.

Book Review by Mary Mikawoz

First of all, I would recommend that you read this book over a period of time. It is the type of book where reading one or two chapters at once is enough. I read through the chapters fairly quickly and I believe I would have gotten more out of it if I had taken due time and consideration.

 

This book does cover many of the quantum theories with some drawings, explanations and examples.

 

I found that as I continued to read, the understanding on my part improved. I found the first chapter hard to get into but then found the second chapter more easily. The sections of the book include: Steps to Understanding Human Creativity, the Creative Process, Can Anyone be Creative?, New Paradigms in Old Creative Arenas, Spiritual Creativity, Bringing Creativity to the Center of Your Life.

 

One of the most ways to get more creativity is “Do, be, do, be, do” which means doing something and then just being. The author gives examples as to how this works with your creative part of your brain. You can work on writing a book which is a creative part of the brain but then you need to do something else that is not related like doing the dishes or cleaning up the house. You need to change up what you are doing so that your creative mind can continue to work on your problem, issue or creative pursuits while it is not directly focussed all the time on the same issue.

 

The author brings through many Hindu and Buddhist analogies or story lines to understand and relate to the creative brain and how it operates.

 

Overall, I found the book good but with some reservations. The author assumes you know and understand “Archetypes” as defined by Carl Jung. He does not give examples of Archetypes until page 132. For this reason, I recommend having a dictionary handy for difficult terminologies. As well, you can have the internet close at hand to get further explanations if you wish. When I read the book, I was not near a connected computer so all my references had to be taken from the text itself.

 

This book is good for people who are willing to think about things. The book, as I have said, is complicated in places but it manages to offer another view of physics by talking about consciousness.

 

I was not financially compensated for this post. I received the book from Hay House for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.