Steven Barnes's Blog, page 58

The Unconscious Mind

Had a chance to speak to an old friend of mine who, just a couple of years ago, didn’t believe that the subconscious mind really existed. It was all conscious to her. Now she believes it exists, but that the conscious is still the part that must be enlisted in order to make change. Not surprisingly, this friend (Call her Maddy) is a hundred pounds overweight, and has fluctuated wildly–from very skinny to very fat, with only the briefest stops in between. She has a long-term relationship which...

Yin and Yang of action

 

There are two basic approaches to life, and I think the healthiest is a combination of them.   One is “The world must change for me to get what I want.” the other is “I must act personally  to accomplish what I want.”   I think they can be broadly referred to as “Yin” and “Yang” approaches.

 

With dominated communities  the split might be:

Build alliances with fair-minded people to change the laws and make the world fair. Work twice as hard to get half as far. Be so excellent no one can ig...

Humans are funny critters

A recent conversation triggered a memory…

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I remember being at a southern SF convention twenty years ago. Someplace in Mississippi, maybe? Or Texas? MAYBE Midwest?  Anyway, after a panel dealing with diversity in the field, a young white man approached me, shyly, sadly, felt me out a bit until he sensed that I was open to hearing what he really had to say. And after a few preliminaries, he said in a sad soft voice: “it feels like a white man doesn’t have a chance any more. Everything is fo...

Stress and Women in STEM

I’m cooking up something, but its on the back-burner.  Research phase. I don’t even know what I don’t know in this arena.  The overarching project is Stress and Performance for Women in STEM leadership roles.

 

The first thing I want to do is create a survey and ask STEM women in my circle (and connected thereto) to answer it.  But to do that, I need to ask questions about what questions I should ask.  I need to be careful to listen, with the assumption that I am wrong and ignorant of things...

Step #3: Accepting the Challenge

(I know, I know. I go over and over and over these basic patterns. But repetition is the mother of skill!)

The Third Step of the Hero’s Journey is acceptance of the challenge.   And here, the challenge is to be either an awake, aware, adult human being…or an awake, aware, adult ARTIST-type human being. One who communicates this state through stories.   And since everything we say is a story, these are just people who do it consciously.

 

Everything you say or think is a story.  Think about th...

Meditation and Art

A reader asked: “Question for you. This has been on my mind for a while, and you’re a person who meditates and you’re a writer, so you’ve probably worked through this. My understanding of the purpose of meditation is to try to be in the present moment, to experience what IS, not what was, or what will be. So part of meditation is recognizing monkey mind and bringing yourself back to the breath. But meditation is also the way I put myself in the right mental space to write or do an...

The Inner and Outer Games

One of the secrets to a happy life is the ability to perform, instinctively, as you would if you sat and thought about it for a month. The only way you can do this is to have the inner and outer worlds in harmony–that you can present yourself honestly and openly as you are at all times. This takes remarkable courage, and is something that only a few can do with consistency, and no one I’ve ever met can do 100% of the time.

Nonetheless, it is another core concept of the entire Lifewriting syst...

HJ #2: The Hero Rejects The Challenge

“Somebody should tell us…right at the start of our lives…that we are dying. Then we might live to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.” ~Michael Landon

 

Lifewriting is about being the hero in our own stories.  To do this, we must understand not only storytelling, but what heroes really are. They are not people without fear.  They are people who act despite fear.

 

It is FEAR in one form or another that manif...

Throwing your hat over the fence

(From 2005, during the Maui Writer’s Workshop)

Tananarive just finished giving the keynote address for the second half of the conference. She was, (of course) beautiful and brilliant and inspiring, but one of the things she stressed is the need to throw your intentions in front of you: “throwing your hat over the fence.” What does this mean? The ability to commit on the basis of faith alone, which is an ability that is rare and precious, although we are all forced to do it from time to time....

James Cameron on “Alien 3”

One of my readers, Lancelot Falk, got to ask James Cameron a question I’ve often wondered about:

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“OK, the story.

First off, let me say, I friggin, unapologetically love the work of James Cameron. Yes, Avatar. Yes Titanic. Yes, Dark Angel…etc. Aliens and T2 and the uncut version of The Abyss are among my favorite movies. (Your milage may differ).

A decade ago, I went to a studio screening of Titanic on the day it crossed the 100M line.

It was a large packed auditorium. After the screening J...