Merce Cardus's Blog, page 48

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LinkFest ~ Best Reads on Writing, Screenwriting & Self-Publishing: The First Sentence

WRITING

How to get inspired to write: 8 effective approaches, Now Novel | Tweet

Knowing how to get inspired to write quickly will help you rediscover your creative spark when you feel stuck. Here are 8 ways to reconnect with your storytelling gift.

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Writing down your soul

5 Times you should listen to your subconscious, The Write Practice| Tweet

Creative inspiration hits us every day, whether or not we realize it. The trick is knowing when to be listening for those...

2 Times Steve Jobs Beat the Odds by Using a Forgotten Communication Tool

Walter Isaacson’s “enthralling” (The New Yorker) worldwide bestselling biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs—the inspiration for the movie Steve Jobs starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, and Jeff Daniels, directed by Danny Boyle with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.

Steve Jobs is known for his effective speeches and presentations in narrative form, but twice in his career he leveraged the ceremony as a unique communication tool to get his point across. According to Nancy Du...

Happiness As The Last Currency

Can You Learn to Be Happy?

YES . . . according to the teacher of Harvard University’s most popular and life-changing course. One out of every five Harvard students has lined up to hear Tal Ben-Shahar’s insightful and inspiring lectures on that ever-elusive state: HAPPINESS.

HOW?
Grounded in the revolutionary “positive psychology” movement, Ben-Shahar ingeniously combines scientific studies, scholarly research, self-help advice, and spiritual enlightenment. He weaves them together into a set...

Are Out-of-Body and Near-Death Experiences Mystical or States of the Brain?

In The Rise of Superman, New York Times–bestselling author Steven Kotler decodes the mystery of ultimate human performance.

Some of the most impactful studies on out-of-body and near-death experiences were done by the U.S. Air Force when it purposefully induced the conditions on fighter pilots. The results of the experiments have shed light on how the brain functions during what have always been mysterious states of consciousness: observing yourself from the outside, seeing tunnel vision, ha...

Obtening Benefit From Adversity

New scientific researchsuggests thatresilience isn’t something with which only a fortunate few of us have been born, but rather something we can all take specific action to develop. To build strength out of adversity, we need a catalyst. What we need, according toDr. Alex Lickerman, author of The Undefeated Mind, is wisdom―wisdom that adversity has the potential to teach us.

We are, all of us, meaning-seaking creatures

We may begin life as pleasure seekers and pain avoiders, but as our brai...

The Brain Has 3 Different Systems for Mating — Combined, They Promote Adultery

Even though adultery is punishable by death in some societies, it still occurs regularly. This tells Dr. Helen Fisher there is probably a genetic predisposition toward cheating on your partner. Of course not everyone cheats, so it’s not necessary for survival, but if we dial back ten thousand years, to a time when resources were more scarce, adultery would have helped genes survive the present generation and be passed onto the next. That gives a clear rational for men’s desire to cheat, but...

Self-Discipline: A Virtue

William J. Bennett has collected hundreds of stories in The Book of Virtues, an instructive and inspiring anthology that will help children understand and develop character — and help adults teach them. From the Bible to American history, from Greek mythology to English poetry, from fairy tales to modern fiction, these stories are a rich mine of moral literacy, a reliable moral reference point that will help anchor our children and ourselves in our culture, our history, and our traditions —...

How Virtual Reality Will Supplant the Film-Going Experience

Technological change has happened increasingly quickly in the film industry. First sound, then Hollywood, then color. When the television set entered the culture, everyone predicted the end of the big screen. What happened instead were a series of innovations to the film-going experience itself. New York Times Chief Film Critic A.O. Scott, author of Better Living Through Criticism, discusses how virtual reality may change going to the movies, taking a community experience and creating a more...

Single-Tasking: Reclaim Your Life

Singletasking explains exactly how to clear and calm your mind, arrange your schedule and environment, and gently yet firmly manage the expectations of people around you so that you can accomplish a succession of tasks, one by one—and be infinitely more productive. Singletasking is the secret to success and sanity.

Singletasking: It can be real, can it?

Perhaps singletasking seems a tad unrealistic. Such a concept may appear charming, yet you have more on your plate than I could possibly im...