Kim Hermanson's Blog, page 11

2023 is the year of cringe

“Every extraordinary or successful or remotely memorable person in the world has only gotten to where they are because they didn’t give a fuck about being cringey.” @dahman454 on TikTok.

I’ve been helping a good friend with her singing gigs for the past few months. It’s amazingly fun AND… I always leave steeped in CRINGE….. like I just majorly embarrassed myself. I’m not a professional singer and I’m SO incredibly sensitive to every snide remark or criticism that comes my way. So on that note, I LOVE this article titled In 2023, I Am Cringe But I Am Free from Maybelle Morgan at Refinery29.

Somehow, we all have to get over feelings of cringe so we can do our pioneering work, realize our loves and passions, and be fully ourselves. Let’s do that.

The psyche prefers to work with images.

For many years I led creative writing workshops. Early on I noticed that some writing prompts tended to keep people entrenched in analytical thinking and their subsequent writing was heady and dry. These exercises often involved using a word or newspaper headline to write from. Their writing might have been slick and witty, but it was rarely deep or soulful, not moving the group emotionally. 

But when I brought in images, it opened up a whole other space—images helped these writers access their depth. It was as if they didn’t need to find their words, they needed to find their image. Once they did, their writing was rich and often profound. I felt nurtured listening to it.

Images are the common, universal, native language among all cultures. Psychologist David Premack writes: “The original and basic unit of mental activity, which remains the psyche’s preferred way of operating, is the image.”  

To see the world compassionately, we need our right cerebral hemisphere.

In 1973, neurobiologist Roger Sperry stated:  “There appears to be two modes of thinking, verbal and nonverbal, represented separately in left and right hemispheres, respectively. Our educational system, and science in general, tends to neglect the nonverbal form of intellect. What it comes down to is that modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere.”  

To my mind, that’s one of the most paradigm-changing statements of the 20th century. One we still haven’t fully understood or acted upon.

In recent years, brain scientists have argued that the distinction between the left and right hemispheres is too simplistic and that the brain is much more complex.

But… as someone who has spent 30 years studying learning and creativity, I know of no other way of distinguishing between two states of being: one where we are focused and the other where we’re connected to something greater than ourselves.

I work with the right brain. The right hemisphere of our brain views the world intimately… it understands feelings and connection.

To see the world compassionately, we need our right cerebral hemisphere.

While our left hemisphere separates things and makes distinctions, it can’t bring things together. It can’t connect things.

Because our culture is solely focused on perceiving the world through our left hemisphere, we haven’t understood how to access and draw on the extraordinary creative powers that lie beyond our thinking. Powers that we can only access through the right hemisphere.

 

For more on the powers of the right brain and its language of metaphor, check out my book, Deep Knowing: Entering the Realm of Non-Ordinary Intelligence.

 

 

 

A spiritual call will haunt you until you heed its message

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I spent years trying to fit into traditional boxes, yet never fitting in… because an inner calling will never fit into a box. I spent more years not trusting my path and feeling that I wasn’t the right person for what I felt called to do. I didn’t want to make waves, speak out, or call attention to myself.

But… Spirit doesn’t care about credentials.

A spiritual call will haunt you until you heed its message. You are the only one who can answer it.

Breakthroughs happen when we open spaces we didn’t know existed.

finding solid ground… when you’re navigating the unknown

Navigating uncertain terrain.

Six years ago, I was diagnosed with an ovarian tumor the size of a cantaloupe. I was (understandably) scared.

I work with metaphor with my clients. The metaphor that showed up was an image: I saw myself walking through uncertain terrain, but there was solid ground under my feet.

The image said:

This is the landscape I’m walking on now. As long as I have solid ground under my feet and I’m centered in my body, I will be safe, even though I don’t know what lies ahead. I can move as fast or as slow as I would like. I can rest when I want to. I don’t need to push. There is nothing scary around me. Only uncertain terrain.

The surgery was successful. They removed the entire tumor which was still encased in its sac. But I’m sharing this little story for two reasons:

If you’re going through a scary or uncertain situation right now, finding your metaphoric place of “solid ground” will help you through it.Our minds can make us crazy scared, but there’s deep metaphoric wisdom under the surface. Why not trust it?

 

check out my article in Medium: The power of thinking in shapes

There’s a reason bank buildings are square. There’s a reason that when we need rest we go to a large body of water… or the desert. There’s a reason web designers use lots of white space. (Space allows readers’ eyes — and brains! — to stay calm so they can absorb the material.) There’s a reason why group facilitators seat people in a circle (rather than lines of chairs) when they want to create a sense of cohesiveness and group bonding.

Corporate advertisers consciously and strategically use shapes in their buildings, products, and advertising because different shapes appeal to and awaken different parts of our brain. But shapes aren’t just for corporate advertisers and web designers. Every one of us can tap their potent power.

Confused about the direction of a project? Getting distracted by other things? a LINE brings clarity, definition, precision, and focus.

Feeling anxious about an upcoming presentation? a SQUARE brings the beautiful qualities of a line (clarity and definition), along with safety, sturdiness, and strength.

Ready to launch a new program? a TRIANGLE also brings clarity and definition (line) and the sturdiness of a square. But the triangle has a particular vision it’s reaching for. The triangle honors and develops this vision from a place of sturdy groundedness.

Something is missing but you’re not sure what it is? Work with a CIRCLE. Circles gather the stray threads and…

Click here for the rest of the article!

Our world needs the artist’s cognitive capacities

The physicist Arthur Zajonc says that our culture needs the artist’s cognitive capacities. But what ARE those cognitive capacities?  

Perhaps those capacities include the artist’s willingness to be confused, welcoming any unlikely connection that shows up. Perhaps it’s his or her sensitivity to nuance and qualities of beauty that others miss. Perhaps artists are more flexible and disposed to “go with the flow.” Maybe they’re more comfortable with risk-taking and more inclined to let curiosity lead the way. 

Perhaps artists have found a way, through their art, to go beyond ordinary capacities of human reasoning.

Metaphor is an act of genius.

Metaphor is at the core of nearly all scientific breakthroughs and acts of genius. 

Celebrated scientists like Niels Bohr, Richard Feynman, and Albert Einstein relied on metaphor to help them make new discoveries. 

Clearly, fundamental change depends upon our ability to engage with metaphor.

In other words, metaphor is an act of genius.

Art is love ~ Paul Reynard

The artist Paul Reynard wrote:  “A work of art is necessarily incomplete. It is a way of learning.” 

We’re all in this process of art-making, whether we think of ourselves as artists or not, because we’re all learners. 

Reynard was asked before he died, “What is the place of art in contemporary life?” He responded, “The question could well be formulated as ‘What is the place of love in contemporary life?’”

I’ve always loved that statement. It says so much. 

The best artists show us how to see the world with love.

Or perhaps we could more simply say, “art is love.”