creativity - Bee Now, soft skills training, coaching, mental health professional, Chengdu, china, foreigner, Advocate for mindfulness. Arya Salehi

07Jun 2021 by aryask@gmail.com

Being a clean mirror with Stephen DiSalvio

creativity

BeeNow podcast, Episode 53 Stephen DiSalvio - or as I call myself - me. But you should probably call me... Stephen. I grew up in New Jersey - the suburbs of NYC. I'm a complex coordination of compounds directed by my DNA, but mostly I'm just water. Here's a list of my "achievements" so that you can more easily judge my relative value as a human being: programmer for 4 years, teacher for 2 years, produced 2 albums (search: thoughtpeace), performed stand-up comedy, written lots of poems, overcame lots of anxiety, accepted that I'm going to be alone forever, then fell in love, forgotten more things than I've remembered (like where I'm going with this introduction). Oh yeah, and I played the trombone in high school. Anyway, I'm a person…

26Apr 2021 by aryask@gmail.com

shape of mood with Coco

creativity, design, storytelling

BeeNow podcast, Episode 51 Born in Chengdu, Coco Min Zhu is freelancer illustrator. She collaborates with both editorials and commercial brands making comics, graphic novels, patterns, posters, commercial illustrations etc. Her clients include TAIKOOLI, STARBUCKS, L'OREAL, NESTLE, TENCENT, YANLORDI etc. In 2018, she created her own design brand called Shameless. In this episode, Coco and I talk about childhood, growing up, and her journey in becoming a designer and comedian. We also explore the importance of confidence, finding inspiration, and the meaning of home.

13Oct 2019 by aryask@gmail.com

Creative brainstorming with mindfulness

creativity, mindfulness

I learned about a company called IDEO some years ago and I was intrigued by their human-centered approach to design and innovation. I followed them over the years. Their founders wrote several books, one titled Creative Confidence, a must-read for educators, leaders, and designers looking to boose their problem-solving skills. My thesis on creativity, like other soft skills, is that you can activate creativity, you can also de-activate it, but you cannot force anyone to care about it. IDEO seems to share the same ethos. At IDEO there are 7 principles used during brainstorming sessions to enable a team's creativity. It's like oiling the creative engine. A well-oiled engine has a smooth and stable ride. One of the principles is "defer judgment: put all critiques and judgments aside." The ancient practice of mindfulness is about…

30Nov 2017 by aryask@gmail.com

Trust the process, improvise success

creativity, empathy, flow, improv

I was given 90 minutes to do something fun and creative at a Spittoon tour event in Chengdu, China. It could be about anything! And I was delightfully overwhelmed with possibility. So, I listened to the words of a mentor: “let’s do nothing and then take a break.” The event was not for another month, so I planned to do a lot of nothing until then. After many walks along the river during my lunch breaks, I finally turned on to an idea for the event: Improv Storytelling. It married two of my favorite things in the world and something I personally wanted to know more about. It made me nervous and feverishly eager. As a long time student of improvisation and storytelling, I believe in their potential to inspire…

28Jun 2017 by aryask@gmail.com

Getting creative

creativity, flow

Creativity means making something new and meaningful. It's a celebration of being alive. Creativity is a birthright. A gift to the world. it's a process. The process is the insight. Creativity is the natural flow of things. The hard part is getting out of our own way. Creativity happens when we trust the process and let go of how we think it's supposed to be. Let go so your gift can flow freely. Why be creative? Because it feels good to be alive.