Want to ignite your creative brain? Slow down.
BY: Anya Kamenetz in Fast Company
THIRTY YEARS AGO, the Walt Disney Co. was at a creative crossroads. With the opening of Epcot, Disney’s original theme park vision was complete. Where could the company go next? Walt Disney’s Imagineers, the company’s goofily named creative design and development arm, took an unusual step.
They called in a therapist and meditation teacher named Ron Alexander. “Over two years, I did a series of seminars on creativity, reengineering, and revisioning, so that individuals in the division could begin to access new creative directions,” he says. The Imagineers went on to open Tokyo Disney, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland, and even today still earn patents in areas like 3-D virtual-reality displays and animatronics.
Illustration by Brian Stauffer
In the decades since, Alexander has built up his therapy and coaching practice helping creative workers — Hollywood producers, rock musicians, advertising executives, screenwriters — enhance their creativity. He asks his clients to meditate for at least 12 minutes every day. “Mindfulness helps you to build what I call ‘mind strength,’ ” Alexander says. “Your awareness and consciousness become really toned. This is an excellent strategy for becoming successful in your profession, as well as the bigger game of transforming yourself and the people who work with and for you.”
See also:
Connecting to God in Hollywood, the Ivy League, and Beyond
Learning to Thrive Spiritually in High Stress Environments
How to Know You Belong in Hollywood: Why Creative Personalities Really are More Complex
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Conversation Starter:
How does meditation in the Judeo-Christian tradition (Genesis 24:63; Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:2; 48:9; John 15:7; Philippians 4:8, etc) differ from other forms of meditation?
Why don’t contemporary Christians rely upon meditation like early Christians and Jews?
