December, 2004

In this issue:
* Creativity and ADD
* Meditation and the Brain
*UNESCO Children's art project:

Creativity and ADD

David Neeleman, CEO, Jet Blue has ADD (attention deficit disorder ) and likes it that way. He says many of his out-of-the-box ideas are thanks to his ADD. "In the midst of all the chaos in your mind, and all of the disorganization, and all the trouble getting started, and procrastination, your brain just thinks a little bit differently, and you can come up with things."

Ideas like ticketless travel (perfect for people who lose things), and live TV, are making a profit for Jet Blue at a time when most of the airline industry is in trouble. When Neeleman discovered he had a certifiable medical condition, he decided to do absolutely nothing about it.

"I kind of had this feeling that if I took this pill, it may kind of cure me or something and then I'd be like everybody else." He says that many ADD sufferers are attracted to high-risk or entrepreneurial careers and suspects Bill Clinton, and Richard Branson also have ADD.

There’s also speculation that Leonardo Da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Winston Churchill and Thomas Edison suffered from ADD as well.

Source: 60 Minutes, CBS news.com Read the full story here.

Brain Power

I received an interesting tidbit from Chic Thompson (author of What a Great Idea). He says your brain generates about 10 watts of electricity—not enough to light a city, but enough to imagine what an ideal city might be like. Children participating in a UNESCO project have done just that:

UNESCO has created an online forum called "My City's Scenes and Sounds" for Young Digital Creators to share a vision of their city, employing digital sounds and images. The website also offers instructions for teachers hoping to implement this project in the classroom.

Creativity is Featured in the December Issue of Fast Company

Provocations include: What Money Can't Buy
Each year, Microsoft spends more than $6 billion on R&D. And for all that money, it gets...digital toilets and SPOT Watches. Is there a problem here?

A scientific enquiry into the benefits of meditation:

Scans of Monks' Brains Show Meditation Alters Structure, Functioning

Mental discipline and meditation can change the workings of the brain and allow people to achieve different levels of awareness, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin.

"What we have found," said Davidson, a neurosurgeon at the W M Keck Laboratory for Functional Imaging and Behaviour at the University, "is that longtime practitioners showed brain activation on a scale we have never seen before.

"Their mental practice is having an effect on the brain the same way golf or tennis practice will enhance performance." He said it "demonstrates that the brain is capable of being trained and physically modified in ways few people can imagine." The new findings are the result of a study between Davidson and Tibetan Buddhist monks at the home of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India.

Sources: http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=54544 Jan 3/05, http://www.spiritinbusiness.org/new/images/Meditation.html

Finally, in this busy holiday season, take some time for soul-filled reflection, and nourish the seeds of new creations that are germinating within you right now.

Happy Holy Days,
Linda Naiman