Ronald Alexander - Core Creativity: The Mindful Way to Unlock Your Creative Self

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. In his groundbreaking book Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote, In our studies, we found that every flow activity, whether it involved competition, chance, or any other dimension of experience, had this in common: It provided a sense of discovery, a creative feeling of transporting the person into a new reality. It pushed the person to higher levels of performance, and led to undreamed-of states of consciousness (italics mine). Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1990), 74.

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. Albert Einstein, Cosmic Religion: With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (New York: Covici-Friede, 1931, republished New York: Dover Publications, 2009), 97.

. Cody Fern, interview with the author, October 14, 2020.

. Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living beyond Fear (New York: Penguin Random House, 2015), 4257.

. David Seltzer, interview with the author, July 25, 2021.

. Herbert Benson, with Miriam Z. Klipper, The Relaxation Response (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1975).

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. Cody Fern, interview with the author, January 15, 2021.

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. The more mindful we are, the less self-conscious we are. Ellen J. Langer, On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself through Mindful Creativity (New York: Ballantine Books, 2005), 40.

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. Walter Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver through the Anthology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 46465.

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. Peter A. Levine, Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1997).

. Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma (New York: Penguin Books, 2014), 98.

. Ibid., 53.

. Ibid., 285.

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. David Seltzer, interview with the author.

. Ronnie Landfield, interview with the author, October 14, 2020.

. Jonathan Scales, interview with the author, November 20, 2020.

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. Amy Ziering, interview with the author, July 3, 2021.

. Ibid.

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. Jodi Long, interview with the author, December 24, 2020.

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. Jodi Long, interview with the author, December 24, 2020.

. William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience. Originally published by Longmans, Green and Co. 1902 (New York: Random House, The Modern Library, 1929), 378.

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. Jodi Long, interview with the author.

. Yaro Starak, interview with the author.

. Judith Orloff, Guide to Intuitive Healing: 5 Steps to Physical, Emotional and Sexual Wellness (New York: Harmony Books, 2001), xiv.

. Cody Fern, interview with the author.

. Joe Keohane, The Hemi Q&A: James Taylor, Hemispheres magazine, June 2015, 72.

, Inner Light Publishers: 2015), 57.

. Cody Fern, interview with the author.

. Rhonda Bryant, written statement provided to the author.

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. Mason Currey, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013).

. Cody Fern, interview with the author.

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. Robbie Robertson on the creative process. Daniel Roher, director, Once Were Brothers, Magnolia Pictures, 2019.

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. Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson, A Thousand Kisses Deep, 2006, lyrics Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC.

. Ronnie Landfield, interview with the author, October 14, 2020.

. Jodi Long, interview with the author.

. Val Garay, interview with the author, December 6, 2020.

. Ronnie Landfield, interview with the author, October 14, 2020.

. Dennis Quaid, interview with the author, May 1, 2021.

. Jodi Long, interview with the author, December 24, 2020.

. Dennis Quaid, interview with the author, May 1, 2021.

. Ram Dass regarding using the energy of nervousness as an inner engine: personal conversation during a meditation retreat in September 1989, in Lyon, France.

. Jack Kornfield, Buddhas Little Instruction Book (New York: Bantam Books, 1994), 11.

. Glenn Frey conversation with Bob Seger, Alison Ellwood, director, Alex Gibney, co-producer, History of the Eagles, documentary miniseries, 2013.

. Dennis Quaid, interview with the author, May 1, 2021.

. Cody Fern, interview with the author, January 15, 2021.

. Ronnie Landfield, interview with the author, October 14, 2020.

. Amy Ziering, interview with the author, July 3, 2021.

. Note that according to the study, the brain regions involved in each of the three systems in the brain used effectively by highly creative people are as follows: the default mode network, comprised of cortical midline and posterior inferior parietal regions; the executive (or frontoparietal) control network, comprised of lateral prefrontal and anterior inferior parietal regions; and the salience network, comprised of bilateral insula and anterior cingulate cortex.

. Ellen J. Langer, On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself through Mindful Creativity (New York: Ballantine Books, 2005), 102.

. David Seltzer, interview with the author.

. Val Garay, interview with the author, December 6, 2020.

. Ellen J. Langer, On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself through Mindful Creativity (New York: Ballantine Books, 2005), 49.

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. Ronnie Landfield, interview with the author, October 14, 2020.

. Steven Soderbergh, Sex, Lies, and Videotape (New York: Harper & Row, 1990), epigraph.

. Val Garay, interview with the author, December 6, 2020.

. Dennis Quaid, interview with the author.

. Ibid.

. Amy Ziering, interview with the author, July 3, 2021.

. Dennis Quaid, interview with the author.

. Jonathan Scales, interview with the author, November 20, 2020.

. Glen Frey on elbow grease, time, thought, and persistence. Alison Ellwood, director, Alex Gibney, co-producer. History of the Eagles, documentary miniseries.

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. Amy Ziering, interview with the author, July 3, 2021.

. Personal conversation with Tom Hayden, circa May 1987 at the home of Katie and David Phillips during a Tom Hayden fundraiser.

. Mason Currey, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013), 74.

. Ronnie Landfield, interview with the author, October 14, 2020.

. David Seltzer, interview with the author.

. Ibid.

. Chris Choy, phone interview with the author, April 2021.

. Mason Currey, Daily Rituals, 72.

. Jack Canfield, The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be (New York: William Morrow, 2005, 2015).

. Kay Jamison Redfield, Touched with Fire: Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament (New York: Free Press Paperbacks, 1993).

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. David Seltzer, interview with the author.

. Ruth Ann Atchley et al., Creativity in the Wild: Improving Creative Reasoning through Immersion in Natural Settings, PLoS ONE 7, no. 12 (2012): e51474. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051474.

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, retrieved June 27, 2021.

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. Ram Dass also told me this story in personal conversations I had with him on several occasions in Amherst, Massachusetts, and Maui, Hawaii.

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. Scott Douglas, Running Is My Therapy: Relieve Stress and Anxiety, Fight Depression, and Live Happier (New York: The Experiment, LLC, 2018).