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Practice

Feeling Stuck? Move!

May 19, 2017 by Sara Nolan

Stuck really sucks Do you ever just feel stuck? Literally? On the page, in your head, with that stupid crank in your neck? Twinge in your tight back? If you said no, never been stuck,  you're amazing, and also the exception.  You should come over and tell me all your secrets, which I can afterward try to pass off in a blog post as my own. (Just kidding, but you will obviously be on Oprah before then!) Thing is: Most of us, most of the time, feel more stuck than not. And the way to deal with that is so simple it's like asking how you should end your sentences (with a period!): MOVE. That's right, move. My friend and colleague Ruthie Fraser wrote this gorgeous little book about that: Stack Your Bones: 100 simple lessons for realigning your body and moving with ease.  Here's more on that. Each exercise has broad applicability; each encourages movement to be natural, but with clear energetic goals and room for improvisation. So "Vary Your Route" begins, "Come to your hands and knees. Lengthen your spine.  Extend your elbows." These cues might be familiar if you've ever done yoga.  However, she encourages us to start with the familiar, and shift to novel shapes. "Habitual movements create habitual thinking.  Feel your mind open as your body travels new routes." She offers simple exercises-- but profound, like a period is profound! One little dot indicating both an end and a beginning!-- that can be utilized at any time, as a foundation for however you prefer to move or exercise.  They can also be used in stillness, as a computer break when working on, say, your college essay, or some other writing project that begs for nourishing interruption. She hopes we can all feel firsthand in our bodies what unstuck could be like. And perhaps it will help you align your ideas a little more clearly with your intentions.  Or introduce some wildness into bland sentences. Speaking of wildness...speaking of moving... I recently listened to an amazing  Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Exercise, Practice, State of Mind, Teachers, Writing Tips Tagged With: exercise, inspiration, movement, writer's block

Prompts for Your Snow Day

March 14, 2017 by Sara Nolan

word on fallen snow

Dear Snow Day, and Your Pile of Prompts! Hey, Snow Day, let's tell it like it is before we start with the prompts: Everybody loves you, I think.  Especially the mayor-- you make him popular. Which makes you more popular than basically anyone ever. You make school children freak out with joy and relief. Most of us stress-balls appreciate when Mother Nature throws us a bone, and gives us a free pass to play hooky, and play-- and in this case, respond to a prompt. By choice-- can you believe it?-- some of us weirdos use the extra time you give us to write.  BECAUSE WE LIKE IT, AND IT MAKES US FEEL ALIVE.  It makes us feel as powerful as a blizzard, as impactful as bad weather, as connected to everything. In case you were wondering. So for those folks "stuck" at home, who are not "busy" binging on video games, pretending to clean, or youtube-ing until their eyes cross, here are some personal essay writing prompts.  Courtesy of Essay Intensive and our partner, Snow Day, who really looks out for our creative well-being. These five writing prompts were all derived from an article on how to escape an avalanche (literally, but consider the metaphorical implications).  Please check out the details of avalanche-escapsim here. Then, get to pleasurable work. The Writing Prompts Write about a time you got snowed under.-- literally or metaphorically. Write about a time you had to thrash to save your life. If spitting helps us know which way is down, write about not knowing which way is up and what to do about it. Write about something you witnessed in extreme weather-- say, your neighbor's skirt blowing over her head, or someone on a sled being towed by a car. Beacon, Probe, Flotation--respond to these words any way you like. OR Write a short essay in three parts, each part themed around one of these words. How to Deal with Snow Day Prompts: Freewrite-- set your timer: 5-20 minutes per prompt.  And just keep going if you hear the beep but you're on  Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Practice, Uncategorized, Writing Tips Tagged With: freewriting, personal essay writing, prompts, Snow Day

Is your heart smarter than your head?

February 6, 2017 by Sara Nolan

hearts see far

I heart not Stressing Most of us are stressed, and it gets old; our heart sags. (Waiting for your college letters much?  That can wreck you-- so don't be wreck-bait.) But somehow you still get cool points for being the most stressed.  Even though, somewhere deep inside, you know it ain't right.  If you really want to stress yourself out, don’t let me stop you. You're still on the Cortisol Cruise. Go do something more stressful, like trying to keep my toddler from licking all the magnets he fished out from under the fridge. But if you're not so sure you want to feel stressed out all the time, and maybe the hamster wheel is giving you vertigo, read on. The key might be connecting with your own intelligent heart. Heart "Facts" I recently heard (in a long scientific-esque lecture on Le Youtube) that the heart shares a majority of its neurotransmitters with the brain--something like 60%. I don't believe everything I hear. And like most things biological, the picture is probably more complex than that fact alone signals. However, I like this one. In this age of loose facts, when the president decides not only who can vote and who can't, but also whether truth has any business in the executive branch-- I'll cherry-pick my facts. I'll critical think later. I invite you to do the same, just for the duration of this blog post. Because your heart, or so this doctor says... ...perceives 5 seconds faster than da' Brain. (Perceives what? Perceives how? Not sure, but I like where this is heading.). It knows some things first.  I've felt this happen.  Have you? So why not get in synch with your smarter organ? A heart coherence meditation Here’s a  meditation geared for teens, for those moments when you are stressed and just want to come back home. My students love it. (Your parents can and should do it too-- here's a meditation for them.) The meditations take just a few minutes. Call a family meeting to try it out. Or do it by yourself in  Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Exercise, Integrity, Practice, Solutions, State of Mind, Uncategorized, Wisdom Tagged With: feel better, focus, heart meditation, parents, stress, stress reduction

But what if? (How to revise a worldview in 2 minutes)

October 17, 2016 by Sara Nolan

What if newborns only knew kindness?

What would happen if we chose to...? (an exercise in possible "What if's" as modeled by thought leader Seth Godin) Say what we mean, without being mean Treat each day as an experiment, not an exam Remember that everyone was a helpless baby, once Trust that our actions ripple outwards indefinitely Wear kind-colored glasses Find unusual role models Have hearts first, brains second Assume we don't know what it took for each person to make it this far  Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Practice, State of Mind, Uncategorized, Wisdom Tagged With: choices, college essay ideas, free-writing prompts, Imitations, Seth Godin, values

How to take care of yourself right now

September 21, 2016 by Sara Nolan

take care of yourself

25 ways to take care of yourself this fall It's fall. It's frenetic.  It's college application season for you or your kids or your students. It's hard to do it all.  To take care of yourself feels like a luxury item that gets tossed with last year's papers. But still, you've got to take care of yourself or game over.  Any of the suggestions on our list will be a perk, a plus. Pick and choose: aim to keep your body, mind and heart healthier-- and hopefully less bat-shit crazy-- as you move through coming months.  Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Practice, Solutions, State of Mind, Uncategorized, Wisdom Tagged With: Awareness, college application, exercise, health, humor, kindness, meditation, stress

Ditch cliches for a strong college essay

September 12, 2016 by Sara Nolan

Flock away from cliche

The worst thing you can do for your personal story is deaden it with cliches. Cliches make your reader's mind go numb.  Use them too much (playing it safe?) and Admissions officers have forgotten you before they are even done reading your college essay. Even the most intense, riveting tale can lose all of its power if you tell it just like everyone has told it before you. "I couldn't believe my eyes.  As she took her last breath I begged her not to go."  This sort of thing. How tragic would that be? You have a powerful story to tell-- but it's so predictable that no one cares. Now, look: in human life, death is predictable.  Suffering is predictable.  Some mishap, some humor, transitions-- all are predictable. But that doesn't have anything to do with cliche, or how you choose to tell your reader about what happened. It's all about what details you include, where you put the focus, and what fresh images or stark descriptions you weave in.  Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Practice, Solutions, Uncategorized, Writing Tips Tagged With: cliche, college admissions essay, detail, Free-writing, predictable, writing sample

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