3 X 5's: Index Card Wisdom from Best of Books

CAREFUL & PLAYFUL Steve Kissell (1993). Surviving Life with Laughter. Kissell has a Navy background and then went back to college to become an elementary teacher before embarking on his laughter career as a speaker and writer. Many of the suggestions for incorporating laughter, as the book was written in the 1990's, would be considered harassment today, underscoring the need to be careful and playful in applying "jokes" (especially pranks) on others, especially in school and work settings...read the context, situation, person(s) to decide if a gag, joke, riddle is appropriate Kissell has four pages of references at the end. He suggests laughter can distract us from stress, creates feel-good hormones to reduce stress, and is just plain fun. He also mentions Norman Cousin's claim that 10 mins of laughter equals 1 hour of pain reduction, a hypothesis that i invite you to test when you're in "pain." some of the humor ideas that resonated with me: read c...

IGNORE  Hugh MacLeod (2009). Ignore Everybody:                                                  And 39 Other Keys to Creativity. I couldn't find any information on MacLeod's educational credentials. His work experience includes being a copywriter for 10 years while creating cartoons on the back of business cards at bars before blogging and creating the website Gagping Void.com. The book is based on his blog and includes 2-4 page chapters with little drawings for each chapter...the format of each chapter begins with a principle followed by a personal story and advice, and a picture to summarize. some of the advice that resonnated with me: choose something you WANT to do--your personal mountain to climb, a hobby, your shtick, something soulful, meaningful, and fun...and don't monetize it or turn it into a "job." be totally f--king amaz...

LUMINOUS ENERGY Alberto Villoldo (2000). Shaman, Healer, Sage:                                                   How to Heal Yourself and Others with                                                   Energy Medicine of the Americas Villoldo is a PhD anthropologist who had a successful academic career before studying 25 years with Inka medicine men and women. He aims to reinterpret the ancient healing practices in ways that we can use to heal the body, mind, soul, and spirit. He proposes 4 levels of luminous energy fields that surround our bodies and 9 chakras (the 8th being above the head and the 9th extending out to infinity) there are several practices covered, including chakra cleansing, s...

KEEP GOING Austin Kleon (2019). Keep Going:                                             10 Ways to Stay Creative                                             in Good Times and Bad. This is the 3rd of a trilogy of books by Kleon, the first two being Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work! I appreciate the personal, friendly style of writing with lots of quotes--little gems everywhere--and the simple and sometimes humorous artwork. Parts that hit me the most, and ideas for practices: create a routine that protects your art, allowing you to make the most beautiful thing you can every day...let the routine also allow time for play, relationships, and meditation/prayer. create lists when feeling overwhelmed to moves the ideas...

BRAIN WAVES Anna Wise (2002). Awakening the Mind:                                        A Guide to Mastering                                        the Power of Your Brain Waves. Wise has an MA in Humanistic Psychology and founded the Anna Wise Center (http://annawise.com/). She traveled extensively to create and test protocols for brain wave training, over 6k hours studying brain waves, and she worked with Max Cade for 8 years to develop the Mind Mirror (in it's 6th iteration at the time of this writing: https://www.themindmirror.com/) to measure and test protocols for brain wave mastery. While one can measure brain waves of both the right and left hemispheres with the "mind mirror," Wise contends that you don't need this instrument to develop ...