The Secret Ingredient

Try this:   

Put it down. The irony that I’m telling you to put down the very device you’re reading this on is not lost on me. However, it is the best thing you can do to be your sharpest creative self.

When was the last time you were bored? When you stared off into space and just noticed what was going on around you? Why don’t you try it right now, and give your mind a chance to ebb into a subconscious state?

1. Right now, turn on Do Not Disturb, put an alarm on for 15 minutes, and put your device out of reach. Walk outside if you can. Don’t bring anything. Don’t listen to anything except what you can hear around you. Just be. Let your mind wander and enjoy being present. After a while, see if you can hear God’s voice while you rest. Ask him to fill and heal your mind.

2. Make this a habit. Set an alarm at a time of day that you can take 15 minutes. Consider whether you can eventually do this practice more than once a day and for longer periods.

3. What if, as God did in Genesis, you could make one entire day a week in which you allowed yourself to rest and be present? What if this rest day became your secret ingredient to being creative?

 

Be inspired:

Meet Georgia Culey, a modern-day co-creator whose compassion for the individual motivates her to give every person – regardless of their ability – the chance to participate in life-changing experiences.

‘Life to the Full!’ reads the slogan greeting incoming students, packed into school buses as they pull into The Tops Conference Centre in Stanwell Tops. The John 10:10 reference probably goes unnoticed by the majority, but what does ‘Life to the Full!’ really mean for a student with a physical or mental disability?

It’s just part of a day’s work for The Tops staff members whose goal is to have every student experience adventure in its entirety. Tops staff member Georgia Culey said the experience of abseiling was always worth any additional effort, particularly for one student at a recent camp. “With an abseil, we get [a student] to the bottom of the wall, and kids climb up the wall, but we had to set up a haul system, to haul him up to the top. Once he’s up the top we can set him up to abseil back down. So, we get five or six kids to be on one side of the rope, while we’re holding him and pulling him up, and we can transfer him so he can do the full abseil himself.” The response of one student will always stay with Georgia. “He had a ball; it was awesome.”