Keep Open - How this phrasal verb changes everything.
This phrasal verb changes everything. Everything. EVERYTHING.
From Brazil to Columbia to China to Madagascar, English language learners experience the same frustration when it comes to mastering phrasal verbs.
In a nutshell, phrasal verbs are a combination of a verb and one or more adverbial or prepositional particles that turn the verb into a figurative phrase.
Take the word ‘keep,’ for example. “Keep off,” “keep out,” “keep on keeping on.” There are at least 28 phrasal verbs that use the word “keep.” While these endless turns of phrase roll off the tongue among us native English speakers, they practically choke foreign language learners. Listening to radio, watching TV and immersive experiences are direct channels to framing reference for learning the endlessness of idiomatic expressive English. That’s because phrasal verbs are contextual idiomatic chunks of parlance. English is literally packed with phrasal verbs. “Packed,” get it? “Get it.” Yep, phrasal verbs pop up all the time.
“Keep open” stands out as rule number one for developing one’s creativity.
The purpose of keeping open is to defer judgement and to delay any decision making. In doing so, you are better able to discover what might be. Keep open and you enter the world of possibility, the language of creativity. Ponder possibility and the opportunity to shape outcome emerges.
Deferring judgement is powerful. Even a short pause lets something incubate. Pause briefly to absorb what just occurred. Pausing means this: I am not letting my gut reaction takeover. I will take this in. I might even breathe on this for four seconds. Remember box breathing? I could respond, maybe with a question, maybe with some curiosity, maybe with more listening.
As native English speakers, phrasal verbs are automated for us. Equally, so many of us gut react to just about everything. That mess in the bathroom. Again? How might you reply to that? React with a volume of discontent and chances are it will get ugly with the guilty party. Choose to reply with a response instead. Responses reflect curiosity, and an openness to what might be. Maybe it was a craft experiment in the bathroom. Or maybe somebody simply forgot to clean up after themselves. Yes, perhaps again. Keeping open can keep you calm enough to shape an amenable outcome for all parties involved. Learn to defer judgement and everything can change if not for the better, then for the calmer and variety of possible end results.
Three quick strategies will help you to get your creativity on. First, replace a gut reaction with a pause. Absorb what just happened. Be quiet. 2. Take it in with a breath, two even to let automatic emotions pass through. 3. Choose to respond, perhaps with a follow up question or a ‘’tell me more.” Keeping open is the difference between intentionally suspending judgement and an autopilot unconscious knee jerk reactive reply.
Practice keeping open regularly in order to shift toward creative thinking. And what if you practice keeping open so much that you consciously become unconscious in the language of creativity? Well then you would have a creative thinking skill that truly can change everything. For creativity is the language of possibilities.
Practice keeping open for expanding into the dimension for what might be.
When Do I Get To Start My Novel?
This was a recurring question from one of my fourth graders this year.
Let me back up. I took it upon myself to try something different during Covid-19. As we started school fully remote, I was determined to find a way to make learning fun, personal and engaging.
What if students captured their learning in book form? It could keep papers together. It could save time and energy to on printing out the traditional worksheets. It could become a safe experimental place for engagement and dare I say pride. Drawing can strengthen intuition.
Creativity Through Arts captures learning in hand written format. Just as with any new language, creativity takes practice too. Learning creative thinking skills through the experience of drawing, sketching, making graphic organizers, writing and reflection can get messy. A portfolio of learning is beyond a keepsake. I may become a student reference book of creative thinking skills and a testament to engagement with the self and coursework.
Seriously, how many people want to write a book? How many people do write a book?
“I wrote a book.”
Imagine that sense of empowerment for a child, for any of us to say that.
I was unsure how exactly I could get kids to write a book. I learned along the way, we all did. I will do things differently next time. Yet here we are, feeling proud at the end of the school year, each student with a newly-minted book in hand.
New ways of learning and new types of classrooms clearly are happening around us. Before the internet, there were books. I what ways might the low tech cognition required for book writing blend with what is available online? Think paper bound sand box and have some fun with it.
5/25/21
Purpose for doing good combined with imaginative processes brings novel solutions into real game changing reality. That’s what I am about. Its called a new Ph balance.
Purpose plus how for new solution finding.
Purpose and processes could be perfect partners for social innovation. A compelling ‘why,’ is leads to purposeful work. Purposeful work, any work, is a minefield, however. Process in work is decisive in shaping outcome. A new Ph balance combines purpose with imaginative processes for novel solution finding. Useful and novel solutions edge old patterns instigating action in the direction of intention and resolution.
To have purpose is to have a compelling ‘why.’ Compelling is key, because a burning desire to do anything is the absolute guarantor for getting anything done. Purpose has value, meaning. Intrinsic motivation the the driving force to get a job done.
Finding a path toward purposeful work takes a two-pronged creative approach.
First, how does the problem solver think? What is their energy wave when tackling a challenge? It is at the beginning, do they want to complete the task and just get it done, or is it something else? Know anyone who asks a million annoying questions? That’s a different and important kind of energy to solve problems.
Knowing what part of the challenge energizes us for problem solving helps in two ways. First, knowing what we are good at is always great. We feel good doing what comes naturally to us. Second, knowing where we have gaps is awesome for building a well-rounded team.
Second, what might be all the ways to solve a problem? How do we know what exactly the problem is? Creative, or imaginative thinking for problem has been around for decades. The real beauty of imaginative thinking is the opportunity to shape outcome. Creative thinking is the new lingua franca to discover and craft a novel solution that is both unique and practical.
The Ph balance is the key to growing plants aeroponically. Get this right and the system mostly will take care of itself.
How might a new Ph Balance, where social innovation or doing good can emerge through the unlimited potential of applied imagination? That is the question for our times.
The world is a mess. Our creativity got us here. It can get us out. Let’s get some creativity on for novel solutions. Our quality of life depends on how we respond to the creations we have made.