Posted on September 5, 2014September 5, 2014 by Amanda Viviers — Leave a comment

Books that changed Elaine Fraser

Meet my dear friend Elaine Fraser from Beautiful Books

Recently my friend Em from Teacupstoo, did a series in August called books that changed me so we decided we would start an online book club of sorts for this summer, asking friends to write their list of books that really impacted them.

Anything that encourages us all to lay down our technology and pick up paper is a brilliant pursuit in my opinion.

Elaine’s List of Favourite Books of all time.

1) L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables:

The Anne books gave me so much pleasure and helped me learn that even if you are a person who seems to get in trouble a lot, you can turn out to be a more understanding person as you get older. Visiting Prince Edward Island and walking along the paths Montgomery did, was one of the highlights of my life. I must admit, a few tears were shed.

2) Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper:

I love Picoult’s writing and have heard her speak a couple of times. I love the way she presents various pints of view about a moral dilemma and wraps it up in an absorbing story.

3) Christy, by Catherine Marshall:

A beautiful story. As a teacher in a difficult, remote school I could relate to the story. Also, the idea of God giving us a ‘bundle’ in the form of a person to look after has stayed with me for a very long time.

4) Little Women, Louisa May Alcott:

Old-fashioned values and character never go out of style. I have read and re-read this book over my lifetime. Jo is one of those heroines I tried to be when I grew up!

5) Tim Winton, Cloudstreet:

I love Winton’s use of language and the way he creates a sense of place, time and soul. I saw the stage adaption and fell in love with it even more.

6) Hamlet and Macbeth, William Shakespeare:

I love a good tragedy. Both of these were on my high school reading list, and I subsequently taught them. So much wisdom and amazing language use.

7) Harper Lee To Kill A Mockingbird:

My favourite book of all. I read it when I was sixteen and Atticus Finch became the sort of man I admired for his sort of justice and gentle ways. I also love the movie.

8) Markus Zusak, The Book Thief:

This book, by an Australian, is not only a wonderful story, it inspires me to be a better writer. Zusak’s ability to be profound and create beautiful images astounds me.

9) Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre:

As a brooding teenager, I visited Haworth and walked the Yorkshire moors. I loved the darkness of Jane Eyre and the complicated interplay of the characters. I’ve read this book many times and am drawn back into the brooding.

10) Animal Farm, George Orwell:

I also read this book as a teenager and was impacted by the history and political background to the text. I was studying Russian history at the time and it all seemed to work together. This book was part of my political education and an insight into the workings of power.

11) John Steinbeck, The Grapes Of Wrath:

I visited Monterey County and the Cannery Row a couple of years ago and loved seeing the landscape that inspired Steinbeck. This book was also part of my political education. I studied the Depression in History and this book rounded out my perspective of it.

12) Brave New World, Aldous Huxley:

For some reason I loved dystopian fiction as a teenager—similar the teens who love The Hunger Games today. I didn’t understand it fully until I was an adult. I must have been pretty innocent! However, the book stayed with me and, along with 1984, contributed to my suspicion of government control!

13) Lord of the Flies, William Golding:

As a young Christian this impacted me as it showed me the power of unleashed sin. What happens when we don’t have any boundaries? When we are allowed to run free? I found it scary and it served as a warning to me.

14) Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence:

My Dad’s family comes from Northern England mining background. This book gave me an insight into that life. When I finally got to visit the places my family came from, I already had a picture in my mind of the life my dad and his forbears lived. It also explained a lot of family politics and the relationship between my dad and his mother.

15) Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy:

Another brooding book, but this one annoyed me. I felt Tess was stupid and allowed love to ruin her life—not always the accepted interpretation—but I really got angry with her. This book inspired me to be tough when it came to boys in my life. I was determined not to let a boy ruin my life. It’s funny how things influence you isn’t it?

Why don’t you tag a friend with this post on facebook and ask them to write their list of all time favourite books. If you would like your list featured here on this blog, email your list and a photo of yourself to amanda@amandaviviers.com

Posted on September 2, 2014September 2, 2014 by Amanda Viviers — 8 Comments

I feel safe now…

Last tuesday, a week ago today, we went on an adventure.

My son Maximus is toilet training and one of his rewards is a train ride, when he wins in the toilet department.

Often he will run in and out of his room and tell us confidently ‘Next station stop…Canning bridge, next station stop…Kwinnnnaaannna’.

A regular tuesday, a typical day in the life of a toddler, a mumma, a body builder and a newborn.

A new playground, a much needed coffee, I wasn’t expecting a very simple story to enter my normal.

As we got off the train at Leederville station, I noticed a young woman standing tentatively at the bottom of the ramp.

I stood behind her waiting for her to start her journey upwards.

She looked at me and simply said ‘I am afraid of heights.’

I said to her, ‘That’s okay, do you want to hold my hand and we can walk the bridge together?’

You see this particular ramp off the train station at Leederville, connects to a bridge that takes you across a four lane highway.

My truck, train, bus, ambulance, helicopter, plane, car, anything that moves toddler thinks this bridge is absolutely brilliant, but for the fearful of heights I can see this would be a Mount Everest of trekking proportion.

So there I was, midday walking across a bridge holding hands with a stranger.

As we got closer to the end of the short journey, she turned to me and said simply ‘I feel safe now.’

I let go of her hand and she walked off to find her friends.

This young woman had downs syndrome and her tenacity at facing her fears and acknowledging her needs to a stranger was a profound lesson in trust to this novice mum.

I was thinking about this simple story a few days later and I likened it to my relationship with God and how much easier it could be if I just trusted him.

Stating what my fear was, walking across the distance holding his hand and then walking away knowing that I felt safe again.

This week I have been thinking about Psalm 136 and how His love endures forever. Across the chasms and the fears that engulf our days.

Psalm 136: 10-13

‘He rescued Israel from their oppressors = his love never quits.

Took Israel in hand with his powerful hand = his love never quits.

Split the red sea right in half = his love never quits.

Led Israel right down the middle = his love never quits.’

No matter what we are going through, no matter the fears we face, no matter the largeness of the journey we must endure, His love will never fail us.

He delights in us,

He fights for us,

He remembers us,

He cares for us.

His love never quits.

Posted on September 1, 2014September 1, 2014 by Amanda Viviers — 5 Comments

Health and wellness

Spring has well and truly sprung in our little piece of Eden.

Our lime tree that sits in a wine barrel on our tiny porch has flowers for the first time promising fruit this summer.

Little birds jump along our window sill awakening life to the sound of the morning.

And my post pregnancy body is ready to move again and get back into shape for summer.

As I read stories of friends and families who completed marathons yesterday, I am both inspired and terrified for the year ahead.

I am inspired because I desperately long to fit back into my pre-pregnancy jeans, but terrified about the eternal roller coaster of emotions that dieting and exercise bring into my days.

We have scales in our house for the first time in five years and my husband and I have a goal to lose a certain amount of weight by a certain time, with a reward at the end.

My husband is off and racing, inspired and encouraged at his progress already and I am quiet in my despair that another go, another app on my phone, another list of to do’s and I will fail again.

You see Charl is a body builder by trade, a Muay thai fighter by night and a personal trainer by profession.

I am a cake baker, a people lover, a hospitality fiend and a writer by passion.

None of my characteristics lean towards success in this area but overall health and wellness is imperative for my future and family.

Charl and I had a profound conversation last week, with the words he said still ringing in my heart.

He kindly said;

‘The problem is babe, you are so focussed on diet and exercise that you will always fail because it is not a natural part of your make up. You need to change the tone and language, to health and fitness. When you are focussed on wellness and training for life, your motivation towards change is so much more apparent.”

Health

Wellness

Training

Fitness.

That I can do.

I want to live a Healthy life, for my future, my potential, my passion and my privileges.

I want to train hard towards goals like the city to surf, because I want my children to be proud of their mum who is motivated at the school gate.

I want to choose nutrition that is about wellness and energy, allowing me to bring my best to all the areas that demand me of my time.

I want to look at my camera and not delete photos so that a record of my current shape is removed from my hard drive.

I want to live free from the shame of being overweight and unfit.

Day by day.

Choice by choice.

I want it to be a lifestyle not a fad and unfortunately the amount of years that the latest diet has plagued my fridge is way longer than the amount of years I have lived with my husband, who encourages me towards healthy living rather than strict plans that fail constantly.

Here is a toast towards wellness this spring.

Making choices that are healthy rather than starving myself away from nutrition and wellbeing.

Step by step.

Run by run.

Moment by moment.

Choosing life.

Posted on August 25, 2014August 25, 2014 by Amanda Viviers — Leave a comment

A creativity crisis!

Last year a quiet little paper was published in a US based research journal, which traced the IQ and creative thinking scores of US children over fifteen years.

The researcher found that while IQ had increased (IQ as measured by intelligence tests), the alarming finding was that creative thinking was declining(Kim, 2011). He suggested that the drop in creative thinking followed the introduction of NAPLAN style standardised testing in the US that valued learnt, memory based literacy and numeracy outcomes.

What’s the problem you might ask?

IQ is the big indicator of success and potential, leading to entry into positions in medicine, law – a life of financial security etc etc etc. while creative thinking leads to… being creative –good for a nice hobby on the side, but shouldn’t be valued in serious educational and academic circles. As one of the participants (studying medicine) in Julie’s doctoral study said, “why would you want to do anything creative, isn’t it a waste of time?”.

Along with the eminent, visionary, articulate Ken Robinson we believe that creative thinking is critical for our changing postmodern world.

Creative thinking involves a couple of elements; the first is lateral and innovative thinking and includes the ability to explore beyond the logical and simple solution. Julie had a client whose prestigious role in a major multinational computer company required high powered logical thought however, this way of thinking and problem solving prevented her from thinking about her problem from different perspectives.

Solving her relational issues required a more complex, lateral, less logical, albeit “messier” way of thinking. She was invited to brainstorm, think more imaginatively and avoid “premature closure”. Resistance to premature closure describes intellectual curiosity and openmindedness.

The best way to demonstrate lack of premature closure is to do it with pictures.

Figure 1: Create an imaginative picture from the image above.

Figure 2: “Zig Zag” Person A

Figure 3: “Gummy bear on skis with cloud” Person B

Adapted from real participant response to Abbreviated Torrance Test of Creative Thinking for Adults

The type of thinking shown in image three represents an approach to solving problems that demonstrates the ability to perceive differently, imaginatively, humorously and originally when faced with the same “problem” of completing the picture – interestingly the same participant (med student) in Julie’s study commented that “this was the hardest thing I have had to do” ie conceive an original idea.

So creative thinkers are great innovators and creative problem solvers – in a major meta-analysis into this area creative thinkers are able to define problems differently and uniquely as well as quickly retrieve information –using fluid or divergent thinking -from a vast memory bank of previous impressions, memories, experiences in order to creatively solve problems. (Ma, 2009)

So our question is, “who do you want to help you solve your complex problems, person A or B and who do we want to lead us in our highly complex world?

Society needs people skilled in logical/ linear (convergent) thinking as well as creative/ fluid (divergent) thinking but if our education system and society is only valuing one type of thinking over the other – then it will reduce our ability to solve the complex rapid problems facing our individual lives and society.

In order to stir up our creative thinking – lets embrace curiosity, imagination and resist premature closure – avoid going for the quick fix, simple, sound bite solution and sit with and listen to the more complex and maybe even messier responses to problems…

Of course those who are great at thinking creatively can get caught up in overdriven (maybe even catastrophic) thinking but that’s for another blog.

Thanks for reading with us

Jeff and Julie Crabtree

KIM, K. H. 2011. The Creativity Crisis: The Decrease in Creative Thinking Scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Creativity Research Journal, 23, 285-295.
MA, H.-H. 2009. The effect size of variables associated With creativity: a meta-analysis. Creativity Research Journal, 21, 30-42.

Jeff and Julie Crabtree are the authors of Living with a Creative Mind, a survival guide for creative people and those who live and work with them. Their work is to help creative people be more productive without sacrificing their health, relationships and longevity.

They are also the directors of The Zebra Collective an online mentoring service that is designed for how creative people think and work. They produce short weekly bursts of highly digestible creative, psychological and management insight in visual form. They are also collecting and curating some of the most interesting behind the scenes stories from expert creative professionals worldwide. www.zebracollective.com www.livingwithacreativemind.com

Posted on August 24, 2014August 24, 2014 by Amanda Viviers — Leave a comment

Sleep like a baby

Our little lady turned one month old this week and we have been learning the art of sleeplessness.

Child number two brings with it a great lot of experience, but no matter the lessons learnt on our initial prototype, we (as is any parent of a newborn) are always looking for ways to get more sleep.

Honestly though, no matter the tricks of the trade, babies have tiny stomachs that need to be filled and feeding every few hours is imperative, so all the people that say their newborn slept 8 hours, many would say this is not healthy for the baby or the breastfeeding Mum. So if your little one wakes often, it is very normal and you are not a bad parent.

In the first week of Liberty’s life we had the most profound experience. It sounds bizarre but we learnt sleep lessons from a photo session we had with Shining Light Photography.

We arrived at Natalie’s home, to find an environment ready for our one week old to be photographed in.

Each photo was carefully taken, with love and care treating our new little human with the utmost respect.

My little girl goes from zero to one hundred in the crying department and there are two times that she screams;

When she has wind and also when she is naked.

That is why I found this photo shoot amazing. Our little Liberty spent most of the photo shoot naked, but cried maybe once in the three hour session.

Natalie the owner of this business does portrait photography but specialises in newborn shoots and these are the lessons I learnt in sleeping like a baby from this creative experience.

1) Shut out the light;

We went into her front room and it was really dark. You would think you would need bright lights, camera, action. This was not the atmosphere for this shoot, dark, moody lighting, as dark as possible to keep our one week old asleep.

The lesson I learn’t is there are many lights that make their way into our bedrooms, much more than daylight behind a blind. Often we go to bed with our phones and the light penetrating the darkness, conditions our bodies to stay awake, rather than fall blissfully into sleep. Does your mobile charge next to your bed? Is there computers, modems, televisions, in your sleep space that shine little technology shaped light into your sleep cocoon? If so and you are having trouble sleeping, maybe work on the little bits of light that come in and create as much darkness as possible.

2) Warmth;

The environment that my little girl had her photo taken in, was really warm. Heaters and reverse cycle air conditioning, kept her toasty.

How is the temperature of your room? Are you cold? Are you hot? Are your blankets sufficient? I think whether its our children or our own rooms, the temperatures for sleep are really important. A warm room, is inviting and brings a huge sense of sleepiness to a household, especially in winter. The other thought I had from this lesson in sleep, was if you are struggling to fall asleep, the old wives tale; a hot shower or a hot drink of milk. I have been drinking a tea called Sleepytime tea. Especially because I am waking every two hours to feed our little lady, by the time I have fed her, re-wrapped her, burped her, laid in bed waiting for sleep to take over, then the cycle is happening again. So this tea has been helping fall asleep quicker. Warmth is a great tool to help with our sleep cycles.

3) Noise;

Our little lady was surrounded by the most beautiful sounds as she laid on the soft furnishings for her photo shoot. Coming out of the womb only a week earlier, sounds are really important in helping newborns sleep.

For the first year of our little man Maximus’ life, we had music playing twenty four/ seven. Worshipful, peaceful, lullabies that helped our whole house relax. When I am feeling overwhelmed and stressed at 3am trying to get Libby back to sleep, soft music encourages and helps me to relax and let go of my need for perfection. There is something powerful about music. Especially meditative, worshipful tracks. If you struggle to fall asleep, have you tried music to help you relax and centre yourself in this time of transition from wakefulness to sleep?

4) Physical Touch;

The girls who were moving and shaping our little baby to take her photos, keep a hand on her back the whole time, to help her feel centred and nurtured.

Whether it is a two year old who is struggling to sleep, your husband or a tired mumma, the power of physical touch is amazing in helping our bodies to relax. Giving our children simple and safe massage, on their shoulders, on their hands…Whether its our partners and giving them a massage or whether you are single and you get regular massages from a professional. The power of physical touch to help us sleep is immense. I have found with my little libby, if she is unsettled in the middle of the night, I put my hand on her stomach and rock her gently, reassuring her back to sleep.

5) Smell;

Throughout our whole session, the most amazing vanilla candle was burnt, creating an atmosphere that was so inviting.

Lately I have been burning candle melts most days in our house, to bring a sense of warmth, peace and atmosphere to my sleep deprived home. I found an electric lamp that safely burns candle aromatherapy melts, without an open flame which can be really unsafe with little toddlers around. Whether it is vanilla or lavender, mint or coconut, calming aromatherapy smells can really help you relax into a state of sleep fulness.

These five simple sensory tools, made for the most delightful experience for our family. As you can see from the photos, we are blown away with the results.

I highly recommend Natalie and her staff for a newborn shoot or any other family portraits if you live in Perth or its surrounds. Jump on her website and say you saw her work on my blog.

For all those sleep deprived mumma’s and papa’s out there, I hope these little tips, help you and your family to find the sleep we all so desperately need.

Speak again soon