Gina Rudan's Blog

The Mystery of Mind and Spirit

Although I am not religious I have always been a very spiritual person and recently I find myself cultivating the spiritual side of myself more than ever and I know this isn’t just happening to me. The connection between mind and spirit is a strong one and when you carve out the time for either of the two, the other is directly impacted in many ways, which makes me wonder....

Is my genius development work actually making me more spiritual or is my spiritual growth activating my genius? I’m not sure, but I do know that the connection between the two is surprisingly powerful, present and accessible to anyone.

Regardless of your religious affiliation, you can find the connection between spirit and mind and allow one to impact the other in a whole new way.  The spiritual essence that runs within each of us is actively feeding the mystery of who we are and rather than compartmentalize that side of yourself, allow that mystery to flow into your work, your writing, your projects and your service.

Super religious folks, both of the Eastern and Western beliefs, do this well but the rest of us, especially younger non-committals, really struggle with their spirituality and accessing the positive mystery it offers the mind. I find comfort in knowing I can accept my contradictions and enjoy all sides of myself, including the spiritual side, and I encourage you to consider the same. Take time for prayer, meditation chanting, whatever takes you closer to that well inside you.

And like Kahlil Gibran said, “I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.”

Intuition, Your Personal Fortuneteller

There is something very mysterious about our intuition. It simultaneously scares and excites us when we face these moments of inexplicable foresight. As with most mystical contradictions, I find myself curious to learn more about it, especially about how to tap this internal messenger for my own personal development. I even wonder, “What if I can master my intuition like some kind of superhero power?” But then I fear whether it might master me. What is it about some unknowns that heightens our curiosities?

Those analytical types reading this, the “left brainers,” may immediately ponder whether intuition is indeed real and or just a mythical perception, with little value beyond the random emotional ping we sometimes experience but rarely listen to.  Historically, it has been hard to measure and prove how intuition works and I think this is an unfortunate reason many disregard its true value.

Others of us, the right brainers, may consider intuition a true and valuable soft asset and actively cultivate it, but sometimes ignore it. Why?

Some of us fear our intuition because it’s usually right and we are not ready to “face the truth.” While others ignore our intuitive inner voices completely, keeping them muted at all times. Why do we ignore the big foghorn signals that our intuition sends us? Why do we brush off the hunches we regularly have and think we are actually being more strategic and responsible by ignoring the blaring internal messages? If you are someone who chooses to fear your intuition or disregard its value, it may be why you remain stagnated in life.

Deciding that I want to master and cultivate my internal fortune teller I have decided to listen actively to her as she shows herself throughout my day. Today the broadcasted internal message was, “ Gina, be sure to read before you review your presentation because you might uncover another nugget that you can add to your talk.”  Instead of diving into my presentation preparation, once I was seated on a plane I decided to read my November issue of Oprah and guess what? I uncovered a great article filled with spot-on tips for waking up your right mind. My internal fortuneteller was completely on point. I listened, I read before writing (which is very rare for me), and found a great nugget of wisdom from Martha Beck that spoke to me. She basically shared a simple exercise in writing your name backwards, upside down and from all directions including writing it with your other hand. This gets the right side of the brain juices going. Perfect practical genius tip, I thought to myself, which was delivered to me by Mrs. Intuitive who lives somewhere within me.  This is a very small example of how effective one’s day can become when you quiet yourself down and listen actively to your intuition.

Try this:
Schedule appointments with your internal fortunate teller. Yes, carve out quiet time and listen to the messages your intuition has been trying to share with you. Press play and let it flow, you will be amazed where it will take you.

If you have a compelling story about an experience with your intuition please share it in the comments section below.

Sanity is Overrated.

Yesterday I watched “The Soloist” and I sat in the darkness with tears rolling down my cheeks, my heart racing and my fingers tapping on the keyboard on my knees that wasn’t really there.  This film reminded me of the particular, occasional, unique and extraordinary intersection of insanity and brilliance. This is a “sweet spot” I happen to know well.

This movie was almost beside the point. Yes, the music was great, Beethoven to be specific. The edgy cinematography and amazing acting made it a film anyone would be glad they had seen. For me, though, the takeaway was the battle between the existence of genius and insanity all at once. That’s huge.

Based on a true story of the relationship between Nathaniel Ayers, a mentally ill, homeless street musician who possesses extraordinary talent and an L.A. Times columnist, Steve Lopez, “The Soloist” takes viewers on a musical journey into the minds of two brilliant creatives and what unfolds as they build and navigate through a friendship and experience together.

I have had the great fortune of loving two schizophrenics in my life: my grandma, Regalada Ortiz, who has since passed, and my brother in-law, Buddy, who is alive and well and a big part of my life.  What I have learned from both is that there are jewels of wisdom that simmer beneath the surface of mental illness and are accompanied by a great sense of mental freedom. This is not meant to glamorize this impossibly difficult condition, but to point to what we gain in real-life terms when we acknowledge and accept what it is.

There has always been a fine line between insanity and genius and I know as a thinker and an entrepreneur, I sometimes feel as if my mind is always walking that tightrope. How many of us battle mental complexities and psychological challenges in our own daily lives and use our mental deficiencies as excuses for our failures?

After watching “The Soloist,” I have a few recommendations for those of you who are battling “mind games” on a daily basis, so here they go:

• First and foremost, embrace your challenges and face them head on. The sooner you accept your reality and learn how to live with it the sooner you will be able to actually leverage your situation for greater insights into who you are and what you are capable of.  Waltz with your condition, for it could actually end up being an asset rather than a liability.  

• Everyone needs a therapist.  Just as we feel OK with having personal trainers in our lives I think anyone who is challenged with any mental discomforts should have a therapist. 

• Historically, genius has always showed itself through a great deal of insanity.  Do you think Einstein, Leonardo D, or Picasso were sane? Not! In fact maybe you have to be a little off to actually push your mind to a place that questions everything rather than accepts everything.

There is something extraordinary that can happen if you work with what you’ve got, even if it hurts. And yes, I know it sometimes hurts.  I am only trying to inspire you to consider the genius that lurks beneath.

No matter what, let it shine. And remember, sanity is overrated.

Sometimes the Ordinary is Extraordinary

While some people loathe their birthdays because they fear the inevitable, I absolutely love them. For me, my birthday has always been an excuse to act up and let my hair down. Not that I really need an excuse—ha! But when's its your big day, you can get away with a lot!

This year I decided to do my birthday a bit differently. Instead of partying like a rock star—which I have successfully accomplished in past years—this year, I decided to celebrate my inner child, to keep it simple and just enjoy the moment with the most important person in my life, my three-year-old son, Lucas. 

Now three-year-olds have a way of taking over a situation whether you want them to or not. But placing Lucas and the little boy stuff he loves at the center of my birthday on purpose has been more fun than I ever expected. Allowing myself to really just be a kid alongside him, fully present and fully available, is quite remarkable. In fact, I think I have learned more about being an effective mother over this birthday weekend than any other time since my son was born. Why didn't anyone tell me that motherhood is often best expressed at their level rather than at ours?

Enjoying my new birthday sneakers, playing games in my favorite jeans, watching movies, singing in the car, swimming, eating more sweets than should be legal, and both of us falling apart laughing when he tickled me has been amazing. Letting go of the parent role and diving into the let’s-get-busy-and-play mode has truly been a blast.

So maybe sometimes it’s best to just keep birthdays the way they were when we were kids—simple, colorful, and joyful. For there is great beauty and satisfaction in spontaneous laughter, running through puddles, and just being without a care in the world, even if it’s just for a day.

Sometimes the ordinary is extraordinary and this lesson in genius is my greatest birthday gift. Thank you, Lucas.

Let the Creative Revolution Begin.

Close your eyes. Yes you read this sentence correctly, stop reading for 20 seconds and visualize your future and the future of the world. What does it look like? What does it taste like? What are you doing in the future? Are you playing, creating, laughing, designing, singing, dancing or innovating?

Now, what if I told you the future is already here and that you have the choice and freedom to decide what your future - your today looks like. Our destinies are completely framed by our actions today and I think many of us are so stressed out we don't realize that we must stop obsessing over tomorrow and realize that tomorrow is actually today. In fact, your future is happening to you right now, this very second.

Creatives, or right brainers, have known this for centuries but left brainers, or logicals of our society have lead us to believe that tomorrow is something independent and separate of today. I am no expert on the brain but I find myself regularly researching, writing and contemplating this notion of creative power. In search of confirmation that I am not going crazy and that others are beginning to notice the creative shift which is starting to happen, I recently found the confirming answer in Daniel Pink's book, A Whole New Mind. If you haven't read this piece of brilliance, get it today. Not tomorrow, today. And, no, Daniel isn't giving me a cut for this endorsement. I am a believer in the sharing of brilliance - not just because it's a nice thing to do, but because it's the socially responsible thing to do. Daniel argues that creatives will be the new leaders within what he calls the conceptional age - which is the age we are living in now and he is right!

As a personal branding advisor, I am finding that many of my clients have a quiet creative genius within them and don't know how to listen or trust it. Trying to get them to a place of comfortability with their creativity has not been easy and convincing them that a MBA just ain't enough these days is even harder. We have been brain washed to believe the analysis and measurable always wins over the philosophical and qualitative and this ladies, and gentlemen is not longer the case. This former paradigm, which celebrated the logical, numerical and sequential attributes over the creative is gone.

In fact, some are even going as far as the say, the MFA is the new MBA. This revolutionary shift is a huge opportunity for every creative on this planet who has been misunderstood, underutilized and under valued. And if you are one of "those" who believes you don't have a creative bone in your body it is time to start looking at yourself differently. Every functioning person on this planet has a right side to their brain and all we have to do is activate and exercise it. 

So if you haven't tapped a creative thought in over a century, which is possible, begin to actively listen and honor your creative side. Again, not tomorrow but today. Whether it's writing, singing, painting, sketching, cooking, designing, building, playing an instrument, begin to honor that inner creative for a new world will open up for you once you do. How do I know a whole new world will open for you? Because it has for me since deciding to honor my own inner creative as a writer.

On Creativity and Business

If you are wondering thinking, "Well, Gina this all sounds great, but I have bills to pay and don't have time for this," my response to you is find a way to use and bring your creative genius with you to work. In fact, begin to approach your work, what ever that may be, from a place of creativity. Remember, the trick is to shift the paradigm. Out with the old and in with the new. Find ways for creativity not to be the afterthought but to be the foundation of the thought or activity itself. Ultimately, creativity can always mean business and business should always mean creativity.

I am so inspired by this notion, maybe even obsessed, that I have decided to host an experimental event in NYC on May 13th which I am calling "the experiment", to explore this notion of colliding right brainers with left brainers for a multi sensory exploration of creativity. If you are based in NYC or have been wanting to take a trip, I invite you to join me for this experiment which will be a workshop / networking event accompanied with an art exhibit and a DJ spinning everything from Mozart to Common. The objective of the experiment is to explore from a non-transactional place our creative talents, attributes, and assets and to begin to shift the consciousness we have regarding the creative sides of our identities.

For more information on the experiment, click here and at minimum start to consider how creativity plays a role in your own life - today.

Let the Creative Revolution Begin

Want to watch videos that inspire, teach and share brilliance?

Ted.com this week launched its top 10 videos and they are AMAZING. For those of you who have not yet been introduced to Ted.com get ready to be WOWED! Over the last 2 years, they have posted video presentations from forward thinking, brilliant futurists and change agents from around the globe and in celebration of reaching over 50 million views they have shared their best of the best, which as you know I love. How amazing that they decided to post their top ten a week after my top 10 post. There are no coincidences. Enjoy these stimulating videos and pass them forward.

Here are the Top 10 TEDTalks of all time

If you just have time to watch the highlights video click here.

1. Jill Bolte Taylor: "My stroke of insight"

2. Jeff Han: "Touchscreen demo foreshadows the iPhone"

3. David Gallo: "Underwater astonishments"

4. Blaise Aguera y Arcas: "Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo"

5. Arthur Benjamin: "Lightning calculation and other "Mathemagic"

6. Sir Ken Robinson: "Do schools kill creativity?"

7. Hans Rosling: "The best stats you've ever seen"

8. Toney Robbins: "Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better"

9. Al Gore: "15 ways to avert a climate crisis"

10. Johnny Lee: "Creative tech marvels out of a $40Wii Remote"

How the Mind Works

This afternoon while surfing the net for "new information" I came across a site called TED.com (which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design). This WOW SITE is worth me sharing with everyone. If you need a quick fix of inspiration with a dash of intellectual stimulation and are a closeted "science geek" enjoy this lesson on how the mind works by Jill Bolte Taylor.