Authentic View by Andra

At the beginning of this new year, I wish you:
🌟 to find moments to feel grateful for all the good things that are already present in your life;
🌟 to allow yourself to dream about what you want to create next, and to have the courage to pursue those dreams and/or make the changes you feel are necessary.

We can look at these two aspects as holding one in each hand.
🪬 In one hand, I hold my resources - especially my internal resources. Among them, the energy that comes from being grateful for what already exists in my life is so powerful.
🪬 In the other hand, I hold my aspirations: the aspects that still need to be changed, worked on, or manifested.
We are capable of change and positive transformation at every stage of our lives. These processes require resources, trust, support - and, of course, consistent ACTION.

Most of us did not necessarily receive enough education on how to accomplish our dreams, unblock creative potential, or make effective and lasting changes in our lives. The good news is that there are people who specialise in these areas, who write books and teach us about these valuable processes. Their aim is to make this know-how accessible beyond some circles such as researchers or academia.

Here are a few authors and books I warmly recommend:
❄️ Julia Cameron - "The Artist’s Way" (a book with a 12-week programme to unblock creativity, which I completed in 2025)
❄️ Nicole Vignola - "Rewire: Break the Cycle, Alter Your Thoughts and Create Lasting Change (Your Neurotoolkit for Everyday Life)"
❄️ Mirela Oprea - "Dream Management" (available, as far as I know, only in Romanian).

After spending many years abroad, I realised that it was my dream to return and live in Brașov, a city close to the mountains, in the heart of Transylvania. However, the process of coming back home was a long one on a psychological level. The move itself was fast, on a physical level. But the inner journey took several years, between aspiration, decision, and then consciously managing the change afterwards, in order to truly bring myself here.

I’m sharing a collage with some recent snowy photos. Brașov is often described as a fairytale city, filled with magic - and it attracts many tourists in every season. After the clouds gifted us with more snow, I must say I truly felt and saw this magic, especially in my relationship with the surrounding nature.

[creative writing / IA generated image]
I present you Lisa, a character I imagined for a story I wrote last year (that in fact has several versions). She has been in my imagination for a good while and I asked the Image Creator from Bing to create her as digital art. I am quite pleased with the process because it’s so fun to indicate the details: the colors of her dress and of the couch, the window with view on the rooftops of Montmartre (Paris).

Lisa is a British woman living in Paris and teaching English. She is fond of dancing and there is also a pole dance bar in her not so big living room. Her best friend is Elvis the cat, with whom she shares her wildest dreams and nice reading moments. 😉🐱

Lisa has good emotional management and in general she is detached from more intense situations. However, there are experiences in life that touch her more profoundly, and in these cases she can get overwhelmed by emotions...But she is aware that those situations are doorways towards a more profound knowledge of herself and of others. 🌟

Image generated by IA (DALL·E 3 on Microsoft Bing)

[place / author]
Yesterday, my choice was to visit my favourite bookshop in Brasov (Romania), called Carturesti, where I found a volume of poetry written by Nichita Stanescu.
The poems were chosen by Matei Visniec, a Romanian playwright, poet and journalist living in Paris (his books are published in Romania and in France, where he is well known in the theatre world).
Visniec about Nichita Stanescu:
“The poetic language invented by Nichita was at the same time a new continent and a means of navigation. More than any other poet, from Nichita I learned that poetry can be compass and instrument of knowledge, ritual and mystery, exploration of the self and joy of living, form of freedom and means of liberation, glided flight above all other disciplines of the spirit and expression of all that the senses and the brain can produce more beautiful and subtle together.”

̆nescu

[creativity / author]
Last week I animated a training session on creativity at work, during 2 days (14 hours). It was quite a challenge since the participants work in very different domains, but that’s what I like about this broad approach of creativity and the belief that we can all be more creative in our lives and at work.
I share with you the word cloud made with the words proposed by the participants (in French), associated to CREATIVITY (generated online by Wooclap).

Creativity could be defined in different ways, but let’s first think of having new ideas, doing things in a different way, opening up to new perspectives…which can result into new projects or better solutions.

Before considering methods or tools, it’s essential to understand how creativity works at an individual level and why it’s so important in our lives.

“Habits . . . reduce man to the status of a conditioned automaton. The creative act, by connected previously unrelated dimensions of experience, enables him to attain a higher level of mental evolution. It is an act of liberation – the defeat of habit by originality.”
Koestler, A. (1964). The Act of Creation

[expérience de vie / livre]
L’année dernière, une amie m’a offert un livre. Il est devenu mon ami. Tout comme les platanes dans la cour de l’hôpital où j’ai passé 24 jours étaient devenus mes amis (ma maladie n’était pas liée à Covid, mais à un autre méchant virus). Des amis qui m’ont beaucoup réconfortée. Qui m’ont donné la foi.

Durant une pandémie, limités dans nos déplacements et activités, quel sens donner aux épreuves collectives et individuelles ?

Aujourd’hui j’ai envie de partager avec vous quelques extraits de ce livre : « Face aux arbres - Apprendre à les observer pour les comprendre » de Christophe Drénou. La citation de Robert Bourdu, que j'ai écrite dans le visuel, en fait partie.
« Si votre vie court un danger, votre premier réflexe sera la fuite. Si vous êtes physiquement blessé, votre corps mettra tout en ouvre pour cicatriser les plaies. Mais toutefois, il existe des circonstances sans possibilité de fuite telles l’emprisonnement, la maladie ; et certaines blessures d’ordre psychologique ne se referment jamais. Aussi étrange que cela puisse paraître, vous vous retrouvez alors dans un état proche de celui des arbres. »
« Que vous soyez arbre ou humain, votre salut passe par la résilience, cette ‘capacité à se développer quand même, dans des environnements qui auraient dû être délabrants’ (Boris Cyrulnik). Vous devrez commencer par justement résilier votre engagement vis-à-vis des règles conventionnelles de développement personnel. Comment ? Si vous êtes arbre, en vous libérant des proportions dictées par les canons de l’arbre modèle… ».