Why it’s important to teach and learn creative practice

Eventually a vision came to me, of a career in which I might be able to do professional creative work that might be valued for its importance to furthering science. I felt certain there was a need for creative tools – in particular, written and visual ones – to help people better understand how scientific research might be helpful to them, how it might be something they could use to make decisions in their daily lives. So began a journey. It wasn’t long before I started to notice that I had a range of creative tools to bear, a way to invite people into not just the logical places of themselves, places they sometimes were actually out of touch with, but their imaginations, places that we all have readily and, sometimes secretly, cherish.

CreativityLydia HooperSeptember 1, 2020Comment

Looking for hope and possibility? Look to creatives.

When I meet people and they find out I'm an artist, I often hear the same responses: "I don't have any artistic talent.” "Why did you choose a creative profession?” "How did you get to where you are?" The answers are never simple. I've learned that the journeys of creatives rarely are. I believe that, like everyone, we were told when we were young that our art was poor, self-centered, and/or pointless. Those of us who think of ourselves as creatives simply chose not to believe that. We chose to keep making.

CreativityLydia HooperApril 2, 2020Comment

Do's and don'ts for using visuals during virtual meetings

Virtual meetings are on the rise but they don’t come without some risks and potential downsides. Groups may already be facing difficult communication challenges, and distance can create even more obstacles for team culture and progress. Just as with in-person meetings, visuals can play an essential role in supporting individuals and groups with building relationships and getting results. Here are some basic dos and donts for using visuals during online meetings.

Collaboration, CreativityLydia HooperMarch 16, 2020Comment

How Visuals Can Unlock Healing

As an unapologetic health and healing “nut,” I’ve developed many practices over the years. It’s taken me decades to realize that the best of all of them predates any investments I’ve made in yoga, psychotherapy, naturopathy, or body-based therapies. The most potent practice of all I started as a very young girl: using and creating visuals.

Creativity, CollaborationLydia HooperApril 20, 2019Comment

The 6 major myths of visual aesthetics

If there’s one thing I’ve learned working with and conducting workshops for hundreds of people to help them create meaningful visuals, it’s that people have specific beliefs about visuals. Many of these ideas are not based in experience or evidence, but rather pervasive myths that take root at an early age and rarely go unchallenged. If I could give any stranger just one gift to help them on their journey, it might very well be this list of myths. I believe they are keeping us stuck in our work, our society, and even our humanity.

CreativityLydia HooperMarch 9, 2019 Comment

Choosing a Liberating Hope

As I think back on this year, one of the things that comes to mind is how many times I’ve heard people say “I’m finding it hard to stay hopeful.” Hearing this so much has led me to give some considerable thought to what keeps me hopeful. I feel like when I hear others talk about hope, they think of it as a result of external circumstance, like the news or something is supposed to make them hopeful or is the reason they are not. However, I think it’s strictly an internal attitude and experience…

CreativityLydia HooperDecember 16, 2018Comment

Redesign: What it really means

Our world is changing so fast, yet we seem to be stuck in old habits. Unfortunately our communication “defaults” often create more confusion. I use the process of design thinking, a cyclical process that is anchored in connecting with audiences and making clear decisions, to pivot quickly, both for myself and for those I serve. I’ve found communication and clarity are both processes that run in tandem with one another and have no end.

CreativityLydia HooperOctober 21, 2018Comment

3 ways to motivate and serve others

Living in America today most of us are blessed with both the remarkable ability to meet our many needs and the incredible gift of being able to choose how we do so. Yet with a plethora of sources of information, products, and services to choose from, it’s also never been more confusing. How do we choose to get our needs met? Study and experience have taught me that there are three basic motivations we have, three reasons we make the choices we do.

DataCommunication, CreativityLydia HooperSeptember 15, 2018Comment

Inspiring wise action: Practices for storytellers of all kinds

I feel so blessed to have received both an appetite for learning and a compulsion to share, and in this spirit of gratitude, I want not only to share this story, my story, with you, but also some useful ideas for how you might practice raising your hand and saying something important. I've broken my tips down in a simple way that speaks to both the scientifically and the creatively inclined.

DataCommunication, CreativityLydia HooperAugust 20, 2018 Comment

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