By Maggie Maris – Author My Journal & Rogier van Kralingen  – Writer The Whole Story   Every year around Christmas, we basically fall into two categories: those who love it and those who don’t. The misunderstanding is huge between those who cheerfully sing Christmas carols and those sitting dejected at the dinner table. At some point someone will say: " Christmas is fun, right? Why aren't you more cheerful?" and the mood will sour quickly after that. So, this Christmas stor

Apparently, America is now a kingdom. How did it get here? I offer Americans an outsider view  from those who’ve lived under kings. The honest kind that might hurt. And it’s all about the story you tell yourself. How did we get here? Even now that the dust has settled, to those who have actually read it , The Supreme Court immunity decision is still beyond shocking . Or is it? Many people across the world have recognized for some time now that America does not have true separ

Creative endeavors are extraordinary hard to do. So, sometimes, us creatives and artists get blocked. We call it 'Writer's Block' but it can be applied to all arts, from visual to music to writing, film-making, photography... the lot. Whatever the art or creative profession, the story is simple. We get stuck, we get blocked. So, how do we become unstuck? The answer is: getting our lives in order. In other words, writer's block has nothing to do with your art. But everything w

The power of the mind is truly phenomenal. And one of the most powerful things to do with this power, is to visualize outcomes before they are there. Athletes do it, just before they need to perform, and win because of it. Actors do it just before they step on stage, and nail their performance due to it. People in burnout and depression do it, and find themselves healing quicker. And you too, can use visualization to get an incredible creative project or story out there. Like

It's all the rage in certain, mostly affluent circles: manifesting. For some, it's a holy grail. For others, pure nonsense. The truth lies as always, somewhere in the middle. So today you will get the brutally honest reality about something that is real, and that really does work... just not always in the way many people will tell you. Ready? Now let's start by calming your mind... Image by Lance Gambis, find t-shirts and wall pictures here : The premise of manifesting The ba

So much about our mental health is about physicality . Solutions to stress are no different. If we want to reduce stress in our lives we focus on the causes of it. That's very much good of course! Yet so much of our stress can already be relieved if we accept that it is a physical thing too. Your body is just producing as little too much cortisol. The good news is that cortisol can be reduced instantly. How? By doing explicitly physical things. Such as... Shaking is my perso

Why are artists more prone to creative anxiety and even burnout symptoms than others? It's simple really, artists are both more vulnerable in their characters, as well as putting themselves in more vulnerable positions. It may sound strange, but from a psychical perspective, artists experience the same as soldiers, policemen or health workers with trauma: they have been put in a situation where there body makes a lot of stress hormones . In the artists case, this is often vol

This burnout thing… why do I feel so bad? That’s the question we all ask ourselves. I can’t answer this for you of course. What I can do however is that your bad feeling really is a paradox. You need to feel bad. It’s crucial for your recovery and growth. Feeling bad is your oxygen, your fuel, your signal, your fire and your primary incentive to change things. Embrace the fact you feel bad or anxious or stuck as the signal that's telling you how to get back out. In other word

This is my favorite burnout topic: the couch potato. Essentially I’m encouraging you to be one and to feel bloody good about it. Your body and your mind are extremely tired when suffering from burnout symptoms or creative anxieties that overwhelm you. They are burned out. Get it? That's the story. You need to refuel them both. Put on a few new tires. Check the oil. And to do that properly, you need to stay in that garage for a while. The most common complaint from burnout vi

The Dune films by Denis Villeneuve are exceptionally good. And anyone familiar with the books by Frank Herbert knows that they are even better. But why is that exactly? What's the whole story? The deeper reason is that Dune's tale is very thought-provoking and as such is fascinating to explore, with ideas that have many real world implications. Fair warning, spoilers ahead and make sure you've experienced the story... and now without further ado, let's set things off with a b

You are not going to like this. But it’s the truth. That anxiety you feel? When you’re releasing that art thing or that creative project of yours? It never fades. I know, I know, it’s not what you wanted to hear. But there is a silver lining: that anxiety has a function. Without it, you wouldn’t be an artist actually. Allow me to explain. In our Amsterdam music app group, one of the singers recently told us that she was viciously attacked online after posting a video of her s

Many of us can get disheartened in the storytelling professions. So this is a simple blog to boost your moral. There is always demand for a good story. So hang in there and read this article every time you feel down. Here goes... Storytelling is a demand-driven market. There is always – and I really mean always – demand for good storytellers. Despite appearances, good stories are in short supply. Just think of this: Hollywood on average produces somewhere between 500 and 700

“They do look curious,” said the man, staring up at the gigantic alien spaceship that was hoovering in the atmosphere above the planet. It had been hanging there for a week now, a vast bleakness covering half the sky. Yet the man and woman had found a spot where the afternoon sun escaped under the menacing object. They’d figured they could use a little tan. “Yes. It does make one wonder, does it not,” said the woman, while applying her suntan lotion. “Could you be so wonderfu

We tend to forget that, however crucial to our lives, at the end of the day money is still very much an imaginary construct. In essence, it's a story. We tell each other that a coin, a certain piece of paper, or a digital number has exchangeable value. A mutual agreement based on trust. Yet this past period is unearthing some incredibly weird stuff about cash. So today we're asking one of the coolest questions out there: Does money still work as a story construct? What is mon

Recently, I had a walk with a good friend, and she told me she's been avoiding all those modern series because they are so addictive. This brought us to the question why Netflix, HBO, Amazon, Hulu or Disney series are so incredibly good (and addictive!) these days. The answer, at least for the most part, is the slow character build up. So today we'll look at slow story and character building, and how it translates to other forms of storytelling and even branding. Remember the

Your job, your art, your brand, your people, your organization... telling your own story is always harder than telling somebody else's. It's filled with insecurities. And when you feel insecure, your imagination can sometimes tell you you're failing, fueling your anxiety, while in reality, those obstacles, mistakes and challenges are actually what makes your story worth wile in the first place! So, in this blog we'll strengthen your creative base by making your imagination

Art and culture sectors are suffering deeply. That's not only terrible for them, it's devastating for the entire world economy. What so many people fail to realize is that art and culture are the actual beating heart of our entire economic system. They may not produce the lion's share of income, but without art and culture, our system of cash will crash. So today, in eleven anecdotes and stories, I'm going to show the role of art and culture has in making sure we can put brea

“Everywhere? No way!” Her eyes big, mouth open in astonishment, while she stared at her grandfather. “It’s true. Cross my heart.” Grandfather leaned back a little and directed a loving smile at his young granddaughter. “You’re making fun again, aren’t you! I don’t believe you!” She punched his arm like she would always do when she had the feeling, he was making things up. But there was no hint of that usual glint in his eyes. The smile on his face held no pleasure. He just ga

He called his screens his ‘eyes’. There were hundreds of them. Black and white, CRT, LCD and plasma. Old and new, thick and thin, small, big, flat, fat and curved. They were spread out like pebbles, pushed to the shore of the riverlike main corridor in this large underground cavern. It was such a vast array of monitors left, right and center, that if you were standing in the middle of the facility, the walls at both ends would not be visible. Some screens were hanging from th

In 2012 I was supposed to run the mother of all marathons: New York. It was on the top of my bucket list and it felt like something I had to do to prove myself. You can imagine what such an endeavor means. A marathon… the months of injury-prone training, special diets and a bill of over 5000 bucks are but a few things you need to endure. Yet, I endured them. And finally, in November that year I arrived in The Big Apple to run the run of all runs. Then hell froze over. You