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30 Minutes to 1 Hour with Q&A

Speaking TALK TOPICS

The Moody Artist and
the Label of Depression

 

Audiences: The entire fine arts community including writers, performing artists, classic painters, dancers, musicians, and makers and creatives of all types.

 

DESCRIPTION:

Many people claim to understand the creative person's moody temperament as if each artist is somehow the same. From putative pundits to offhand observers, a common theme is that artists are, by nature, depressed. Variations on the label of depression can be melancholic, quixotic, hermitic; or more harmfully,  descriptors such as fickle, anti-social; selfish, self-absorbed, or manic.  As an artist herself, Jennifer has convictions about the abasing dangers of labels... to the people who make them... and to those who wear them. The ones likely to suffer the most: those who unwittingly choose to label themselves. Through her own experience and the experiences of other artists, Jennifer address ways to remove harmful labels, live with labels, or avoid accepting labels entirely.

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Quick Points:

  • Wait...Watch...and Listen.

  • Exploring the Ever-Changing Seasons of Creativity

  • Understanding the Harm in Labels That Are Cast Upon You by Other People

  • Defining and Choosing any Labels that Work for You  

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Gratitude: An Astonishing Medicine

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Audiences: People of faith, people with hectic lives, and people who feel disgruntled or out-of-control of their lives. Lunch and Breakfast Groups, such as Optimists, Lions, and Rotary.

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​DESCRIPTION: 

Most of us identify with one or more of the following—people of faith, people whose lives feel out of control; people who are flat-out disgruntled. We all have plenty of company. Any setback can trigger feelings of desperation and global thinking: "It's always like this"; I never get past GO"; "This is the worst possible time for this terrible thing to happen"; and the default: "This is just not fair." So, how can an unpleasant surprise ever be welcome? Jennifer will demonstrate how practicing gratitude treats turmoil as an opportunity. She shares how simple gratitude is simply Astonishing Medicine.

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Quick Points:

  • Breaking a habit that doesn’t move you forward

  • Finding reasons to say thank you can change the mood and make a positive difference to you and to others

  • Practicing gratitude can dilute the power of anger and transform the energy of despair

The Freedom
of Being
In-offendable

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Audiences: All ages, especially adolescents. People who feel disappointed, disgruntled, or out-of-control of their lives.  

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DESCRIPTION:

In a time of chaos and global disorder, Jennifer coined the phrase in-offendable as an alternative approach to navigating a harsh world.

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In-offendable evokes for her an inner resilience that does not go belly up when another behaves in a manner that ranges from not-so-nice to nasty.

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Jennifer describes how to become in-offendable. (Think: In for inner.) In-offendable people remain positive, resilient, and unfazed by slights that may be either deliberate or unintentional.

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Quick Points:

  • How do you turn off your ear to remarks deliberately meant to offend?

  • How do you make decisions without the unwanted influence of other people?

  • How do you guard yourself against insults, offenses, and acts of aggression?

  • How do you identify and protect yourself from the people who want to bring out the worst from you?

  • How do you shut your mouth, put down your pen, examine your own motives, and stop yourself before you choose to tear others down?

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