December 2023 MBR The Self-Help Shelf

The Self-Help Shelf

Climbing Bubbles
Patrick Sanaghan Ed.D.
Independently Published
9798862462838, $11.99 Paper/$5.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Climbing-Bubbles-Increase-Your-Creative/dp/B0CJLMTS24

Climbing Bubbles: How To Increase Your "Creative IQ" joins other self-help guides exploring the wellsprings of creativity, but arrives with a difference. The heart of this story lies in exploring not only supportive forces to creativity, but the obstacles that batter the creative impulse. Where other books would maintain that creativity is inherent, Patrick Sanaghan maintains that it also is learned and can be either supported or quashed. Almost anyone holds the potential to be creative, with daily problem-solving challenges creating opportunities to delve into more creative solutions or resort to mundane reactions and thinking.

Rather than exploring ethereal and philosophical ideals, as too many books do, Climbing Bubbles presents five concrete approaches for supporting and increasing one's "creativity IQ", from capturing creative thoughts from sleep and awake time to understanding different styles of learning and how to support and promote them internally and externally. Creative notes accompany each of these strategies with examples, supportive suggestions, and routines any reader can employ to support their own creative wellsprings in whatever form they may take. Supporting creative impulses of necessity involves identifying "creativity killers" and mitigating their impact. Sangahan shows how to hone creativity-enhancing tools and approaches to daily life situations, supplying real-life case history examples of not only creative individuals, but leaders who would mentor and foster creativity in their organizations and followers.

Readers will discover that Climbing Bubbles is no quick read, but presents a program which ideally will be slowly digested and applied to individual lives and goals. It demands an attention to detail and understanding that also deserves to be part of business and book club discussion circles: "When you use metaphorical thinking, you create the psychological space necessary to solve your existing problem. It takes you to a different level and different way of thinking. It naturally opens up your creative processes and provides a different perspective. It takes some practice but can have powerful results."

Long thought a subject for liberal arts groups, Sangahan demonstrates how the pursuit of increased creativity benefits all kinds of organizations, operations, and individuals at all levels of life achievement. Libraries and readers of Climbing Bubbles can thus come from all walks of life, from business and leadership roles to individuals looking to burst the limiting bubble of perception that creativity is an artistic pursuit alone. Its momentum and relevance comes not from a singular avenue to success, but from a carefully honed compilation of supportive references, statistics, case histories and specific discussions, making Climbing Bubbles highly recommended for a wide audience of already-creative thinkers and wannabes alike.

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