Sally Safadi was working at an after school program for kids between medical school and graduating . While there, she found it was difficult for children to learn in the traditional school environment after already spending eight hours in school. So she came up with different games for the kids to play to get them involved in learning.

This began her shift from studying science to studying and exploring creativity. Sally’s site, Neurons Away, is the hub for all her work including her book and card game. Each of her projects help people explore and exercise their imaginations.

In this episode learn about her various projects, the power of constraints, the benefits of trial and error, and much more.

Here are three things you can learn from Sally:

The Power of Learning to Play in Empty Spaces

Most of us are taught to find a single answer to problems. We haven’t been give the proper tools to tackle problems with more than one possibility, which is why we struggle with empty spaces. “The way we are taught, especially through school, is to write in the lines and in the box. Color in the space.”

Instead of looking for the single answer, we need to develop the mindset to play in the empty spaces. “You have to have that specific mindset that develops to be able to do that. But most individuals haven’t really been given that opportunity.”

Sally believes the blank canvas can be used as an educational tool. She believes, that once you learn that form of expression, you can use it many aspects of your life. “Giving empty space in different areas of life, especially education, empowers an individual to be more creative in their own choices in life.”

The Importance of Trial and Error

We spend too much time worrying about whether our plans will fail or succeed instead of actually testing them out. One thing is for certain, if you don’t test your ideas, you will never know if they are going to work.

Sally likens testing ideas to planting seeds. Some will grow, and others won’t. “It’s just like these little things of trying, and trying, and trying til something catches or grows, or planting a bunch of seeds and hoping some of them take.” It is only by trying a bunch of ideas that you will be able to get one to bloom.

She also believes in listening to the feedback of your audience. That’s how she ended up with the cover for her book. Her first cover didn’t convey the message that was in book, so she tested a new one that worked much better.

She was able to leverage the opinions of her audience to create a cover that her audience liked. But you can’t listen to everything people say. You have to find the right balance.

“Seeking the opinions and constructive criticisms is really good, but people also need to create their bubble with that. I could ask a thousand people what they think about the cover, and each person… is telling me something different. So at some point, you just have to also just make your own decision and stick to it because you’re always going to find someone who has something different to say.”

Everything Around Us Came From Someone’s Imagination

Many people believe imaginations are stronger in children than they are in adults. But this is only partially true. Children may use their imaginations a lot more, but they mostly use them for play. Adults, on the other hand, use their imaginations to shape the world around us.

“Our realities are basically a moment’s expression of our collective imagination. Everything that is around us was once an idea or a thought that was applied, and directed, and grew into a tangible reality… which a lot of us fail to realize in this journey that we call life.”

Everything from our phones, to our cars, to our computers was the result of a creation from someone’s imagination. Before these things existed, someone had to dream them up. That is the power of imagination.

The problem is, many of us stop using our imaginations once we hit adulthood. If we all harnessed that power a little bit more, who knows what the world would be like.

Stop thinking play is for children. Leverage the power of your imagination to help change the world.

Shownotes

• about Sally
  • questions used to come to her, she used to write them down in Word and have people fill them out
  • spectrum of questions people didn’t confront in day to day
  • people were surprised by them and found them hard to answer
  • started making zines and giving them out
  • put together book from all the questions
  • the gap with out thinking processes
    • happens in one direction
    • we absorb but don’t respond to info.
  • offers stimulus and space for expression
  • prompts are open-ended with no wrong answers
• before she started doing Neurons Away
  • graduated from SUNY with degree in biology
  • was taking organic chemistry courses for medical school
  • between medical school and graduating, she was teaching in after school program
  • hard for children to learn in school environment
    • they want to play after doing school for 8 hours
    • created games with learning schemes
    • they became more involved
  • thoughts changed through reading about psychology and philosophy

7:26 “What I really wanted to do was redirect individuals’ lifestyles, but not forcefully. I just want to give them the opportunity to think for themselves

• shifting from science to creativity
  • didn’t feel foreign to her, made sense to her
  • science is based out of creativity and imagination
  • researches neuro plasticity
  • she makes sense of the connection between science and creativity

8:58 “What I wanted to do was show that when you exercise your imagination and actually flex those different thoughts, that you’re able to actually allow space to connect new neural pathways and actually generate new neural pathways and you go in that direction thinking.”

• things inside Fill in the Space
  • sampler of mindsets and questions
  • introduce the idea and not overwhelm
  • colorful with drawings and illustrations to make it less intimidating
  • offer boxes for people to express themselves
  • one of the questions: “When exactly does a child become an adult?”
    • differences between physical, psychological, and physiological growth
    • allows people to think over the idea of growth
    • 13, 18, and 21 as different ages of turning into an adult
    • mindset vs. physical version of being an adult is quite different
  • favorite part is seeing people’s responses
  • doing assessments of people as they fill out the book
  • Youtube video of people filling out the book
  • one great example is “What is the opposite of a jellyfish?”
    • interactive website as a personality assessment
  • most surprising answer
    • people say things she would never think about
    • it gives people permission to use creativity and venture far off from their normal selves
    • in the video: What’s in this burger?
      • putting in things that are important to him: friends/family/loved ones/etc.
• empty space being intimidating
  • the power of constraints in creativity
  • the rest of the world is boxed in

19:53 “The way we are taught, especially through school, is to write in the lines and in the box. Color in the space. So it’s just what we’ve learned to do.. we haven’t been given the proper tools or the background to tackle that unless you are an artist and you work with empty canvases all the time… You have to have that specific mindset that develops to be able to do that. But most individuals haven’t really been given that opportunity. So starting off small, in a boxed space is easier, and it’s fun, and you’re still expressing yourself. It’s just on a smaller scale.”

• blank canvas as an educational tool
  • needs to be integrated into the way we learn
  • when you learn that way of expression, you can use it in many aspects of your life
  • buying things that are ready made instead of taking the opportunity to make it ourselves
  • why people like IKEA furniture they built themselves rather than having it assembled for them
  • consumer society vs. creator society
  • impact of our environments
  • it’s hard to find venues to express our creativity

22:41 “Giving empty space in different areas of life, especially education, empowers an individual to be more creative in their own choices in life, rather than choosing from the different value meals available. They can actually go home and create their own.”

• Keri Smith’s Wreck This Journal
  • Keri’s books are more hand’s on and active with the book
  • Sally’s books are more mental and imagination based
• things Sally does consistently
  • tries to stay in the happy zone
  • when she feels fearful/sad, she signals herself and tries to break it by doing something creative
  • counters computer work with physical activity
  • she does acrobatic yoga which keeps blood and creativity flowing
  • seeks new things in creative world
  • watches a lot of Youtube videos that inspire and develop a healthy mindset
  • be selective with the type of info you consume

26:52 “It’s really really really important what you spend your time and energy on because it’s not that easy to get that time and energy back.”

• deciding what to consume and not to consume
  • trying things out and finding things that contradict her beliefs
  • connecting ideas that aren’t on her mental pathways
• how she approaches trial and error
  • focus on what she already has instead of trying to do too many things at once
  • trying things out, testing them, and taking in their suggestions
  • not beating yourself up for your mistakes
  • creating the cover
    • first version of the cover had a girl on it and was called From the Sky
    • wasn’t turning many heads, so she re-created the cover
    • newest version of the cover is more representative of what the book is

34:50 “It’s just like these little things of trying, and trying, and trying til something catches or grows, or planting a bunch of seeds and hoping some of them take.”

35:21 “Seeking the opinions and constructive criticisms is really good, but people also need to create their bubble with that. I could ask a thousand people what they think about the cover, and each person… is telling me something different. So at some point, you just have to also just make your own decision and stick to it because you’re always going to find someone who has something different to say.”

• card game: Sallies
  • different questions/prompts like the book, but you can play with multiple people
  • similar to Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity but the way you respond is different
  • Neuron cards – question/prompts
  • Shuperpower cards
  • What would I fill my pool with?
    • other plays guess and toss answers into brain bucket
    • then the original player chooses their favorite
    • you get to know people and what they’re about
    • game style varies based on who you play with
    • winner gets to keep neuron cards
    • shuperpower cards bring another twist to the game
    • great way to learn about the people you play with in a playful way
  • shuperpower cards
    • Robinhood – pull a card from someone and give it to a player with less cards
    • play on of different characters
    • Cupid – 2 people have to hold hands and answer together
  • inspirations for creating the game
    • questions of other games are non-creative
    • the questions in her game require effort to create an answer
    • it’s very unlikely two people will have the same anser
  • takes a few rounds to see how people will play the game
• fortune cards
  • created it while working with kids in after school program
  • left notes for teachers inboxes
  • had leftovers, that she started to hand out to people
  • wrote handwritten notes and left them in random places or let people choose them
  • people who chose their own fortunes found great joy in them
  • people have kept them in their wallets and gotten tattoos of them
  • started mass producing them
  • you can get fortunes through her interactive site
  • tries to make them personal and direct
  • small events can have a huge impact on other people’s lives
    • tattoo the person got
  • going to a festival in Portugal and gave out 4,000 cards
  • great way to connect with people or start a conversation
  • stopping people to say hello or ask a question can leave a lasting impression
  • is surprised when people are mean or refuse to take a fortune card
• choosing which projects to work on
  • depends on her flow or energy
  • also depends on events or what’s happening during the week
  • carrying fortune cards or media packages for the people she meets
  • the importance of having multiple projects to work on at once

51:43 “I never usually force it when it comes to the creativity. If I feel it, I feel it. If I don’t, I’ll switch my attention and do something else.”

• her audience
  • thinks the book can be for anyone, but a lot of adults feel like it’s a children’s book
  • wants to keep it colorful and directed to the inner child
  • some people lack the insight it takes to understand the book
  • the challenge of finding her target audience
  • people who are conscientious or want to keep in touch with their creativity
  • also for people interested in alternative forms of education
  • being a learning tool for businesses, organizations, and schools
  • connecting with people is a big key
  • embracing people who are trying to help you

56:18 “Connecting and networking people who are connected to those other networks that I wouldn’t even thought of are extremely helpful. So it’s really important to reach out to different individuals and not be intimidated to do so. And to go ahead and do it multiple times… because sometimes

• recommendations for people who get stuck creatively
  • give yourself space away from textual/informational data
  • give people a piece of paper and a question, journal, or doodle
  • break habitual thinking patterns and generate new ones
  • be around other people who are creative
  • journaling helps you navigate through your thoughts and gives you permission to be more expressive
  • not having enough common spaces to go out and do something
    • most involve doing something very specific
    • there aren’t many free creative zones
  • there aren’t many places to connect with people for relationships or friendships
• short term and long term goals
  • short term – better communicate her mission
    • struggles to summarize her work
    • the way she phrases it has to be different for different groups
    • promoting the book
  • long term – workshops and events
    • has done a few with organizations and schools
    • makes lasting impressions on individuals and their ability to work together
    • get more involved with organizations and groups
• favorite quote
  • when you’re young, you use your imagination for fun
  • when you’re an adult, it’s more mature
  • we are the co-creators of our reality

1:06:05 “Imagination grows by exercise and contrary to common belief is more powerful in the mature than in the young.” – W. Somerset Maugham

1:07:35 “Our realities are basically a moment’s expression of our collective imagination. Everything that is around us was once an idea or a thought that was applied, and directed, and grew into a tangible reality… which a lot of us fail to realize in this journey that we call life.”

• morning routine
  • likes to play songs she enjoys and watch a slideshow of her vision boards
  • good way to develop a good brain pattern and brain wash herself
• books, podcasts, documentaries
  • documentaries  – What the Bleep Do We Know?
    • motivational speakers – Jack Canfield
    • We Are Creators
  • sit and silence and listen to yourself

1:11:46 “I feel like ware are our greatest teachers if we just give ourselves the opportunity to do so

• creative people
  • two friends name Rowan who live in Jordan
    • lifestyle, clothing, mindset, etc.
  • singer/writer/creator – Imogen Heap
    • creating songs by putting things on your hands
    • integrating dancing and creating music
• definition of creativity

1:14:39 “I think creativity is a form of expression and behavior and really a part of our nature. I feel like even our anatomy is designed to be creative beings. It’s just a part of who we are. So when we aren’t being creative, I feel like you’re missing out on a form of nutrition. Creativity is a part of who we are and how learn to express and interact with the world.”

• how to be more creative
  • experiment with life
  • don’t do the same thing every day
  • take a different route to work, make up a game, play with your food
  • it doesn’t always have to be writing or drawing creatively
  • it can be in how you dress, how you talk, or how you think
  • think of things in a different way

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