Drawing from creative writing projects in a Creativity and Wellbeing course now in its fourth year at Akita International University (AIU) in Japan, this workshop will lead participants through two activities: “Inner Forest Bathing” exploring senses and memories emerging from imagined forests and “Greenout Poetry,” a mixed media erasure poem using pages from Haruki Murakami’s coming of age novel Norwegian Wood as a base. Both poetic activities are non-threatening and easily accessible to participants, with memories as the focus of the meditative forest bathing and free-writing activity. In the “green-out” erasure poem, the activity avoids “the terror of the blank page” by supplying text from which kotodama, words that attract us in the moment, become anchoring words in poems. Workshop leaders will begin with a brief overview of the Creativity and Wellbeing course and the outcomes of a study investigating the connection between creativity and wellbeing among college students in a competitive academic environment. Results from a Comprehensive Inventory of Thriving survey taken before and after the course showed students had marked improvement in subscores for skills, community, accomplishment, and trust.

Authors:
Lee Friederich, Akita International University, Japan
Joel Friederich, Akita International University, Japan
Naeko Naganuma, Akita International University, Japan
Kathryn R. Cullen, University of Minnesota Medical School, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Lee FRIEDERICH is a Professor at Akita International University in the Faculty of the International Liberal Arts. She is involved in researching contemporary Japanese women poets, as well as the relationship between Creativity and Wellbeing.

Joel FRIEDERICH is a poet from the U.S. ("Blue to Fill the Empty Heaven," Silverfish Review Press) teaching creative and academic writing at Akita International University in Japan and researching the role of creative practices in wellbeing.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Sunday Schedule

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