An insistent clamour of bells and horns recurs throughout Carol, evoking the stifling, heavy atmosphere of conformity that overlay early 1950s America. An older woman, the wealthy, strikingly beautiful Carol (Cate Blanchett), starts an affair with young salesgirl and aspiring photographer, Therese (Rooney Mara).

In the past 150 years Lewis Carroll’s Alice has undergone innumerable transformations. Instantly popular, she quickly escaped her original novelistic environment, appearing in Victorian Punch caricatures, on magic lantern slides and on stage.

We’re exposed to music for nearly 20% of our waking lives. But much of our musical experience seems to be a mystery. Why does some music bring us to tears while other pieces make us dance? Why is it that the music that we like can make others agitated?

My mission in this article is to share with you what I’ve learned and observed as a longtime coach of graduate students and writer of creative projects. Here are some techniques, tools, and tough questions to ease the trek for yourself and everyone around you...

At first, deciding about television was a simple matter of thoughtful grading. A slow matter, too, as I had been watching television for all these days and never thought of grading it. How I grade: Every news event in a half-hour newscast, would earn a grade from me, its viewer.

Are we not more important than our cell phones? Our “batteries” run low as well. Few people are as urgent to charge their own batteries as they are to charge up their cell phone. We push and push ourselves to keep going and we don’t pay attention to our own battery or need to be recharged.

I found the film Suffragette utterly stirring. This came as something of a surprise to me. The voluminous press coverage has been unanimous: the film’s uniqueness lies in its focus on working class women’s struggle for the vote.

Within ourselves we contain seeds of great creativity. We are usually afraid of our own powers so we like to distract ourselves with hundreds of little mundane things rather than look in the mirror and see our real selves. Modern society encourages us to get lost in the world of social media where others are praised for their creativity and we hide in their shadows...

“No matter by which cul­ture a woman is influenced, she understands the words wild and woman, intuitively.” [Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run with the Wolves.] Something about the way those two words — wild and woman — were placed alongside each other set up a commotion inside me, a response to a longing I couldn’t name.

Psychologists have advanced a new theory linking neurotic unhappiness and creativity, arguing that natural worriers may also have highly active imaginations and be more creative problem-solvers.

The provenance of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) is perhaps less well known than the novel itself, which has come to be even less remarked upon than the legal travails and self-imposed isolation of the author who penned the work.

Our happiness depends on whether we believe something is good or bad. But most people are not aware of this important mechanism and they believe that it is outer circumstances and what they have or don’t have in their lives, which is the reason why they are happy or unhappy.

Orange is the New Black is about to return for a third season. If you haven’t watched it yet, it’s time to sit up and take note: the Netflix programme looks set to become a classic of feminist television.

Some wild west African chimpanzees are teetotallers, whereas others are frequent drinkers given the opportunity – consuming the equivalent of three pints of strong lager per day.

I am not afraid to make a fool of myself. And why do I deliberately do this? Quite simply, it feels good to me. It lets me be unpredictable, unconventional, spontaneous and completely in the moment. It’s really a divine experience, a shaking up of ordinary reality, a transition from my mind to my heart.

Digital music downloads and online streaming sales have now overtaken sales of CDs and records for the first time, underscoring just how fundamentally the internet has changed the way we consume.

How many of us feel burdened with too many responsibilities and don’t slow down long enough to think even one clear thought? Our minds are cluttered with endless have-tos and to-dos that keep us running at breakneck speed. We are continually multi-tasking and bombarded by a devastating amount of information that doesn’t need to be there.

It's that time of year... Income Tax Time. As I was looking over my income tax form, I reflected that in a `truly enlightened' society, Uncle Sam's yearly required report would contain a lot of different types of deductions.

By simplifying your life, you may discover the things that make you happy and fulfilled aren’t things at all. Focusing on the essentials will relieve your mind from ideas or situations that make you anxious. The path to simplicity is a process that will affect everything about you, including your thought patterns...

Singing may not be so much a natural talent as it is a learned skill—one that researchers say can decline over time if not used. The good news is that with lots of practice, just about anyone can become a better singer.

Perhaps the most harmful myth is that creativity is the exclusive domain of the arts. Of course creativity is found in music, poetry, writing and painting – but the myth is harmful because it creates a perception that creativity cannot be found in science, engineering, sport or cooking. Another obstructive misconception is that creativity is simply unfettered thinking, divorced from practicality and reality.

Barry and I decided to make Sunday our special day of rest and recharging. Our intention was good, but soon we were going on the computer for “just a little” to check an important email. That “just a little” would turn into several hours and soon a big part of the day would be over.

Is writing supposed to be fun? Surely it's better to suffer. It will make our writing real, give it depth and integrity. Every writer has a personal tale about the hardships of writing. And we all know that writing is a lonely business. [Editor's Note: While this article is about the fear of writing, its insights and suggestions apply to other fears as well.]