

Marilee Zdenek
Marilee Zdenek
Marilee Zdenek
SEMINARS
SEMINARS
SEMINARS


Marilee Zdenek
The Healing Power of Storytelling
Spring 2019
Sometimes you make a choice and that choice can change your life forever.
I’m thinking professionally now. You have a career and it goes in one direction, then something happens and you find yourself on a path that leads you to places you never dreamed you could go.
For me, the direction of my life as a writer changed dramatically when I attended the Santa Barbara Writers Conference decades ago. Four of my non-fiction books had already been published and well reviewed, but there’s always more to learn. Also, I wanted to meet new friends who are writers. After attending the conference for a couple of years, the director of the conference, Barnaby Conrad, asked me to lead a workshop and what resulted changed the direction of my career forever.
I began to research ways that writers could consciously stir their imaginations and write with greater passion and authenticity. Insights slipped from my pre-conscious into consciousness and it seemed that what I thought was becoming a book was becoming so much more. When I completed a raw draft of The Right-Brain Experience, my agent, Don Congdon, said, “If it works for writers, it should work for people in other fields too. Don’t limit your audience. Check it out.” And I did. I discovered that it works for people who are mentally adventurous. Engineers, Broadway actors, CEO’s and students who want to stimulate their imagination can become more productive. So I broadened the scope of the book for anyone who wants to think more creatively.
So how did that change the direction of my career? Well, The Right-Brain Experience made a few best-seller lists and some highly successful people sent invitations for me to lecture. That would include working in many European countries including Switzerland, where I made five presentations at The World Economic Forum in Davos. At first I was concerned that world leaders wouldn’t be responsive to such an unusual approach to intensifying creativity and productivity. I was wrong. I have never had a more receptive audience and after that I worked privately with some of them. I’ve written books on other subjects and I continue to be fascinated with how intentional stimulation of a certain part of the brain can produce fascinating ideas.
My latest book is Between Fires, a memoir. What will come next? Who knows? I’m still growing and learning, falling down and getting up, having fun in the process.
If you’re interested in writing, I hope you’ll come to the Santa Barbara Writers Conference this June. Check it out. www.santabarbarawritersconference. I hope you’ll stop by my workshop to say hello while you’re there.
Fall 2018
Sometimes it’s hard to stay balanced when the stability we long for seems impossible to attain. How do we get to “normal” when the word seems impossible to define?
Maybe we should schedule a few moments to create a safe-house for our emotions.
Imagine five minutes dedicated just to releasing stress, stopping the monkey-mind chatter, breathing in serenity, breathing out destructive thoughts. Focusing on the world as a kinder place.
You may want to try listening to The Gift of Peace. It’s free and it’s as easy as scrolling down this website and letting the words and the music relax you. It takes eleven minutes, but you may find that when you open your eyes, you will feel more relaxed, more centered, more aware of the power of love.
If you have questions, you can contact me at Marilee@MarileeZdenek.com