In a recent Case Western Reserve release, the university announced that researchers from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and the College of Arts and Sciences at Case Western will begin groundbreaking studies to understand what drives the dying to live long enough to personal and interpersonal issues.

With the research data, they will design interventions to help patients in hospice care and families before and after the person passes.

Before now, end of life research primarily focused on making the patient comfortable by easing suffering or discomfort from the illness.

But, the approach of Barbara Daly and Mary Jo Prince-Paul from the School of Nursing and Julie Exline from Arts and Sciences is to relieve psychological distress by marshaling the patient’s inner strengths and social connections.

These qualities include the resilient feelings of hope, optimism and connectedness that they mustered to make it through difficult and even life-threatening situations before their terminal illnesses. Marshaling these inner resources has been shown to improve the psychological outlook of healthy people, and the researchers want to find out the benefits for those severely ill.

Forgiveness will also be a focus of the study, which is partially funded by the Fetzer Institute. Exline, who has studied forgiving oneself, others and God over the past decade, will survey family members before and after the death of the loved one to see how hospice workers can help them as they undergo the emotional stress of caring for this seriously ill family member and then the challenges of bereavement.

The highest expression of love is creativity.
–Deepak Chopra

Love has inspired countless works of art, from immortal plays such as Romeo and Juliet, to architectural masterpieces such as the Taj Mahal, to classic pop songs, like Queen’s “Love of My Life”.
–Nira Liberman and Oren Shapiro, “Does Falling In Love Make Us More Creative,” Scientific American

According to a recent study, thinking of love can make us more creative. The experiments, conducted by psychologists Jens Förster, Kai Epstude, and Amina Özelsel at the University of Amsterdam, suggest that love induces us to think long term, “triggering global processing”–a sort of psychological distancing or perspective–which promotes creativity. Thinking of sex, however, actually engages analytical–short-term, detail-oriented–thinking.

“One of the most noteworthy implications of these experiments is that love and sex don’t simply influence the way we think about the people we love or desire,” says an article in Scientific American. “Instead, they influence the way we think about everything.”

A friend just rekindled a romantic relationship. She and her (re)new love have kicked the creativity quotient into high gear. They both are sending letters and writing poetry to each other. She is knitting, creating collage, and trying new things. There is an aliveness in creative areas of her life that had long been dormant. It may be anecdotal, but they both agree, their rekindled creativity is due to their rekindled love.

It makes me wonder how much more there is to it than global processing. I wonder if thinking of love does something that can’t be quantified–if it opens our hearts and if, with open hearts, we are more creative.

I wonder, too if the expression of creativity is actually a form of love itself. To me, it encompasses both self love and love of others by giving expression to the creative spirit–that kernel of uniqueness and connection to something larger within each of us.

And for those who think creativity is limited to those who express their talents through the “arts,” in fact, ways of expressing creativity are only limited by creativity itself.

If you haven’t already watched Playing for Change’s wonderful video, Stand By Me, or Matt Harding’s Where the Hell is Matt? videos of him dancing in locations and with people from around the world, check them out. It may just trigger that “global processing” the Dutch researchers refer to.

The Fetzer Institute’s new web site, filled to the brim with information and resources on love, forgiveness, and compassion, is now live! Find out about their current work, the research they support, what religious leaders from a variety of faith traditions say about love and forgiveness through a series of videos, search their database for specific information, check out their latest events and activities, and lots more.

According to a recently released Australian Family Relationships Clearinghouse (AFRC) Briefing paper, “in recent decades, conflict and communication have been a primary focus of relationships research. However, there is increasing interest in the role of pro-relationship behaviours in repairing and maintaining couple relationships.” Check out this 14-page paper exploring the research and application of the role of forgiveness and sacrifice in relationships.

According to Pavel Somov, Ph.D., a psychologist and author, “Willingness to forgive is dependent on our explanatory or attributional style, on why we think people do what they do.” In an article on the Huffington Post, Somov adds that, “People are scientists by nature: when we observe an event, we attempt to make sense of it. Making sense of the world is adaptive, necessary for survival.” He explains how we can easily get it wrong, though, when interpreting behavior and events and how changing our initial response and giving people the benefit of the doubt can increase our willingness to forgive. It’s worth a read.

Most, if not all of us, indulge in procrastination now and then. But who would have thought that forgiving yourself for procrastinating might actually decrease this behavior? Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D., associate professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada who specializes in the study of procrastination, recently authored a Psychology Today blog article in which he states that recent research indeed confirms that self forgiveness decreases procrastination. If procrastination is an issue for you, take a look at this article. Don’t put it off…

In an article in the Kalamazoo Gazette, forgiveness researcher, Everett Worthington states that ‘as with any stressful situation, chronic hostility related to unforgiveness “stretches out the arteries, which makes little tears inside the arteries and veins. These form tiny deposits of scar tissue that can snag things going through the blood and make the blood vessels less flexible.

That scar tissue increases the risk of a cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke, he said.

Unforgiveness, he said, also is associated with the buildup of cortisol, a hormone that deposits around the adrenal gland. Cortisol is known to disrupt sexual desire, digestion and the immune system.”‘

It looks like we should add forgiveness to regular check ups, a good diet, and exercise, as an essential element to good health.

The Greater Good Science Center in Berkeley, California is offering several day-long events as part of their new seminar series, “The Science of a Meaningful Life” on February 27, 2009. The series will feature some of the world’s leading thinkers–including Paul Ekman, one of the 20th century’s most influential psychologists, and Jon Kabat-Zinn, scientist, meditation teacher, and best-selling author of books such as Full Catastrophe Living and Wherever You Go, There You Are. Featured speakers will share their insights into the roots of happiness, compassion, and mental health. Video highlights from these seminars will be available online.

The Dalai Lama recently donated $150,000 to Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at its School of Medicine. The center’s vision is “to use research advances to create tools that allow humans to become more compassionate and to engage more readily in altruistic behaviors toward themselves and others.” 

In the Stanford Report, Bruce Goldman writes, that “The center has now raised more than $2 million in donations and has initiated a number of pilot studies, some involving Buddhist and Catholic contemplative practitioners. For example, brain-imaging studies have demonstrated a burst of activity in an area of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens when these practitioners think compassionate thoughts. The center is also examining individuals’ response to the suffering of others, which can be either disgust or recognition of another’s suffering, followed by empathy and a desire to take action.”

“Anger in response to an injustice is as reliable a human emotional response as happiness is to winning the lottery or grief is to losing a loved one,” said Michael McCullough, author of Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct and recent guest on public radio’s Speaking of Faith.

In a compelling interview with Krista Tippett, McCullough discussed the purpose and place of the revenge instinct—yes, instinct—in our evolution. He also explains that forgiveness, like revenge, is a response we can cultivate. What is so refreshing about McCullough’s research is that it gives us permission to feel what we feel, knowing our instincts serve a larger purpose. It also provides encouragement for nurturing our proclivity to forgive.

Check out the interview as well as stories and songs on revenge and forgiveness.