CREATIVE THINKING TOPIC

Directors of the American Creativity Association focused on everything from attitude to mental imagery during a series of sessions Monday at Southeast Missouri State University.

The sessions with faculty, staff, health-care professionals and others were part of the association's weeklong conference.

Joyce Juntune, executive director of the ACA, told a crowd of about 45 community leaders and faculty and staff from Southeast that people must have the right attitude for creative success.

"Attitude can be an energy zapper or an energy enhancer," she said at the luncheon in the University Center.

People spend too much time complaining about things they can't change instead of focusing on the positive, said Juntune of College Station, Texas.

Juntune said it doesn't take any creativity to be weird; creativity comes in making the unusual useful.

Dr. Dorothy Sisk, a board member from Beaumont, Texas, and author of books on creativity and intuition, spoke at an afternoon session on health care. About 100 people attended the session, including representatives from area hospitals.

Studies have shown mental imagery can help alleviate pain and promote physical healing, she said.

She said a study of 86 middle-aged women with cancer found that those patients who received medical treatment and practiced mental imagery techniques reported less pain and were more optimistic than those who just received medical treatment.

"These women imagined themselves floating gently on water, fully relaxed and peaceful," Sisk said.

People feel better about themselves when they feel they have some control over what is happening to them, Sisk said.