New Year Party Last-Minute Entertainment

I know it’s been a while since I posted…other issues intervened but I am trying to get back on track with posting.

The title above refers to a last-minute request I received from someone who wanted to know–at 2pm on New Year’s Eve–if I could come to his NYE party and provide entertainment for two hours… since I could rearrange an appointment to make that happen, I showed up right on time with my pre-printed “write your handwriting sample here” sign-up sheets and started analyzing the handwriting of his party guests.

Two hours of agreed entertainment turned into five (I left at 3am!) because guests kept passing the word about how accurate the analyses were. It was a GREAT experience for all concerned, and as I stood there in my corner of his living room on the 14th floor of an apartment highrise in downtown Orlando, I had the added perk of being able to watch fireworks going off all over Orlando in celebration of the New Year. Way cool.

Just another reason why I love the “portability” of my handwriting analysis skills. I love the immediacy of sharing one-on-one at parties and conventions… especially when I see the writer’s eyes light up and their jaws drop as they hear what their handwriting reveals, and how they can actually change certain strokes to create personality traits more supportive of their dreams and goals.

I live in Orange County, Florida, so I am available for gatherings in O.C. and within about an hour’s drive. I can even do “remote” Sentence and Signature Parties for hosts who live out of my driving distance. Email me with questions regarding possible event entertainment. (And by the way, I really do like more than 6 hours’ notice for an event!)

Blessings! The Handwriting Maven

Stuck? Handwriting Analysis is Your Way to Get the Energies Going!

What about your current life situation makes you feel as if you are stuck in neutral and can’t move forward?

• procrastination?
• anger?
• disorganization?
• … you tell me!

Post here and I will answer as many posts as I can about how to change that neutral to full speed ahead. Just knowing you have Handwriting Analysis as an ally in your need to progress will be a huge psychological boost.

So write down the top three ways you feel stuck. Choose the most significant of the three and send me a post about how you WANT your life to move forward, how you want the energies to change.

Let’s get those energies going in your favor!

theHandwritingMaven

Beyond Handwriting Analysis… to Changing Lives

“The greatest principle of growth lies in human choice.”

—George Eliot (Mary Ann Adams)

Clues to Babies’ Natural Talents through Handwriting Analysis, Part 2

Please read Part 1: Right Brain and Part 2: Left Brain, plus Clues to Babies’… Part 1 before this post.

There is no “right amount” of left- or right-brained thinking ability you would want to see in your child’s writing/drawing. (Remember you are dealing with a live human being with his or her own personality and life purpose!) Some days it might show one type exclusively. Some days it might show a fair balance of both types of writing or drawing. Be an observer!

What I tell adults when I see a balance of left- and right-brain strokes in their writing is that they can consider that they have MORE PROBLEM SOLVING TOOLS at their disposal, since they are not exclusively right or left-brain thinkers. They will be able to approach what appears to be an analytical problem WITH CREATIVITY AND IMAGINATION, eliminating the log jam of solutions. Also, with a balance of right- and left-brain strokes, they possibly will be able to solve what appears to be a creative problem with a very practical, LOGICAL direction or solution. These are great AHA! moments.

So if you see your child, or yourself, stuck in one mode (example, in left brain for addition problems) and no solution is forthcoming, help him or her practice the other-brain mode of doodling or drawing (example, right-brain loops and add music to the environment), to encourage fresh ideas. Of course, you can switch these back and forth to really stir the pot of possible solutions!

Example: Children might draw planets, flowers, suns, waves, clouds
(all curvy/rounded) in right brain; drawing houses with doors, pointed roofs, and windows, switches them into left-brain drawing and thinking. Get the picture? HA!

If you have a baby/child at home, collect, save and date samples of his or her doodles and drawings–then their printing and, later, cursive writing–will be an amazing future gift to you and your child.

Using this post to guide you about handwritten doodles and drawings which use loops and V formations, you can support the natural talents your child shows you now.

Watching how these traits help your child evolve into a successful student, young adult and contributing, mature adult, with work and life pursuits that are worthy and compatible with his or her talents and passions, will be rewarding beyond your left brain’s ability to …. well, you get the picture. Enjoy this exciting adventure into personal growth!

As always, Beyond Handwriting Analysis… to Changing Lives.

The Handwriting Maven

Clues to Babies’ Natural Talents through Handwriting Analysis, Part 1

If you came by this post without first reading Part 1 Right Brain and Part  2 Left Brain, please take the time to read the background for this post. It will help fill in some blanks.

Seeing how your child creates doodles (big entertainment value!), and understanding WHY they make them the way they do, will reveal how they are currently thinking, how much they are using their right brain and left brain.  Notie if one predominates. What interests does your child have, and can you encourage her or him, based now on what you are learning about the differences you can watch for in his/her writing or drawings?

Beyond doodling to drawing:

If your child has reached a drawing stage and she/he is drawing mostly round-edged elements (whether sensible/recognizable or not), the child is operating more from her or his right brain, where the imagination is king.

If the child is drawing more sharp-edged elements (whether sensible/recognizable or not), the child is operating at that moment from his or her left brain, where logic reigns.

Understand that handwriting in adults can change from morning to night, hour to hour, depending on events and their emotional impact…so babies’ doodling can at times.

I would advise keeping a Quick Log for writing down what KIND of writing or drawing (right or left brain generated) your child shows any given day. (Date the originial samples for future accurate referencing.) Note if there are patterns (sooooo important) as to when the writing shows more right brain or left brain influence…example, after eating, upon waking, before going to sleep, after you and your spouse have an argument the child overheard. And it’s a great thing to keep a file folder of the samples you comment on, to illustrate the comments in your Quick Log.  (The dates on both the drawing/sample and your log entry make this an easy cross-reference!)

You might gain some amazing insight into your child’s personality and how he or she will process information at a given time/event.

There is no “right amount” of left or right-brained thinking you would want to see in your child’s writing/drawing. (Remember you are dealing with a live human being with his or her own personality and life purpose!) Some days it might show one type exclusively. Some days it might show a fair balance of both types of writing or drawing. Be an observer!

What I tell adults  when I see a balance of left and right brain strokes in their writing is that they can consider that they have MORE PROBLEM SOLVING TOOLS at their disposal, since they are not exclusively right or left-brain writers. They will be able to sometimes approach what appears to be an analytical problem WITH CREATIVITY AND IMAGINATION, eliminating the log jam of solutions. Also, with a balance of right and left brain strokes, they possibly will be able to solve what appears to be a creative problem with a very practical, LOGICAL direction or solution. These are great AHA! moments.

So if you see your child, or yourself, stuck in one mode and no solution is forthcoming, practice the other-brain mode of doodling or drawing, to encourage fresh ideas.

Example: Children might draw draw planets, flowers, suns, waves
(all curvy/rounded) in right brain; drawing houses with doors, pointed roofs, and windows switches them into left-brain drawing and thinking. Get the picture? HA!

If you have a baby/child at home, collect, save and date samples of his or her doodles and drawings–then their printing and, later, cursive writing–will be an amazing future gift to you and your child.

Using this post to guide you about handwritten doodles and drawings which use loops and V formations, you can support the natural talents your child shows you now.

Watching how these traits help your child evolve into a successful student, young adult and contributing, mature adult, with work and life pursuits that are worthy and compatible with his or her talents and passions, will be rewarding beyond your left brain’s ability to …. well, you get the picture.

As always, “Beyond Handwriting Analysis…to Changing Lives!”

24 Hours to a Solution through Handwriting Analysis

If you have not yet read the two posts before this, Part 1: Right Brain and Part 2: Left Brain, please read before continuing here.

Let’s add a new wrinkle to this… if you have at least overnight to work on a solution, just before bedtime practice a page of either the jagged V formations for left-brain “thinking ability” or large loops for right-brain “thinking ability”, and expect to receive new ideas, clarity, or fresh solutions to problems for whatever issue you must have help with. [Remember to write loops to stimulate creative solutions, and V formations for analytical/logical solutions.] Have a notepad and pen ready at bedside in case you WAKE UP with the solution or idea. Writing it down immediately will tell your right and left brains “Thanks, guys! Keep on working for me!”

The more you use this technique, the more reliable it will be. And the more your family, friends and colleagues will wonder how you got so insightful!

When you have “overnight successes” after using this technique, please let me know via comment on this post.

As always, “Beyond Handwriting Analysis… to Changing Lives”

The Handwriting Maven

Boosting Logic, Reasoning through Handwriting Analysis, Part 2: Left Brain

If you have not read Part 1 from June 26, please read it first, then continue here. Thanks!

Okay, so you now know that “loop doodling” can help you when your right brain needs a boost for the creative team! What about the OTHER side of you… your left brain… in charge of helping you be logical and analytical? Ever find you’re having a hard time focusing on math? Science? Balancing your checkbook? Solving a technical problem? Reasoning with someone so they see your side of an issue, professionally or personally? You just might get some great new logical arguments and solutions by doodling a specific way to stimulate your left brain, the general in charge of your logical and analytical thinking ability. Read on.

Remember again, the babies’ first writing efforts talked about in Part 1. Babies’ doodling usually consists of large loops made on paper, but you may also see  jagged, large V formations flying across a page (notice babies like the momentum of making these connected formations without stopping—whether loops or V formations). That’s the baby’s left brain kicking in and demanding its time. If the majority of the doodles are large loops for many months, the baby’s right brain is predominating, and creativity and imagination will be the signposts for the child’s favored activities…music, coloring, drawing, writing, singing, dancing, and more. If the majority of the doodles are jagged V formations evident for many months, the baby’s left brain is predominating and signposts for the child’s favored activities will be chunky puzzles, take-apart/put-together games and toys, matching; maybe even simple math (add and subtract) would catch their attention and “competitive nature”. (See Clues to Babies’ Natural Talents post for follow up to this!)

For adults, this jagged, large V formation doodling practice (connected) across each line of your paper can stimulate left-brain thinking ability as well. Even if you are in a meeting and need a solution to an immediate problem, you could try doodling these V formations in a continuous line one after the other down the page (subtly, please, so not to distract!). That might be enough to bring forth the one win-win solution your meeting needs to hear.

But….Let’s add a new wrinkle to this, readers… if you have at least overnight to work on a solution, practice a page of either the jagged V formations for left-brain “thinking ability” or large loops for right-brain “thinking ability” just before bedtime, and expect to receive new ideas, clarity, or fresh solutions to problems for whatever issue you must have help with. [Remember to use loops to stimulate creative solutions, and V formations for analytical/logical solutions.] Have a notepad and pen ready at bedside in case you WAKE UP with the solution or idea. Writing it down immediately will tell your brains “Thanks, guys! Keep on working for me!”

I would love to get your feedback stories re your using this understanding of handwriting analysis, and this specific technique of  ”handwriting” your way to successful solutions.

“Beyond Handwriting Analysis…to Changing Lives”

Boosting Imagination, Brainstorming through Handwriting Analysis, Part 1: Right Brain

You’re stuck. No new ideas. Feels like you’re in a fog with nothing great to offer in the meeting. Or to your life. Or to your relationships. You have about as much imagination as a pet rock going for you right now. No creative juices left? Does the phrase “I got nothing here” sound all too familiar these days? What do you do? You know the saying, “Feels like I’m going around in circles”? Maybe that is just what you need to do! At least with your handwriting!

Loops in handwriting indicate imagination. That is a narrow view, but ’twill serve for this post. The next time you get stuck for an idea and you want to impress yourself or your boss, practice imagination: get a piece of lined paper and make a full line of loops, starting at the “baseline”, as if you’re going to make a lowercase cursive L. The wider you make the loop, the greater imagination you are stirring up. You can also make loops starting above the baseline, and extending the loop to the baseline, a mirror-image of the loop line you made first. How quickly will you feel the effects? Impossible to tell, as individuals are individually unique.

Loops can be your secret weapon for stirring up new, fresh, out-of-the-box ideas for your project, your life. Making a full page of both types of loop lines, or just the first type, would be my recommendation for helping you brainstorm and contribute great ideas in the target environment.

Sound too simple? Consider babies’ first doodling: loops are usually the first type of “writing” they engage in. Certainly we cannot downplay the significance of this for them. Or us, if we are the parents. Some babies create their first writing doodling not as exhuberant loops, but as sharp back and forth V shapes. This is significant as well, as would be doodling that shows BOTH loops and sharp V shapes. See tomorrow’s post Part 2 for more on those points, and also 24 hours to a Solution for an easy, practical technique for problem-solving based on this information!)

Eliminating Obstacles to the Life You Really Want, Part 2

If you have not read Part 1, please read it before continuing here.

Continuing the story of the IBM Lotusphere Convention attendee with anger strokes which were holding him back:

I told him it was totally understandable that that would cause him to be extremely angry. “But you know what’s happening with you now…your anger has kept you from living the life you really want. That anger is drawing all your focus to it, and you are having a difficult time, I would almost say ‘impossible’ time, making progresss in any other area of your life. Your anger is your obstacle. BUT I can show you not only how to see it in your handwriting, I can show you how to deal better with, and possibly totally eliminate, the anger by changing the stroke that indicates anger.” He was, let’s say, shocked, and admitted that everything I said was really true. That he was very tired of living in anger every day, and wanted me to show him right then how to eliminate it. He was sincere, and now his focus was on being able to move on. His anger was not going to change anyone but himself, for the negative. He wanted to be his own best friend again, and not give up so much power to those who didn’t deserve it. By the time he left my table, his life had changed for the better, because he now had a real-life way to create a life for himself that would be “healthier” in many ways. He had already started taking back his power.

You might think that all this took way over my 5-minute limit (established by the talent agency that hired me, by the way). But it only took about 8 minutes to communicate all this, including explaining the technique by which he would be able to methodically eliminate the unhealthy anger dominating his life. [This obessesive anger needed to be addressed; there is justifiable anger which can actually help us in some ways.]

Not a bad exchange, for a few minutes of “entertainment”. That’s why my subtitle for this blog is “Beyond Handwriting Analysis … to Changing Lives”. It’s not boasting, it is really an amazing truth. And that is what makes me different in my approach to Handwriting Analysis from others who simply produce “personality profiles”… and most of those are spit out on their printers directly from a piece of software that has “evaluated” some subjective answers from the “writer” who took a very ambiguous test. NOT good form, or fair to the writer.

There are two basic truths I hold dear (somewhat tongue in cheek): 1–NO SOFTWARE PROGRAM can accurately PROOF any text because CONTEXT, syntax, and grammar can only be evaluated by a real live proofreader. AND 2–NO SOFTWARE PROGRAM can accurately analyze anyone’s handwriting, because handwriting is so UNIQUE to the writer that a complete evaluation of the writer’s personality strokes can only be made by a real live Handwriting Analyst. And beyond the personality profile report “produced” by software (which you may not be told is HOW the analysis is produced), the writer deserves to NOT be left in the lurch… not be left with no clue as to “okay what now”. The writer deserves “the rest of the story”, in terms of knowing that there is a way to CHANGE what is less desirable into something “nearer to the heart’s desire” (thanks to Kahlil Gibran).

If there is any reader out there who is interested in how to eliminate anger from her or his writing, post a comment. I will answer.

Eliminating Obstacles to the Life You Really Want, Part 1

What is it about you that you find frustrating? Is there a particular personality trait that bugs you every time you display it? What is it in your behavior that seems to get in the way of what you REALLY WANT out of life? Do you think there HAS to be a way to get more personal fulfillment out of your life, your relationships, your career? What would you just LOVE to be able to deal better with in your life? Is there something in your last job evaluation that was negative, something that “blindsided” you, surprised you? Something that may be standing in the way between you and a raise or promotion? Between you and a wonderful relationship? There are many possibilities when it comes to things that might be hindering our progress in our lives, whether it be in our careers, or our personal relationships, or just in how we would hope our lives would feel more settled, peaceful, and satisfying.

A short story about this issue of “something standing between you and a better life or dreams fulfilled”:

A few years ago I was hired to provide Handwriting Analysis for entertainment at an IBM Lotusphere Convention in Orlando, Florida. There were engineers and creative thinkers and other IBM employees from all around the world.
Every five minutes a new person would sit at my table and I would give them a “lightning round” handwriting analysis based on one sentence and their signature which I had them write while waiting in line. I have to say this is one of my favorite things to do as I must work very fast, be to-the-point with no wasted talk or “filler”, and be as diplomatic as possible during the process…but also entertaining, because that’s what they were there for, after all! At one point, over 30 people were waiting in line for me, as word was spreading quickly as to how accurate attendees thought my analyses were. That’s when…

A man about mid-thirties sat down and handed me his sample of writing. He did not say anything to me, and waited for me to scan his writing. I was taken aback a bit by a very prominent trait, repeated significantly, in such a short sample of writing. I HAD to speak to the point, because this person needed some guidance NOW.

I looked at him, leaned in, and said softly so those closest to us couldn’t hear, “You are one angry guy!” He sat back as if I had smacked him in the third eye, the color drained from his face, and he nodded his head in agreement, words not coming from him. I said, “There is no way for me to say WHAT you are angry about, and you certainly don’t have to tell me, but I can tell you that you are carrying a heavy load of anger that is bound to be affecting many aspects of your life in a negative way.”

He admitted, “I am in the middle of a very bad divorce. My wife cheated on me with my best friend.” 

—-

In spite of hundreds of analyses I have done, I approach each one as unique and the writer as unlike anyone I have ever met before. I am not “jaded” by any trait I see, and I take nothing for granted. This man carried his anger around every day… until I helped him see the way to reduce and hopefully eliminate it totally from his life.

See Part 2 tomorrow for “the rest of the story”!

Handwriting Analysis and the Movies!

Have you ever been watching a movie and happened to see one of the characters handwrite a note? Have you wondered what the curlicues, flourishes, or long t bars meant? Of course sometimes the note is not in the true handwriting of the actor; someone else was assigned to create the writing. For various reasons, I’m sure…

But I was watching a movie the other night with Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper called Ball of Fire, in which Cooper wrote some notes on a notepad. He clearly was the writer of the notes each time, and I found it fascinating to see a very prominent personality trait in both samples I saw.  Let’s just say, if there ever were a bone of contention or disagreement on the set that Mr. Cooper wanted to make an issue of, he certainly could do it… big time! He had very prominent and frequent strokes showing not just a little argumentativeness in his nature, but A LOT! I doubt if there was one argument on the set that he did not win if he wanted to. Now think about this too… anyone who is argumentative generally is quite intelligent, because otherwise the argument would be short-lived, n’est-ce pas?

I am always looking for examples of true celebrity handwriting (actually being executed) in older movies (where it is more likely to be the authentic writing of the actor), and I find it fascinating to see the actor’s true personality “set in writing.” I’d love to hear about writing samples you see out there in the movies, and if you catch a particular stroke you are curious about, copy it as fast as you can (if you have tivo this is easy to do), write me with its description, and ask me about it! Happy movie-watching! (Film noir detective-suspense movies are my personal favorite!)  By the way, another famous “highly argumentative” personality? Miss Lizzie Borden, who was eventually acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother. Hmmm. Perhaps that was one argument she didn’t lose? Who knows!