It can sometimes be more of a challenge for me to write on an assigned or chosen topic rather than answer the call the Universe is sending. So what do I do? While getting ready to write this article, I laid in my bed, meditating. Imagining my hands on the cover of my journal. Thinking of all I’ve learned in my training: “What do I love?” “In what quality of life do I want to be immersed?”
Then the neighbour’s illegal chickens started singing their egg laying song. Some people deal with monkey mind; I’ve got chickens. So creative! And I started to laugh.
There are so many parallels between creativity and meditation. Setting up sacred time and place. Distractions. Blocks. Daydreaming. Attuning to our senses, instincts, and intuitions. Finding beauty in the mundane. Thoughts coming faster than the conscious mind can process them.
And what do I do when I feel blocked, or stuck, or having a case of the I-don’t-wannas? I simply start. Doodling in a notebook….. words or lines, it doesn’t matter. Get up and move. Go somewhere less urban and welcome the mountain vista into my heart. I feel myself drop into a meditative state, or a spark of inspiration makes itself known, and I begin to create.
Creative practice and meditation are ways of being in the world where we can gain a deeper connection to Self. Creating and meditating both ask us to be open to what is desired or needed in the moment.
Creativity is bound to our instinct to make meaning. It’s about giving your imagination permission to see, feel, and explore, without judgement or expecting an outcome. A way to express one’s inner world in the outer world. It’s putting things together (this can be objects, concepts, routes, movement and more!) in ways unique to my being. How I am in the moment will be reflected. If there are constraints or requirements, that will challenge me to be innovative in my approach.
In creating for the enjoyment of the process and discovery, something wonderful might be revealed that hadn’t thought of before. Much like Instinctive Meditation®, we welcome all our parts, everything that shows up in a creation session.
Creative practice has been shown to improve memory, expand our ways of thinking and problem solving, and encourage flexibility in our approach to life, both personally and professionally. So can meditation!
Meditating is also a creative act. We can sit and chant a few words that hold meaning for us, walk in the woods and listen to trees, watch the waves and get into the rhythm of the ocean, read a passage of a book and pause to allow the words to wash over our soul.
Meditation is an instinct that gives the brainbody an opportunity to rest, restore, repair, and rehearse in our daily life. To come to a place of relaxed awareness. To become attuned to life’s rhythms. To open our curiosity.
When we allow the meditation or creative session to flow, ideas, feelings and sensations arise that might not have if we were determined to do things in a certain way- the same way- every time.
Through Instinctive Meditation®, I’ve come to appreciate more the rhythm of creativity. It’s increased my capacity to see the world around me, and to touch the deep levels within.
We are organic beings living in a linear world many societies have created. Output, production, and tangible evidence that we’ve done something with our time has become more valued that enjoying creating for its own sake. Creativity and meditation are states of being, rather than states of doing. Let your mind show you the adventure of the moment.
craftingthespirit.com 