Tag: mindfulness

creative practice, Creativity, inspiration, instinctive meditation, instinctive meditation, journaling, meditation, mindfulness, passion, Personal Development, Personal growth, writing

Creativity and Meditation: Finding Flow Between Our Inner and Outer Worlds

Adele Satori
Image shows books, beaded artwork, a painting and a metal singing bowl scattered on a table.

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.

creative practice, Creativity, inspiration, instinctive meditation, instinctive meditation, journaling, meditation, mindfulness, passion, perception, Personal Development, Personal growth, spirituality, writing

Dare the Wild Unknown

Adele Satori

I’ve been savouring this first stanza of Sutra 85, from “The Radiance Sutras” by Lorin Roche, PhD.

In trying something new, or even a fresh day, one can open one’s Self up to so much if an encounter, exploration, or a routine you’ve done a thousand time, is approached without layering expectations over the experience. I learn so much when I engage with something as if it is for the first time. Some of my best work has come when I haven’t been quite certain of what I am doing, and have the willingness to follow where events are leading me.

Here is the sutra in its entirety:
Toss aside your map of the world,
All your beliefs and constructs.
Dare the wild unknow.

Here in this terrifying freedom,
Naked before the universe,
Commune with the One
Who knows everything from the inside:
Invisible power pervading everywhere
Divine presence permeating everything.

Breathe tenderly as
The lover of all beings.

instinctive meditation, journaling, meditation, mindfulness, Personal Development, Personal growth

Wide Rivers

Adele Satori
Image shows a mountain stream with rocks and fallen trees. In this distance are trees and a sunny sky.

“Through me course wide rivers and in me rise tall mountains. And beyond the thickets of my agitation and confusion there stretch the wide pains of my peace and surrender. All landscapes are within me. And there is room for everything.” Etty Hillesum.

This passage is so evocative of Instinctive Meditation® to me. In this practice, we welcome all aspects of ourselves- the wild, the serene, the playful, the contemplative. The mind is allowed to go on an adventure. It may roam around for awhile, and it may eventually settle into a state of apparent stillness and calm. Find a deeper connection within, as well as the outer world.

This is the way of meditation for modern people. Won’t you join me?

creative practice, inspiration, instinctive meditation, meditation, mindfulness, Personal Development, Personal growth

If You Think Meditation is Hard…..

Adele Satori
Image shows purple artichoke flower in front of tree that has deep red leaves.

I can’t clear my mind.
Focusing on my breath is boring.
I can’t sit still.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor is too uncomfortable.
I’m worried that it’s against my religious affiliation.

These are all things I’ve heard recently from people about meditation. Thing is, you simply might have not found the right meditation practice for YOU.

I specialize in the practice of Instinctive Meditation®. This practice holds that meditation is an innate instinct in all of us, just like eating or sleeping. The relaxation response is just as natural as the stress response. Our modern lives often call on us to push aside relaxing and regenerating, which can result in a number of things such as stress, poor sleep, boredom, etc.

Meditation can be as simple as gazing out across the horizon at the beach, merging with your favourite music while dancing, looking at a piece of art, journaling, cooking, taking a nap.. and so many other things. You’ve probably been meditation already, and just didn’t know it!

Potential benefits of meditation can include entering a state of relaxed awareness more easily, decreased stress, enhanced communication skills, better sleep, easier access to your creativity, and a richer engagement with life in general.

I would love to meet with you and help craft a practice that is right for you, and support you on your meditation journey.

Right now you can experience one on one meditation coaching for free via Zoom as part of my practicum for my advanced meditation teacher certification. Send me a message, and let’s get started!

I also need two of these participants willing to be recorded on Zoom. One person once, and one person twice. The recordings will only be used internally as part of my completion portfolio, and you’ll need to sign a waiver.

Can’t wait to play in the land of meditation with you!

inspiration, instinctive meditation, instinctive meditation, journaling, meditation, mindfulness, spirituality

A Mystical Meditation Experience

Adele Satori

Have you every meditation about your meditation? I did today.

I did one of my favourite urban hikes that ends for me at the grounds of the Self-Realization Mother House near where I live. I wandered behind the main building so I could see the vista of mountains, covered with more snow than I’ve seen in my entire time living in Los Angeles.

And I thought– this is my image of sovereignty. Not in human form, but in the quiet solid ancient strength of mountains. The roar of water. Gnarled tree roots that I imagine were braided by faeries. Not in human-created deities. I felt filled with the beautiful power of Nature.

I wandered over to the Temple of Leaves to sit a bit. Another person was sitting down as I arrived, and he was loud and purposeful in his breathing. I sat and listened to the birds and wondered more about sovereignty as I fell into the delicious comfort of meditation.

I began to sense a light deep in my brain, and then I could see it, and it had a faint, indescribable. sound. Bells made of water is the closest I can come.

I got curious about the light, and inwardly said “I would like to see more, please.”

The light grew and I could feel it both inside and outside more forehead. Like the looking glass Alice fell through.

My eyes still closed, the light moved and was hovering in front of me. It looked something like the Sun, but more- with a wavy ribbon candy corona, and rays flowing out. So beautiful.

I felt a pull to the center, and the image grew to encompass my whole consciousnesses.

I moved towards the center and was hearing “In the center is a jewel. and the jewel is the center.” So many indescribable feelings.

And then “Your heart is the jewel, and the jewel is your heart. Your heart is all hearts, and all hearts are One.”

All of me was filled with light that felt like carbonated water. And the breeze around me blew tendrils of light and energy off of me.

Right around then something growled in the bushes, and I could hear a crack as I was startled back into ordinary consciousness.

Once I determined it was frisky squirrels and not a threat, I sat there a few more moments. Thinking about how humans have tried to describe the Undescribable through myths and religions- through art, and music.

And how, if one is very lucky, one can enter and experience a glimpse of what is beyond ordinary human consciousness and bring back a beautiful impression and memory that can be opened again at any time.

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Image is a photo I took on my walk.