Meditation for Creativity
Meditation and Mindfulness Tools for creativity
In another life, I founded SNAP Photography Festival and while I’m not involved with SNAP anymore, I’ve been invited back as a speaker, to talk about resilience and wellbeing.
As well as speaking at their main event in April, I was due to attend their Spring social event and lead a short in-person session around meditation and creativity but, unfortunately, the universe conspired against me.
As I wasn’t able to be there in person, I created the recorded meditation below, around the theme of creativity.
Mindfulness and Creativity
There is a whole host of research that links mindfulness and other forms of meditation to increased creativity. Meditation can help you to shift your perspective, be more empathetic, and respond to situations in a non-habitual way¹.
From my own perspective, my meditation practice helps me to mindfully attune to my senses, and it also helps me to be grounded and present. I create my best work as a photographer when I feel connected to the present moment.
This meditation leads you through feeling, hearing, and seeing, before exploring an object from the Buddhist perspective of ‘Beginners Mind’.
Beginners Mind
Beginners Mind means dropping all expectations and preconceived ideas, and approaching the task, whether that’s a creative practice, or sitting in meditation, as though we are a beginner. That doesn’t mean de-skilling yourself. It’s about letting go of habitual ways of thinking and meeting your experiences (and the world in general!) with joy, wonder, curiosity, and non-judgment.
Cultivating this openness can lead to greater creativity and in my personal experience, I also find it leads to feeling more connected to my creative practice, which enriches my experience.
You can give these exercises a try by listening to the audio below. You’ll need a quiet space, and an object to hand to focus on for the second part of the session! I’d love to hear how you get on in the comments.
References:
1) Henriksen, D., Richardson, C. and Shack, K., 2020. Mindfulness and creativity: Implications for thinking and learning.
