Unlock your imagination: Meditation for creativity
“Meditation is for the mind as sports is for the body.” has been an overused phrase since the earliest times. Regardless of being a cliched proverb, the essence actually holds a profound truth. Often recurred without delving into its meaning deeply, meditation in fact helps a person to undergo a transformative phase on mental well-being. Mental well-being being the subject, it highlights on fostering mental relaxation, concentration, settling inner chats, creating stillness and clarity, spirituality and much more; but to a greater extent, enhancing creativity and imagination.
Creativity is considered to be the lifeblood of innovations. It is indeed a spark, which helps fuel problem-solving ideas, artistic expressions and up all the way to even scientific discoveries as well. However, imaginative thoughts are not a switch that can be flicked on and off, in accordance to the need. It is rather something that needs to be exercised and needs discipline.
During meditation, the mind undergoes a notable change. The practice is also said to be a condition of open-awareness. The mind can never go quite. Although, there are said to be few people who have achieved thoughtlessness (the highest form one can achieve through meditation). The mind often twinned with monkey, ( a simile that says both monkey and mind cannot be controlled) the practice includes the meditator to be rather the observer of his own thoughts. Resting in this awareness is a way of stimulating and being receptive to more new ideas and perspectives. The heightened state enables a person to tap into deeper imagination.
Research studies done in 2008 showed that gray matter of the brain associated with creativity and problem-solving capacity is increased through regular meditation. But, the brain is rather a single thing which doesn’t have separate compartments and cohabitate every kind of thoughts, impulses and actions as one. It is a home for both conscious as well as creative thoughts. The thriving of creative ones has a single key i.e to foster tranquility; initially guiding to stillness and clarity.
Inter-relation of Meditation with Creativity
It is quite clear on how physical exercise strengthens and reactivates every cell on the body to work more efficiently. In a very similar way, meditation can be claimed to be a mental workout which helps create a cultivating and a fertile environment within the mind for creative and innovative thoughts to flourish. On a daily basis, the mind often gets bogged down by everyday thoughts, tedious schedules and the same tasks over and again. By establishing a deep concentration and focus, meditation helps clear the clustering of thoughts and reduce stress, which clogs up on creative minds. Creative thinking has less room in such conditions.
The idea of meditation increases creativity, not theoretical but also a proper experiment which was conducted at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The experiment divided students in three groups, where one of the groups was asked to meditate for 10 minutes and all three of the groups were asked to come up with some innovative business ideas. Roughly, all of the groups came up with the same ideas and about the same length. But, the meditator group had a wider range of innovative ideas than compared to the other two. The experiment concluded on how meditating even for a short timeframe yields creation and innovation; ideas a man is ever ready to offer, yet caged in his own mind.
A qualified meditation teacher and an award-winning writer/journalist, Danny Penman in his book “Mindfulness for Creativity”, insists that meditation and other mindfulness practices enhances some vital creative problem-solving abilities. The ability is rather a three step process. Firstly, mindfulness switches on a diverse thinking process. To put it in another way, as discussed earlier as well, meditation opens mind to new ideas. Secondly, it increases the attention span which is quite a problem in the digital age. Improving one’s attention span helps the ideas to be useful. Finally and above all, mindfulness fosters courage and persistence to face the skepticism and setbacks which is quite significant for failures and setbacks has an intricate network with any innovative ideas.
Meditation and it’s benefits
As discussed earlier, overthinking and other mental health issues are increasingly prevalent in contemporary society. The constant overflow of information from the internet and digital media overwhelms and exhausts a person quite easily. The comparison one draws from social media amplifying the inadequacy in oneself leads to self-doubts, inferiority complexities. This may lead to striving for perfectionism, analysis paralysis, high anxiety and stress levels, each hindering the free-flowing thoughts necessary for creative minds.
Meditation is for every age group, including Gen Z’s and teenagers who are comparatively an easy target to mental health issues. The proverb where sports being akin to sports and mind although being cliched, speaks the truth. Embracing meditation enhances cognitive skills, creative and innovative ideas that can transform ourselves and someday the world as well in the long run.