How Meditation Can Help Creativity
How do you encourage creativity?
The unfortunate irony, is that the more you try to ‘force’ your creativity, the less likely it is to come. The less likely you are to have that ‘aha’ moment.
The reason for this, is that when we try and force anything, we become stressed – physiologically aroused. We produce more adrenaline, cortisol, and other stress hormones. And as such, we narrow our focus onto the thing we think is most pressing.
Creativity on the other hand, happens when we are relaxed. This in turn allows the mind to wander and explore different memories. They say that all new ideas are just recombinations of old ones!
A 2000 study from Slovenia shows that ‘coherence’ in the brain is critical for creativity. In fact this means disparate brain areas are working in unison.
Meditation can help greatly in encouraging this then. When you meditate, you will be able to encourage a state of calmness to allow accessing novel ideas and connections.
What’s more, is that you can use specific types of meditation in order to encourage this. One example is Cal Newport’s ‘Productive Meditation’. This is a form of meditation where you completely empty the mind and then focus on a particular creative pursuit. Then try to come to a solution.
When you sit there and think about something that is important to you. You are practicing using parts of the brain for imagination and creative thinking. These include the ‘default mode network’.
This is a network of brain regions that fire up when not engaged with a task.
In other words free flowing nonsense that occurs when falling asleep or drunk is not useful. But ‘mulling a topic over’ on the other hand can be extremely useful.
So next time you have a challenge, or you want to come up with a creative solution to a problem. Take a moment and ‘think on it’. Meditate on the subject, then let your mind just wander.
A creative solution may just come to you.
