Meditation is a continuous thought that is usually based on an individual’s spiritual introspection, and it is aimed at illumination (Sedlmeier et al., 2010). The illumination on one’s past and future life is important to reflect on the best approach to be successful. Meditation is believed to have numerous benefits in as far as creativity is concerned. Meditation can thus be viewed as door existing between one’s inner and outer world. For instance, it is argued that meditation can improve the physical and mental health of an individual hence providing a sense of peace in addition to increasing the ability of an individual to be creative. Based on this, the aspect of creativity has thus drawn most artists into meditation practice, and this has flourished their creativity. Therefore, meditation can expand one’s creativity into a number of disciplines. According to So & Orme-Johnson (2001), meditation, therefore, has diverse benefits for individuals who are engaged in various aspects of creativity. There are certain techniques of meditation that are believed to promote creative thinking. Therefore, this paper will focus on the effects of meditation on creativity. The effects of meditation can be argued to include the following: it creates a condition for insight, erases the artistic anxiety, claims the self-essentials of an individual, improves one’s attention and creativity and fosters flow.
Meditation Impacts Positively on Creativity.
Meditation creates a condition for insight hence improving on the creativity of an artist (Ho, 2011). There are certain qualities that are deemed necessary for a good artist including insight, revelation and even perception. Various studies have indicated that that one does not have to be an experienced mediator for him or her to benefit from the process of mediation. However, each person can meditate and reflect accordingly improving the creativity level attached to a specific field of art. It is argued that meditation significantly creates a mental in addition to emotional conditions where they tend to improve and flourish significantly. Initially, it was believed that these qualities were innate gifts for a particular group of the elite but this is not the case. According to Newberg & d'Aquili, (2000) brain mapping has shown that these qualities are available to all the individuals who engage in mediation. Therefore, mediation has a long lasting impact on the human cognition including how one conceives new ideas and develops insight into them.
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Meditation significantly eases the artistic anxiety. The artistic anxiety has been argued to have a negative effect on the general level of creativity. According to Sedlmeier et al. (2010), whenever one is anxious, there are various meaningful aspects that will be missed out implying that the level of creativity will be poor. It is often a challenge for one to put himself or herself out there on a daily basis making one vulnerable or eve edgy sometimes as a result of anxiety. An individual will have to face the public and bring the art that is within himself or herself, and this sometimes is always a challenge as a result of an anxiety effect. According to Newberg & d'Aquili (2000), meditation is believed to sooth these edges hence creating a place of safety where an individual can take the risks. Further, various brain scans have shown the aspect of meditation tends to reduce the activities in the amygdala that is a part of the brain that processes fear. Therefore, meditation can allow an individual to become steady besides being well-ordered in his or her life making one to be fierce and original in his or her work. Mediation requires a high level of patience and calmness.
Meditation has an impact of enabling an individual claim the essential self. An individual self is one of the vital aspects that define an individual in his or her own unique way. According to So & Orme-Johnson, (2001, p. 440), claiming an individual’s self is thus a vital role that mediation plays, and this has been argued o have an impact on the level of one’s creativity. It is important that one should be himself or herself since as it is argued that, “everyone else is taken.” The notion of one becoming himself is not always an easy task especially when one is trying to do this in words. Meditation plays a key role enabling an individual to be himself or herself. This is where meditation enables one to quit the chatter of one's surface mind consciously. This enables one to claim his authentic and the essential self that are the indefinable essence that makes everyone unique and totally different from one another. Therefore, as one claims the aspect of self fully, he or she becomes open to express it hence improving creativity. Meditation, therefore, makes individuals less vulnerable to the mounting critics in addition to pressures and all the persuasions of others. According to Ho (2011, p. 115), meditation thus allows an individual to observe himself or herself and others in a more clear way by freeing one from all the surface chatter of the everyday mind. Therefore, meditation helps awaken an individual to the present moment enabling one see and further appreciate the various works of creativity and all the processes associated with it.
In addition to this, it is evident that meditation improves an individual’s attention and level of concentration. High level of attention and concentration plays a key role when it comes to creativity since it will enable one come up with a unique art in a more expressive way. In a more general term, meditation is a focus that helps an individual to bring the real self out in a more clear way. According to Newberg & d'Aquili (2000), when an individual practices the aspect of meditation on a daily basis, it helps one have it and be in a position to draw on it whenever necessary. This aspect is essential, particularly when one is negotiating the diverse distracted and distracting online words. It can be thus be argued that writing is a form of the game that has no end, and as soon as one finishes one post, he or she thinks of the next. Based on this argument, regular meditation tends to develop an individual’s ability to be in a better position to appreciate what one is achieving in addition to getting it right. Meditation can help an individual to focus on what has to be done in the future in the field of creativity hence making it efficient and enjoyable in the moment of its making. This, therefore, will enable an individual to value process just as much as the product.
Meditation further has a positive impact on creativity where it fosters flow. Flow is a significant aspect when it comes to creativity since it helps connect the dots to come up with a more meaningful art. According to Shapiro, Schwartz & Santerre, (2002, p. 635), as a tool of creativity, flow can be improved through meditation where one will have an ample time to reflect on various aspects of life and develops a flow of ideas in a strategic way that will bring about creative art. When focusing on writers, flow can be viewed as that particularly delectable condition that allows a word to appear of their own volition and an individual has to turn up and take the dictation. According to one of the creativity theorist, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, flow specifically induces similar brain states just as meditation. According to Horan, (2009), meditation increases the chances of fostering flow that is a vital ingredient when focusing on creativity and art. Based on this, it is clear that meditation plays a significant role as far as creativity is concerned about enhancing the notion of flow that at the end will bring out a meaningful art. This, therefore, enhances the creativity by developing a work that is detailed, interesting and have to mean.
Meditation connects individuals to creative, imaginative in addition to artistic space. When the three aspects are combined, the outcome will be a highly creative piece of artwork. According to Sedlmeier et al., (2010), imaginative improves the level of creativity which is a product of meditation. It is essential to note that the human mind tends to operate at three distinct levels that are imaginative, intellectual and emotional. The three levels have a distinct role that they perform connecting ends to come up with an enhanced level of creativity aided by meditation. It is argued that meditation has numerous benefits as far as the three levels are concerned particularly in how the aspect of meditation enables an individual to tap the deeper and wiser dimensions of one’s’ mind. Neuroscience has shown through brain mapping how the notion of meditation tends to affect the brain wave activity. The striking difference is believed to be a shift on the mediator from a stress-prone part in the right frontal cortex to the calmer part in the left frontal cortex. Further, regular meditation has shown an increased brain activity particular in areas that are associated with the different aspect of creative and mystical. This shift is argued to be one of the most beautiful emotions that an individual can experience which is the underlying power of various true art and science. Flow a writer creativity as an outcome of meditation is more than experiencing more ideas, connections and even insights that improve one’s’ creativity (Shapiro, Schwartz & Santerre, 2002).
Meditation has a profound effect on creativity and has granted individuals an opportunity to advance and improve the level of creativity. Everyone engages in some level of meditation in one way or another to achieve a certain end in the process. Therefore, it is evident that meditation plays the significant role in various aspects of life including improving the creativity of an individual. The creativity aspects that significantly are affected by meditation include poetry, singing, writing and other diverse fields of the artistic expression. For the artist, the process of mediation has enabled them to develop into their real self. It is recommended that one should engage himself more in various aspects of meditation to improve on creativity. Time is one of the key factors that determine the level and quality of meditation; therefore, one should dedicate enough time for meditation to come up with a clear picture of creative art and factor out those particular aspect that did not work and find an alternative or effective solution for them. From this analysis, on the effects of meditation, it is evident that meditation has a profound effect on the level of creativity of an individual including, creating a condition for insight, erasing the artistic anxiety, claiming the self’ essentials, improving one’s attention and creativity and fostering flow.
References
Ho, L. A. (2011). Meditation, learning, organizational innovation and performance. Industrial Management & Data Systems , 111(1): 113-131.
Horan, R. (2009). The neuropsychological connection between creativity and meditation. Creativity Research Journal , 21 (2-3): 199-222.
Newberg, A. B., & d'Aquili, E. G. (2000). The creative brain/the creative mind. Zygon® , 35 (1): 53-68.
Sedlmeier, P., Eberth, J., Schwarz, M., Zimmermann, D., Haarig, F., Jaeger, S., & Kunze, S. (2012). The psychological effects of meditation: A meta-analysis. Psychological bulletin , 138 (6): 1139.
Shapiro, S. L., Schwartz, G. E., & Santerre, C. (2002). Meditation and positive psychology. Handbook of positive psychology , 2 , 632-645.
So, K. T., & Orme-Johnson, D. W. (2001). Three randomized experiments on the longitudinal effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique on cognition. Intelligence , 29 (5): 419- 440.
