Creativity and Meditation

One of the things I've found in my practice of mediation is how it has benefited my creativity. One of the things I first noticed when I learnt to meditate was how similar the feeling of concentration, of being absorbed in the practice of mediation, were to being in the flow of creative work like drawing and painting, in my case.

Meditation also brought to mind many creative ideas. Our minds are clearer and accessing deeper levels of our consciousness when we meditate and by clearing a bit of the every day chatter and clutter of our mind new projects and creative ideas can often surface when we practice,I usually say to people who find that they have creative ideas, or find themselves planning creative projects in their meditation, that they have a couple of choices, either they can decide to think about the new idea after they have finished meditating or if they know it will be too distracting, write down a few notes about their ideas and get back to their practice.

I have taken both approaches and find that taking a few moments to note down ideas need not disturb my practice very much, and because my mind is clearer meditation can become more settled and deeper as a result.