Meditation for Creativity
Want a little more creativity in your life?
Think how amazing it will feel to have a fresh outlook on projects and relationships! Creativity is where new possibilities for your life start!
Meditation holds a fantastic opportunity for you to grow your creativity naturally and without struggle. You’ll be guided through the whole process so you can just relax and enjoy. Even if you are new to meditation, this process will meet you exactly where you are and will help you to grow your creative power!
Get started on a fresh and creative outlook right now!
Make sure to catch the other episode in The Gita Brown Show Meditation series! Click below for the free MP3’s and full meditation guide:
Full Transcript
Intro Music
Hello and welcome to the Gita Brown show, bringing harmony into everyday life. I love creativity and wellness and I've been teaching both for 30 years to be creative. It helps if you have a lifestyle that supports your wellness because that's where creativity starts. My philosophy is simple and based in yoga tradition. Easy practices done daily over a long period of time will naturally lead you to a lifestyle full of wellness. And from there your creativity can flow. And today my friend, we are talking exactly about that meditation for creativity. You can think of today's show like a mini class with Miss Gita. We're going to take a topic, do a little bit of a dive into some of the challenges and blocks that we might have and then I'm going to give you an experience of a meditation that will help enhance your creativity. So I want to give a little bit of a thing here though because I did some building block shows that might be helpful for you to to check out and review a little bit cause I wanted to spend more time today talking about creativity.
So I would really recommend checking out the podcast that is "meditation for beginners." That one I go all the way through all like the mindset, the challenges, the myths, the blocks, all the obstructions that most new meditators face. And I go really step by step by step with a formula that you can follow to develop a meditation routine and a meditation practice that you know you'll stick with daily. I mean, I break it all down for you as well as lead you through a beginner's meditation in that one. But don't worry, I'm going to go through all that stuff today just a little bit more quickly. So if you feel like you need that, always know you have that podcast or reference. Cool. All right, so meditation for creativity. You know, this is something I've been doing without really knowing I was doing it since I very first started meditating.
I first started meditating back in high school when I was at Interlochen Arts Academy, and I've told this story before .I, we, they would take us on the weekends to go to Traverse city. They'd take us all on the bus. We'd go into Traverse city and I always gravitated towards this new age bookstore. This was the 1980s so picture it, I had a perm and long hair and yes, the shoulder pads and new age stuff was like all the rage. I go in there and there was something about the music and the crystals. Ooh, there's a crystal right there. Funny how things happen. And I would just gravitate towards the books and the cassette tapes. And I started doing meditation off of these cassette tapes and I noticed something funny happened when I was practicing my clarinet. I'm a musician. When I was practicing my clarinet, it got a little easier.
I had more access to like coming up with cool ideas. I was practicing and taking less time to do what would normally take me more time. And teachers and other students noticed it too. And so we were like, what are you doing? You're seem to be making like a lot of gains here. And you know, I look back on all these years later I'm like, Oh duh. You were meditating, your mind was calm, your body was relaxed. So of course you were more creative at the time. I didn't always put it together, but now that I've been doing it for 30 years and I've taught tons and tons of people, probably in the nature of hundreds of people by this point, what I'm going to teach you here today, I've been able to break it down a little bit and give you a system that you can follow and put into practice for your own creativity.
So I've noticed though that there's some blocks that we got to talk about first because once you understand these blocks, it's going to help you to shape your meditation a little bit. So let's talk about the blocks and the challenges. Then we're gonna talk about how to set up a meditation for success. Then we're going to do one together, and by the end of it, you'll kind of have a good running start at your own meditation practice. So I'm guessing if you hit play on this one, you are the kind of person who wants to be creative, right? You have an idea, you're writing a book or you're a musician or you just love to cook. You just want to feel more creative in your daily life. So know that you can do this, know that this kind of meditation is going to meet you exactly where you're at and it's going to help you to grow.
So I applaud you for hitting play on this one because it tells me that you're a learner and boy you can learn how to do anything. So blocks and challenges for our creativity. I've noticed a couple of trends. Either people feel like they run out of ideas, like they're just like, I just, I don't have anything else to say or to write about or I just like, I have writer's block, I hear from my writer's friend or I can't think of anything new to compose about or I'm just not excited about any project or like, I don't know. It can be something simple guys. Like I don't know what to make for dinner tonight. We always make the same things. I'm just, you're stuck in that creative rut. We've all been there. You just do the same old, same old, same old and there's nothing new happening there.
So that happens to creative people, especially when you have a long career. The other thing that happens, which is really concerning is a tendency to burn out, right? There's like a huge like creative rush in people's twenties and I'm 47 now. So I've had students who had, I've taken all the way through this cycle where like there's this huge rush in like this big creative thing when they're in college and just out of college. And then at some point like the wheels come off and they get burned out and they either have like a full on breakdown physically or mentally or they get some sort of, um, especially for my musician friends, they get like a debilitating physical condition from playing their instrument or repetitive motion injury or something happens where just like everything falls apart and that thing that brought them so much joy and creativity, now they can't even do it or becomes a source of stress.
And it really distresses me as a music teacher to see people kind of playing their way into illness. Like it doesn't have to be that way. We can totally change that tide. So let's talk about like those two challenges to teeny bit more. So let's look at the first one and how to fix him really, or how to shift them rather because you don't always have to fix everything. Sometimes it's enough just to let things be. Sometimes you got to just embrace the suck, right? When you're a creative person, things are hard. It doesn't always have to change. Just accepting can go a long way. Okay, so let's say you have a tendency to burn out burnout, burnout, right? You have a big creative burst and then there's like this drop, you're in this big show and then the show is over and then you'd go into that post show depression.
I, that's a real thing. You launched the book. Oh man. My writer friends, they launch a book and then it's very real. Talk to them all the time about this. Then they go into a depression after the book comes out. There's like this whole rise and fall and rise and fall. That rise and fall might be there, but you can even out the curves, so how to do that when you have those exp patterns or you've heard a person who was in a pattern of a burnout or a big rise and crash, look at your daily wellness routines. Most of my students who experience those extremes of emotion, the high and low don't have a daily rhythm that supports their creativity, right? They're following the daily rhythm of rehearsals or production schedule, or they're writing their book or just getting stuff done for the family, but they're not actually in charge of saying, you know what?
Every day I need to be managing my nutrition everyday. I need to be getting good rest every day. I need to be meditating. Those are my non-negotiables, and all the other stuff comes and goes. If you create a rhythm for your life that supports your wellness, all those peaks and valleys of creativity will still be there, but you'll be able to ride them with more ease instead of reacting to them and getting sucked down. You may say, Oh Whoa, Whoa, I can catch it. I'm feeling a little low. You can catch it a little sooner. So creating that daily rhythm that supports your wellness by having morning routines, having regular nutrition, seeing your doctor. I talk about a lot of this on the podcast on how to beat burnout. You can go listen to that episode two on how to develop that holistic lifestyle. But if you have that, then you're going to not have those periods of burnout.
And that's really, really fundamental. So start to think of maybe one little shift you could do now. Hmm. Perhaps it's a daily meditation for creativity that you're going to do in 10 minutes. That little thing that you're going to add every day that's going to give a little bit of rhythm to your life and create a little bit of traction for your wellness. Okay, so to beat burnout, have beat, have a wellness routine. Another block and challenge that we just talked about is that sort of running out of ideas, feeling stuck in a rut, just not feeling creative or like I've always wanted to paint, but like you've never actually done it. Anything where you're stuck or in a rut, usually it's because you're not tied to a larger purpose. Um, I've been a little bit obsessed with Grace and Frankie, the Netflix show, so good.
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. In the booth we're laughing already. So I know someone in here is watching. If you ever watched it, check it out. But Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, I mean, they're both, you know, I think in their seventies now, is that right? And these women are funny and creative and on point and actively engaged in their craft of acting. They are phenomenal. And I heard a interview with them and someone, you know, they asked all the time, "what's your secret to longevity?" And particularly as relates to acting and keeping that creativity fresh and not just getting stuck in these ruts. And Jane said, well, both Lily Tomlin and I are both very involved in our social justice causes. We both have this larger mission to our life. We both have people that we want to serve and things we want to do and create. We're tied to our larger community, and that pulls us forward.
So often when we feel like stuck in those ruts, it's because we're actually stuck in our own heads. We're stuck in me, me, me, my, my mind, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. And when we get stuck in that, it gets really hard to feel tied to community and tied to this larger sense of something bigger than ourselves pulling us forward. So it could be something like, wow, I would love to create something new for my family because that's going to bring a lot of fresh energy to the dinner table tonight. And they're gonna be like, Whoa, what's this new thing? Or it could be like, wow, I really want to paint because I want to express the beauty I see in the world, so I can share it with my community. But if you're tied to a little bit of a larger purpose, even if that larger purpose is one person besides yourself, that will pull that creativity up and out of you and pull it forward.
Even if, like in the case of me and my fellow nonfiction writers, we write about a lot of really hard dark topics, addiction, trauma, on and on and on and it's tough stuff, but we're all called to do it because we feel like these are stories that must be told, right? We need to share this with the world to make sense, to make meaning and to connect with other people. So take that little thing that you're feeling a little stuck with and kind of like, why do I do it and how could this serve other people? As soon as you do that, you get out of the I me, mine and you shift to community, it will pull you forward and it just feels good. Okay. So those are just some of the common blocks. And you know, having a wellness routine that involves a little creative meditation is so going to help you.
So again, please review. Students. Please review. I need my little half glasses here. Students please review meditation for beginners because I really go through all the basics there. Um, and I want to lead you through a nice juicy meditation today. So I'm not going to do all of that. But having a regular meditation routine you really need to set up for success. I will do you a favor and I will give you the, um, sort of synopsis of this in gitabrown.com under the episode notes for this show. I'll give you sort of the synopsis of the six steps to setting up for success there. So you can scan those, but it's things like, you know, making sure you have a place to meditate, figuring out how you're going to sit or stand or lay down, picking your time of day, having some social pressure to make sure you stick through with it.
Again, I go all through that in the other episodes. So check that out. But now let's talk about how to specifically meditate for creativity. A relaxed mind is a creative mind. This is there's anything that I've learned in 30 years of kind of working as a musician and as a wellness practitioner. A relaxed mind is a creative mind. The more relaxed I am, the more creative I am, the more relaxed and chill and fun my students are having in the clarinet studio. The more they bubble forth with ideas. Every single time that I've helped a student to just relax and ease back a little bit, their success is actually shot forward. It's actually the opposite, right? A lot of times when we think of like being creative, we think of like this like intensity and it's like drive. It's like 110% but again, that leads to burnout because you cannot sustain that, so when you're relaxed, something really interesting happens to the mind.
That's where imagination comes into play. That's where the brain consolidates information. It's been gathering. That's where new neural connections are made and where you get those sudden quote unquote flashes of insight. It's not something woo woo or airy fairy. That's your brain literally knitting neurons together and making connections for you, so you have to do that. Intensive work balanced with meditation, that meditation will fuel that intensive work and make all those connections for you that you were striving for in the actual like production of your thing. Hope that makes sense. So if a relaxed mind is a creative mind, you can think of it like it's clearing mental clutter is another way and help you make those natural connections very easily. So we're going to do a little meditation right now that's just all about relaxing. You know guys, if you can, if you're somewhere that's appropriate, you can lay down, you can lay down on a couch on your bed, you can lay down on the floor with a little pillow and a nice blanket over you.
You can also do this in a chair. Just kind of like lean back. I'm not gonna lean back cause I might fall asleep and that doesn't help guide meditation. But you can kind of lean back and just kind of get like a little bit relaxed. Just kind of get yourself settled. And what we're going to do is I'm going to take you through the meditation routine, which is the same routine that I do in the meditation for beginners. But the actual technique we're going to use is the thing that's going to shift. So first thing in a meditation routine is just to align your posture. So pick whatever it is. If you're driving your car and you're listening to this on a podcast, please turn this off now, no falling asleep on the road cause you were listening to Gita tell you to relax. But wherever you are, unless they're drive and get yourself comfy. if you're sitting, you know, kinda lean back a little bit, align your posture a little bit.
Get your shoulders relaxed. If you're laying down, you can stretch your legs out a teeny bit wider than your hips and your arms are alongside your body with your palms up. That helps to open up the chest and free open the breathing a little bit, which is always a good thing. And then just kind of let your shoulders relax. You can move your head side to side and let your neck relax. A little bit. So step one of any meditation routine is just to align your body because if your body's comfortable, then your mind can begin to settle. And then step two of any meditation routine that I'll be teaching you is just a few cleansing breaths. So you just take a breath in and now you exhale any stress and tension. Just imagine it leaving the body.
Take another breath in, let the eyes close or bring your gaze towards the floor with vision, very soft. As you exhale, release any stress and tension, and then just take another breath in and exhale and relax. Any tension in the body, just kind of start to settle in. And the next portion of your meditation routine, you're just going to set an intention for your meditation. This meditation is a San Kalpa, which just means a firm resolve. You could think of it like planting a seed. You plant this seed and then during your meditation this intention will grow. So you can pick a sankalpa, something like, I'm relaxed and creative. Or I allow my creativity to flow., Or I trust my creativity. Pick something that really works for you, that speaks to the heart of how you want to be more creative. And when you have that sankalpa, that firm resolve, just silently repeat it to yourself three times right now, repeating your san kalpa.
And then as the bell rings, we'll begin our meditation. You're doing a gentle scan of the body, just releasing tension. Think of your awareness now like a spotlight and any area of the body that it focuses on, that spotlight helps that area to relax. Just gently letting the body relax. So bringing the awareness down to the toes and the feet. And with that touch of your awareness, the toes and the feet just kind of release a little bit. And then that spotlight of awareness travels up through the lower legs and relaxes all the muscles of the calves and shins. And your knees relax and the upper legs relax. Feeling how nice it is to have your legs free of tension. And awareness. Just moved to your hips, allowing your hips to release and relax, dropping in any tension from the lower back, the middle, and the upper back.
Your awareness moves to your shoulder blades and shoulders, letting them relax. You can always give them a little wiggle and encourage them to relax even more deeply. Awareness moves to your upper arms, relaxing elbows, relaxing, lower arms, wrists, hands and fingers. Feeling the body relaxing. And awareness moves to your abdomen, releasing all the surface muscles of the abdomen. And then from deep inside out, softening, relaxing, releasing any tension and pressure, letting the whole abdomen relax. The chest and the ribcage relax. Letting the rib cage free. Even that great muscle, your heart relaxes. And then this relaxation with the touch of your awareness moves through neck and throat to the jaw. Cheeks, lips and tongue. Nose, eyes, forehead, temples, ears and top of the hea Letting the whole body relax. Just taking a quiet moment now to feel the body resting in stillness. The stillness grows as you become aware of it. Whole body balanced and in harmony. Resting now. And then very gently bring awareness to your breath. Just take a nice breath and exhale slowly. Another deep cycle of breath in. And out. Slowly moving fingers and toes and just give yourself any like little movement or stretch that feels good. Take another deep breath in
and out. And then a really vital breath in. Really draw some fresh energy in hold for a moment, sending that energy to every area of the body. Then exhale and really waking up the body feeling completely revitalized, refreshed. You can do a little shake, a little movement, and just notice how you feel right now. Notice that this calm, relaxed mind is that really sort of fertile state where creativity can grow out of this place. You just did a meditation and wasn't it easy and simple. Don't you think that anytime you need a little meditation boost every morning, perhaps you just go to that part of the video, hit play, and do a little five, seven minute meditation and then go on with your day? It's very easy. It's very simple and I promise you my friend, if you do it every day, if you stick with those routines and follow it, your creativity will naturally be enhanced.
Very briefly. I had a student once who was preparing for a concerto competition. He came in one day for a lesson. He was a hot mess. He walked into the door. I was like, Oh my goodness. He was just a complete stress ball. He looked exhausted, tired. I thought there is no way he's going to play Mozart clarinet concerto today. I let him through exactly what you just did. He went on to have a spectacular lesson. He went on to, he won the concerto competition. He performed with the orchestra. Now he's off in his career as a professional musician and he's reflected on the year since then. He said, wow, you really knew what I needed that day. I actually needed rest and from that place of rest, bam, creativity sprang forward. So sometimes guys, taking a step back means that you can take 10 steps forward. It's not stopping, it's actually moving you forward.
When you give yourself a little bit of that intentional rest and you meditate for creativity, it is vital to the creative process and you are the kind of person who can do it because you have me as a teacher, you have guides, you can absolutely do it. Boost your creativity. Practice this every day. If you need a little extra help, hop over to gitabrown.com and just drop a comment under this show's comment box. I will be happy to get back to you and just talk about challenges you're facing. What's easy, what's hard. Let's brainstorm and make this a practice that you can use for yourself so you feel that abundant rush of creativity in your life. So guys, let's close with a chant for peace. One of the best ways I like to do it, chat for a piece in the original Sanskrit chant that was taught to me through theIintegral yoga tradition. And I'll give you the English translation after as always, you can chant with me or you can just listen. But let's raise that vibration a little bit and chant
lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu
maybe the entire universe. And you, my friend, be filled with peace and joy and love and light. It's time to take action. Go over to gitabrown.com and let me know how you are going to meditate. And if you'd like this, please join us for our winter wellness challenge. Seven days to refresh body, mind, and spirit. You get seven days of this kind of goodness directly sent to you in your inbox. It starts Groundhog day of 2020 you can sign up right until the last minute. We'd love to see you there, my friends be well go be creative and sending you lots of love, Om Shanti . peace to you.
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