How to break through creative blocks with meditation

What is a creative block anyway?

Have you ever stared at a blank page or canvas with no inspirational idea and and no ability to access your internal creativity? You feel stuck, uninspired and quite afraid. Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian American Psychologist, coined the term “flow”. According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow refers to a state of total immersion, effortless concentration, and rapt enjoyment in an activity in which one loses any sense of space, time, and self.

What are some tools for removing creative blocks?

Mindfulness Meditation.
By allowing ourselves to drop below the surface chatter of our minds, we can access a creative well inside of us more easily. Mindfulness meditation allows us to become aware of the workings of our mind with curiosity and compassion. It’s like lifting a yoke off and allowing us to feel the “flow” state that Csikszentmihalyi spoke about.
Just Begin!

Sometimes we spend so much time thinking and worrying about whether we are doing it right, we stop allowing the process to unfold. “We find our feet by walking!” One thing leads to the next and the flow begins.

How The Art Process Helps move us through Creative Blocks

I have a class called “Meditate & Create” . I start the class off with a brief guided mindful meditation and then we move into a contemplative art project. The art project is designed to free us from product orientation and move into process mode. In this way, we remove the self judgments and access our intuitive creative voice.

In a previous BLOG POST on Meditation and Creativity I explain Creativity and the Neo Cortex.

Can we support your team through art workshops?

Do you need to be an artist to create art?

If we follow the reasoning above, it follows that ANYONE can be creative and make art given the right stimulation and circumstance. That is why The Art Process Method is so successful. It encourages and exercises that creative muscle, taking the self criticism out of the picture (a sure way to deaden creativity!) By incorporating meditation and self inquiry into the creative process, it opens the doorways to your unique vision and self expression!