Why artists may practice meditation and find it valuable for creativity

According to many research studies, therapists, coaches and artists, various forms of meditation can help support focus, productivity, resilience and emotional health.

Author Ruth Ozeki thinks writing and meditation are entwined:

“They’re both contemplative practices that require enormous patience.”

In meditation “you’re aware of your thoughts and your sensations. You’re constantly being pulled out of the present moment by your worries, what to cook for dinner or some other concern. And then you catch yourself, and you return.

“It’s this constant practice of return. That’s very much what writing is about, too.”

From article Ruth Ozeki: Mindful meditation By Hillary Casavant, The Writer, Oct 21, 2018.

(Photo: Ruth Ozeki signing books in 2013 via Wikipedia.)

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Meditation is “an incredibly helpful tool to help with creativity”

An article on the Muse EEG Headband site notes “James Zucco spent many years creating award-winning work as an art director in advertising.

“Three of his commercials are featured in the permanent collection at MoMA, and his work has earned an Emmy nomination and other industry honors. In 2015 James shifted his focus to his passion for fine art.

“He now spends his days in the studio, drawing and painting across a variety of mediums. His art now resides in private collections across North America, Europe, and the Middle East and has been featured in The New York Times and The California Sunday Magazine.”

He comments about his meditation practice:

“It is an especially useful tool when I’m feeling stressed, anxious or depressed. It’s also an incredibly helpful tool to help with creativity or just thinking more clearly in general.”

From article Meditation & Creativity with Artist James Zucco. Follow link to article, and to learn more about neurofeedback tech for enhancing meditation.

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“Stress makes you stupid.”

Emily Fletcher notes

“Stress is actually keeping you from performing at the top of your game.

“I tend to work with a lot of high performers. My CEO clients will say ‘Emily, my stress is the thing that gives me my cutting edge, that’s the thing that keeps me, you know, competitive and in the game’ – and my actors will say to me, ‘Emily, I need my stress…this is where my art comes from.’

“But here’s the news – stress is not helping you in the performance department.

“As a matter of fact, stress makes you stupid.”

She found out about the health benefits of meditation during her 10-year career on Broadway:

Fletcher notes, “I was doing ‘A Chorus Line’ [she is in the center in the photo] and I was understudying three of the lead roles which means that you show up to the theater and have no idea who you’re going to go on for.

“Sometimes I would start the show as one character and then halfway through they would switch me to a different character or I’d be chilling in my dressing room doing my taxes and they would say ‘Emily Fletcher to the stage’ – and I would start panicking because I wouldn’t know which part I was going on for.

“Long story short, I started having insomnia – I couldn’t sleep through the night for 18 months; I started going gray at the tender age of 26, and I was miserable.

“So I went to this meditation class I liked what I heard, it made sense to me.

“On the first day of the first course I was ‘meditating’ – I didn’t know what that meant but I was doing something different than I had ever done before and I liked it.

“And then that night I slept through the night for the first time in 18 months and I have every night since.”

Emily Fletcher is Creator of Ziva Meditation and has taught at Apple, Google, Harvard, and elsewhere.

Learn about her free class:
Secrets to Reduce Stress, Overcome Anxiety, and Improve Sleep

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It may be worth your time and effort to use some form of meditation. I regularly use a couple of short guided visualizations in the Living In Peace Meditation Series by Irene Langeveld and find them de-stressing and centering.

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