The foundation of mindfulness meditation practice is to bring directed attention to some aspect of our experiencing. Breathing is simplest; always there, noticeable at the tips of the nostrils very viscerally, or in the rising and falling of the belly, even in the movement of the chest muscles. Attention can also be paid to any number of mental objects, including thoughts, images, sensations, sensory objects, or emotions. The mind that notices its activity, brings focused attention to that activity, without judging, is the mindful state we seek to develop.
What’s the point of this ongoing practice? Simply to strengthen the mind’s capacity to be fully present, in this moment, with acceptance. Why bother? There are a lot of good reasons, some of them psychological, many of them religious/spiritual, and still more related to our physical health. This practice is associated with psychological well being, spiritual peace, and stress reduction. In a nutshell, spending 10 or 15 minutes every day in mindfulness practice is good for you in any way you can imagine.
Today’s (January 19, 2014) NY Times magazine has an excellent article about mindfulness meditation. Here’s the link to that article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/magazine/breathing-in-vs-spacing-out.html?ref=magazine&_r=0
The author, Dan Hurley, makes many of the same points I’ve made about the benefits of mindfulness, but he raises an interesting and important issue about a drawback to the practice. It turns out that the focused state of mind promoted by mindfulness practice is contrary to the “spaced out frame of mind” that many, including me, find conducive to creativity. I agree. My experience with the creative moment is that the mind is free of any fetters, wandering a bit. There’s a line in the Beatles’ song “Across the Universe” (a John Lennon composition) that captures this perfectly: “Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letterbox, they tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe.”
I don’t think that mindfulness practice inhibits or hampers creativity. To the contrary, I think it enhances the creative process after the initial stroke of insight that initiates, at least for me, creative work. I’ve noticed over the years that as my mind has developed the capacity to maintain an evenly divided attention, there’s an underlying awareness of thoughts meandering, without in any way trying to dampen the emerging looseness of associations. In my counseling work this state of mind seems valuable as a tool to help me to make connections that may be helpful to my therapy clients. So, in a somewhat paradoxical way, that state of “spacing out” that is associated with creativity seems to combine seamlessly with a noticing mind that makes space for the spacing out. So as I’m in full blown “wandering mind mode” I’m noticing it mindfully. Sometimes I notice some novel way of understanding things in that attention to mind wandering. If I choose to pursue that novel idea, then being able to concentrate on that idea facilitates the ensuing creative process.
In a way the spaced out mind and the sharply focused mind are two sides of a mental coin, and both can be noticed mindfully. That seems a bit odd to say; if your mind is wandering or sharply focused, what exactly is doing the noticing? It’s your own mind noticing of course, your own mind in the act of self awareness; “I am aware that I am aware.”
Well, I hope that makes sense. In any case, I think this article in the Times is essential reading for those of us who practice mindfulness. Happy reading!
Peace,
Jim
James M. Walsh Pastoral Counseling 