What is the Connection Between Stress and Creativity?

What is the Connection Between Stress and Creativity?

What is the connection between stress and creativity? Let’s first understand what exactly stress is. Stress is a fight or flight response of the mind triggered because of fear. This fear can either be real or perceived. When the mind is gripped by fear, it can race faster than normal, making it extremely difficult to stay focused and relaxed. In a way, stress is the absolute destroyer of our sanity.

Throughout the day and even during the night our mind is constantly in stress. Our mind is constantly chasing something (worrying about the future) or trying to run away from something (thinking about the past). This constant running and chasing creates stress. Over many years of this constant running, stress builds to eventually become a chronic problem sapping our vital energy and creativity.

Let’s rewind our minds back to our childhood and answer one question very sincerely. Are we more creative now or were we more creative when we were children? Of course, we were more creative during our growing up years. The sheer amount of learning that happened in our early years of life is proof of this. We solved more problems during the first 5 years of our lives than in the last 25 years combined

We have gotten so used to thinking about the future and dwelling on the past that complacency toward constant stress has made it immune and strong. So strong that it is becoming more and more difficult to identify and deal with stress. We just think it’s normal.

Creativity is a natural state of the mind. When the mind is not in stress, when it is in the present moment, it wants to solve problems; it wants to use its energies to positively express itself in many ways. A stress-free mind is a creative mind.

Creativity is not a domain of life. It is an essential and integral quality of our being. Not only are we a part of the creative expression of existence, existence is also a part of our creative expression. Stress can completely drown this creative force by not allowing us to rest and relax. When the mind is racing between the future and the past it is impossible for us to be creative.

Only when we slow down, take deep breaths, and just be in the present moment, can we be creative. This moment is all we’ve got; nothing was ever created in the future, and the past is just that–it’s the past–it’s gone. Enjoy this moment and embrace the creativity that flows from being in the present.

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Creativity: The Flow of life

Creativity: The Flow of life

“Creation is something that happens from the inside and flows to the outside.”

Creativity is the very process of life, the very process of creation itself. Everything that is happening around us is happening through the process of creativity. Creativity is not just an isolated domain or department of life, creativity is the core of life. Everything begins with this creative energy and then it flows outwards.

A few things are important to understand: Creation is not something that just happens on the outside while you remain a mute spectator. Creation is something that happens from the inside and flows to the outside. This is the most important thing that we need to understand about creation and creativity. The human mind has the ability to imagine, create thoughts, and generate emotions. When this is projected, when this energy flows outward as an expression of the individual, it becomes creativity.

Creativity is really not a choice. It is not as if you can say, “Oh I don’t want to be creative, I’ll just go on living my life the way I’m living it. I don’t have to worry about creativity.” Creativity is what gives meaning and purpose to living, because all of us are here to express ourselves. Only in that expression does life become complete and meaningful. If you are not expressing what you are meant to express, then that means part of you always remains closed, and part of you never reaches its highest potential, its completion.

That is the reason why there is this tremendous joy in being creative, in expressing yourself. There is also a tremendous contentment and fulfillment in expressing yourself because creativity is the very process of life. Since you are right in the middle of life, creativity is inevitable. You have to embrace creativity as a part of your life. Otherwise life is going to be dull and boring, and all the time you will be searching for some meaning.

Einstein said that there is nothing that is more powerful than imagination. All of his work, everything he did, he attributed to his ability to imagine things newly, freshly. He did not just walk on the same path that the mind takes everybody. He said that all of his theories came from a zone of pure imagination. This imaginative ability of the mind, to see things that are not yet there, is the zone of creativity.

There is a vast difference between thinking and imagination. Thinking is more or less a regurgitation of what you have already acquired. You are just reflecting on what you have already done and on information you have already received. Imagination is totally different. Imagination is new. This is why you cannot imagine when you are in pain and you cannot imagine when you are disturbed. Imagination happens from a zone of silence and stillness. Only when your mind is calm and relaxed, when it is not tormented by the disturbances of thinking, does creativity arise.

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Forgetting the old

Forgetting the old

There is a deep connection between meditation and creativity, as meditation creates the zone of silence necessary for creativity to flourish. Meditation is the process of tilling the soil and adding the manure. Creativity is the seed that you plant in the fertile ground. Without fertile ground creativity cannot flourish; without fertile ground imagination cannot happen, because you will just be reflecting on what has happened.

Let us take an example. Imagine you are angry for some reason; there is immense anger in you and you are overcome by this emotion. If I tell you to be creative and solve a problem, will you be able to do it? Of course not, because your whole body, mind, and energy will be invested in the process of anger. Everything will be completely taken over by that anger, so how will you be able to creatively express yourself?

This is the biggest challenge people face when they want to be creative, when they want to come up with something new.  They could be a painter, a dancer, a singer, or a musician. Just ask them what their problem is with creativity. They will tell you that their problem is not to come up with something new, their problem is how to get rid of the old.  You can ask any musician and she will tell you that her problem is not composing a new song. Her problem is how to stop hearing the same old song that she already composed; her problem is that every time she tries to compose a new song, there is an existing song that interferes in her creative process.

Meditation clears the thought process and opens up a zone of emptiness. This emptiness is not negative; rather, this emptiness is filled with aliveness. It is tremendously positive, and when you touch this zone of emptiness, creativity becomes a natural consequence.

Let me give you one example. When I was in India, I used to teach meditation to music and dance schools. I have always liked interacting with individuals who express themselves creatively because they can connect with meditation very well. They have already undergone the struggle to find their zone of creativity. I met a dancer once and just asked her to describe her process of dancing to me.

She was an Indian classical dancer, which is one of the most difficult dance forms. Indian classical dance is not just a dance; it is an expression. You have to bring out your emotions, your feelings. You have to really be in the moment to be able to express yourself. Also, Indian classical dance cannot be one hundred percent choreographed, which means that the dancers learn about fifty percent of the dance and the rest is improvised during the dance. So no two Indian classical dancers will ever perform in the same way. There will always be something different either in their expressions, in the way they move, or in the ways they communicate things.

So, the dancer was very popular in her time and had been dancing for almost thirty years.  I asked her to tell me something about her dancing. She said, “Initially when I used to dance I was very self-conscious. I used to thoroughly learn the steps, but I didn’t like my dancing. I was able to perform the steps, but I was never able to bring in the rest. I was stuck with the idea of dancing, being there, and people looking at me—I was self-conscious.”

And then she said, “After a few years of dancing, after practicing, there came a moment when I realized that I was not the dancer.” From that point onward, she spoke about her experience of dancing like the way a mystic speaks about his meditative experience. She spoke like an awakened person, an enlightened person. She said, “When I enter that zone, I don’t know what is happening. I mean, the body dances by itself, it moves by itself. Initially, I can sense that there is an audience, that my body is there, I am dancing, and they are watching. Then, slowly I disappear and something in me takes over the dance. Afterward, when the dance is complete, I bow down and do the Namaste and the crowd starts shouting. That’s when I come back.” She said that all of her dance was performed by somebody else, not her.

She is telling the truth; a meditator knows this. Creativity is not something that you do, it is something that you allow to happen to you. That creative spark comes from the source of consciousness, from the source of divinity—it is not manmade. In art, music, and literature we are only vehicles. We are not the possessors of this creativity. The creativity is there. If we can just allow ourselves to be empty, then it will come flooding in.

When the dancer was not thinking about the audience, when she was not thinking about the body, when she was not thinking about the steps, she became so empty, so hollow, that this other force just came in and made her dance. It is the same with painting, music, and writing. In fact, there are so many writers who have said that the more they keep thinking about themselves as writers the more difficult it is to write. Because when they think about themselves as writers there is too much fear: the fear of rejection, not being able to express what they want to express, and the fear of not being good enough.

The moment you leave the creative process to existence and just surrender, you do not even have to do anything. This surrendering process happens through meditation. And that is why meditation connects all artists, all creative people in one stream. Meditation can take you to that zone of emptiness. From there, creativity is a natural consequence.

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The flow of life

The flow of life

“Creation is something that happens from the inside and flows to the outside.”

Creativity is the very process of life. Everything that is happening around us is happening through the process of creativity. Creativity is not just an isolated domain or department of life. Creativity is the core of life. Everything begins with this creative energy and it flows outwards.

A few things are important to understand. The first is, creation is not something that just happens on the outside while you remain a mute spectator. Creation is something that happens from the inside and flows to the outside. This is the most important thing that we need to understand about creation and creativity. Creativity is not on the outside, but rather it is inside. The human mind has the ability to imagine, create thoughts, and generate emotions. When this is projected, when this energy flows outward as an expression of the individual, it becomes creativity.

So, creativity is really not a choice. It is not as if you can say, “Oh I don’t want to be creative, I’ll just go on living my life the way I’m living it. I don’t have to worry about creativity.” Creativity is what gives meaning and purpose to living, because all of us are here to express ourselves. And only in that expression life becomes complete and meaningful. If you are not expressing what you are meant to express, then that means part of you always remains closed, and part of you never reaches its highest potential, its completion.

That is the reason why there is this tremendous joy in being creative, in expressing yourself. And also there is tremendous contentment and fulfillment in expressing yourself because creativity is the very process of life. And since you are right in the middle of life, creativity is inevitable. You have to embrace creativity as a part of your life. Otherwise, life is going to be dull, and boring, and all the time you will be searching for some meaning.

See, Einstein used to say that there is nothing that is more powerful than imagination. All of his work, everything he did, he attributed to his ability to imagine things newly, freshly. He did not just walk on the same path that the mind takes everybody. He said that all of his theories came from a zone of pure imagination. And this imaginative ability of the mind, to see things that are not yet there, is the zone of creativity.

There is a vast difference between thinking and imagination. Thinking is more or less a regurgitation of what you have already acquired. You are just reflecting on what you have already done and on information you have already received. But, imagination is totally different. Imagination is new. That is why you cannot imagine when you are in pain and you cannot imagine when you are disturbed. Imagination happens from a zone of silence and stillness. Only when your mind is calm and relaxed, when it is not tormented by the disturbances of thinking, does creativity arise.

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Power of music

Power of music

Only those who have explored the depths of music know its enormous healing power. Lovers of music know that it can cure a sick mind, body and soul. There are very few among us who have already not experienced the tremendous power of music. All of us are in some way connected to music. Music can be used in our daily life for stress relief, relaxation and self transformation.

The whole mind and body complex functions on a delicate balance of energy flow which is controlled by our emotions. The driving force of all our actions and thought processes are emotions. The underlying emotion behind action is what determines our state of mind and eventually our life.

Music has a direct power to touch and alter our emotional states. This is the reason why music resonates within us at an unimaginable depth and intensity. Music transcends the limiting and doubting thought processes of the mind to directly touch the heart of the listener. This is the reason why even while we disagree on the benefits of music, we can enjoy its tremendous power.

“Music can heal the soul”

Besides, music is never meant for analysis and interpretation. Music is concerned with a totally different dimension of life; a dimension where our true soul and self reside. Music is probably the only language of the soul. There is a part of us that understands nothing but music.

Music can comfort us when we are alone. It can bring pleasant memories from our past. It can remind us of our pain and suffering. It can transport us to a distant past and a distant place. It can make us sing, laugh and dance. Music can give us a glimpse of a life that we all dream for. Music is truly an invitation from the divine to participate in the process of life.

We live in a world of constant change and turmoil. Amidst the constant struggle for survival, recognition, power and prestige, the part of us that needs attention the most is ignored. There is a part of us that cannot be satisfied by physical and material success alone. There is a part of us that needs music and music alone.

Let us make some space for music to enter our lives. Let us spend a few minutes every day to soak in and reflect the magic of music. Let us use communion with music as a way of knowing and understanding ourselves. Let music lead our way into the deep dark dungeons of our heart to illuminate it with light, life and joy.

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