Meditation has long been linked with the ability to boost your creative mindset. With a more creative outlook on life, you can benefit in all areas of your life. Most obviously, creative people, such as artists, photographers and designers can benefit, but so can everyone else.

Whether you’re in marketing, or writing a story or book, or even just brainstorming in a meeting at work, being creative can open up so many more opportunities to your life, helping you reach successful ideas quickly.

Today, we’re going to take a look at just how and why you can use meditation to boost our natural creative flow. Are you ready to unlock your mind and release your creativity to the world?

Letting Go of Ego

“Ego” is one of the biggest aspects of the human personality that holds so many people back. The stereotypical meaning of ‘ego’ is usually referred to as someone who is proud of themselves, but the term is much looser than that. In fact, ego is accurate when you use in the sense of how everybody communicates with other people.

When meditating, you’re able to let go of your ego, or how other people perceive you to be a conversation, allowing to you focus much more clearly on what other people are saying. Of course, this is a point that’s valid when you’re working on a project that requires creativity as part of a team.

Enhance Your Listening Skills

Hand in hand with the consideration above, meditation and removing the sense of ego is a great way to improve your listening skills. However, this isn’t just when things are taking place in a group setting.

When going about your everyday life, consider how many conversations you have with people in a day. How many of these conversations do you actually think you’re properly listening to, rather than waiting for your turn to speak your point? By actively listening to people, you can enhance your mindset and take on new information that can directly affect the way you think creatively about things.

Meditating to Accept New Ideas

As we’ve spoken about before, many of us suffer from an overactive mind, or a voice in our heads that never seems to be quiet. This can cause a tremendous amount of block when it comes to being creative, and it’s only holding you back.

Through meditation, you can quiet that noise in your head, so you can sit, stand, walk or work in peace. This means your mind is a lot more receptive to new ideas and can take them on board much more effectively. This is a great way to boost your creativity levels because you’ll be able to explore new concepts and ideas with an open mind.

As you can see, there is a tonne of benefits when it comes to meditation and creativity. Just remember to approach every task you have with a fresh set of eyes and a peaceful mind, and you can be sure that you’ll be able to tackle anything that comes your way.

So, recently I’ve started reading Eckhart Tolle The Power of Now Collection 3 Books Set, (The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, Practising the Power of Now and Stillness Speaks: Whispers of Now) I’m currently about halfway through, and in laymen’s terms, it’s blowing my mind. If you have read the book, you’ll already know where I’m going with this, and if you haven’t, well, I highly recommend that you put it at the top of your reading list.

The Power of Now is a self-professed “guide” book that helps you understand how enlightenment “works” and how to achieve it (although Tolle expressly states you can’t achieve it, you simply become present). Before reading this book, I thought my meditation practices were helping me to become more and more present, but this new perspective of being present has completely changed the way I think about life.

The History of Tolle

The book starts by briefly introducing Tolle’s life up until the point where he wrote the book. There’s not too much to say since Tolle is living in the present moment, meaning there’s very little use for talking about the past. However, he does give us some insight into where he is today.

In short, Tolle went through many years of severe depression. He had no-one in his life, no friends, no immediate family, no job and regularly found himself sleeping on park benches in the cold. However, one night he remembers that he lay thinking to himself (that incessant voice that we all have nagging away in our heads) that he simply couldn’t go on and this truly as rock bottom for him.

He remembers hearing a train thundering along the tracks not far from where he was.

However, in the morning, he awoke to an indescribable feeling. Everything around him felt new and revitalised. Everything had a new life to it. Even the light felt warm and refreshing on his skin, and he describes the overwhelming sense of peace that had flooded every single aspect of his Being. He had reached enlightenment and was now in the present moment.

Tolle then wrote The Power of Now, now regarded as one of the best-selling self-help books ever to have been written. It has sold millions of copies worldwide, and Tolle is now respected as one of the most prestigious spiritual teachers in the world.

The Feeling of Being Present

I, and many other people who are reading this, probably already have a sense of what living in the present moment is. It’s a place where your thoughts are clear and focused, not thinking about the past or the future.

However, it wasn’t until I read The Power of Now that I gained a new perspective on this insight that I would to share with you. A mind is a tool. It’s a problem-solving tool that we’ve used for thousands of years to invent the wheel and roads and to crack open nuts with stones and dig holes with tools. It’s been there to help us solve problems.

But, fast forwarding to the present day, we now have very little need for this tool. In the past, our minds were made to think of past experiences, helping us to decide whether to flight or fight, ultimately causing stress that made our bodies react in a certain way.

However, these days, we don’t have to be aware of big animals trying to eat us or trying to protect our lives from the elements. Instead, our minds are consumed by the ever-nagging voices in our head asking us to answer our phones, our social media feeds and our endless email conversations.

As we all already know, this means our stress levels are through the roof all the time, and this causes obvious problems to our health. We are constantly focused on the future and the past, not the present.

Focusing on the Present

Through meditation and other spiritual practices, such as yoga, we can learn to treat our mind like another tool we use to survive. For example, we don’t constantly focus on our hands and what they are doing, so why should we our minds?

By witnessing the thoughts of the mind from a higher perspective, we can learn to use it as a tool when we need it, rather than trying to listen to it all of the time. This can lead to an overwhelming sense of peace in our everyday lives, helping us to be happier and healthier.

Summary

All in all, if you haven’t yet read The Power of Now, it’s a book that I highly recommend, and it will change your life. Read it through once, act on what you’ve read and then read it through again. The concepts described are incredible on a second read-through!

It doesn’t matter what walk of life you’re from; whether you’re in school or education, starting your own business, travelling the world or working your way up the career ladder, we can always challenge ourselves to be bigger and better.

For many people in our modern-day societies, we typically focus on the negative aspects of life, be it anxieties in our minds, worries about the future or thoughts of the past. However, what if I told you-you could live your life without these worries and negative feelings? What if you could live your life feeling calm, energised and ready to rock at a moment’s notice?

This isn’t impossible. The benefits of meditation have been proven time and time again, helping you to reduce your stress levels, calm your cortisol (stress hormone) production levels, and even combat symptoms and effects of depression.

Here to help you achieve more in your life while training your mind to have a more positive outlook, here are five essential meditation prompts and cues that you need to know that can help you reach for the stars and live the life that you want to live.

Focusing on Your Breathing

This is one of the most renowned meditation prompts that there is and if you meditate already, this is probably going to be your go-to prompt.

Start each of your meditation sessions by taking several big, deep breaths. Change the focus of your mind to your breathing and really see if you can feel how that breath is changing and affecting your body. Let your breath guide your mind.

Consider Your Energy Levels

Everybody meditates at different times of the day which means that your energy levels will be different throughout the day. It also depends on what activities you’ve been taking part in. Of course, if you’re meditating in the morning after you wake up, the chances are that you’ll have a lot of energy compared with if you meditated at the end of the day.

Take a moment to really feel how much energy your body and mind is processing. How do you feel right at this very second? Do you feel energised and ready to go or is something, maybe a thought or feeling, sapping this energy? What can you do to make it better?

Scanning Your Body

Body scans during meditation sessions are nothing new. In fact, entire sessions can be dedicated to this meditation technique in itself. However, how often do you use them to benefit and evaluate yourself?

Take a moment during your meditation session to focus on each individual part of your body, either starting from your head or feet and working in the opposite direction. Be sure to keep a mental eye open for tight areas of stress that you can breathe deeply into to soothe.

Using Affirmations

I love using affirmations since they can help us become who we want to be and can help us focus on what is important to us. They also get when it comes to changing our mindset and training our brains.

Last year when I started meditation, I had been trying to quit smoking for several months, and I found that I kept going back to it after social events or negative situations.

However, using mantras and affirmations, such as ‘I am Strong’ and ‘I have Willpower’, I was able to train my mind and brain into being the person that I wanted to be. Apply this concept to every area of your life, and you’ll be unstoppable.

Being Grateful

This is one of my personal favourites that I tend to overlook but am focusing on more and more during my meditation sessions. Being grateful for the things we have and the life we’re living is so important to our happiness, even if we’re going through a rough time (in which case this aspect is more important than ever).

Take a moment to consider the beauty of the world that surrounds us. If you practice this at both the beginning and the end of your practice, you’re starting and ending your session on a positive note, allowing you to bring this positive energy into your day.

I love to constantly share the benefits of meditation with the rest of the world. Nearly every other article, post or person I speak to, I’ll share how the practice has changed my life. It’s such a wonderful thing that I can’t stress enough that everybody should try or at least give it a shot.

I’ve spoken to users on the internet, my social circles, complete strangers and even my parents but a lot of people are still very dubious. Of course, meditation is a skill that needs to be learned. A skill that takes time to perfect.

However, as my guided meditation this morning told me, if you practice every day, for as little as ten minutes a day, for ten days, your life will be changed forever, that’s genuinely all it takes. Say goodbye to stress, anxiety, daily worries and gloomy thoughts of the future.

But alas, people still need convincing. You probably do if you’re reading this, so I’ll get right down to it. To get you started, here are five simple ways that meditation can positively change your life.

Improve Your Time Management Skills

Okay, to start with, you only need to meditate for ten minutes a day to start feeling the benefits. Of course, if you meditate for 20 minutes, or even an hour, you’re going to fill the benefits even more. But, if you’re new to the practice, I recommend starting with ten.

But managing your time and making time to complete your meditation session, meditating will become a solid part of your daily routine. If you’re starting your day with a well-managed routine, imagine how well the rest of your day is going to go?

Stop Over-Thinking

This is one of the more well-known benefits of meditation. By meditating, you’re actively considering your ‘what if’ and ‘should I’ questions that are constantly in your head. These are all the doubts, worries and anxieties in your head, very common with over-thinkers.

Through meditation, you’re actively making time in your day to cope with and ‘set aside’ these thoughts. This allows your head to be much clearer for your day ahead.

Don’t Accept Negative Thoughts

Through meditation, you’re once again setting aside time to confront your negative thoughts. I’m talking about all those thoughts throughout the day that make you question yourself, a situation or the people around you.

Usually, these are thoughts that either pop into our heads, play around for a couple of hours and leave or something that stays pondered in the backs of our minds.

By meditating, you’re making yourself become aware of these thoughts, allowing you to question whether these are genuine concerns or just your mind getting a little out of control.

Helps You to Think

Yes, this may sound a little cliché, but meditation does teach you a lot about yourself. It’s quite difficult to describe this benefit because you’ll never really be fully aware of how well, or not well, you understand your body before you start meditation.

By taking the time to sit and breath, you take a step back and observe yourself and your mind. So, instead of a random thought popping into your head in the middle of the day which causes you to act irrationally, you simply take a step back, breath and address it properly.

Starting Yoga

Okay, this is a little unrelated, but personally, for me, this was a big step. Through meditation, I was able to learn all about the benefits of breathing and connecting to our bodies. This naturally leads me to discover the benefits of yoga, an exercise that will change your life.

Although not commonly directly related, practising yoga and meditation at the same time is sure to change your life for the better.

As you can see, there is a tonne of simple yet incredibly effective benefits that meditation has. I’m trying to stick to five, so you’re not here all day but this just scratching the surface when it comes to meditation and what it can do for you.

Start with ten minutes a day for ten days. Then let me know how you feel about life.

The practice of meditation has been about for thousands of years. In fact, it can be traced back as far as 5,000BC.

However, the art of meditation has been practised sporadically but has recently exploded onto the world stage.

It’s now practised by millions of people around the world from all walks of life and is renowned for being one of the most beneficial habits you can do for yourself.

But, with so many benefits to your health, can it do more? Can it even boost your career and your work? Today, we’ll explore three reasons meditation can help you propel yourself to greater success.

Anywhere, Anytime

You can practice meditation anywhere, at any time. Whether you’re sitting at your desk, on your lunch break, commuting to work or about to head into the biggest meeting of your life. Meditation can help you to have a calmer state of mind as well as reducing your stress levels.

As you can imagine, when you’re at work, these are all things we all wished we had all the time. Whether you meditate for five minutes or an hour, any meditation is better than no meditation. If you’re approaching or have gone through a stressful situation, there’s no better way to return to a productive state of mind than through meditation.

Enhance Your Mindset

While you’re at work, whether you’re simply chugging away at your desk or trying to score that promotion, you’re not going to get it if you’re unhealthy. For example, if you constantly find yourself distracted, stressed out and not focused, your work ethic will reflect this.

By meditating, you’re helping your mind return to the present moment. You’re helping your mind to settle all the crazy and relentless thoughts of the future that cause anxiety and stress.

You’re enabling yourself to return to a state of mind where you have a refreshed perspective on your work environment. You can even boost your productivity!

Develop Creative Thinking

One of the more unsung benefits of meditation is that it evokes creative thinking. This is ideal for the working world because any problem or task that comes up, simply meditate for ten minutes and see how you feel when you return to the room.

By meditating, you’re refreshing your brain so you have a new, clear perspective when any problem that comes up, you can approach it in the best mindset possible.

What you can achieve is endless.