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Over the years I have always invited my students to orient themselves toward curiosity and interest whether in mindfulness practice and during the experience of mindful movement. Inevitably this invitation is toward allowing the freedom of attentive presence to guide a creative exploration of life’s experience in the present moment.
There are the more intellectual and analytical approaches to enhancing creativity. As with most of our ways of conceptualizing and controlling things to get what we want there are laundry lists to things to ‘do’ to stimulate creativity. While these may or may not be helpful, much like the check lists of a diet may or so often may not affect your weight, the heart of transformation lies in sensing the deeper more inherent realms of one’s life.
We can approach those more elemental realms of creativity and imagination through contemplative practice. Such practices are not limited to formal meditation practices but settle into the realm of listening deeply to our lives in many forms; poetry, music, sitting meditation, mindful movement like yoga or chi gong, moments of attentive stillness regularly practiced, and much more.
To evoke, as the romantic poets like John Keats articulated, the beauty that radiates from imagination that is free of the unnecessary distractions that clinch our bodies and minds. The imagination that is the source of one’s deepest calling. He and the others of his understanding of our nature defined imagination not as thinking up new ideas but the willingness to allow one’s life to flow toward one’s deepest intuitions of creativity and calling.
“I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the Heart’s affections and the truth of Imagination – What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth – whether it existed before or not – for I have the same idea of all our passions as of love: they are all, in their sublime, creative of essential beauty.” — John Keats, November 22nd, 1817
Come and share this session to explore the path to greater freedom of creativity and flow. Whether you are an artist, writer, engineer, mathematician, architect, parent, athlete, or anyone who would savor the freedom of creative in life and profession you will be invited to learn and practice opening the door to your inherent creativity and imagination in this session.
Learning materials included. With Brant