What is Mindfulness Meditation?

Mindfulness meditation or awareness meditation involves getting to know ourselves, how our mind works, how we cause ourselves suffering, discovering who or what we are in essence free of suffering and training in recognising and resting in that essence. Originating from the Buddhist tradition, much of it can be practised in a secular way by people of any faith or none.

 

Progressing takes regular practice, like working out or cleaning our teeth each day, or the perseverence needed to get good at doing anything, including art! Through regular mindfulness meditation practice, we learn to be aware of sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings, emotions, energy, sense of a self, plus our whole field of experience as we experience it.

 

This awareness can be discovered as a vivid spaciousness much vaster, more joyous and clearer than the claustrophobia and stress of habitual, conditioned thought patterns such as negative self talk, opinions, biases, preconceptions and unhelpful beliefs that we get lost in which drive our lives and cause stress. These negative thought patterns also stultify our capacity to wisely and compassionately express ourselves creatively from our essence.

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Meditation or awareness practice is a training which can lead to calming down, feeling more ourselves, more content, more connected, more appreciative of the joy and vitality of the ever living present, and more able to be naturally creative from an awake, wise and compassionate space.

 

Mindful awareness meditation can be used just to lessen our stress, improve our health and well being, or it can also be a path to permanently awaken from the delusions causing suffering.

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Mindful Creativity

Since our mind is inescapably with us all the time, why not learn to integrate awareness practice into everything we think, do or say, as this will increase our well being, creativity, wisdom and compassion and decrease our stress?

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We are all creative, it is what we do, every second, 24/7. But we may not be aware of what of what we are thinking, feeling, sensing, nor are we necessarily aware of how our motivation drives our action, so may be causing ourselves or others harm through our creative action. We may not experientially know who or what it is that is thinking, doing, experiencing, creating our own reality.

 

Creative energy is not necessarily good or bad, it just is. Untold harm has been done through creative action motivated by greed and anger. Learning mindfulness increases our awareness of motivations and intentions informing creative action and helps us lean to direct energy in ways that are compassionately and wisely beneficial for ourselves and others.

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For some years now, I have been exploring secular ways of integrating art and mindfulness meditation, as part of a path of healing, well-being and awakening, to help art students and mindful creativity coaching clients who come to me.

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