Creativity and Stillness

Even when the mind is friendly, when the thoughts are helpful or creative, like a piece of music, is the space in between the thoughts. The silence that provides the clarity and the precision. So one of the most common sort of bits of feedback from people who are new to meditation, is this idea or concern that in meditating they're going to be less productive. Perhaps less creative. The idea that actually is a very busy mind is lots of thinking that allows us to be productive or creative. But if we really pay attention to the mind, we start to see that actually creativity arises from silence, it arises from stillness. It doesn't sort of, it finds it very difficult actually, to get even, to sort of get to the surface when the mind is very busy. And even in terms of being productive, when there's too many thoughts in the mind, actually there's just a lot of confusion, we don't have a lot of focus. We're not very sort of, yeah productive in our, in our way. So as we start to watch the mind in this way, we see that it's actually the silence around those thoughts, that creates that clarity, that creates the focus. And it really is just like a piece of music. If you take the silence out of a piece of music, there is no music. In the same way, without that stillness in the mind, those moments of quiet, then we don't ever really get to fully appreciate, the thoughts and the feelings that arise. So starting with the eyes open. A nice, soft focus just taking a big, deep breath. Breathing in through the nose, and out through the mouth. And as you breathe out, just gently closing the eyes. Just feeling the weight of the body. Gravity just pressing down. Feeling the weight of the arms, the hands, and just settling in to the space around you. Noticing the different sounds. Not only those very close by, but also further away. And then bringing the attention back to the body. Just getting a sense for how the body feels right now. What's comfortable. What's uncomfortable. Not changing anything, but just noticing how the body feels. And as you notice those sensations in the body you might also notice the breath. Just starting to follow that movement of breath, that rising and falling sensation. So allowing thoughts to come and go, but if at any stage you realized the mind's wandered, just gently coming back to that movement of breath. And now just letting go with our focus on the breath. Just coming back to the feeling of weight in the body. A feeling of contact. Starting to notice the different sounds or smells around you. And when you're ready, just gently opening the eyes again....