Meditation For Writing + Creativity

Use this meditation to help you switch gears from the rest of your day into a writing or creativity practice. This will help settle the mind, help you release what isn't serving you and will connect you to your voice and intuition for some writing practice.

Transcript

Hi there,

And welcome to this meditation for writing and creative practice.

This meditation is meant to be used to help you transition from the rest of your day into your writing or your creativity practice.

And you can do this meditation either seated or lying down.

So let's start by getting our bodies ready for some meditation.

If you are seated and you're sitting in a chair,

Bring your seat to the edge of the chair and plant your feet on the floor beneath you like the number 11.

If you're seated on a bed or a meditation cushion,

Or simply the earth or the floor,

Perhaps rock your seat side to side for a moment and just feel your own body's connection with whatever surface you are on.

And then begin to bring yourself into a sense of stillness,

Really feeling the rootedness of your seat and the support of whatever you are seated on holding your body.

And if you're doing this practice lying down,

Just take a moment and notice all the parts of the body that are touching a surface.

And again,

Feel from the inside out the support that you're receiving from that surface.

If you're lying down,

Simply relax.

For my seated meditator friends,

Sit up a little taller through the spine as if you can consciously make space between the pelvis and the base of the rib cage.

Relax your shoulders away from your ears.

And I like to imagine I have little magnets on my shoulder blades and they're reaching for each other.

So I'm opening through the heart.

There's an openness in the lungs,

The belly,

The whole front body,

So much space in the torso to breathe.

Perhaps flutter through the lips,

Relax the jaw and all the muscles of the face.

And then if you're seated,

Imagine there is a beautiful shimmering golden thread on your crown and someone you love is just giving it a little gentle tug upwards.

So you're seated nice and tall.

You're taking up space into the air,

The ether around you.

But you're also really grounded and planted and rooted through your seat.

And then no matter what position your body's in,

Let's decide what to do with our hands.

They say that the hands are an extension of the heart and we're about to write or create art with our hands.

So let's take a moment of mindfulness toward the hands.

Perhaps bring both hands to rest on the heart,

Almost like you're making a little shield with your own hands for your heart.

You may also decide to let your arms rest and allow your palms to be face down in the lap on the thighs or just face down toward the earth if you're lying down.

Palms down gives us a sense of being grounded.

And one more option for the hands,

Perhaps allow the backs of the hands to rest on the thighs or on the earth,

Palms open to the sky.

This open palm shape is a gesture of being ready to receive whatever happens in the meditation and whatever happens in the writing and the art making.

So decide what kind of body language to give yourself with your own hands and then come into physical stillness as much as possible.

And just notice your breath gently moving the body.

We're never fully still and just take a moment to notice the movement,

The natural movement of the body with the breath.

Let's meet each other on three beautiful cleansing breaths beginning with an exhale.

Exhale out all your air,

Out your open mouth,

Empty,

Empty,

Empty your lungs and greet that with a beautiful breath in the nose,

Hold it at the top,

Exhale open mouth,

Let it go.

Two more cleansing breaths,

Breathe in the nose,

Imagine all this beautiful new energy coming into the body.

And when you're ready,

Open mouth,

Let something go.

Last one like that,

Full,

Beautiful breath in the nose.

When you're ready,

Open mouth,

Even let out a sigh.

Allow your lips to lightly seal and take a few deep,

Full breaths using just the nose.

If you notice your nose is a little stuffy,

You can certainly use your mouth,

But the idea of the nostril breathing is to encourage a little more mental focus.

And I always like to imagine I have another lung living in my low,

Low belly and I'm using that lung to breathe.

So breathing in the nose deep and full and breathing out the nose deep and complete.

A few like that,

Big breaths in,

Complete breaths out,

Like you're cleansing your own insides with your own beautiful breath.

Continue this deep,

Full belly breathing.

And I have a few questions for you just to help you check in with whatever self has shown up to meditation today,

Whatever self will be creating in a moment.

You can quietly in your mind,

Ask yourself the question,

How am I feeling physically?

How am I feeling physically?

And just notice what you're noticing.

Notice whatever answer arises from your own body.

And we're not here to judge how we're feeling physically or even change anything.

We're simply here to notice.

It's like you're sitting with your best friend over a beautiful meal and you're asking your friend,

How are you feeling physically?

How are you?

And you really,

Really want to know.

So just listen to what your body's telling you.

How am I feeling physically?

And then let's move along to mental.

You can ask yourself,

How am I feeling mentally?

You might notice the contents of the mind.

What are you thinking about right here,

Right now?

Or you might even notice the quality of the mind.

Is the mind feeling sluggish and slow?

Is it feeling zippy and really fast?

Are you bouncing from idea to idea?

Just noticing what's going on in your mind.

And again,

We're not here to judge or change it.

We're simply here to notice.

We're practicing moving in to the witness part of our mind.

The witness part of ourselves is so helpful in meditation.

It's the part of us that gets to just kick back and observe.

But this part of us is also really helpful when we're writing or creating art.

We often write or create art from that witness self,

The part of us that is noticing,

Observing our own lives,

Observing feelings,

Thoughts,

Sensations.

So by practicing connecting to the witness in meditation,

We can perhaps more easily connect with the witness when we're writing or creating art.

Let's keep this exploration going.

Perhaps ask yourself in your mind,

How am I feeling emotionally?

How am I feeling emotionally?

How is my mood?

And just notice whatever arises.

When you've got a pretty good sense of how you're feeling physically,

Mentally,

And emotionally,

Perhaps change the position of the hands.

If they're resting on the body,

You can let them leave the body,

Fall by your sides.

Palms up perhaps become palms down or vice versa.

And I have one more question for you while we're in this quieter,

More settled state.

You can ask yourself,

What is my intention for my writing or creativity practice today?

What is my intention?

This might be super clear.

Maybe you're working on a project and you have a task for the day,

Or maybe the intention is more of a quality,

Something like curiosity or exploration or bravery or vulnerability.

What is my intention for writing or creativity today?

When you've got a sense of that,

Just notice for another moment,

Your own breath moving your own body.

Let's transition out of this beautiful meditation into our writing and creativity practice with one more collective breath.

Let's meet each other on an exhale,

Exhale out an open mouth,

Let it go.

Greet that with a beautiful big breath in the nose.

Hold it at the top,

Exhale,

Open mouth,

Let it go.

When you're ready,

Wiggle through the fingers and the toes and slow motion style,

Start to open your eyes and come back to the space that you're in.

Feel free to go ahead and move right into your writing or your creativity or your art practice if you know what's up for today.

But if you could use a little prompt,

I'll offer this one.

Consider something that you noticed in your meditation today.

Maybe something that you noticed your body is feeling or your mind is carrying or your emotions are sensing.

Take a moment to write about how you are feeling physically,

Mentally,

And emotionally today.

And then from there,

See if you can remember another time you felt in a similar way,

The same way or similar.

Can you write about the present moment of that sensation and also the memory that's attached to it?

As writers,

As artists,

As creatives,

We're time travelers.

We get to be both in the present moment and we get to travel back into memory or forward or even sideways into imagined lands.

So allow this present moment check-in to really ground you.

But then for today,

Let it perhaps connect you to a memory of a similar time.

All right,

I will let you go to go do your writing or your art or creativity practice.

I hope this was helpful to you.

Feel free to use this meditation anytime you just need to transition from the day into your creative body,

Into your creative self.

I wish you a beautiful creative session and I'll catch you next time.