WHAT I LEARNT ABOUT CREATIVITY, LEARNING NEW THINGS AND “EVERYTHING ELSE” BY MEDITATING REGULARLY

Ok. Let’s start with my background and what I did with meditation.
I am a programmer / consultant turned digital marketer. These days I am working on learning new skills in technology and advancing my guitar playing skills.
I have been meditating on-and-off for past 10 years. What I mean is, I was not a regular meditator. Some days I would sit for 20 minutes in meditation, some days just nothing. That went on for a long time.
But for the last 9 months I have been meditating for 35 to 40 minutes regularly every day. At least once. This is the part that I am talking about in this article.
Meditating regularly, taught me many things which I would have missed or would have gone through hell to learn. It was as if things starting coming in my zone of perception on their own.
So what happened, how it happened and what did I learn. I will explain in 3 sections — CREATIVITY, LEARNING and EVERYTHING ELSE
CREATIVITY & ITS MECHANICS
As I started meditating regularly, I realized that there were many thoughts going around inside my head. Some apparent. While some not so apparent — the underlying attitudes. I had no perception of what those thoughts meant. Why they were such a force? How these thoughts and feelings were creating my perception?
This discovery was enchanting when i started to recognize that a lot was going around in the head. Stuffs (thoughts, feelings, habits, underlying attitudes) arose and they disappeared. This ability to see the process of appearing and disappearing, during meditations, gave me an entry into a new space. But a question that bothered me was: what is this force behind these thoughts?
Soon I realized my thoughts had a certain quality to them. I tried to classify them. I read some high authority text on meditation and then tried to see if those classifications made sense. These classifications were described as whirlpools that arise in mind. Rightly so. They suck your thoughts in a particular direction. To my surprise it was exactly that way. I struggled to see more. And it went on. A point came when I realized this struggle to see more and classify was also fit in one of those classifications mentioned in the text. The loop was complete. I gave up the effort and waited for more.
Before, when I wasn’t meditating regularly, I believed that something outside, like something beautiful or something magnificent, inspired all of us towards more creativity. After meditating regularly i started seeing the mechanics of what was happening to me.
I realized, something magnificent or beautiful outside was not the source of creativity. It actually triggered, momentarily or for a longer duration, a connection inside me. This connection became the source of creativity. But most of the time, when it was triggered by something magnificent and beautiful outside, it came with a tail of desire or a decision. Something like “I want this. I want that. I want to be like this or that. Or, I will do this. I will do that.”
Soon, I realized that meditation was bringing in more clarity of perception in me. This clarity was cooling off those whirlpools. So my mind was not getting muddled. And I could see that more of those creative connections started happening from within. Rather anything trivial was becoming a reason for triggering a connection. Sometimes things that I did not like before were becoming a trigger of creativity now. These inwardly creative connections led to serene and light perceptions. Meaning, the residues of “I want this. I want that” were less intense. And due to this, more connections started happening. Something of a chain reaction of the sorts started happening.
All of this experience was of course interspersed with long durations of whirlpools. But what i have realized that regular meditation is helping me with more clarity. Which is leading to more creativity.
This is about creativity.
LEARNING NEW THINGS
Now about learning new things.
Effort is an important ingredient for learning anything new. What I learnt by meditating is, with what clarity I approach the effort, determines the success of learning. With clarity I don’t mean knowing something beforehand or assuming something. But a state of mind which is ready to absorb new knowledge. Blank but intelligent. Else most of the time while learning a new thing I was searching for past connections and habits which prevented me from grasping the new.
The information we perceive needs to sink in to become knowledge within us. Most of us rely on repetitive practice. Which is right. Because it can break sheath of inertia to change by repetitive stimulus or mental action. And then at some point the stuff sinks in.
What I realized by meditating is, how much effort I have to put to get hang of something depends on how much muddled up or clear I was. If I approach something with a clear perception, learning happens very fast. Then I can use repetition just to create new habits.
Clarity of mind also helps in understanding contexts, simplifying concepts or noticing patterns. Mind intuitively notices patterns or starts making new observations.
Emotions also impact clarity. If a lot of emotions are bothering you, they cloud the perception. Like a desire to learn something very fast can cloud the clarity. But a settled heart or mind has a better perception and learns things faster. Irony.
For me, with more clarity came more focus. I realized the real fun begins when I can focus without a desire to do so. I can just focus on anything. I realized after meditation, the more clear I was, the more focused I could be. Almost about anything.
EVERYTHING ELSE
Everything else is about work, relationships, happiness, success, etc. I realized that everything else was boiling down to one thing — my attitude.
Earlier I used to believe that if I felt bad, it was because of someone else. It was someone else’s fault or bad behavior.
With meditation it became clear that what I feel was because of my attitude. To many of you this might sound like a self blame or guilty conscious statement. “It’s all my fault. I am to be blamed what I did. I am not good enough” kind of thing.
But no. That’s not what I am talking about. It is actually the other way round. Realizing that how I feel is direct result of my attitude, gave me a sense of peace and ability to be who i am irrespective of the situations around me. What is great about meditation is that it helps me regain a calm attitude. A regular practice of meditation keeps me grounded. As opposed to losing my mind thinking about why somebody said this or that or behaved like this or that.
Meditation brings my attitude back to a space where I can stay focused.
CONCLUSION
I am continuing my regular meditations. I think it is a great personal productivity tool.
Anyone can use it. Anytime. Whether you are in office, home or commuting. Nothing stops you from meditating. Building a regular practice will give you very good results.
You don’t have to be a genius to start meditating. It’s all about relaxing and going inside yourself so that your awareness and clarity of perception keeps improving. Meditation, in its own way, will unfold many gifts for you.
Lastly meditation is simple. You don’t even have to try very hard. The whole experience of meditation is so good, it’s but natural that you would wanna do it again and again and again and again.
If you would like to start meditating regularly, you can check my website www.meditationbreak.me
