Are You Mindful and Creative?

At one time in my life, to be creative in my mind, meant to be a painter, a writer, a musician among other things. Creative meant to me, something you did in your spare time that was only for these things. Outside of that, I always figured that creativity really had little place in my everyday life. Sure, many of the companies I have worked for gave lip service to thinking outside the box, but few rarely nurtured the concepts past an evaluation period or company meeting.

For most of my life, I did not think I was that creative. It was not something that was allowed to be in existence while I was a kid growing up except for when I put together model semi trucks or various crafts my mom would buy me for Christmas. It was always about finding a job that you could make decent income at and functioning in life like our society requires us. There was no time for creative moments unless you did them on your own time and there was no support for this.

Yes, I was able to practice and learn the piano as a kid, but whenever I tried to be creative and just play from my center of creativity like I do today, it was often met with criticism by those who could not even play one note. I still remember the time I was creating in the moment with some music and while it wasn't a polished piece of music at that moment, my father made sure he told me that I made many mistakes. This was not helpful and it led me to hide my create in the moment capacity if anyone was around within hearing range.

Following the rules of society, I went to college and pursued a degree in a field of study I enjoyed. After graduation, I found a job that was fun and rewarding which turned into a more technical computer role. As I began to look at life and evaluate where I was, I saw myself as someone working on a computer in a solitary office cubicle for the rest of my life. I did not see the creative side in me at all and so I brushed it aside. It was not until events later in my life that I began to embrace the creative side of myself which had always been there. I just had not been open to seeing this side of myself because I did not feel it would serve any purpose to accomplishing what society expected of me.

And as I evaluate all of this while I just started reading the book "On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity",
maybe - just maybe - I'm more creative. In fact, I know I am more creative than I ever let on to be. I'm just beginning to embrace that creativity and allowing it to be more of who I am, rather than something I pull down off the shelf when I feel like I have the time.

In the book, I am seeing that to be mindful is to be creative and to be creative is being mindful. Being creative gives us the essence and enjoyment of life that we so deserve. Yet, if we only attempt to use it on occasion, we are missing so much for our lives. Being creative and being mindful is not just for a select few but it is present in each one of us, if we allow it to be. It does not matter how we choose to be creative but that we choose to be creative and mindful. Creativity and Mindfulness are like partners that go together.

Page 4 - On Becoming An Artist - by Ellen J. Langer
This book is about the roadblocks that stand in the way of our natural creativity. It is intended to be a guide to opening up creative engagement on a daily basis in all that we do.

Dream Your Problems Away

In a recent study, researcher from the University of California, Dr. Sara Mednick found that people improved their problem solving ability when they took a nap between the morning and afternoon that included a period of REM sleep. For those participants that just rested but did not have REM sleep, there was little change in their problem solving abilities.

REM sleep is also known as a period of deep sleep where there is literally rapid eye movement. Typically, it occurs about 90-120 minutes of the total sleep in a night for most humans.

According to Dr. Mednick, creative problem solving that uses dreams usually is not successful at first. However when the person makes the decision to let go of the problem and does not consciously try to solve it, the solution to the problem comes to the person's consciousness in a dream that is recognized upon awakening.

The neocortex of the brain is the part of the brain associated with thinking. When this part of the brain is free to integrate fresh information, it is then that the solutions are realized. It is expecially important for people such as artists, musicians, and scientists whose daily work is matched closely to the function of the neocortex in the brain where new connections of familiar information is made.

Many famous inventors throughout time have had the creative information come to them through dreams.

I remember one particular time in my own life where I had fought for about two days to fix an email problem on a computer system. My time was running short because I was supposed to get on an airplane the next day. As the end of the day neared, I had no idea at that moment of how to fix the problem. That night, I went back to my hotel and just decided to relax and let the problem go for the evening. Going to bed, I fell asleep and felt very rested the next morning. When I got to the site to begin working on the problem, what seemed like a mystery the day before all of the sudden seemed to fit into place. It took less than 30 minutes to fix the problem that I had wrestled with for two days.

For a long period of my life, I did not allow myself to dream at night because what kept coming up was like a horror movie times a thousand. These events were too rough for me to deal with and so I just shut down the dreaming at night. As time has gone, I have started to dream again. Or maybe I should be more correct in that I remember more of my dreams. The dreaming was probably always there but not where I could even recognize it. Now, my dreams are usually vivid in many ways and often times I do remember them.

I've always heard that naps are good but never paid it that much attention. We have our children take naps every day. Yet, we as adults discard this practice because it does not fit in with our many tasks that we need to accomplish in our day. However, we might be more productive and more centered in our day if we took time out to take a nap or find ways to relax.

Maybe it is like the commercial on TV that says "milk does a body good". Instead of milk - we should say "a nap does a body good".

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1088029.html