Mindfulness Practice Deepens Dialogue + Expands Innovation

Deep in the middle of another frigid February with record snowfall, I jumped into my bright red Honda to take a 500 mile drive to a remote meditation center. The trip was my first expedition into the unknown continent of meditation and Mindfulness Practice, it wouldn’t be my last. As I drove up the snowy twisty mountain road, the large stone retreat appeared, it was surround by huge snow drifts and painted by what I would soon come to realize was a relentless howling wind. My apprehension peaked.

Once inside I was led to my small room and handed 2 pages of rules, my apprehension continued to climb. Finally I was left alone and I quickly escaped out a fire-door (no alarm). Standing in a freezing windy alcove lighting my cigarette a voice said “hello,” I looked up to see an older man smiling at me while also smoking a cigarette. “It’s nice to have company” said the old man, I nodded and stared back while taking a puff and shielding the precious from the wind. “What are you afraid of?” he blurted out from behind his smile, “I’m not afraid of anything, why would you ask me that?” I replied. “It’s obvious you’re unsure of why you’re here, your running from something,” he said. He was right, but how could this rumpled man who appeared to be the janitor know I was running from something? I started to protest when he raised his hand to cut me off, “take a day before giving into your fears and running again,” he said while dropping his lit cigarette into a can on the ground. As he reached the door he said “we’ll talk again,” and was gone.

“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. breathing is my anchor.” Thích Nhất Hạnh, Click To Tweet

I ended up staying for a few days before moving on to a Zen center that turned out to be only thirty miles from my home, the irony was not lost on me. I had many more conversations with the old man both standing outside while smoking and while sitting alone in the meditation hall, (hint: he wasn’t the janitor). I’ll share more of what we talked about in other posts.

Noise abounds both outside our heads and more importantly, inside our heads. The noise is like the sirens in Greek mythology, but instead of being lured onto the rocks we are being lured into distraction and losing our connection to the creative and innovative spirit we all posses. It’s that spirit that mindfulness can nurture and help to bloom into extraordinary things.

“Restore your attention by dramatically slowing down whatever you're doing.” Sharon Salzberg, Click To Tweet

I put together a list of mindfulness resources below to aid you with your mindfulness practice. If you find it useful please leave a comment or pen a tweet using #dialoguecreates

Everyone can be creative, though finding it may take a bit of work and curiosity. Sure, there are those among us who seem to be in touch with curiosity and creativity virtually every moment (that’s a myth), but don’t walk away from the table thinking you posses no creative juice. Taking up a mindfulness practice has been shown to have positive results in boosting creativity and engaging curiosity. Mindfulness seems to tap into that part of us that wonders about things. Can you remember as a child how everything seemed to spark your curiosity, how everything was shinny and new and you were thirsty to taste more? Start practicing as little as 15 minutes a day of mindfulness and you’ll start to see your curiosity reemerge along with creative and innovative parts you might never have known before. Just think how great it’ll be to bring these forgotten skills to work and family time. Give it a good try for 3 or 4 months, you’ll be glad you did. The Brain Exercise That Boosts Creativity   Many corporations use meditation to help employees bring new ideas to the table–Shell Oil, Google, General Mills to name a few. I think it’s also important for entrepreneurs to make meditation part of their daily routine. Meditation strengthens cognitive control. The ability to concentrate is enhanced when meditation quiets other brain functions. After one of my 30-minute meditation sessions I find that I have a burst of creative and associative energy–I listen more acutely to my colleagues and am better able to synthesize disparate ideas into an action plan. How to Boost Creativity Through Meditation   There is an ancient Zen story that relates to this. Two old masters were sitting side by side when one of them reached for a needle and began to mend some clothes. “What are you doing?” Dongshan asked. “I’m mending clothes.” “How do you do that?“ “One stitch is like the next,” said Shenshan. “What, after twenty years of practice – that’s all you can say?” said Dongshan Shenshan put down his needle and turned to his companion. “Well then tell me. How do you sew?” “As though the entire earth were spewing flames,”said Dongshan 7 Ways Meditation Increases Creativity   Meditation is a doorway between our inner and outer worlds. Between “reality” (the seemingly solid world that we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch) and an elusive “something else” we sense beneath, between and beyond what those five senses can grasp. Meditation offers enormous benefits for everyone, and a set of particular benefits for those who are engaged in a creative activity like writing. 10 Things Highly Intuitive People Do Differently   Pretty much everyone has experienced a gut feeling — that unconscious reasoning that propels us to do something without telling us why or how. But the nature of intuition has long eluded us, and has inspired centuries’ worth of research and inquiry in the fields of philosophy and psychology.’ Intuition is challenging to define, despite the huge role it plays in our everyday lives. Steve Jobs called it, for instance, “more powerful than intellect.” But however we put it into words, we all, well, intuitively know just what it is. How to Increase Your Creativity in 9 Easy Steps   Who among us hasn’t dreamed of discovering the next big thing or designing a breath taking product or at least solving a personal situation creatively and brilliantly. The problem is, most of us just dream about it. Unfortunately, there is a common myth that you are either born creative or doomed to a mediocre existence. In Silicon Valley, Meditation Is No Fad. It Could Make Your Career   More than a thousand Googlers have been through Search Inside Yourself training. Another 400 or so are on the waiting list and take classes like Neural Self-Hacking and Managing Your Energy in the meantime. Then there is the company’s bimonthly series of “mindful lunches Meditate Your Way To A More Creative Mind   There’s great evidence that shows if you really work on a skill, the part of the brain associated with that skill grows. The mind is like a muscle. If you don’t keep exercising it, it will atrophy.” Mindfulness at Work   Mindfulness is the art of learning to be in the present moment. So much of our time is spent worrying about the past or the future that we forget to pay attention to what is going on right now. Mindfulness is a way of “being” in the moment with ourselves, our sensations, reactions, thoughts and feelings. Could Mindfulness Meditation Increase Creativity?   Ever struggle for hours to solve a problem – only to find that the solution was right in front of your face? I’m not just talking about math problems – but about our work, too. Sometimes, a little clarity helps clients make the leap from struggle to growth. 3 Ways to Boost Your Creativity   When the pace of things is fast and we have too much to do, we drain our inner resources –resources that are necessary for creativity. Stress is an energy hog that depletes our concentration, and it cuts us off from our best thinking. There’s a whole bunch of brain science behind this.