Can meditation foster creative writing?
One of the practices I started implementing a couple of years ago is doing a quick meditation before I start writing. Since my writing time is often short to begin with, I usually only do five minutes, but if I have more time, I like to do ten. I prefer doing a silent meditation to let my mind quiet — as my writing happens in-between life (aka parenting a young child, working, looking at social media, etc). Since I started implementing this practice, I find I can get into the writing zone faster and my brain is less distracted.
This got me thinking back to a piece I wrote last year for Glamour about daydreaming, which also talked about mind-wandering, since the two are one in the same. Simply put, mind-wandering is defined as the thoughts and images that come into our brain, when we take our attention away from external tasks.
A 2012 study found when they let a control group take a "mind-wandering" break from a difficult task, they performed 41% better, than the group that didn't take a break. The researchers believe their findings are "the most direct evidence to date that conditions that favor mind-wandering also enhance creativity."
So what about meditation? Is meditation mind-wandering? Isn't meditation not thinking about anything? Yes and no. Meditation isn't about removing emotions or thoughts, it's actually being consciously aware of them, noticing them and not judging whatever comes up. While our mind is naturally wandering, with open-monitoring meditation, your focus is to continually strive to be present, which thoughts take us away from (this is different from focused-attention meditation, when you focus on a specific task, thought or stimuli). When we're in a state of mind-wandering, we're usually on automatic pilot, such as walking, driving, brushing our teeth or in the shower. It's important to note that you can also do all of these things mindfully. For example, kinhin is known in the Buddhist tradition as mindful walking.
Ever notice that when you're in one of these states, that's when you get an "Aha!" moment or a burst of creativity or when you stop focusing on something that idea comes? A 2019 study out of the University of California, had professional writers and physicists report on when they had their most creative thought of the day. The participants said, one fifth of their most significant ideas came during "spontaneous task-independent mind wandering," which meant some activity other than working or something unrelated to the idea they generated.
The connection between meditation specifically and creativity is a little less straightforward, due to the lack of scholarly studies around the intersection of the two areas. In a 2020 thematic review and analysis, researchers found the mindfulness-creativity relationship to be "positive and promising." Prior studies found benefits including:
Improved ability to concentrate
Less fear of judgement
Enhanced open-minded thinking
Experienced meditators are better at problem solving and have better verbal creativity, with even short meditation breaks showing an increase in creativity. All of this to say, mindfulness can improve or enhance creativity because of the skills it helps to build which then in turn supports creativity.
So really, the science supports this idea of meditation and mindfulness fostering creativity, which can be useful in many different areas aside from creative writing.
Outside of meditation, I personally find mind-wandering breaks to be incredibly useful, particularly since we live in a world where we're constantly stimulated and connected. I tested this theory out a couple days ago, as I'm looking to pitch a couple of features stories. Instead of listening to a podcast on my walk, I decided to allow my meandering thoughts to percolate in my head. Boom! I got not one but TWO features ideas in my silent fifteen-minute walk.
Meditation is a very different practice than mind-wandering (not to mention there are many types of meditation), but clearly both have their place. If you continue to foster a mindfulness practice you'll build up core skills that help to support creativity, and while you're working through a creative challenge, implementing mind-wandering can help you find creative solutions in the moment.
Cool, right? Happy meditating.