4 Benefits of Adding Meditation to Your Creative Practice | This Changes EVERYTHING 

by Amanda StoneCreative Flow, Creativity, Inspiration, Meditation, SpiritualityPosted on No Comments

If you’re ready to get out of your mind, out of your fears, and out of your self-doubt and into a place of peace when it comes to creating your best work, you definitely want to educate yourself on the four major benefits to adding meditation to your creative practice. When I had my spiritual and creative awakening experience in 2017, meditation was one of the first tools that was taught to me that has been beneficial to my own creative journey. It’s something that I return to time and time again, especially when I’m feeling down, when I’m feeling stressed, or when I’m feeling just off-centered. Meditation is something that I can rely on to bring me back into balance and keep me focused on what I really want to be doing, which is making awesome art, whether it’s painting, writing, or whatever it is that I am into. And that’s what I know you want too. So here are the four major benefits of adding meditation to your creative practice. Benefit 1: Learning to Separate Your Mind and Thought Processes From Your Identity If you’ve ever been in the process of creating, you’ve probably experienced a lot of swirling thoughts in terms of critiquing your own work or wondering if you’re doing a good enough job. Meditation is going to give you the skills necessary to be able to observe those thought patterns without overly identifying with them or attaching to them, which will leave you to do your work more effectively and at the same time learn from the dialogues that are going on within you and see if there are some necessary tweaks of perspective that you need to make in order to either pivot some of those thought processes or tamper them down or eliminate them entirely. Benefit 2: A Tool to Return to Center at Any Time If you’ve learned about The Cycle of Creative Flow, you know that there is an aspect of creative flow that involves rest. It’s a part of the process that we don’t often talk about, but it’s an essential component to creative flow. Meditation is one of the things you can put into practice in order to bring yourself into that state of restoration. In that state of restoration is where you’re going to get realigned with your creative purpose and open yourself up to receive new inspiration. Benefit 3: Aligning More Quickly With Your Authentic Voice as a Creator While you’re in the midst of creating, you can get lost in terms of expressing your authentic voice. You can start to allow the voices of others or the voices of concern to begin manipulating what you’re creating, until you’re no longer creating something that’s authentic to you. Meditation is something that you can do before, during, and after your creative process to bring yourself back into alignment with what your authentic voice wants to say for the peace that you’re creating. Benefit 4: It’s Easy to Put Into Practice Meditation is really easy to do. You don’t need any special equipment to do it, just yourself and your breath. If you’d like to learn and practice a simple heart alignment meditation you can watch one of my heart alignment rituals on YouTube or download my FREE Heart Alignment Ritual Guide, complete with short video lessons. By learning this, at any time you’ll be able to get yourself back in alignment with your authentic truth as a creator, restore your center, and give yourself some space from any thoughts that have been pestering you throughout the week. Conclusion I really hope that you will take the information in this video and begin to apply it by utilizing meditation in your creative practice and seeing the benefits that it has to offer. If you’re interested in more resources like this or learning more about what might be interfering with your ability to express yourself authentically, please explore the free resources and paid resources here on the Awakened Creators website. Just move with what resonates with you. Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of your creative journey. I am so glad that you have committed to your art, to your heart, and to you. I love you. Namaste.

person with body painting

3 Powerful Lessons Reclaiming Creativity Taught Me

by Amanda StoneCreativity, InspirationPosted on No Comments

If you would have met me back in 2017, you would think I had everything going for me. I had a partner, a child, and a good paying job. I was even going to graduate school to further my career prospects. But despite appearances, my life was a complete mess. Beneath the surface, I was an alcoholic, putting down 1.5 to 2 bottles of wine every night (a huge improvement from my former pints of vodka). When I remembered, I would take my anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medication (a terrible mix with booze btw). And whenever alcohol wasn’t available, I would eat my feelings in a stomach-turning sugar binge.  All of this self-destruction and self-loathing led me to the brink of suicide for the second time in my life. That is, until my creativity stepped in to saved me. Literally. When I began to reclaim my creativity, everything changed. I found my missing piece. The piece I had denied myself for so long because I believed the lie that my creativity wasn’t important, wasn’t practical, and wasn’t needed. This is the biggest lie a creative soul could ever tell themselves! After surviving this supreme low in life, reclaiming my creativity taught me 3 powerful lessons that I’d like to share with you. My sincere hope is that by sharing my journey, you will never need to sink into the darkness, like I did, to find these truths. 1. Creative expression is necessary for some people Society likes to treat creativity like sprinkles on a cupcake. An added extra to flavor life, but something you could easily do without. My experience taught me that this isn’t true for some people. For “creative souls”, our expression of creativity is as important as breathing. It is a vital element of our well-being and should be treated as such. When we disregard our creativity as an afterthought, or relentlessly judge it, we rob ourselves of this incredible lifeforce. As seen in my story, and in many I’ve heard from other creatives, ignoring this can be a death sentence.  2. Creativity is an act of self love When we take the time and space to pursue our creativity, it sends a powerful signal to our soul that we love and appreciate what makes us happy. By accepting creativity as a real part of our identity, deserving of our attention, we give ourselves the healing gift of unconditional love. It isn’t about achieving some creative goal or level of recognition (although that is very possible as an Awakened Creator). Reclaiming your creativity is caring about yourself enough to put your own oxygen mask on first before anyone else around you. To choose your creativity is to choose to love yourself.  3. The creative journey is all about transformation Creative souls aren’t just creatively talented for the heck of it, our creativity is a divine gift. When applied properly, our creativity can transform our lives and carry us on an incredible lifelong journey of self-discovery through joy. Your creative projects (and your setbacks) are a reflection of your inner state, and with each one, you learn something powerful about yourself, about life, about…everything! Creativity is a force for deep healing, and serves as both the tool and the path. As you transform, your work becomes infused with the wisdom you’ve gained and holds the power to help others heal as well. So how did I start reclaiming my creativity? How can you start making your creativity a priority and showing yourself some love through your creative expression? Here are 3 tools that worked beautifully for me (and that I still use): 1. Shadow Journaling At Awakened Creators, we refer to self-reflective journaling as “sacred journeying”. This invaluable process allows a clearer window into the often subconscious source(s) of blockages in our creative process.  By surrendering our fears, anxieties, and rage onto the page, we not only give ourselves a safe space to feel our emotions and demonstrate powerful self-compassion, we start freeing ourselves from unhealthy attachment to and blind acceptance of false narratives that keep us stuck. I often share journal prompts on Instagram to encourage this practice and offer guidance for going deep. I recommend every creative keep a journal, and use it as often as they feel called, especially during creative blocks. 2. Meditation Meditation is a very powerful tool for learning how to quiet your inner critic and untangle old programming that is leaving you stuck. Meditation can be as simple or complex as you want it to be, so don’t feel bad starting with just a few minutes a day. As you start seeing the positive results of a meditation practice, you will actually want to do it for longer and more often. I use meditation as both a daily practice (as often as I can) and as a prescriptive medicine when I get into a funky head space. If you want help getting started, guided meditations are great because they walk you through the process step by step. I have a growing library of meditations I’ve recorded on the Awakened Creators YouTube Channel that you can check out. 3. Create (of course)! Did you actually think you could reclaim your creativity without picking up that pencil or paintbrush? Not a chance! Whatever your medium of expression, you MUST actually do it to experience the transformative power of the creative journey. I get it. It can be scary to start, especially if you’ve been repressing your creativity for years, but the rewards will be great. Yes, you will judge yourself. Yes, you will wonder what the heck to create, but taking that risk will be so worthwhile! When you are living in your joy and feeling better about your life than you ever have, you will only wish you’d started sooner! Well beautiful soul, I hope reading this helped you understand how essential reclaiming your creativity is to your well-being and given you some practical tools you can use to begin your journey.  It is …

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