What is Meditative Art?
You sit down to create, but nothing flows. You’re stuck, faced with a blank page, a silent studio, an untouched canvas, but no inspiration. You feel like you’ve lost a piece of yourself, that beautiful ability to create that you’ve always possessed. If you’re a creative who’s lost that spark, meditative art might be the way back to yourself.
Meditative art is a creative practice that combines mindfulness and meditation techniques with artistic expression. The emphasis of meditative art is the process itself, rather than the product. The act of mindfully creating, whether it’s visual art, music, movement, or writing, allows you to let go of perfectionism and be present in the creative process. Rather than being focused on the art itself, meditative art allows you to immerse yourself in the sensations, emotions, and movements involved in the creative process.
If you’ve heard of meditative art, you’ve likely encountered it in the form of visual art. Free drawing, painting, or coloring mandalas are all common ways to engage in meditative art, but they aren’t the only ways. You can engage in meditative music making, mindful dance or movement, free writing, clay and sculpture creation, or even mindful cooking or baking. As a therapist who specializes in working with creatives, I enjoy exploring new meditative art practices to help my clients cultivate creativity, release perfectionism, and find more joy in the process. In this blog, I’ll share a few of my favorites.
If you’re a creative who’s lost that spark, meditative art might be the way back to yourself.
Why Practice Meditative Art?
Engaging in mindful creativity in any format allows you to break free of the perfectionism and pressure that comes with a creative career and find your way back to creating the art that you love.
Meditative art, much like other forms of meditation, can release stress, improve anxiety, and encourage a sense of calm. Meditative art can also provide an emotional release that may be challenging to achieve through more structured, product-based art creation. As a creative professional, you may find yourself struggling to recapture the joy and emotional release you once got from your art. Once you start to monetize and commodify your art, there can be an intense pressure to produce that you didn’t have when you first started out. Meditative art allows you to focus on process rather than product, eliminating some of that pressure and allowing you to focus mindfully and intentionally on the art form you love.
Meditative art can also stimulate creativity and help to break through creative blocks. We’ve all encountered those blocks, especially when there’s an upcoming deadline or big performance. Sometimes it seems like we’ve lost the ability to create altogether, something that was once our superpower. Engaging in mindful creativity in any format allows you to break free of the perfectionism and pressure that comes with a creative career and find your way back to creating the art that you love. You may feel the urge to gravitate toward your primary art form, but I would encourage you to try something different, especially if you’re experiencing a creative block. In my experience, trying a new art form can bring about a fresh perspective and help unlock creativity that’s previously felt out of reach.
Reconnect to Your Joy: Setting Up Your Meditative Art Practice
The most important thing you need to engage in meditative art is a distraction-free zone. Maybe that’s a practice room at a rehearsal studio, an empty dance studio, or simply a cozy chair in your home. If you’re at home, try to choose a space where you won’t be distracted by clutter or chores that need to be done. Silence your phone, let everyone you live with know that you need some time alone, and gather any supplies you may need. Set a timer for however long you’d like to practice – it could be short, maybe only 5 minutes, or it could be much longer. Close your eyes or find a soft focus, and take a few deep breaths. You can take this time to set an intention for your practice, or you can simply breathe. When you feel ready, open your eyes, and begin to create.
Visual Art
The most common form of meditative art is visual art. You can use any medium you choose, as long as the focus is on mindfully engaging in the process, rather than on the finished product. Coloring mandalas involves coloring in existing repetitive, symmetrical designs and is an excellent introduction to meditative art. Zentangle is another fantastic approach to meditative art. When practicing zentangle, you can use simple, repetitive patterns to focus your mind and engage mindfully while creating beautiful art in the process. You can also simply draw or paint lines and shapes while focusing on the movement of the brush or pen rather than the shapes you’re creating.
Music and Sound
Another way to engage in meditative art is through music and sound. If you play an instrument, you can engage in improvisation, allowing the music to flow freely. Rather than focusing on technique or what sounds “good,” focus on the feeling of playing the instrument and the rhythms and tones that emerge. Singing or rhythmic chanting can also be a form of meditative art. Focus on the resonance of the sound and the vibration of your voice as you improvise, chant a word or phrase rhythmically, or sing a song you know well. You can also listen to music and allow yourself to focus on the different sounds, instruments, or melodic lines, entering a mindful state.
Dance and Movement
Using dance and movement as meditative art involves allowing the body to express itself freely, without judgment or set choreography. You can move to music or in silence, whatever feels best to you. Start by focusing on your breath as you begin to move, and allow yourself to let go of any expectations and focus on how you feel as you move. As you dance, you can become more in touch with your emotions and thoughts, using the flow of movement to release tension or connect to deeper feelings.
Writing and Poetry
Engaging mindfully in writing in any format can help you attain a mindful, meditative state. There are many approaches to using writing as meditative art, and just like all the other forms we’ve looked at, the focus should be on the process rather than the product. Free writing is an approach in which you write whatever comes to mind, whether it’s your own thoughts and feelings, stories, poetry, or song lyrics. The most important part of free writing is that you don’t edit yourself or read back over your work as you go. The product may be something you love or something you want to burn, but the important part is the process of writing. Notice the feel of the pen in your hand, and the emotions that emerge as you write.
From Burnout to Flow: Find Your Way Back Through Meditative Art
Meditative art can be a soothing, restorative approach to meditation that leaves you grounded and inspired. Like all meditation, the best way to reap benefits from meditative art is to develop a regular practice, carving out time daily or weekly to engage with it mindfully. If you’re looking for other ways to access meditation, I offer a 5-week meditation workshop series a few times each year. If you’re interested, you can learn more here and sign up to get notified before the workshop launches here.
For more support from someone who truly understands you, working with a therapist who specializes in working with creatives can make all the difference. If this blog resonated with you, I invite you to book a complimentary consultation with me to see if we’re a good fit and explore how I can support you in moving toward the creative life you want.
