7 attitudes to elevate your creative practice
Discover how Jon Kabat-Zinn's 7 attitudes of mindfulness can help you break free of creative boundaries, release judgement, and fully embrace your unique artistic self.
Something rather miraculous happened during my journey into the mountains of mindfulness meditation theory and practice. I moved into new and unexpected territory, places I never imagined I would see. And I started drawing again.
Drawing has become a deeply meditative practice that is frankly rather addictive in the joy it brings me.
You see, I had always wanted to draw, use my imagination, and keep a sketchbook. Still, my inner critic told me I couldn't draw very well without copying or tracing. Anyway, I was more of a designer than an artist, wasn’t I?
In reality, the practice of mindfulness uncovered who I am. It had just been covered by dusty piles of self-imposed rules and rags of expectations.
As I grew my mindfulness practice and then subsequently trained as a mindfulness teacher, I learnt more about the 7 attitudes of mindfulness. The first book on the required reading list was Jon Kabat Zinn's 'Full Catastrophe Living: How to Cope with Stress, Pain and Illness Using Mindfulness Meditation’.
In this book, JKZ outlines the 7 attitudinal foundations of mindfulness, the central pillars of any secular mindfulness practice (there have subsequently been more added, but I'll be talking about the original 7 today).
I've now come to see them as not only a foundation for being in life but also a brilliant foundation for mindful art-making.
So today, I'm outlining the 7 attitudes of mindfulness and showing you how to apply them to your art-making and creativity, too.
Applying the 7 Attitudes of Mindful Art Making
It’s important to note that the 7 attitudinal foundations are not independent of each other. Each attitude relies on the influence of the other. The following explains how you can apply these attitudes to mindful art-making and the creative process:
1. Non-Judgement
This attitudinal foundation means paying close attention to your moment-to-moment experience while not getting caught up in other ideas, opinions, likes, or dislikes.
When thinking about our art-making or creative pursuits, it's easy to get caught up in thoughts of "Is this good or bad?" Labelling our creative output with automatic judgements or predicting the judgements of others. From our clients, teachers, peers or parents.
Instead, as you become aware of these labelling thoughts, bring your mind back to the process of making—the physical aspects—pen on paper, brush on canvas, fingers on the keyboard. The physical act of making is your anchor into present-moment awareness and away from automatic judgmental thoughts, negative self-talk, or even an overinflated ego, perhaps!
2. Patience
As Jon Kabat Zinn very simply states, "Patience is a form of wisdom". It shows we understand that things must unfold in their own time. This particular attitude is constructive when feelings of frustration arise and result in a creative block.
Walk away from your art-making or creative process for a while and understand that the 'answers' will present themselves when they are ready. When you come back and find the answers to the brief or dilemma you were looking for, this is both liberating and awe-inspiring.
3: Beginners Mind
Quite simply, seeing as if for the first time.
We have a tendency to think we 'know' already, which prevents us from seeing things as they really are. This is about having an open mind and allowing things to unfold in their own time.
When it comes to the art-making process, this could be as simple as trying new materials, writing in a different voice, or playing a different style of music.
Alternatively, look at familiar materials in a new way. Replace the paint with a collage of coloured paper. Write with a brush. Sing in a different key. Or perhaps simply allow the work to unfold at its own pace and to see what happens.
"Mistakes are opportunities to get to know yourself as the authority.
4: Trust
Learning to let your intuition guide you underpins life and art. Trusting your own authority rather than looking to elders, well-meaning friends, relatives, or, worse, Instagram for the answers or validation is creative suicide. You may make 'mistakes’ on the way, but I assure you, you know how to fix them.
As in life, making mistakes in art-making and creativity is par for the course. It's how we learn and is integral to the process. A toddler learning to walk will fall many times. But get back up and try and try until they master it so well that soon we’re chasing after them in a playground or a supermarket aisle!
It is from those mistakes that learning and opportunity occur. Mistakes are opportunities to get to know yourself as the authority.
Therefore, I invite you to draw outside the lines and trust your intuition to tell you where to take that line. Move into the blank, open spaces that you've never explored before.
Great discoveries are made when people trust the process of art-making. Think like an inventor or a scientist. Experiment and play!
5: Non-striving
Humans are wired for purpose. To do something and to go somewhere. However, in mindfulness and art-making, we challenge this tendency.
OK, so you have a deadline looming. But will thinking about the deadline help your creativity or hinder it?
I guarantee that worrying or ruminating about a future scenario will only hinder your creativity. At worst, you'll become blocked, and no ideas will present themselves at all. It's a lose-lose situation.
Creativity requires openness and flow.
Non-striving is paradoxical because it involves non-doing, a theme that is central to mindfulness. It requires you to get out of your own way and allow things to unfold from moment to moment.
For example, if you sit down at your sketchbook and say, "OK, now I'm going to be really creative and come up with 10 ideas for my problem," you've already set yourself up for where you’ll be after your creative session.
Instead, if you get out your pen and paper, doodle, and let your mind wander, the ideas will form quite organically.
Forget results. Doodling, collage, or cut-up poetry is great because there is no fixed outcome; it's merely about being in the moment and paying attention to what works and what doesn't.
“The best way to achieve your goals is to back off from striving for results and instead start focusing carefully on seeing and accepting things as they are, moment by moment.
With patience and regular practice, the movement toward your goals will take place by itself. This movement becomes an unfolding that you are inviting to happen within you.”
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
6: Acceptance
See things as they actually are in the present, come to terms with how life is, how you are, and how people are, and accept it. Easier said than done, right?
In everyday life, we spend a lot of time 'wishing' things were better than they are. "If only..." "I wish..." "One day..." At its most ugly, this non-acceptance leads to jealousy.
We look at other people and want their looks/success/job/house/relationships etc. If you're overweight, you want to look like an underwear model. If you're an artist, you want to draw like Michelangelo.
However, by first accepting yourself as you are now—that you're packing a few extra pounds or your best drawing right now is stick men—you can then do something to address the things you aren’t happy with.
“This attitude helps sets the stage for acting appropriately in your life, no matter what is happening...you have a clear picture of what is actually happening versus when your vision is clouded by your mind’s self-serving judgments and desires or its fears and prejudices.”
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
Once you accept yourself as you are and show yourself some compassion, you will ironically start creating the perfect opportunity to focus on gaining the skills, losing the weight and connecting with people in meaningful ways. Beyond the superficiality of stuff and possessions.
In art-making, this means you keep going. Keep practicing.
NB: Acceptance is not about rolling over and feeling helpless. It's actually empowering. If you see things as they are, you can work out what to do about them.
7: Letting Go
When you practice mindful awareness in any situation, you will start to notice patterns of thought that our minds automatically default to.
This could also present itself as resistance to break out of your comfort zone during the creative process. Perhaps you are expected to be a certain way, a specific artist, using a particular medium in one particular style. Instagram made me feel like this. I had to be consistent and show my audience what I perceived they expected, which I found creatively stifling.
Try to let go and observe your mind pushing, grasping, judging, expecting, etc. Let go of your preconceived ideas of good or bad; let go of the messages you were told as a kid that creativity is an indulgence. Let them pass like floating clouds and make your work anyway. Live your life according to your tune, not someone else’s.
I want to remind you that by simple art-making, you are guiding yourself to be more resilient, to have an open mind and see the world in new and exciting ways. Thus allowing your inner voice to be heard, and taking the ultimate step in self-care.
Have an inspired day.
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