How to find other creative outlets that can be used as a meditation practice, not just writing.
I am going to let you in on a secret.
Did you know there are other forms of meditation that people may not even realise they are already doing?
Before we go into that list, I want to share why writing has become one of my favourite meditation practices.
I focused a lot more of my energy on writing these past months. It has saved me from odd panic and anxiety attacks I can sometimes have.
Writing helps me when I am feeling overwhelmed.
I love to write. It is an open channel. A healthy way I reduce the stress and depression, I encounter at times.
When I write, my thoughts have somewhere to go. My words are poured out, and created into a story for someone else to read.
Using writing as a form of meditation helps me to:
Feel better.
When life starts to feel claustrophobic.
To be of service.
To show others they can heal from their trauma.
To heal from my trauma.
To educate people about Spirituality and other random topics I want to share.
To get a message, a story, or an idea out to the collective that I hope will benefit others.
To give my extrovert side a brief moment to shine as my introverted side takes a step back behind the screen.
Meditation is an inner vibration of feelings, thoughts, and emotions. All mixed in together. Before I write, the energy in my body feels like a pot of water on a stove, on high heat. As I write, that sizzle turns into a gentle simmer.
Wiki explains it as
“Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique — such as mindfulness or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity — to train attention and awareness and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state”
It makes me a little sad that we have misconstrued what meditation is. Rather than what it can be with no limits or labels. No societal expectations of what it should be.
Meditation is not just about chanting the word OM. We forget our daily activities are meditations too.
It can be much more. It should excite us. The last thing we want is for it to be boring. It is a practice you want to do. And enjoy doing it.
Meditation is available to us because it is good for us.
Activities which are meditation, add your own to the list.
Gardening
Working on a hobby
Drawing / painting / sculpting
Going for a drive
Going for a hike
Sitting at the beach watching the waves crash in
Float tanks / Saunas / Infrared/ salt rooms/ massage
Going to the gym/ going for a run
Yoga
Cooking/baking
Reading
Dancing
Listening to music
Taking a hot bath
Swimming/water activities
Often, you hear people say I zoned out. I got lost in what I was doing. I must have drifted off or my mind was in another world. Time felt as if it stood still. I was in another dimension time or place.
Exactly! What feels good to you is your meditation.
The Science behind meditation
When you meditate, you enter a set of brainwaves depending on the mental state you would like to be in for that time. The brain will move into a unique frequency while in mediation.
There are 5 frequencies.
Alpha / Beta / Theta / Gamma / Delta
When we enter the meditative state, we sit in the alpha waves. Subject to which kind of meditation you are in will determine the wave in which it will stay.
You can move into different waves during meditation. The deeper the meditative will result in the change of frequency. Similar to a shift of gears.
Besides the technical and scientific explanation, we can lose sight of how it makes us feel. Notice how you feel before mediation and how you feel after mediation. There is a noticeable difference in your energy.
Do we feel great when we been for a swim? Or feel great after that hike? We have to give ourselves a healthy escape. Not escapism. A time out from our lives.
My thoughts on mediation are:
A creative expression that brings us inner calm. We do not have to worry about trying to quiet our minds. Our minds are focused on our creative endeavors.
Our minds are already happy. They are off doing a task or an activity that we enjoy. When it is all over and done with, we are back into a calm state of mind.
I have spent all day working on my drafts by the end of the day. I may feel a bit tired mentally. But then, there is a relaxed state I get after I finish those blogs.
A weight lifted. A pressure released.
The foggy mental feeling disappears, an improvement of clarity to even help resolve problems you may have had no answers to before.
It is mood-altering for the better.
Final Thoughts
All ways to meditate is a gift to self, in any way that works for us.
Meditation helps us be mindful of our emotional state. A way to help us be more balanced. Before we explode or fly off the handle or even before we shut down or escape to bad habits and distractions. Even addictions that are not good for us.
It is a solution to an emotional problem that many of us deal with day-to-day.
It is a state of calmness that reduces stress, anxiety, pain. We create healthier lifestyles, small but significant doses of well-being for the mind-body and soul.