I have been blessed with creative people in my life — writers, artists, performers, crafters, and poets. I truly feel blessed. I myself have enjoyed making things like couch covers, drapes, cushions, fashions, crafts, and watercolour paintings.
When “making things” we can enter a meditative state or “flow”, or a Zen state of just being. Time flies because you are in the moment and saturated with the details of “the making”. It is a pleasant state of being.
In meditative states you are in the moment and with the details of the making. The critical voice and its incessant nattering (about food, weight, self-judgment, etc.) is finally quiet and you can experience a peace, some would say a “oneness with the universe”. The moment is the focus — the weaving of the hydrangeas into the twig wreath, the watercolour mixing on the paper or the careful choice of words and rhythm of a poem. Improved mental health is possible in the state of “flow” because the “critical voice” or “chatterbox” is temporarily silenced and you can begin to experience yourself without the critical voice.
A bonus of entering “flow” or a meditative state is that you begin to realize that you are not the critical voice, the chattering mind or the intense feelings. Identification with our mind or our thoughts (i.e. I am my thoughts and they are true) chains our definition of ourselves to whatever our negative thoughts or feelings might be. For example, your critical voice says “I am stupid” and that becomes part of the definition of you and since you identify with your thoughts then it must be so and you have no way of changing the definition. Alternatively, experiencing our ability to change our thoughts/ feelings is possible only when we don’t identify with them. We can change our thoughts/feelings when we understand them to be ephemeral and not essential to our “true self”. Instead, we can just experience them, note them without judging, and let them pass. This is different than taking our thoughts/feelings in as saying something important or true about us. In fact, meditating ‘s greatest gift is that is frees us emotionally and we can just BE. We can recognize that we are not those thoughts or feelings — our “true self” is more powerful and creative. After all, we are watching our thoughts/feelings and not vice versa– we are the watchers, we are the agents of the action. Therefore, we can calmly just acknowledge the thoughts and feeling and let them pass. When meditating we are watching our negative thoughts/feelings and they are not impacting us or our definition of ourselves.
When creating anything we can enter “flow” and experience the silencing of or the unimportance of our critical voice. We can experience our empowered “true self” as observer and creator. I think I’ll go now and make a painting.
Fay Ferris, RCC, CCC
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