If you’re struggling to stay on task, block out distractions and finish your work faster, a regular meditating practice could be the solution you’ve been looking for.
Like many people, you may associate the practice of meditating solely as a tool to help with your relaxation. Or maybe you associate it as a tool to help with your spiritual practice. While these are two of its many benefits, meditating can also have a profound effect on your creativity and focus.
If you’re struggling to stay on task, block out distractions and finish your work faster, a regular meditating practice could be the solution you have been looking for.
Continue reading to learn how meditating regularly impacts your creativity and focus.
How Meditating Regularly Affects Your Creativity
Improve your creativity by meditating.
Creativity is important because it makes life interesting and fun. It is your ability to come up with the best ways of doing things. Creativity is how you find the right solution to a problem you are facing. This can be useful in many areas of your life, such as work, school, or at home.
Creativity can also be used to come up with new ideas for products or services. It is great at helping you find solutions that solve complex and interesting problems.
Creativity involves you, thinking. And there are two types of thinking associated with creativity: convergent thinking and divergent thinking. There are also certain types of meditation practices that affect each type of thinking differently.
Read on to learn about each type of thinking and which types of meditations make them better. That way, you can use them to find creative solutions to your problems faster.
Convergent Thinking:
According to research published in Frontiers in Psychology, you improve convergent thinking by practicing focused-attention meditation.
Convergent thinking is a creative problem-solving technique that involves you narrowing down possible solutions to the single best option. To use convergent thinking, you need to be able to focus on the task at hand and ignore distractions. You also need to be able to think logically and critically.
You will often see convergent thinking in math and science. However, it can also be applied to other areas of life.
According to research published in Frontiers in Psychology, you improve convergent thinking by practicing focused-attention meditation.
What is Focused-Attention Meditation?
Focused-attention meditation is a type of meditation practice where you focus on a specific object or thought. You do this while calmly acknowledging and accepting distractions that may arise, then returning your attention back to the main object.
This is an easy type of meditation that you can practice anywhere. You can do it with your eyes open or closed. You can also do this type of meditation while seated or walking.
An example of a focused-attention meditation object might be the sensation of your breath as it passes in and out of your nostrils. You may choose to count each inhalation and exhalation, or simply focus on the feeling of the breath moving through your body.
Other potential objects of focus you might use during this type of meditation include a mantra (a word or phrase that you repeat silently). You could also use a specific part of the body. Lastly, you could focus on the problem you are trying to find a solution to and use that as your object.
That focused-attention meditations improve convergent thinking makes sense. This is because one of the many reasons people practice focused-attention meditation is to cultivate concentration and clarity of mind. In order words, to help improve focus on a single task.
Divergent Thinking:
Research published in Frontiers in Psychology concludes that you can improve your divergent thinking by regularly practicing open-monitoring meditation.
Unlike convergent thinking, divergent thinking is a problem-solving technique that involves looking at things from multiple perspectives. You may use this type of thinking to generate new ideas or to find out-of-the-box solutions to the problems in your life and work.
Divergent thinking is often associated with inspirational creativity. Many creative people use it to come up with radical new ideas. Research published in Frontiers in Psychology concludes that you can improve your divergent thinking by regularly practicing open-monitoring meditation.
What is Open-Monitoring Meditation?
Open-monitoring meditation is a form of meditation where you focus on being aware of your surroundings, your thoughts, and your feelings. There is no specific object of focus. Instead, you allow yourself to be open to any experience that arises. You may start this practice by being focused on an object, like your breath, but then let the focus go.
This type of meditation can be helpful in training your mind to develop a greater awareness of yourself and your surrounding. It helps you develop a sense of detachment from your thoughts and feelings. It can also help you become less reactive and more accepting of what you become aware of, without passing any judgment.
An example of an open-monitoring meditation would be to sit quietly and focus on being aware of everything that arises. This could include the sounds around you, your breath, and the sensations in your body. It could even include radical new ideas for solving a problem you are aware of.
You can see why research supports open-monitoring meditation as a great option to improve divergent thinking. It is better than focused-attention meditation in this case. This is because this type of meditation opens you up to receive information that you are unaware exists. The information could include insights into new ways of solving old problems.
How Meditating Regularly Improves Your Focus
Improve your focus with meditation.
There are many reasons why meditating improves your focus. As you might guess, it further depends on the kind of meditation practice you are doing. You may be doing a type of meditation practice that trains your brain to focus on one thing at a time. As discussed earlier, this type of meditation is known as focused-attention meditation.
This very valuable practice is one you can use in every area of your life. You can use it when completing complex tasks and need to stay focused. When you are focused on what you are doing, you are less likely to be distracted by irrelevant thoughts or outside stimuli.
According to research, if you practice focused-attention meditation regularly, you will find it easier to keep your attention and focus on a task or problem that you are aware of.
Another reason why meditating improves your focus is that it helps you become more aware of your thoughts and emotions. When you are aware of what is going on inside and outside your body, you are better able to control how you react to different situations that bring about these emotions for you.
Practicing open-monitoring meditation improves your ability to be aware of yourself and your surroundings. This can be especially helpful when you are trying to stay focused in a challenging situation.
In fact, research supports that practicing open-monitoring meditation helps you stay more focused. You will also be able to respond to problems or challenging situations that you are not aware of. This includes surprise situations.
Lastly, meditating regularly improves your focus because it makes you feel more relaxed and calmer. Being in this state improves your overall brain function and memory, which in turn, makes it easier for you to focus on your tasks.
Not only that, being calmer and more relaxed is great for you as you grow older because your memory and ability to focus tend to deteriorate with age.
Conclusion
Meditation improves both your creativity and focus. By regularly practicing either open-monitoring or focused-attention meditation, you can increase your divergent thinking and convergent thinking abilities.
This will help improve both your creativity and ability to focus in the short term and in the long term. The sooner you begin meditating, the better it is for you.
