One of the most effective ways to become creatively toned and start accessing your core creativity is through a mindfulness practice. Mindfulness allows us to listen and pay attention to what we might otherwise overlook – whether it’s a fresh idea or a new way of perceiving a situation — enhancing our creativity and letting go of our obstacles to innovation.

Here are four techniques from my book, Wise Mind, Open Mind on how you can start today to ignite your everyday creativity.

Working Mindfully with Dreams

If you feel that you simply have no creative abilities, consider your dreams. Most nights, your mind generates at least a few fantastical images that you can recall upon waking if you slowly bring yourself back into consciousness with the intent of remembering your dreams. I often ask my clients to work with the images of their dreams by meditating on them, writing about them, and exploring them to see what ideas and insights they have to offer.

To do this, keep a notebook, or tape recorder by the bed, and when you first become aware of your dream, record as much detail as possible of the entire dream or whatever fragments, images, feelings, or emotions you can recall. Enter a state of quiet, mindful reflection and let the dream replay itself in your consciousness. Note that each symbol in the dream represents some aspect of yourself, so after recalling the dream, think about how each one represents some part of you.

Mood Management

Depression is a loop of unwholesome thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and sensations that feed upon themselves, spiraling the sufferer downward and away from an experience of hope, joy, enthusiasm, or curiosity. It chokes off the pipeline to the creative core. If you want to open up to a sense that tomorrow will bring new situations, new people, and new ideas, eliminating unwholesome moods is very important.

Mindfulness meditation, yoga practice, and regular exercise are all excellent for mood regulation, because they lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in your bloodstream, increase your interleukin levels (enhancing your immune system and providing you with greater energy), and streamline your body’s ability to cleanse itself of chemical toxins, such as lactic acid in your muscles and bloodstream, which can affect neurotransmitter receptors and alter your mood.

Becoming Quiet and Doing Nothing

You don’t have to “try” to be creative when you access core creativity. You don’t have to “think through” what to do next, because a sense of possibility and wonder will simply come to you, followed by ideas that flow into you. By becoming quiet, you begin to tone yourself creatively as you allow your unconscious mind to open up. Ideas will start bubbling to the surface of your awareness, often in the form of images or a sense of deep, inner knowing.

A world-class drummer once took me inside his music room, slowly moved his hand across the drum kit, and said, “Sometimes I sit here for hours in the silence and quietly wait for the drums to tell me what to write and play.” As he spoke, I realized his ability to patiently wait and remain in an open, listening state was a key element in his ability to create amazing music.

Persevering and Trusting in the Creative Process

Although artists are often seen as flighty or undisciplined, the most successful ones are extremely disciplined. They may spend a workday seemingly doing nothing, but in fact, they’re consciously choosing to remain in a state of openness. They’ll often pick up a guitar and start playing anything, or sit at a computer and start typing whatever comes to mind, in order to start their creative flow. When nothing comes, they aren’t afraid to shift gears, to take a walk, or break the formula of how they’ve always chosen to connect to their creativity by trying something entirely different.

The reason they’re able to persevere isn’t because they have a particular temperament, but because they’ve experienced breakthroughs again and again. They know that they can rely on two distinct channels to glide into that space where we can all access our core creativity: honing our craft, a left-brain activity that tones us creatively over time, opening one of these channels; and persevering and trusting in this art of creative transformation, which opens the other.

When you’re creatively toned, instead of merely dipping your toe in the water and playing it safe, you’re willing to be utterly daring. Knowing this, you can navigate through a sea of self-limiting thoughts and transform such unwholesome beliefs as “I had my chance and blew it,” “It’s too late; my time is over,” “I’ll never be happy again,” and “I can’t.” The clouds of negativity part and the light of possibility beams down upon you.

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Too often, our lives become all about our distractions, and in quiet moments, the thought occurs to us that we’re not living authentically, in alignment with our deepest desires. With mindfulness, we can begin to quiet what the Buddhists call the “monkey mind,” the chattering self that, like an untrained monkey roaming about a house alone, wreaking havoc and causing mischief, relentlessly generates distracting thoughts. When the monkey has been put back into his cage, we can begin the process of tuning in to the creativity deep inside of us.

Here are 6 strategies from my book, Wise Mind, Open Mind to help you mindfully make the most of each day.

Step #1: Mindfully Tuning the Instrument of Self

Like a musician who tunes his instrument before playing a mindful meditation practice allows you to train your brain to be in a mindful state throughout the day. Each morning take 5 to 30 minutes to meditate. First get in a comfortable position, and focus on your breath. As you inhale, say to yourself,” in” or “rising.” Exhale from your lungs and then your abdomen, saying to yourself, “out” or “falling away.” As you breathe in and out, mentally note the thoughts, feelings, sounds, tastes, smells, and physical sensations that you experience. Don’t try to analyze any of what you’re noting. Simply be present, open, alert, and watchful as you allow the witnessing mind to emerge. This exercise will help you to train you’re brain to be in mindful state all day so that everything you do will be part of the mindfulness mediation.

Step #2: Mindfully Listening to Your Dreams

After you meditate write down in your mindfulness journal, tablet, or computer any dreams that you had the night before as they can be existential messages to alert you to situations in your life both outwardly and inwardly. Dreams are also psycho spiritual guides that provide us with intuitive markers and pointers that arise from the unconscious mind. As well you can include anything of importance that revealed itself to you during your meditation. Put aside your distractions and mindfully contemplate what the dream or meditation thoughts symbolize. When you are ready its meaning will come to you. If you have repetitive disturbing dreams or thoughts I would recommend seeing a professional therapist to discuss their hidden meanings.

Step #3: Mindfully Stretching the Body

Take 5 to 15 minutes at some point during the day for mindful yogatation where you practice yoga asanas – stretching exercises that create flexibility, tone, and more spacious movement. When practicing yogatation or any other stretching exercises it is important to focus on your breathing in a mindful way. After you’ve hit your pose, close your eyes and inhale deeply. Hold this breath a few seconds, and then exhale slowly. This is a way of tuning into your body and finding out where energy is flowing and where it is blocked, where there is pain, stress or constriction and where energy is flowing with aliveness and wellbeing. Focus on the constricted areas and visualize energy flowing into them so they move into a state of expansion.

Step #4: Mindfully Taking a Sacred Pause

When under pressure or stressed out learning to take a mindful or sacred pause helps you to self regulate the “fight or flight” aspect of your nervous system. When you are first triggered, stop yourself from responding with an unwholesome reaction such as anger. Then for a couple of minutes focus on your breath. Feel your body expand as you breathe in and contract as you exhale. While focusing on your breath silently repeat to yourself words such as comfort, calm abiding, relax, and harmony, until you feel a shift in your emotions. You are now able to respond to the situation with more equanimity.

Step #5: Mindfully Transforming Your Emotions and Thoughts

For 2500 years in the Zen teachings of the Buddha thoughts and emotions were viewed as both creative and destructive manifestations. Several times throughout the day take time to mindfully inquire into what you are thinking and feeling. Is it positive, neutral or negative? If it is positive, ask how you can amplify the thoughts to harness their power and direct them into wholesome, generative activities and emotions. If it is in your personal life, how can you improve your relationships with family and friends? If it is in your work, how can you manifest more clarity and open mind thinking? When harnessing positive generative energy you can take action or effort to move forward in your life or work.

Step #6: Mindfully Mining the Gold Within

Living a mindful life awakens your intuition and allows you to access your core creativity so that you can break through the hard rock that’s hiding your vein of gold. When you think of your talents or skills, you might imagine what you’d list on a résumé, but some of our most valuable assets can be less obvious: patience, reliability, flexibility, the ability to see the big picture or the fine details, the ability to communicate effectively with a variety of people, and so on. You may also have the gold of specialized knowledge, not just in your chosen professional field, but gathered from your life experiences. You might be street smart or know a lot about the habits of a particular group of people or understand how to motivate others. Because we so often think only about skills that are marketable or talent that’s exceptional, it can be easy to overlook your own gold, which can take many forms.

Mindfulness improves your capacity to be reflective and receptive. Being reflective gives you access to information in your unconscious that’s hidden from your conscious mind. It lets you receive subtle communications to help you live with more happiness, energy and grace.

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