The article I read for this creativity post was a study conducted in 1977 by George Domino titled “Transcendental Meditation and Creativity: An Empirical Investigation.” The goal of the experiment was to see if there is a correlation between practicing transcendental meditation and increased creativity. Four groups of 35 people were studied over a 6-month period of time. They were given creativity tests before and after the experiment. Group 1 contained the TM meditators who were given a brief class about TM which taught them how to meditate. They practiced twice a day for twenty minutes each session throughout the 6-month study. The second group was the relaxation-response group. They were in a relaxation program for the 6 months which required a distraction-free environment and repeating of one syllable. The study didn’t explicitly say this group was a meditation group but from the sounds of it, they were practicing a form of meditation different from TM. The third group consisted of college students enrolled in a psychology course about creativity. The class met twice a week and included lecture as well as hands-on demonstration of techniques related to creativity. The fourth group was the control group whose only involvement was being tested and retested after the 6 months.
All of the participants were given the Remote Associates Test, the Adjective Check List Creativity Scale, the Barron-Welsh Revised Art Scale, the Frank Drawing Completion Test, and the Similies Test. The study concluded that there was no significant relation between TM and increased creativity. The relaxation-response group also did not show an increase in creativity after the 6 months. Overall, I was a bit surprised by the results of the study. When I was searching the internet for studies to read, a lot of the things that came up eluded to meditation increasing creativity. I liked that this study contained a group of college students studying creativity. Domino mentioned in the discussion section that that group showed higher creativity scores than the other groups. Another thing he pointed out in the discussion section was that it is difficult to measure creativity. Some of the tests used weren’t completely accepted as valid either. Overall, I think this study was well thought out but the results were a bit disappointing.
Terms:
Meditation, creativity, TM, relxation-response, Remote Associates Test, Adjective Check List Creativity Scale, Barron-Welsh Revised Art Scale, Frank Drawing Completion Test, Similies Test
Source:
Domino, G. (1977). Transcendental meditation and creativity: An empirical investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol 62(3), 358-362. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.62.3.358
The research article I looked at on creativity observed how different forms of meditation can affect different cognitive processes involved in creative behavior. The two types of meditation included open-monitoring meditation (where the person observes non-judgmentally) and focused-attention meditation (where the person focuses on one particular thing). The researchers looked at how these types influenced divergent and convergent thinking. Both of these processes are involved in creativity. Divergent thinking involves generating new ideas where there are multiple possibilities while convergent thinking involves finding a single appropriate solution to one problem and involves the use of logic. The first type involves weak top-down control and local competition, meaning that the mind is allowed to broadly search for a creative solution. With convergent thinking on the other hand, there is a strong top-down control and local competition since there are fewer solutions to the creative problem.
The participants were separated into two groups where they practiced their assigned form of meditation as part of their group 3 times for 45 minutes. Before and after this intervention they were tested with the Remote Association Task (where they were given three words and had to come up with the one word that connected them) and the Alternate Uses Task (where they had to list as many things as they could for functions of household items). What they found was that participants who completed open-monitoring meditation significantly outperformed their counterparts in the Alternate Uses Task due to increased divergent thinking. Contrary to expectations, there was no significant advantage to completing the focused-attention meditation with the Remote Association Task. The researchers theorize that this could be because even though the focused nature of this style of meditation would help in the task, the relaxation that comes from meditation could hinder convergent thinking.
I found this study interesting in how meditation affects different components of creative thinking differently. My only confusion from the study is how convergent thinking relates to creative thinking in the first place, since a one-answer-only kind of mindset doesn’t seem creative.
Colzato, L. S., Ozturk, A., & Hommel, B. (2012). Meditate to create: The impact of focused-attention and open-monitoring training on convergent and divergent thinking. Frontiers In Psychology, 3doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00116
The article that I found for this post was called “Meditate to Create: The Impact of Focused-Attention and Open-Monitoring Training on Convergent and Divergent Thinking.” Researchers looked at the correlations between focused attention meditation, open monitoring meditation, and divergent thinking which is a subset or part of creativity. Divergent thinking allows for many new ideas to be generated which is one aspect of creativity. Open monitoring meditation is letting go of awareness of everything around you and focused attention meditation is focusing on one specific thing in your awareness.
Participants in the study completed three different fourty five minute sessions with an instructor. A correlated groups design was used so each participant experience a baseline assesment, focused attention, and open monitoring meditation. After their sessions the patients had to complete two tasks. The first was a remote association task which focused on convergent thinking (finding one solution to a problem). The partcipant was given three words and had to find a common associate among them. They then completed an alternative uses task which utlizes divergent thinking. Partcipants were asked to list as many possible uses as they could for a household item. For both tasks participants were rated on originality, fluency, flexibility, and elaboration. Finally, after all three sessions participants were assesed on any changes in their overall mood.
The researchers had hypothesized that focused attention meditation would prime the subjects for convergent thinking and that open monitoring meditaiton would prime them for divergent thinking. The data did show that participants increased their scores on divergent thinking after they completed the open monitoring meditation. There was not a significant change in scores after focused attention meditation in either convergent or divergent tasks. It is possible that these changes are due to an increased mood rather than directly related to the meditation. I found this research very interesting because it was incredibly science based and explored a topic that I had not heard about much before.
Colzato L. S., Ozturk A., Hommel B. (2012). Meditate to create: the impact of focused-attention and open-monitoring training on convergent and divergent thinking. Front. Psychol. 3:116.10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00116
For this week’s assignment I read a research article examining the link between creativity and meditation with a focus on the neurological activity associated with both. This paper looked at the previous research involving the correlation between meditation and creativity, as well as various brain imaging studies investigating creativity and meditation separately. Most of the brain imaging studies were using electroencephalograms (EEG). EEG studies are great for temporal resolution, but poor for identifying spatial-resolution. The majority of this study, then, focuses on the wavelengths associated with brain activity rather than the actual brain areas. The various waveforms are divided by their frequency, so that delta waves exist between .5 and 3.5Hz, theta between 4 and 7Hz, alpha between 7.5 and 12.5Hz, beta between 13 and 24.5Hz, and gamma from 25Hz and up (commonly marked off at 42Hz). The article also focused on two main concepts which they believed were characteristic of creativity: transcendence and integration. They defined transcendence as “a state of synchronized neural activity in which an existing informational set(s) is attenuated or surpassed; where psychological/ cognitive closure is not yet in effect; and where attention is broad and sustained on explicit, or implicit, phenomena in a defocused, yet alert, witnessing mode.” Integration was then defined as “a state of synchronized neural activity in which informational sets, both across and within explicit and implicit domains, are matched, bound, and encoded; where psychological/ cognitive closure is in effect; and where attention is focused, sometimes over multiple modalities.”
After they did a brief summation of previous research, identifying some factors that led them to report no correlation between meditation and creativity, they made an interesting observation, noting that the similar neurological activity of both creativity and meditation denote a correlation, but that does not indicate causal direction, so it may be that creativity could enhance meditation. They then proceeded to give what seemed to me, like extensive information about the various types of brainwaves and their associations. What is important to note from this is increased low-alpha (7.5-9.5Hz) power indicates reduced cortical activity and detached witnessing of multimodal information processing, theta waves reflect an implicit affect-based orientation toward satisfaction and encoding of new information, delta waves reflect neural silence and signal matching, and gamma waves indicate increased awareness, temporal-spatial binding, and salience. Beta waves were excluded from the discussion as they are associated in sensory processing and sensory motor control, task processing, and psychomotor speed. These functions are said to lack transcendence and may be applicable to convergent thinking. They also reported increased intra- and interhemispheric coherence of low-alpha, theta, delta, and gamma frequencies during meditation, which is representative of whole-brain functioning associated with creative thinking. Additionally, they reported that meditation increases auditory and visual sensitivity, which would appear to broaden creativity (as mentioned in the article).
Horan, R. (2009). The neuropsychological connection between creativity and meditation. Creativity Research Journal, 21(2-3), 199-222. Doi: 10.1080/10400410902858691
For the topic of creativity I decided to start by just looking up articles that related creativity and meditation. There were actually quite a few scholarly articles but I wasn't able to access any so I turned to Google. Google was able to provide me with quite a few sources and I was interested to learn about how meditation and mindfulness really can have an impact on our creativity.
I think one of the most important things to remember, and I often forget this, is that creativity, attentiveness, better focus, etc., are all positive side effects of meditation. However, if you meditate in order to get these things, chances are you will fail. You have to first master meditation and then you will begin to see small improvements in your life. So it is important to note that meditating will not cause you to be more creative right away. It may not cause you to be more creative at all. But it is a common side effect of good meditation.
There are a variety of ways in which meditation can cause increases in meditation. One such way is that meditation creates the conditions needed for better insight. It is much easier to think clearly if your brain isn't cluttered and unfocused. The second way is that it eases your artistic anxiety. Meditation has been shown to reduce the activity in the amygdala where our brain processes fear. The third way meditation can increase creativity is that is helps you claim the essential self. It helps you to be yourself, and comfortable in your own skin. As we meditate we are able to strip away the layers and the outside clutter and focus on ourselves and we get to dig deeper into who we really are which makes it easier for us to express ourselves. The fourth way is that meditation connects us to imaginative, artistic space. Neuroscience has shown that when we meditate there is a shift in our brain activity and we actually begin using our calmer left frontal cortex and we use our right frontal cortex which is more prone to stress, less. The fifth way is that we become less bothered by critics or criticism and especially our own. We are able to see things more clearly and appreciate ourselves. The sixth way that meditation increases creativity is by improving our attention and concentration. Many studies have been done and have proven that meditation does indeed improve our attention through practice. The seventh and final way is that it helps create a flow. Our brains work more smoothly and have less trouble putting together thoughts and ideas.
Terminology: creativity, meditation, attention, focus, flow, left and right frontal cortexes, criticism, concentration, neuroscience, amygdala, mindfulness
For creativity this week, I decided to look at an article that compares the impact of focused-attention meditation and open-monitoring meditation on convergent and divergent thinking. Focused-attention meditation according to akdfakj, is when the individual focuses on a particular item, thought, or object. Everything else that might tend to attract attention, such as bodily sensations, environmental noise, or intrusive thoughts, is to be actively ignored by redirecting attention constantly back on the same focus point. In open-monitoring meditation, the individual is open to perceive and observe any sensation or thought without focusing on a concept in the mind or a fixed item; therefore attention is flexible and unrestricted. Both of these types of meditation have been practiced and work to obtain both similar and different goals.
In this study, researchers are looking at how each type of meditation directly increases or has no effect on divergent and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking is described as a style of thinking that allows many new ideas to be generated, in a context where more than one solution is correct. An example the article gives for divergent thinking is brainstorming. To measure divergent thinking, researchers used Guilford’s Alternate Uses Task (AUT) in which they present subjects with objects such as a pen, shoe, water bottle, etc. and ask them to come up with as many possible uses of each object. In their hypothesis, researchers hypothesize that individuals with open-monitoring meditation will perform better on divergent thinking-oriented tasks.
Convergent thinking is considered a process of generating one possible solution to a particular problem. It emphasizes speed and relies on high accuracy and logic. To measure convergent thinking, researchers used Mednick’s Remote Associates Task (RAT) in which they present subjects with 3 unrelated words and participants must come up with one word that relates all 3. The example the study gave was hair, stretch, and time; the answer is long. For convergent thinking, researchers hypothesized that participants who used focused-attention meditation would produce higher results in convergent thinking than participants who used open-monitoring meditation.
The results found that the scores for the AUT were highest in participants within the open-monitoring meditation, as hypothesized. They also found that RAT scores were highest in participants within the focused-attention group however the results were not very significant. This study emphasizes the idea of different styles of thinking and how the style of meditation may influence them. This research is important to understand which meditation would be most beneficial to practice when confronted with a problem that concerns either convergent or divergent thinking. In addition, if I am more of a convergent thinker than a divergent, it may also be beneficial for me to practice open-monitoring meditation to strengthen my divergent thinking and promote a higher level of creativity and vice versa.
Overall I think it would be most beneficial for individuals to practice both focused- attention meditation and open-monitoring meditation. Both appear to initiate and/or enhance divergent and convergent thinking leading to a more creativity thought process. By learning to use both thinking styles, one may create and be more open to new and innovative ideas and solutions.
Today’s research topic is creativity. It was hard to narrow down what aspect I wanted to look into because I feel like creativity has a lot of different outlets that mediation would have a positive effect on. After searching for a while, I ended up skimming what must have been a 300 page doctoral dissertation about meditation and creative writing. I have been known to dabble here and there with creative writing and I took a class on it in high school. One of my greatest problems with creative writing was when I would face infamous “writer’s blocks”. At the present, I don’t really have much time for creative writing with work and school thrown in the mix, but I hope when I have a bit more free time I will be able to continue with it. It was a fun hobby.
The article I read was a case study that used 4 subjects – two women, an undergrad student and a social worker, as well as two men – a doctoral student and a psychological counselor. All four people had been creative writers in the past. In the study, the participants were trained in an introductory meditation practice asked to keep a journal of their time spent meditating, much like we are doing in this class. In addition, they provided the researcher with samples of their creative writing (poetry, short stories, plays, and novels) from before and during the study. The researcher also conducted pre-, mid- and post-study interviews with the participants. In the interviews, the researcher analyzed the participants’ views on changes in their writing ability/performance, self-concept, and psychological state during the study, as well as the differences between procedures during the study and the writing procedures they had previously been taught or implemented.
According to the study, the writers reported increased production of affective imagery, which allowed the individuals to write with greater fluency, richness and feeling. The writers also experienced greater ability to access imagery and feelings related to their personal lives. They also reported that the meditation improved their physical health, self-esteem, relaxation, focus, and understanding of themselves and their writing process, as well as helping to eliminate the accursed writer’s block. From the study, it sounds like mediation allows for a better creative writing capacity because it trains people to be better able to identify and convey imagery and feeling, which are both important parts of writing a quality piece of literature.
The study lasted for four months, so I feel like the improvements to health and creativity are realistic, because we as a class have experienced differences in ourselves by meditating over that period of time this semester. I think it’s really interesting that meditation can help in the creative process as well as in the other aspects of life that we’ve already discussed. It makes sense that meditation helps eliminate writer’s block, because usually when writing a paper, I need to take a few moments to decompress and plan, which I usually do by showering. Now maybe, I could meditate before writing a paper and see if it helps me organize my thoughts during the writing process.
Terms: mediation, creative writing, imagery, feeling
Link to really long article: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED375432.pdf
I first would like to discuss the link about decluttering your space. It is an overall good feeling when you can get rid of some things around the house because it leave only your most valued and beautiful objects. Being less materialistic—like only having one suitcase, bag, purse—is uplifting and in reality, saves you time so that you don’t have a million choices between which item to take with you. It also makes you think twice when shopping because, like the link said, if you buy a new pair of shoes, you must decide which pair of shoes at home you must get rid of. What you put in your body affects your mind. It is a smart idea to get rid of the microwave so that people eat healthier and not just quick, unhealthy and non-nutritious foods. The only part of the article I did not like was getting rid of memorabilia. Yes, the memory will be there in the back of your mind, but just seeing the memorabilia reminds a person of the good times where that memory might be lost with not much to provoke the remembrance of the feelings/events.
The read the article (2001), “Three randomized experiments on the longitudinal effects of Transcendental Meditation technique on cognition,” which hypothesized that regular experience of the wakeful hypometabolic state produced by Transcendental Meditation improves general cognitive ability. Three studies on 362 high school students in Taiwan were conducted. These students meditated 15 to 20 minutes twice a day for 6 to 12 months. Tests used consisted of the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production, Constructive Thinking Inventory, Group Embedded Figures Test, State and Trait Anxiety, Inspection Time, and Culture Fair Intelligence Test. All the tests showed significant effects on all variables compared to the no-treatment control groups. Napping for the same amount of time as Transcendental Meditation practice had no effect. The TM technique was superior to the contemplation mediation on five variables. Mediation has been proven to lessen anxiety. Anxiety degrades cognitive performance. It is notable that TM practice measurably increased intelligence, and hence, creativity.
So, K.T. & Orme-Johnson, D.W. (2001). Three randomized experiments on the longitudinal effects of Transcendental Meditation technique on cognition. Intelligence, 29, 419-440.
(http://www.sukshmamarma.com/tmsw/files/Increased-IQ.pdf)
For this week’s creativity blog, I found a research study Meditate to Create: The Impact of Focused-Attention and Open-Monitoring Training on Convergent and Divergent Thinking. This study looks at the impact of meditation based on focused-attention and meditation based on open-monitoring on creativity tasks tapping into convergent and divergent thinking.
In this study, 19 healthy people (13 females and 6 males) who previously practiced meditation, were asked to meditate using either open monitoring or closed monitoring mediation. Those who meditated with FO meditation were asked to anchor their breathing by focusing on a certain body part. FO mediation seems to be similar to TM but is called Transformational Breath and is trademarked. For this meditation, participants are supposed to let the thoughts in and take them as they are with each breath.
As each groups practiced the assigned type of meditation, they were given tasks to complete. There were two different types of tasks: convergent and divergent thinking tasks. For the convergent tasks, participants are presented with three unrelated words (such as time, hair, and stretch) and are asked to find a common associate (long). For the divergent tasks, participants were asked to list as many possible uses for six common household items (brick, shoe, newspaper, pen, towel, bottle). In each of the three sessions, participants completed two different items. The results can be scored in several ways with flexibility, the number of different categories used, being the most consistent and reliable. The OM showed a reliable advantage to the divergent tasks over FM. Though the testing was reliable and there was an increase, the increase was not significant.
Colzato, L. S., Ozturk, K., & Hommel, B. (2012). Meditate to Create: The Impact of Focused-Attention and Open-Monitoring Training on Convergent and Divergent Thinking. Frontiers in Psychology. 3, 116.
Creativity was the topic for this blog. I have always been interested music, movies, and art so getting to do some research on the creative process and how meditation can affect it was fun. The first thing I looked up was what famous people practiced meditation. I was brought to the transcendental mediation list of famous people who practice meditation. I wanted to see what type of people meditated and if they were creative individuals that I might have heard of. I found an overwhelming amount of celebrities that I have heard of that openly talk about and practice transcendental meditation. Many of these celebrities I think start TM because of David Lynch and his celebrity status and also because of his foundation. I watched a few videos from some celebrities who practice TM and they talked more about how it helps to relax them and better handle stress of being in such a demanding industry.
I did read a few scientific articles that talked about how meditation helps to improve brain functions and cognitive performance, which helps individuals to be more creative. Another point that I found interesting in the article was that they mentioned that with the ability to control thinking habits helped the subjects in the experiment to think more freely and generate new creative ideas. They stated in their findings that the low alpha, theta, delta, and gamma frequencies that occur during mediation help to create a whole brain functioning that is needed for creative thinking. I thought that article did a pretty good job on testing different brain waves and how they impact creativity levels. I would like to look more into if there is a certain type of meditation that might better improve creativity. The readings I have looked at talk about specific types of meditation but I wish there was a study that compared the types of meditation used.
For the creativity blog I had a difficult time finding any actual scientific research. The problem with creativity is how can one measure it? When looking at different articles, each one seemed to be very vague on how they described creativity. For some they gave example of different puzzle like games that they just measured how long it took them to solve. I am not sure you can blame their speed on creativity, but rather we do not know if they had practice to do so. When I think of creativity I think of things like art and music, but also with those we have to train ourselves to become better at it. One of the sites I came across argue that creativity is a form of meditation rather than meditation promotes creativity. One this site they discussed that groups get together and paint in peaceful surroundings, so they use their creativity in the art world as a form of meditation.
As I mention before I believe that music can also be a form of creativity. So I found an interesting group online that actually started singing meditation which combines song and silence when meditating. I know this goes a bit away from my original research but I enjoyed looking into their website and watching the videos of the group singing meditation. So I felt like I should add that in because some of you may also want to see it.
The last one that I found that comes more in line with the topic was a study done at a fine art camp. Children that went to these camps were given a spatial and verbal memory test following a session of yoga. What they saw from this was the children were able to remember more if they had gone to the yoga seminar before taking the test. The same thing happened when the children were taught the basics of TM, and after meditating they once again performed better.
Terms: creativity, meditation, yoga, art, music
Creativity can mean many different things, it can be how you solve a problem or something artistic like music or painting. No matter how you interpret creativity it can be enhanced through meditation. For this assignment I looked at articles online that tried to explain why meditation can enhance creativity in terms of problem solving, idea creation, and artistic content.
Often, the best solution to a problem is the simplest solution. However, there are times when it takes a little thinking outside of the box to effectively remedy a situation. One of the benefits of meditation is an enhanced focus. This focus, paired with increased patience allows us to analyze a situation and think through all of the possible remedies. Once someone has exhausted all the simple solutions to a problem they often become frustrated and this is when things can become frantic. Because meditation increases focus and patience an experienced meditator will be able to remain calm and continue to process the situation and eventually reach a solution. It may not truly be an increase in creativity in these moments but the ability to keep thinking without getting flustered that will eventually produce a successful solution.
For many of us the best ideas come while in the shower or on a run or when about to fall asleep. All of these situations have on thing in common, you are living in that moment. By staying in the moment and not trying to plan ahead and worry or reflect on what happened earlier you allow your mind to wander. It is this wandering that often develops in to that amazing idea that you have to remember for later. One of the main goals of the meditation we have done is to lose the concept of self and focus on being within the moment. This translates into daily life. By living in the moment we become more observant and are not as consumed by the ups and downs of life. This living in the moment also allows for the mind to wander and make connections that seem to be impossible to do while under pressure.
As we have discovered through our reading in class meditation helps to relieve stress and anxiety, fosters idea like kindness, and prevents us from becoming consumed by extreme emotion. Many artists have found these to be extremely helpful in their careers. Art is a highly creative endeavor that can result in high amount of anxiety. This anxiety comes from worrying what others will think of what has been created. Meditation not only helps control this stress response but also allows and artist to be more receptive to constructive criticism. By not becoming consumed by the emotion of being told ones art could be better or is fantastic the artist is more likely to comprehend the criticism and apply it in the future.
Terms: creativity, meditation, stress, anxiety, patience, in the moment, kindness, emotion
http://publicaciones.konradlorenz.edu.co/index.php/sumapsi/article/view/94/125
After finding the disappointing article that said meditation did NOT enhance creativity and talking about it in class, I wanted to find a different article that addressed it in a different way. Unfortunately, there were several articles that looked interesting, but I didn’t have access to. Semi-fortunately, I found an excellent article that discusses the effects of meditation on verbal creativity of bachelor’s students. The unfortunate piece was the article was in Spanish, but, as a Spanish major, I was able to read through it and, even better, comprehend it.
The author posited that the meditation would increase awareness of and sensitivity towards one’s environment, more open to new experiences and information and implementing and integrating various perspectives in resolving a solution. The researcher used a longitudinal, quasi-experimental design with a pre-test,post-test of both the control group and a group undergoing meditation. To measure the levels of creativity, the researcher used the instrument, Creative Battery for Verbal Fluency. The instrument measured fluidity (the ability of a participant to produce a great number of ideas with words), flexibility (the aptitude of a participant to change their approach or line of thought to another one) and originality (aptitude of a participant to support ideas or solutions that are far from obvious, commonsensical or established) of the participants in their verbal creativity. The study lasted a total of ten weeks.
Not surprisingly, given everything we have found about meditation, meditation was found to improve levels of verbal fluency! Using a t-test, the researchers found that ALL participants in the control group increased ALL three of their levels of verbal creativity: fluidity, flexibility and originality.
With every new research article I read, I become more and more certain that meditation should be implemented within our education system. All the soft skills identified by employers as necessary in graduates are improved by mediation and not much else! Creativity, for example, is not something that can really be taught. You can tell students time and time again to think of things other hadn’t thought of, but that doesn’t make them think of those things. The same thing goes for considering multiple perspectives. Meditation, on the other hand, does improve those things, so why aren’t we encouraging it as much?
I expect it has more to do with the feelings of importance of most psychologists, who doubt the validity of the studies, since meditation itself is incredibly difficult to measure. That said, as I’ve said in nearly all of my blogs, more empirical studies need to be devised. Should those studies happen and support the other findings of meditation, perhaps it will become more main stream. Just imagine a society where all individuals were more creative. Life would be so much easier (well, I think. It’d also have the potential to be more complex). It’d be another, grander, more impactful renaissance.
For this assignment I struggled to find empirical studies that proved an increase in creativity when someone was meditating. The only time that creativity was mentioned in these articles is during the discussion when people would talk of the possibilities of improved creativity through meditation, but nothing that actually studies changes in creativity. With that being said, I chose to find three non-scholarly articles about meditation and its effects on creativity.
One of the articles I read seemed to be a blog post by someone named Orna Ross and the blog was titled “7 Ways Meditation Increases Creativity”. The first way is by creating conditions for insight and is seen as a means of beating writers block. This post claims that meditation creates mental/emotion conditions for which creativity can flourish. The second way is by easing artistic anxiety which also helps break the barrier for writers block. Apparently meditation creates safety within the mind so that we may take more creative risks. This is apparently proven by the fact that meditation reduces activity within the amygdala, pointed out that the amygdala controls the processing of fear. The next three ways deal with the creative space of the mind. Once you open your mind to meditation, you have more space to openly thing in a creative manner and are not controlled by thoughts of fear. Meditation apparently allows you to shut out the words of criticism and to harness the inner creativity part of your mind that otherwise is not accessed. The last point mentioned is that of harnessing flow. It is stated that “flow has been found to induce similar brain states as meditation” and that’s about all it says. It seems that this part is up for interpretation.
The second article I looked at was by the Huffington Post and is titled “Secrets for Tapping into Your Deepest Creativity”. David Lynch is one of the more well-known film directors of the time and stands behind the effectiveness meditation. Lynch is a follower of transcendental meditation and has been said to have been practicing for over 40 years. In his book Lynch attributes much of his success to the ability to meditate and gives four rules to follow when attempting. First off is “meditate, meditate, meditate”. Lynch says that his 20 minutes twice a day of mantra meditation allows for him to access a deeper level of consciousness. Next Lynch tells people to slow down their lives because high stress stifles creativity. Next Lynch says to make sure that you get adequate sleep. He makes the claim “It is simple, people who sleep better are more creative”. He states that in order to have effective meditation he needs a good night’s sleep. The final tip is that people cultivate compassion in their relationships both with themselves and with others.
The final article that I read was a bit more empirical (for the sake of my comfort). The article written in science daily actually follows and reports from a peer reviewed study done on meditation and its possible effects on creativity. Though the article was clearly cited, I found it hard to get ahold of the article for myself. So I’m left with reporting on what they had already written. Divergent and convergent thinking are two of the ingredients to creative thinking. Divergent thinking is thinking that allows for many new ideas to be generated while Convergent thinking is where one possible solution in generated for a particular problem. The combination of these two ways of thinking can foster creative ideas. Both form of thinking are thought to be a product of meditation, and therefore making the connection between meditation and creativity.
This week’s reading blog was about creativity. The article I found is entitled “Meditate to Create: the Impact of Focused-Attention and Open-Monitoring Training on Convergent and Divergent Thinking.” This article addresses the relation between meditation and creativity. Colzato and his colleagues focus on relatively well-defined meditation techniques and specific subcomponents of creative performance. More specifically, they examined the impact of focused-attention meditation and open-monitoring meditation on creativity tasks tapping into convergent and divergent thinking.
For meditation, focused attention meditation and open-monitoring meditation represent the main techniques of Buddhist practice (Lutz et al., 2008). In focused-attention meditation, the individual focuses on a particular item, thought, or object. Everything else that might tend to attract attention, such as bodily sensations, environmental noise, or intrusive thoughts, is to be actively ignored by redirecting attention constantly back on the same focus point. In open-monitoring meditation, instead, the individual is open to perceive and observe any sensation or thought without focusing on a concept in the mind or a fixed item; therefore attention is flexible and unrestricted
For creativity, Guilford (1950, 1967) has distinguished between two main ingredients of most creative activities: divergent thinking and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking is taken to represent a style of thinking that allows many new ideas being generated, in a context where more than one solution is correct. Alternate Uses Task (AUT) to assess the productivity of divergent thinking follows the same scenario: participants are presented with a particular object; such as a pen and they are to generate as many possible uses of this object as possible. In contrast, convergent thinking is considered a process of generating one possible solution to a particular problem. It emphasizes speed and relies on high accuracy and logic. In order to measure convergent thinking the Remote Associates Task is used. In the Remote Associates Task participants are presented with three unrelated words, such as “time”, “hair”, and “stretch” and are to identify the common associate (“long”).
Nineteen adults’ practitioners of both focused-attention meditation and open-monitoring meditation, aged 30-56, served as participants and volunteered without any financial gain. The participants and the coach laid on two separate mat on the floor; half-sitting with the back against a back-jack. Eyes were closed in all three conditions. The same instructor, certified in Samatha, Mindfulness and Transformational Breath Training, provided the instruction for all three sessions. Participants served in three 45-min sessions separated by 10 days. In one session they performed under the supervision of a certified meditation coach the focused-attention meditation (35 mins) and completed for 10 mins (5 mins each) a short version of the Remote Associates Task and the Alternate Uses Task.In the other two sessions the method was the same except that participants performed the open-monitoring meditation and the baseline session and completed new items of the Remote Associates Task and the Alternate Uses Task.
For the results, as expected, all four scores (Elaboration, Fluency, Flexibility and Originality) of the Alternative Uses Task were more pronounced in open-monitoring meditation session compared to the focused-attention meditation session and the baseline session. During the open-monitoring meditation session practitioners showed greater flexibility, fluency and originality than in the baseline session and the focused-attention meditation session. This study was really interesting, but if I could change it I would focus more on the function of creativity and use only one type of meditation condition (Transcendental meditation).
Colzato, L. S., Ozturk, A., & Hommel, B. (2012). Meditate to create: the impact of focused-attention and open-monitoring training on convergent and divergent thinking. Frontiers in psychology, 1-5.
The article I read for this creativity post was a study conducted in 1977 by George Domino titled “Transcendental Meditation and Creativity: An Empirical Investigation.” The goal of the experiment was to see if there is a correlation between practicing transcendental meditation and increased creativity. Four groups of 35 people were studied over a 6-month period of time. They were given creativity tests before and after the experiment. Group 1 contained the TM meditators who were given a brief class about TM which taught them how to meditate. They practiced twice a day for twenty minutes each session throughout the 6-month study. The second group was the relaxation-response group. They were in a relaxation program for the 6 months which required a distraction-free environment and repeating of one syllable. The study didn’t explicitly say this group was a meditation group but from the sounds of it, they were practicing a form of meditation different from TM. The third group consisted of college students enrolled in a psychology course about creativity. The class met twice a week and included lecture as well as hands-on demonstration of techniques related to creativity. The fourth group was the control group whose only involvement was being tested and retested after the 6 months.
All of the participants were given the Remote Associates Test, the Adjective Check List Creativity Scale, the Barron-Welsh Revised Art Scale, the Frank Drawing Completion Test, and the Similies Test. The study concluded that there was no significant relation between TM and increased creativity. The relaxation-response group also did not show an increase in creativity after the 6 months. Overall, I was a bit surprised by the results of the study. When I was searching the internet for studies to read, a lot of the things that came up eluded to meditation increasing creativity. I liked that this study contained a group of college students studying creativity. Domino mentioned in the discussion section that that group showed higher creativity scores than the other groups. Another thing he pointed out in the discussion section was that it is difficult to measure creativity. Some of the tests used weren’t completely accepted as valid either. Overall, I think this study was well thought out but the results were a bit disappointing.
Terms:
Meditation, creativity, TM, relxation-response, Remote Associates Test, Adjective Check List Creativity Scale, Barron-Welsh Revised Art Scale, Frank Drawing Completion Test, Similies Test
Source:
Domino, G. (1977). Transcendental meditation and creativity: An empirical investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol 62(3), 358-362. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.62.3.358
The research article I looked at on creativity observed how different forms of meditation can affect different cognitive processes involved in creative behavior. The two types of meditation included open-monitoring meditation (where the person observes non-judgmentally) and focused-attention meditation (where the person focuses on one particular thing). The researchers looked at how these types influenced divergent and convergent thinking. Both of these processes are involved in creativity. Divergent thinking involves generating new ideas where there are multiple possibilities while convergent thinking involves finding a single appropriate solution to one problem and involves the use of logic. The first type involves weak top-down control and local competition, meaning that the mind is allowed to broadly search for a creative solution. With convergent thinking on the other hand, there is a strong top-down control and local competition since there are fewer solutions to the creative problem.
The participants were separated into two groups where they practiced their assigned form of meditation as part of their group 3 times for 45 minutes. Before and after this intervention they were tested with the Remote Association Task (where they were given three words and had to come up with the one word that connected them) and the Alternate Uses Task (where they had to list as many things as they could for functions of household items). What they found was that participants who completed open-monitoring meditation significantly outperformed their counterparts in the Alternate Uses Task due to increased divergent thinking. Contrary to expectations, there was no significant advantage to completing the focused-attention meditation with the Remote Association Task. The researchers theorize that this could be because even though the focused nature of this style of meditation would help in the task, the relaxation that comes from meditation could hinder convergent thinking.
I found this study interesting in how meditation affects different components of creative thinking differently. My only confusion from the study is how convergent thinking relates to creative thinking in the first place, since a one-answer-only kind of mindset doesn’t seem creative.
Terms: meditation, open-monitoring, focused-attention, divergent thinking, convergent thinking
Colzato, L. S., Ozturk, A., & Hommel, B. (2012). Meditate to create: The impact of focused-attention and open-monitoring training on convergent and divergent thinking. Frontiers In Psychology, 3doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00116
The article that I found for this post was called “Meditate to Create: The Impact of Focused-Attention and Open-Monitoring Training on Convergent and Divergent Thinking.” Researchers looked at the correlations between focused attention meditation, open monitoring meditation, and divergent thinking which is a subset or part of creativity. Divergent thinking allows for many new ideas to be generated which is one aspect of creativity. Open monitoring meditation is letting go of awareness of everything around you and focused attention meditation is focusing on one specific thing in your awareness.
Participants in the study completed three different fourty five minute sessions with an instructor. A correlated groups design was used so each participant experience a baseline assesment, focused attention, and open monitoring meditation. After their sessions the patients had to complete two tasks. The first was a remote association task which focused on convergent thinking (finding one solution to a problem). The partcipant was given three words and had to find a common associate among them. They then completed an alternative uses task which utlizes divergent thinking. Partcipants were asked to list as many possible uses as they could for a household item. For both tasks participants were rated on originality, fluency, flexibility, and elaboration. Finally, after all three sessions participants were assesed on any changes in their overall mood.
The researchers had hypothesized that focused attention meditation would prime the subjects for convergent thinking and that open monitoring meditaiton would prime them for divergent thinking. The data did show that participants increased their scores on divergent thinking after they completed the open monitoring meditation. There was not a significant change in scores after focused attention meditation in either convergent or divergent tasks. It is possible that these changes are due to an increased mood rather than directly related to the meditation. I found this research very interesting because it was incredibly science based and explored a topic that I had not heard about much before.
Terms: Focused attention meditation, open monitoring meditation, convergent thinking, divergent thinking, creativity
Colzato L. S., Ozturk A., Hommel B. (2012). Meditate to create: the impact of focused-attention and open-monitoring training on convergent and divergent thinking. Front. Psychol. 3:116.10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00116
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3328799/
For this week’s assignment I read a research article examining the link between creativity and meditation with a focus on the neurological activity associated with both. This paper looked at the previous research involving the correlation between meditation and creativity, as well as various brain imaging studies investigating creativity and meditation separately. Most of the brain imaging studies were using electroencephalograms (EEG). EEG studies are great for temporal resolution, but poor for identifying spatial-resolution. The majority of this study, then, focuses on the wavelengths associated with brain activity rather than the actual brain areas. The various waveforms are divided by their frequency, so that delta waves exist between .5 and 3.5Hz, theta between 4 and 7Hz, alpha between 7.5 and 12.5Hz, beta between 13 and 24.5Hz, and gamma from 25Hz and up (commonly marked off at 42Hz). The article also focused on two main concepts which they believed were characteristic of creativity: transcendence and integration. They defined transcendence as “a state of synchronized neural activity in which an existing informational set(s) is attenuated or surpassed; where psychological/ cognitive closure is not yet in effect; and where attention is broad and sustained on explicit, or implicit, phenomena in a defocused, yet alert, witnessing mode.” Integration was then defined as “a state of synchronized neural activity in which informational sets, both across and within explicit and implicit domains, are matched, bound, and encoded; where psychological/ cognitive closure is in effect; and where attention is focused, sometimes over multiple modalities.”
After they did a brief summation of previous research, identifying some factors that led them to report no correlation between meditation and creativity, they made an interesting observation, noting that the similar neurological activity of both creativity and meditation denote a correlation, but that does not indicate causal direction, so it may be that creativity could enhance meditation. They then proceeded to give what seemed to me, like extensive information about the various types of brainwaves and their associations. What is important to note from this is increased low-alpha (7.5-9.5Hz) power indicates reduced cortical activity and detached witnessing of multimodal information processing, theta waves reflect an implicit affect-based orientation toward satisfaction and encoding of new information, delta waves reflect neural silence and signal matching, and gamma waves indicate increased awareness, temporal-spatial binding, and salience. Beta waves were excluded from the discussion as they are associated in sensory processing and sensory motor control, task processing, and psychomotor speed. These functions are said to lack transcendence and may be applicable to convergent thinking. They also reported increased intra- and interhemispheric coherence of low-alpha, theta, delta, and gamma frequencies during meditation, which is representative of whole-brain functioning associated with creative thinking. Additionally, they reported that meditation increases auditory and visual sensitivity, which would appear to broaden creativity (as mentioned in the article).
Terms: Meditation, creativity, transcendence, integration, EEG
Horan, R. (2009). The neuropsychological connection between creativity and meditation. Creativity Research Journal, 21(2-3), 199-222. Doi: 10.1080/10400410902858691
For the topic of creativity I decided to start by just looking up articles that related creativity and meditation. There were actually quite a few scholarly articles but I wasn't able to access any so I turned to Google. Google was able to provide me with quite a few sources and I was interested to learn about how meditation and mindfulness really can have an impact on our creativity.
I think one of the most important things to remember, and I often forget this, is that creativity, attentiveness, better focus, etc., are all positive side effects of meditation. However, if you meditate in order to get these things, chances are you will fail. You have to first master meditation and then you will begin to see small improvements in your life. So it is important to note that meditating will not cause you to be more creative right away. It may not cause you to be more creative at all. But it is a common side effect of good meditation.
There are a variety of ways in which meditation can cause increases in meditation. One such way is that meditation creates the conditions needed for better insight. It is much easier to think clearly if your brain isn't cluttered and unfocused. The second way is that it eases your artistic anxiety. Meditation has been shown to reduce the activity in the amygdala where our brain processes fear. The third way meditation can increase creativity is that is helps you claim the essential self. It helps you to be yourself, and comfortable in your own skin. As we meditate we are able to strip away the layers and the outside clutter and focus on ourselves and we get to dig deeper into who we really are which makes it easier for us to express ourselves. The fourth way is that meditation connects us to imaginative, artistic space. Neuroscience has shown that when we meditate there is a shift in our brain activity and we actually begin using our calmer left frontal cortex and we use our right frontal cortex which is more prone to stress, less. The fifth way is that we become less bothered by critics or criticism and especially our own. We are able to see things more clearly and appreciate ourselves. The sixth way that meditation increases creativity is by improving our attention and concentration. Many studies have been done and have proven that meditation does indeed improve our attention through practice. The seventh and final way is that it helps create a flow. Our brains work more smoothly and have less trouble putting together thoughts and ideas.
Terminology: creativity, meditation, attention, focus, flow, left and right frontal cortexes, criticism, concentration, neuroscience, amygdala, mindfulness
What Daily Meditation can do for your Creativity
http://99u.com/articles/6314/what-daily-meditation-can-do-for-your-creativity
I used this source as a good overview of the effects meditation can have on creativity.
7 Ways Meditation Increases Creativity
http://janefriedman.com/2012/01/02/meditation-increases-creativity/
This source was really helpful with going into more detail about how meditation helps with creativity.
Meditation Makes You More Creative
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120419102317.htm
This source talked about different types of meditation and how they play different roles in helping improve creativity.
For creativity this week, I decided to look at an article that compares the impact of focused-attention meditation and open-monitoring meditation on convergent and divergent thinking. Focused-attention meditation according to akdfakj, is when the individual focuses on a particular item, thought, or object. Everything else that might tend to attract attention, such as bodily sensations, environmental noise, or intrusive thoughts, is to be actively ignored by redirecting attention constantly back on the same focus point. In open-monitoring meditation, the individual is open to perceive and observe any sensation or thought without focusing on a concept in the mind or a fixed item; therefore attention is flexible and unrestricted. Both of these types of meditation have been practiced and work to obtain both similar and different goals.
In this study, researchers are looking at how each type of meditation directly increases or has no effect on divergent and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking is described as a style of thinking that allows many new ideas to be generated, in a context where more than one solution is correct. An example the article gives for divergent thinking is brainstorming. To measure divergent thinking, researchers used Guilford’s Alternate Uses Task (AUT) in which they present subjects with objects such as a pen, shoe, water bottle, etc. and ask them to come up with as many possible uses of each object. In their hypothesis, researchers hypothesize that individuals with open-monitoring meditation will perform better on divergent thinking-oriented tasks.
Convergent thinking is considered a process of generating one possible solution to a particular problem. It emphasizes speed and relies on high accuracy and logic. To measure convergent thinking, researchers used Mednick’s Remote Associates Task (RAT) in which they present subjects with 3 unrelated words and participants must come up with one word that relates all 3. The example the study gave was hair, stretch, and time; the answer is long. For convergent thinking, researchers hypothesized that participants who used focused-attention meditation would produce higher results in convergent thinking than participants who used open-monitoring meditation.
The results found that the scores for the AUT were highest in participants within the open-monitoring meditation, as hypothesized. They also found that RAT scores were highest in participants within the focused-attention group however the results were not very significant. This study emphasizes the idea of different styles of thinking and how the style of meditation may influence them. This research is important to understand which meditation would be most beneficial to practice when confronted with a problem that concerns either convergent or divergent thinking. In addition, if I am more of a convergent thinker than a divergent, it may also be beneficial for me to practice open-monitoring meditation to strengthen my divergent thinking and promote a higher level of creativity and vice versa.
Overall I think it would be most beneficial for individuals to practice both focused- attention meditation and open-monitoring meditation. Both appear to initiate and/or enhance divergent and convergent thinking leading to a more creativity thought process. By learning to use both thinking styles, one may create and be more open to new and innovative ideas and solutions.
Colzato, L., Ozturk, A., & Hommel, B. (2012). Meditate to create: The impact of focused-attention and
open-monitoring training on convergent and divergent thinking. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3328799/#!po=50.0000
Terms: Convergent thinking, divergent thinking, focused-attention meditation, open-monitoring meditation, creativity, logic, accuracy, intrusive thoughts, innovative ideas
Today’s research topic is creativity. It was hard to narrow down what aspect I wanted to look into because I feel like creativity has a lot of different outlets that mediation would have a positive effect on. After searching for a while, I ended up skimming what must have been a 300 page doctoral dissertation about meditation and creative writing. I have been known to dabble here and there with creative writing and I took a class on it in high school. One of my greatest problems with creative writing was when I would face infamous “writer’s blocks”. At the present, I don’t really have much time for creative writing with work and school thrown in the mix, but I hope when I have a bit more free time I will be able to continue with it. It was a fun hobby.
The article I read was a case study that used 4 subjects – two women, an undergrad student and a social worker, as well as two men – a doctoral student and a psychological counselor. All four people had been creative writers in the past. In the study, the participants were trained in an introductory meditation practice asked to keep a journal of their time spent meditating, much like we are doing in this class. In addition, they provided the researcher with samples of their creative writing (poetry, short stories, plays, and novels) from before and during the study. The researcher also conducted pre-, mid- and post-study interviews with the participants. In the interviews, the researcher analyzed the participants’ views on changes in their writing ability/performance, self-concept, and psychological state during the study, as well as the differences between procedures during the study and the writing procedures they had previously been taught or implemented.
According to the study, the writers reported increased production of affective imagery, which allowed the individuals to write with greater fluency, richness and feeling. The writers also experienced greater ability to access imagery and feelings related to their personal lives. They also reported that the meditation improved their physical health, self-esteem, relaxation, focus, and understanding of themselves and their writing process, as well as helping to eliminate the accursed writer’s block. From the study, it sounds like mediation allows for a better creative writing capacity because it trains people to be better able to identify and convey imagery and feeling, which are both important parts of writing a quality piece of literature.
The study lasted for four months, so I feel like the improvements to health and creativity are realistic, because we as a class have experienced differences in ourselves by meditating over that period of time this semester. I think it’s really interesting that meditation can help in the creative process as well as in the other aspects of life that we’ve already discussed. It makes sense that meditation helps eliminate writer’s block, because usually when writing a paper, I need to take a few moments to decompress and plan, which I usually do by showering. Now maybe, I could meditate before writing a paper and see if it helps me organize my thoughts during the writing process.
Terms: mediation, creative writing, imagery, feeling
Link to really long article: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED375432.pdf
I first would like to discuss the link about decluttering your space. It is an overall good feeling when you can get rid of some things around the house because it leave only your most valued and beautiful objects. Being less materialistic—like only having one suitcase, bag, purse—is uplifting and in reality, saves you time so that you don’t have a million choices between which item to take with you. It also makes you think twice when shopping because, like the link said, if you buy a new pair of shoes, you must decide which pair of shoes at home you must get rid of. What you put in your body affects your mind. It is a smart idea to get rid of the microwave so that people eat healthier and not just quick, unhealthy and non-nutritious foods. The only part of the article I did not like was getting rid of memorabilia. Yes, the memory will be there in the back of your mind, but just seeing the memorabilia reminds a person of the good times where that memory might be lost with not much to provoke the remembrance of the feelings/events.
The read the article (2001), “Three randomized experiments on the longitudinal effects of Transcendental Meditation technique on cognition,” which hypothesized that regular experience of the wakeful hypometabolic state produced by Transcendental Meditation improves general cognitive ability. Three studies on 362 high school students in Taiwan were conducted. These students meditated 15 to 20 minutes twice a day for 6 to 12 months. Tests used consisted of the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production, Constructive Thinking Inventory, Group Embedded Figures Test, State and Trait Anxiety, Inspection Time, and Culture Fair Intelligence Test. All the tests showed significant effects on all variables compared to the no-treatment control groups. Napping for the same amount of time as Transcendental Meditation practice had no effect. The TM technique was superior to the contemplation mediation on five variables. Mediation has been proven to lessen anxiety. Anxiety degrades cognitive performance. It is notable that TM practice measurably increased intelligence, and hence, creativity.
Key terms: Transcendental Meditation; cognition; anxiety; intelligence; creativity
So, K.T. & Orme-Johnson, D.W. (2001). Three randomized experiments on the longitudinal effects of Transcendental Meditation technique on cognition. Intelligence, 29, 419-440.
(http://www.sukshmamarma.com/tmsw/files/Increased-IQ.pdf)
For this week’s creativity blog, I found a research study Meditate to Create: The Impact of Focused-Attention and Open-Monitoring Training on Convergent and Divergent Thinking. This study looks at the impact of meditation based on focused-attention and meditation based on open-monitoring on creativity tasks tapping into convergent and divergent thinking.
In this study, 19 healthy people (13 females and 6 males) who previously practiced meditation, were asked to meditate using either open monitoring or closed monitoring mediation. Those who meditated with FO meditation were asked to anchor their breathing by focusing on a certain body part. FO mediation seems to be similar to TM but is called Transformational Breath and is trademarked. For this meditation, participants are supposed to let the thoughts in and take them as they are with each breath.
As each groups practiced the assigned type of meditation, they were given tasks to complete. There were two different types of tasks: convergent and divergent thinking tasks. For the convergent tasks, participants are presented with three unrelated words (such as time, hair, and stretch) and are asked to find a common associate (long). For the divergent tasks, participants were asked to list as many possible uses for six common household items (brick, shoe, newspaper, pen, towel, bottle). In each of the three sessions, participants completed two different items. The results can be scored in several ways with flexibility, the number of different categories used, being the most consistent and reliable. The OM showed a reliable advantage to the divergent tasks over FM. Though the testing was reliable and there was an increase, the increase was not significant.
Terms: meditation, creativity, divergent thinking, convergent thinking, open-monitoring, focused-attention.
Colzato, L. S., Ozturk, K., & Hommel, B. (2012). Meditate to Create: The Impact of Focused-Attention and Open-Monitoring Training on Convergent and Divergent Thinking. Frontiers in Psychology. 3, 116.
Creativity was the topic for this blog. I have always been interested music, movies, and art so getting to do some research on the creative process and how meditation can affect it was fun. The first thing I looked up was what famous people practiced meditation. I was brought to the transcendental mediation list of famous people who practice meditation. I wanted to see what type of people meditated and if they were creative individuals that I might have heard of. I found an overwhelming amount of celebrities that I have heard of that openly talk about and practice transcendental meditation. Many of these celebrities I think start TM because of David Lynch and his celebrity status and also because of his foundation. I watched a few videos from some celebrities who practice TM and they talked more about how it helps to relax them and better handle stress of being in such a demanding industry.
I did read a few scientific articles that talked about how meditation helps to improve brain functions and cognitive performance, which helps individuals to be more creative. Another point that I found interesting in the article was that they mentioned that with the ability to control thinking habits helped the subjects in the experiment to think more freely and generate new creative ideas. They stated in their findings that the low alpha, theta, delta, and gamma frequencies that occur during mediation help to create a whole brain functioning that is needed for creative thinking. I thought that article did a pretty good job on testing different brain waves and how they impact creativity levels. I would like to look more into if there is a certain type of meditation that might better improve creativity. The readings I have looked at talk about specific types of meditation but I wish there was a study that compared the types of meditation used.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10400410902858691#.U2E0w61dUag
key terms: Creativity, transcendental meditation, stress, creative thinking, alpha theta delta gamma brain waves.
For the creativity blog I had a difficult time finding any actual scientific research. The problem with creativity is how can one measure it? When looking at different articles, each one seemed to be very vague on how they described creativity. For some they gave example of different puzzle like games that they just measured how long it took them to solve. I am not sure you can blame their speed on creativity, but rather we do not know if they had practice to do so. When I think of creativity I think of things like art and music, but also with those we have to train ourselves to become better at it. One of the sites I came across argue that creativity is a form of meditation rather than meditation promotes creativity. One this site they discussed that groups get together and paint in peaceful surroundings, so they use their creativity in the art world as a form of meditation.
As I mention before I believe that music can also be a form of creativity. So I found an interesting group online that actually started singing meditation which combines song and silence when meditating. I know this goes a bit away from my original research but I enjoyed looking into their website and watching the videos of the group singing meditation. So I felt like I should add that in because some of you may also want to see it.
The last one that I found that comes more in line with the topic was a study done at a fine art camp. Children that went to these camps were given a spatial and verbal memory test following a session of yoga. What they saw from this was the children were able to remember more if they had gone to the yoga seminar before taking the test. The same thing happened when the children were taught the basics of TM, and after meditating they once again performed better.
Terms: creativity, meditation, yoga, art, music
http://www.mindful.org/news/making-mindfulness-through-art
http://www.singingmeditation.com/
http://www.ijpp.com/IJPP%20archives/2004_48_3/vol48_no3_orgnl_11.pdf
Creativity can mean many different things, it can be how you solve a problem or something artistic like music or painting. No matter how you interpret creativity it can be enhanced through meditation. For this assignment I looked at articles online that tried to explain why meditation can enhance creativity in terms of problem solving, idea creation, and artistic content.
Often, the best solution to a problem is the simplest solution. However, there are times when it takes a little thinking outside of the box to effectively remedy a situation. One of the benefits of meditation is an enhanced focus. This focus, paired with increased patience allows us to analyze a situation and think through all of the possible remedies. Once someone has exhausted all the simple solutions to a problem they often become frustrated and this is when things can become frantic. Because meditation increases focus and patience an experienced meditator will be able to remain calm and continue to process the situation and eventually reach a solution. It may not truly be an increase in creativity in these moments but the ability to keep thinking without getting flustered that will eventually produce a successful solution.
For many of us the best ideas come while in the shower or on a run or when about to fall asleep. All of these situations have on thing in common, you are living in that moment. By staying in the moment and not trying to plan ahead and worry or reflect on what happened earlier you allow your mind to wander. It is this wandering that often develops in to that amazing idea that you have to remember for later. One of the main goals of the meditation we have done is to lose the concept of self and focus on being within the moment. This translates into daily life. By living in the moment we become more observant and are not as consumed by the ups and downs of life. This living in the moment also allows for the mind to wander and make connections that seem to be impossible to do while under pressure.
As we have discovered through our reading in class meditation helps to relieve stress and anxiety, fosters idea like kindness, and prevents us from becoming consumed by extreme emotion. Many artists have found these to be extremely helpful in their careers. Art is a highly creative endeavor that can result in high amount of anxiety. This anxiety comes from worrying what others will think of what has been created. Meditation not only helps control this stress response but also allows and artist to be more receptive to constructive criticism. By not becoming consumed by the emotion of being told ones art could be better or is fantastic the artist is more likely to comprehend the criticism and apply it in the future.
Terms: creativity, meditation, stress, anxiety, patience, in the moment, kindness, emotion
http://eocinstitute.org/meditation/benefits-of-meditation-for-creativity/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/meditation-in-action-creativity_n_3659041.html
http://www.spring.org.uk/2014/03/meditation-certain-styles-can-make-you-more-creative.php
http://publicaciones.konradlorenz.edu.co/index.php/sumapsi/article/view/94/125
After finding the disappointing article that said meditation did NOT enhance creativity and talking about it in class, I wanted to find a different article that addressed it in a different way. Unfortunately, there were several articles that looked interesting, but I didn’t have access to. Semi-fortunately, I found an excellent article that discusses the effects of meditation on verbal creativity of bachelor’s students. The unfortunate piece was the article was in Spanish, but, as a Spanish major, I was able to read through it and, even better, comprehend it.
The author posited that the meditation would increase awareness of and sensitivity towards one’s environment, more open to new experiences and information and implementing and integrating various perspectives in resolving a solution. The researcher used a longitudinal, quasi-experimental design with a pre-test,post-test of both the control group and a group undergoing meditation. To measure the levels of creativity, the researcher used the instrument, Creative Battery for Verbal Fluency. The instrument measured fluidity (the ability of a participant to produce a great number of ideas with words), flexibility (the aptitude of a participant to change their approach or line of thought to another one) and originality (aptitude of a participant to support ideas or solutions that are far from obvious, commonsensical or established) of the participants in their verbal creativity. The study lasted a total of ten weeks.
Not surprisingly, given everything we have found about meditation, meditation was found to improve levels of verbal fluency! Using a t-test, the researchers found that ALL participants in the control group increased ALL three of their levels of verbal creativity: fluidity, flexibility and originality.
With every new research article I read, I become more and more certain that meditation should be implemented within our education system. All the soft skills identified by employers as necessary in graduates are improved by mediation and not much else! Creativity, for example, is not something that can really be taught. You can tell students time and time again to think of things other hadn’t thought of, but that doesn’t make them think of those things. The same thing goes for considering multiple perspectives. Meditation, on the other hand, does improve those things, so why aren’t we encouraging it as much?
I expect it has more to do with the feelings of importance of most psychologists, who doubt the validity of the studies, since meditation itself is incredibly difficult to measure. That said, as I’ve said in nearly all of my blogs, more empirical studies need to be devised. Should those studies happen and support the other findings of meditation, perhaps it will become more main stream. Just imagine a society where all individuals were more creative. Life would be so much easier (well, I think. It’d also have the potential to be more complex). It’d be another, grander, more impactful renaissance.
Terms: meditation, mindfulness, verbal creativity, fluidity, flexibility, originality
For this assignment I struggled to find empirical studies that proved an increase in creativity when someone was meditating. The only time that creativity was mentioned in these articles is during the discussion when people would talk of the possibilities of improved creativity through meditation, but nothing that actually studies changes in creativity. With that being said, I chose to find three non-scholarly articles about meditation and its effects on creativity.
One of the articles I read seemed to be a blog post by someone named Orna Ross and the blog was titled “7 Ways Meditation Increases Creativity”. The first way is by creating conditions for insight and is seen as a means of beating writers block. This post claims that meditation creates mental/emotion conditions for which creativity can flourish. The second way is by easing artistic anxiety which also helps break the barrier for writers block. Apparently meditation creates safety within the mind so that we may take more creative risks. This is apparently proven by the fact that meditation reduces activity within the amygdala, pointed out that the amygdala controls the processing of fear. The next three ways deal with the creative space of the mind. Once you open your mind to meditation, you have more space to openly thing in a creative manner and are not controlled by thoughts of fear. Meditation apparently allows you to shut out the words of criticism and to harness the inner creativity part of your mind that otherwise is not accessed. The last point mentioned is that of harnessing flow. It is stated that “flow has been found to induce similar brain states as meditation” and that’s about all it says. It seems that this part is up for interpretation.
The second article I looked at was by the Huffington Post and is titled “Secrets for Tapping into Your Deepest Creativity”. David Lynch is one of the more well-known film directors of the time and stands behind the effectiveness meditation. Lynch is a follower of transcendental meditation and has been said to have been practicing for over 40 years. In his book Lynch attributes much of his success to the ability to meditate and gives four rules to follow when attempting. First off is “meditate, meditate, meditate”. Lynch says that his 20 minutes twice a day of mantra meditation allows for him to access a deeper level of consciousness. Next Lynch tells people to slow down their lives because high stress stifles creativity. Next Lynch says to make sure that you get adequate sleep. He makes the claim “It is simple, people who sleep better are more creative”. He states that in order to have effective meditation he needs a good night’s sleep. The final tip is that people cultivate compassion in their relationships both with themselves and with others.
The final article that I read was a bit more empirical (for the sake of my comfort). The article written in science daily actually follows and reports from a peer reviewed study done on meditation and its possible effects on creativity. Though the article was clearly cited, I found it hard to get ahold of the article for myself. So I’m left with reporting on what they had already written. Divergent and convergent thinking are two of the ingredients to creative thinking. Divergent thinking is thinking that allows for many new ideas to be generated while Convergent thinking is where one possible solution in generated for a particular problem. The combination of these two ways of thinking can foster creative ideas. Both form of thinking are thought to be a product of meditation, and therefore making the connection between meditation and creativity.
Terms: Creativity, flow, meditation, writers block, creative risks, tips, David Lynch, convergent thinking, divergent thinking.
First Article: http://janefriedman.com/2012/01/02/meditation-increases-creativity/
Second Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/28/5-tips-from-david-lynch_n_4849537.html
Third Article: Universiteit Leiden. (2012, April 19). Meditation makes you more creative. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 6, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120419102317.htm
This week’s reading blog was about creativity. The article I found is entitled “Meditate to Create: the Impact of Focused-Attention and Open-Monitoring Training on Convergent and Divergent Thinking.” This article addresses the relation between meditation and creativity. Colzato and his colleagues focus on relatively well-defined meditation techniques and specific subcomponents of creative performance. More specifically, they examined the impact of focused-attention meditation and open-monitoring meditation on creativity tasks tapping into convergent and divergent thinking.
For meditation, focused attention meditation and open-monitoring meditation represent the main techniques of Buddhist practice (Lutz et al., 2008). In focused-attention meditation, the individual focuses on a particular item, thought, or object. Everything else that might tend to attract attention, such as bodily sensations, environmental noise, or intrusive thoughts, is to be actively ignored by redirecting attention constantly back on the same focus point. In open-monitoring meditation, instead, the individual is open to perceive and observe any sensation or thought without focusing on a concept in the mind or a fixed item; therefore attention is flexible and unrestricted
For creativity, Guilford (1950, 1967) has distinguished between two main ingredients of most creative activities: divergent thinking and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking is taken to represent a style of thinking that allows many new ideas being generated, in a context where more than one solution is correct. Alternate Uses Task (AUT) to assess the productivity of divergent thinking follows the same scenario: participants are presented with a particular object; such as a pen and they are to generate as many possible uses of this object as possible. In contrast, convergent thinking is considered a process of generating one possible solution to a particular problem. It emphasizes speed and relies on high accuracy and logic. In order to measure convergent thinking the Remote Associates Task is used. In the Remote Associates Task participants are presented with three unrelated words, such as “time”, “hair”, and “stretch” and are to identify the common associate (“long”).
Nineteen adults’ practitioners of both focused-attention meditation and open-monitoring meditation, aged 30-56, served as participants and volunteered without any financial gain. The participants and the coach laid on two separate mat on the floor; half-sitting with the back against a back-jack. Eyes were closed in all three conditions. The same instructor, certified in Samatha, Mindfulness and Transformational Breath Training, provided the instruction for all three sessions. Participants served in three 45-min sessions separated by 10 days. In one session they performed under the supervision of a certified meditation coach the focused-attention meditation (35 mins) and completed for 10 mins (5 mins each) a short version of the Remote Associates Task and the Alternate Uses Task.In the other two sessions the method was the same except that participants performed the open-monitoring meditation and the baseline session and completed new items of the Remote Associates Task and the Alternate Uses Task.
For the results, as expected, all four scores (Elaboration, Fluency, Flexibility and Originality) of the Alternative Uses Task were more pronounced in open-monitoring meditation session compared to the focused-attention meditation session and the baseline session. During the open-monitoring meditation session practitioners showed greater flexibility, fluency and originality than in the baseline session and the focused-attention meditation session. This study was really interesting, but if I could change it I would focus more on the function of creativity and use only one type of meditation condition (Transcendental meditation).
Colzato, L. S., Ozturk, A., & Hommel, B. (2012). Meditate to create: the impact of focused-attention and open-monitoring training on convergent and divergent thinking. Frontiers in psychology, 1-5.
Terms: creativity, focused-attention meditation, open-monitoring meditation, convergent thinking, divergent thinking