Meditative art places the inner state of the artist as the main focus. The process of creating is given high importance. Regular art focuses primarily on the end product, which can limit our ability to collaborate with chance and embrace how our creative impulses unfold.
What makes an activity meditative and ultimately beneficial is the mindfulness you place on the activity or experience.
When you incorporate mindfulness exercises into your art-making process, you begin to shift from ordinary art to meditative art.
Meditative art encourages you to notice your breath, thoughts, sensations, emotions while creating. With greater awareness to the present moment brings opportunities to collaborate with chance and embrace our creative impulses, rather than worry how our choices may not live up to expectations.
When you focus on your inner self with each moment in the art-creating process, you uncover greater awareness to new possibilities for experimentation in every step.
The process of creating art is an experience in the moment, therefore it can easily be meditative. While art therapy may be used to help or resolve an obstacle inside of us, meditative art simply allows us to connect and explore who we are and what each moment arises in us as our art develops, in a nonjudgemental setting with the sole goal of listening to our inner worlds.
The physical and mental benefits of mindfulness are expansive and well-proven. When combined with fulfilling the fundamental human need & wish to create, the results are profoundly positive.
An abundance of research supports the healing power of art. Meditative art, specifically, encourages "permission to play" and fun naturally follows, releasing dopamine and endorphins. This creative process can increase self-awareness, self-expression, and self-compassion.
Meditative art improves our overall well-being by decreasing stress and anxiety caused by factors that exist outside of our present moment. It may also expand our creative growth and provide clarity in our life, our emotions, and our thoughts.
On a neuroscience level, creating art is an active approach to right brain stimulation. The right brain holds the neural pathways responsible for intuition, confidence, visual & musical awareness, social cues, memory, non-verbal self-expression and more. Modern society has encouraged and reinforced the importance of our logical left brain, the side seeking rational cause & effect.
The left brain expects particular responses and outcomes to feel a sense of safety, seeking patterns and exerting caution in the unknown. Many of us have been conditioned to overuse our left brain, leading to a reward-focused approach in life.. but the joy in life is not always found in the reward, nor is the reward always guaranteed.
By exercising our right brain, we can build resilience, and even excitement, to the unexpected. We become curious, more experimental, brave, spontaneous— all through simple, mindful, creative expression.
It's all about being present.
For many of us, we know about the power of meditation but sitting still to reach a calm, present state seems impossible.
Good news: anyone can and should try meditative art— even if you think you aren't creative or traditional meditation isn't your thing.
Great news: there is no wrong way to practice— it is your journey. Simply show up and allow yourself to be curious about your process.
Prepare you and your space
1. Remove distractions to allow easier transition to a meditative state.
2. Exist as comfortably as possible by wearing comfortable clothing, setting some cozy lighting, possibly some soft music and hydration.
3. If you have limited time to dedicate, use a timer or alarm to grant yourself peace of mind.
We can be inspired and learn by observing historically & culturally significant meditative art practices.
Eastern examples include yoga, Chinese calligraphy, Indian mandalas, and origami. The common emphasis lies in mindfulness, breathwork, and cultivating inner awareness.
I recommend creating with whatever mediums are accessible to you, whether that's a guitar or pen and paper.
For those that appreciate prompts to get started, see below:
1. Fill a canvas with a single shape.
2. Create groups of parallel lines.
3. Splatter then find hidden shapes.
4. Draw mandalas by starting from the center and work outwards with symmetrical patterns.
5. Go into nature and draw the details of an organic being, like a flower or leaf.
6. Fill a circles with whatever comes to mind.
7. Draw emotions.
8. Paint with the rhythm of your breath.
9. Do a call-and-response exercise with your instrument.