Creativity and mindfulness

„Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”

I love this quote from Steve Jobs as it is such a brilliant encouragement for living mindfully.

Any of us can recall at least one situation when they have tried to come up with a solution to a problem but all of their efforts had been in vain no matter how hard they tried.

And then, out of the blue, an ideal solution has emerged simply by changing perspectives and letting go of all previous efforts.

If we are stuck, it is impossible to find new perspectives by looking more intensively into the same direction. By its sheer nature rational thinking often prevents new ideas from emerging.

Instead of forcing to move ahead at a higher speed it may be worth taking a break and searching for inspirations from places seemingly totally irrelevant to the problem that needs to be fixed.

Out-of-the-box thinking

Tuning in to the present moment offers countless experiences if only you have an eye (or ear) to them.

The more often you take a break and observe things from a previously unknown perspective, the more experienced you will be in adding a context to any piece of information.

This mindset promotes ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking and this is how mindfulness can boost your creativity.