Meet Your Muse: a meditation on creativity

A guided meditation to meet the source of your creativity.

This is a guided visualisation or meditation on creativity.

What is
Meet Your Muse: a meditation on creativity
about ?

What is

Meet Your Muse: a meditation on creativity

about ?

What is this Method about ?

This is a shamanic journey, an internal exploration of the “land of the muse”. Through relaxation and prompts, participants meet their creative spirit and interact with them. Afterward everyone draws and writes to process the experience, closing with a sharing round.

When and why is this Method used ?

This method can be a deep and powerful experience, a beautiful way to kickstart any gathering. It is a beautiful experience in any size group, can be expanded or contracted to fit in a wide range of times and spaces, and is accessible to a wide range of audiences. It can also be shifted to be aimed to fit almost any topic (creativity, empowerment, innovation, etc.)

Audience

Is participant experience relevant for Meet Your Muse: a meditation on creativity ?

It's okay if participants haven't seen the inside of a classroom in years

Audience description for Meet Your Muse: a meditation on creativity

The ideal group for this meditation is those who are open to experiences that are somewhat non-linear and non-rational.

Other prerequisites for participants

It is necessary for participants to be relatively still and listen for at least 10 minutes.

Requirements

Experience level of the facilitator

Taken part OR some facilitation experience

How Stationary

Stationary necessary, at least in parts

Run Through

Prep Work (excluding materials)

Arrange the room so that participants will be able to first lie down (mats, blankets, pillows) or sit in a chair (depending on their physical comfort) and shortly thereafter, draw and write. Perhaps arrange all the art supplies in the centre of the room with the blankets and pillows radiating from the centre.

Pre Exercise

Steps

Intro

Begin by presenting the process. Include these key points: INTRO — We will be going on a journey. You could consider this to be a shamanic experience. Others prefer to call it a visualisation or a meditation. Regardless of what you call it, it is an inner journey to connect with the source of your creativity. For some this experience may be symbolic. For others it may feel very “real”. Whatever your experience is, is totally unique to you and completely valid. I will guide you on this journey for 10 to 20 minutes. Then there will be time to draw and write about what came. Finally in the end we will share what came up for us and reflect together. Contextualize “visualisation” — For some people, I will say words and they will see a movie playing in their mind’s eye. For others, we will see nothing but perhaps become more aware of sounds in the room. Others may have physical sensations or memories or feelings. Whatever comes to you is the gift of the process. Do your best to release any expectations about what will happen and open completely to receive whatever comes, in whatever form. Even total silence carries a message. The importance of relaxation — When we relax, we open. In this experience our intention is to open to receive information and messages in a non-linear, potentially non-rational way. In order to open our minds and hearts to the process, we must be able to relax physically. So please make yourself really comfortable. Some people will be most comfortable lying down, perhaps with your feet on the floor and knees leaning toward each other. Others will be most comfortable in a chair. If you’re experienced with upright sitting, as in for meditation, you can do that. If you need to shift after we get started, please do. Follow your muse where she leads you — The point of this meditation is to connect with your creative source. If, while I’m talking, you are drawn away from what I’m saying, please follow that impulse. Follow your muse wherever she leads you in your mind. If that comes to its conclusion and I’m still talking, just tune back in and pick up with us wherever we are.

Guided Visualisation Transcript

This is a transcript that you can read out word for word, but it will likely be more powerful if you use this as a springboard to make it more your own. Let’s begin by getting really comfortable. Lie down, pull on a blanket, and wiggle around until you feel you can relax. Close your eyes or lower your gaze -- whatever helps you to bring you awareness inward. [You can lead a body scan here. This is an excellent way to guide people to relax and can be adapted to any length of time. Spend up to 10 minutes guiding your participants to relax. See method BODY SCAN meditation. It can be used instead of or in addition to the section below.] Bring your awareness into your heart and imagine that you are breathing in and out of your heart. If you like, you can even touch your heart with one or both hands, or simply touch into your heart with your mind. As the breath flows in and out of the heart, the heart may want to relax and open. Like the petals of a flower opening, exactly in its own time. No rush. No push. Relaxing open. [pause for a few breaths] And now we begin our journey. You are floating in an ocean. You are completely comfortable. The temperature of the water is warm enough to be completely relaxed and cool enough that you are refreshed and energized. You feel completely safe and at ease. This is the ocean of infinite creativity. Just one drop of this water contains symphonies, opuses, lifetimes of creative expression — all in one little droplet of this water. You look around and see that this ocean goes as far as the eye can see in every direction. You are floating in infinite creativity. If you like, you can open all your pores to this ocean and allow this creativity to flow into you, immerse yourself completely, and let this vast creativity infuse every part of your being. You can explore and learn that you are able to breathe comfortably underwater. Go ahead and move around in this ocean, swimming... dancing... flying… [pause for 1 breath] As you explore you discover a portal. A threshold. Some kind of a boundary. A sort of doorway or opening that leads somewhere else, but you can’t quite see where yet. Draw nearer to this portal and examine it. This portal leads to the land of your creative source. But before we cross through, let’s take a moment with this doorway. What shape is it? What texture? What is it made of? Is there anything written on it? When you are ready, you can cross over or pass through and enter into the land of your muse. When you arrive in the land of your creative spirit, take a moment to look around and notice where you are. Are you indoors or outdoors? In a small space or a large one? What is the quality of the light? What colours do you see? Do you notice any fragrances? How does it feel to be in the land of the source of your creativity? When you are ready, internally invite your muse to come and be with you. You can do this however it occurs to you to do it. Invite them and then wait and listen. And see what happens. [pause for 1-2 breaths] If your creative spirit appears as a form, what form is it? Are they an animal, human, or something else? Do they have an age? Do they have a gender? Do they have a name? What does it feel like to be in the presence of your muse? Whether or not anything appears to you, you can ask your creative spirit if there is anything you can do for them… and listen for whatever may come. [pause for 2-3 breaths] You can also ask your muse: what would most support your truest creative expression. And listen. [pause for 2-3 breaths] Go ahead and ask your creative source anything that comes to your mind. [pause for 2-3 breaths] It may be that your muse has something for you — a gift of an object or a word or something else. [pause for 2-3 breaths] As we draw to the end of this encounter with your creative spirit, you may want to offer some gratitude and appreciation no matter how they did or did not show up. Make whatever closing or salutation you would like to with your muse. And when you’re ready, say your goodbyes, knowing you can come back here to connect with them whenever you want. Turn back to the portal you came through and cross back through to the ocean of creativity. Swim back through the ocean and then bring your awareness back into this room… and into this body.

Drawing & Writing

In the third step of the process, the participants process what they experienced first via drawing and then by writing. Continuing from the script above, you can for instance say: “Taking the time that you need to make the transition gently, when you’re ready, turn to your sketchbook and art supplies [or the materials provided] and begin to draw. You can draw whatever you want to. You could make a drawing that is completely abstract or one that illustrates a picture. You could draw something you saw in this encounter -- maybe the ocean, the portal, your muse, or the gift they gave you. Or you could put colours on the paper that you feel drawn to in this moment. Or make marks that express how you are feeling right now. We will take the next [5-40 minutes] to draw.” [At some point during the period of drawing you can invite folks to switch to writing if they prefer. They can describe their experience, write anything they want to remember about it, anything the muse said or offered or asked them, or anything that is coming up now.] [when there are 5 minutes left, ring a bell and tell them there are 5 minutes left and then again when there is 1 minute left.]

Sharing

In the fourth and final step of the process, the participants share what came out of the experience. How exactly this happens depends on the size of the group and the nature of the gathering. If you have fewer than 20, you can invite everyone to put their drawings on the ground in the middle of the room and everyone walks slowly in silence around the drawings, looking at them all. As people walk and look, you can encourage them to notice similarities, common themes, or similar energies. After making it all the way around the circle to see all the drawings, continue walking around and invite participants to reflect on what they see, the commonalities or anything else they notice. When the comments have settled down, invite everyone to sit in a circle and for anyone who would like to share any part of their experience to do so.

Harvest

The drawings and writings are a beautiful harvesting of this experience.

Online

Potential for Solely Online & Blended Learning

Yes it does! In this case, ask participants to have sketchbooks/journals/paper and drawing and writing supplies handy. Tell them that we will transition from this meditation immediately into a creative response to the experience so we want to have everything we need right here and ready to go.

Material for

MaterialMaterial : Blankets, Cushions, Drawing Paper, Drawing/Painting Supplies, Mats, Timer

Additional Material Description

Drawing paper, drawing/painting supplies, cushions, mats, blankets for reclining and relaxing, timer and a bell (optional).

Additional Resources Description

Create materials with tender, love and care in : 1 min

Create materials quick and dirty in : 20 min

Impact

Hidden Curriculum There is a sense of empowerment, of experiencing the power of one’s own mind.

Individual EmpowermmentRather than meeting the source of one’s creativity, you could adjust the script so that they are meeting the source of their power/strength/wisdom. This could be named as their inner super hero or inner guru.

Group EmpowermentThis practice can be significantly more group-oriented by leading it as a shared experience. For example, I once led this with a group that was forming an intentional community. Rather than Meet Your Muse, it was Meet the spirit of our community. Each person drew and wrote about their own experience and then when the sharing round came we discovered that many people had received amazingly similar images and messages.

Meet Your Muse: a meditation on creativity

project

IN WHICH THIS method WAS DEVELOPED

Hosting Empowerment

author(s)

OF THIS method

ERASMUS +

Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union. Find more information about the program and its goals here: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/.

Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Creative Commons license:

CC-BY-SA You are free to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes with mention of the source: Transformation Hosts International, www. hostingtransformation.eu. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.