Seeing Meditation as an Art
In today's episode I wax poetic about the "Art" of meditation, and invite you to see how viewing meditation as an art can open the doors to creative insights. There is also an exciting free offering for you at the end!
GIFT FOR YOU
If you’re a meditation teacher or coach who wants to create unique meditations people listen to over and over again, enroll in my free course Meditation Script Mastery
Music Credit: Nova by River Roots - https://www.youtube.com/riverroots
Podcast Transcript
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Art and Business of Meditation podcast. My name is Lou Redman and I share this work as someone who quit a corporate job in 2015 to go full time as a meditation solopreneur. And it took years to figure out how to make my way in this world, how to share my gifts, how to make an income and support myself. And I share this podcast to help you on your path of figuring out how to make your message, your impact, make your life, be an expression of who you are and be supported by the universe, be supported by others in doing that. And today's episode is about making. Making your art. I know I've been touching on this before because it's in the title of the podcast, the Art of Meditation. For those that haven't heard me wax poetic on this before, I want to emphasize how for me personally, this is not going to be everyone, but for me, I see meditation as an art, meaning that like a songwriter sees a song, I see a meditation. And as an artist, that meditation is a form, a medium for me to express myself. Just as a guitar and a microphone is a medium for a songwriter and a singer to express themselves. We both use microphones. My medium is meditation. Their medium is music. And maybe you resonate with this too. Maybe you see meditation as a way to share your own expression. And because it's an art, because it's a form of self expression, that means that we have a feeling inside of us, we have an experience that we went through, we have something that we're processing. Maybe we're processing it through actually our own practice of meditation. Or we might be processing it through sharing a meditation and creating a meditation and moving through some of the elements that we're having experience in our life and putting them out there. Because as Carl Rogers states, what's most personal is most universal. And that's why we connect with music, where there's something that moves us. And so I want to invite you, if this resonates for you, to really see meditation as your art, to call yourself a meditation artist, to embody what it means to be a meditation and artist. And I'm going to share some elements for you in this podcast to think about that are going to help you get out of your own way. Because I'm seeing this come up with up and coming meditation teachers that are working on creating their own meditations is that they're getting in their way because there seems to be a limitation on how they're supposed to be doing it or like they're supposed to be a goal or they're supposed to be look a certain way. And when we break free of those limitations, when we see it as an art, we can really let ourselves express. And the first thing I want to offer you is to see you using meditation as a medium, as a gift, to really see it as a gift to the world. There's a great book called the Gift by Lewis Hyde that talks about the gift economy. That the gift actually it gets, it grows in value as it's shared, as more people hear it, more it's shared. And that's how exchange used to happen, before there was money involved. And this is not to say that you don't accept money or you don't charge for your services, but if you start and root it from it being a gift, it's going to have such a more powerful energy. And to help you see it as a gift and offer it as a gift, I invite you to look at it as if it's a devotion to something greater than yourself, that your creation is a devotion and that you are coming closer to your source by doing this work, by working to express yourself. And maybe it shows up in a meditation, but I also want to encourage you if it's showing up in other places, please listen to that. And so with specific to meditation, when you're creating a meditation, realize you don't need to have a goal, you don't need to have even an intention. Besides it maybe being a gift, or besides it being a devotion or an act of self expression, you don't need a goal. Think about it, what is the goal of a song? There is no goal. It was an expression of that songwriter who wanted to get something out there. And so to keep this analogy strong, you don't feel like you need to get someone somewhere. I will say this, there are meditations obviously on specific things, letting go of anxiety, stress. I have meditations like that as well. However, it doesn't have to be the case. And this is where I want to emphasize is because maybe it'll free you to just create whatever you want to create. Yes, it can have an intention, but it doesn't need to just as a song doesn't need to have a goal, that it can just be something that is of your soul trying to move into the world. And guess what? That doesn't mean it's not going to have an impact. Just as you listening to your favorite song doesn't not have an impact to do a double negative, it has an impact. Of course, what's beautiful. When we start to really see it as an art is when we don't have a goal. We can just surrender into the process. We can surrender into just being in the moment as we create, as we share, as we write as. However you work through your meditations, you can just be in the moment of it. And that's what is fulfilling. It is fulfilling in itself. It's not fulfilling because you actually help someone release their stress. That might feel good and it might be a moment of fulfillment to know that someone else liked it and it was received. But it becomes fulfilling within the moment of creation. And that energy, I believe, is felt by others. Next thing I want you to think about this is a radical statement. And I heard it from Rick Rubin from his book the Creative Act. And that is self expression is not about you. Take that in for a moment. Self expression is not about you. How could that possibly be? It's in the word self expression. And the way I imagine Rick is offering this is that because it's the people who are going to benefit when you express yourself that it's really about. One of, if not the most famous John Lennon song is Imagine. And so John Lennon, inspired by the things that inspired him to create that song, shares this beautiful song, Imagine. And that song becomes such a unifying prayer, a unifying force during so many different cultural issues and crisises that come together that people continue song as a way to unite and to see something greater. Now, if John Lennon was like, man, you know what? I don't know what people are gonna think about this. And I'm having doubts and fears is not gonna be as good as things I've done with the Beatles. If John Lennon was in that and didn't actually let that expression come through the whole planet, the whole world would have lost something. And so that's a story that I hope illustrates, I think what Rick Rubin is saying, that it's actually when we are in our own self doubt and fear, that's when we're making it about us. That's when it's about us and that's how we get in our own way. But when we can see that the self expression is about someone else, is about the gift that we're giving and the potential for how it will help someone connect, heal, grow, then we can get out of our way. And again, that doesn't mean that we're trying to make that happen. But when we're coming from that deeper place of self expression, we can just allow it to happen. And if it has an Impact like an imagine amazing. And if it doesn't have any impact or it just impacts one person, it doesn't really matter because again, the art is in the fulfillment of the process. You're enjoying the moment and you get to create another thing. You start to live your life like an artist. And since you're an artist, you have to understand that not everyone's going to like the art. Just as you don't like every song. I don't like country music. A lot of people like country music. It's all great because it doesn't really matter. It's not about everyone liking it, it's about you expressing yourself and making the impact to the people that it's meant to make the impact to. So not trying to play for everyone liking it, really trusting that authentic expression that wants to come from you. So how to go about really owning this? The first step is to start to take on this identity. To take on the identity of an artist rather than just a teacher or a guide. My friend Charles Freil calls himself an artist of the moment, of coming back and seeing each moment as a place for natural creation to unfold. And so embody this, live into it, step into it as an identity. And I understand there might be some imposter syndrome and it might seem like this kind of high regard thing to call oneself an artist, but I really do believe that we all are creators and that is what art is. So start to embody this. The next thing to realize is that you're never not working. Meaning that every moment becomes inspiration. Writers will always say that, that. That their life is an inspiration for what they're going to write. And that could happen at any moment. It could happen at 11pm, it could happen at 6am, could happen on vacation, it could happen at work. It doesn't matter where it is. So always continue to open your mind and to look for the ideas and the inspiration that might be right in front of you. And the core, one of the core things that I believe what, how you can use meditation as an art is to continue to share from experience, to share from your emotions. And let that be the paint that you paint your canvas of meditation with. Your experience, your emotion, the things that you've moved through, the things that you've overcome. This is where the best creation happens from. You can do no wrong. There's no getting it right. It's just continuing to show up and practice and put stuff out there and learn and grow. And that's why we're here on this journey together. So that's my rant on meditation being an art. I'm sure it probably won't be the last one as this is the Art and Business of Meditation podcast. But maybe that gives you some more ideas on how to let go of thinking you need to get it right and just let yourself create. Let yourself be an artist. And to help you in your artistry, I have created a free course called Meditation Script Mastery. It is going to help you create unique, powerful and evocative meditations that you can use to put online, that you can use in your classes, that you can share with clients, that you can learn how to find your unique voice, how to create meditations that no one else has created. I'm so excited about this course. I was originally going to charge for it. It's seven lessons, it's only an hour long. I was originally going to charge from it for it because it's so valuable. But I really just want to give. It away for free and I want to reach as much people as I can to help them in their art of meditation. So head to meditation creators.thinkific.com and go ahead and enroll for the course. Again, that's meditation creators.thinkific t-I n k I f I c.com and you can enroll for free in this course. I should also have the link in the show notes for easy access and let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy it. There's so many good ideas in there, so many good topics in there to explore that it's going to really help you create your art and create your meditation. So it's a gift to you and I hope you enjoy it, share it with friends and sending you so much love and support. As always. We will talk again very soon.