It's always a surprise to me. Every single time. I record a guided meditation, do some editing and pass it on to Richard. And then before I know it, he's added some music and voila -- it's done. Just like that, he listens to the meditation at his keyboard and the music seems to get composed effortlessly. And I always love it. It always feels just right for the meditation. And I'm always in awe. How did that happen? How is it that every single time, on the spot, the music comes? Even though I've experienced how effortlessly things can get created, I'm still amazed. And yet, when something new does come into existence, it is by nature a spontaneous, effortless event. If it's new, it's never been seen, touched, heard, known before. How could that come with effort? When we make an effort, we are working at something. We have an end in mind -- we draw on everything we know and have experienced before; we use our logic; we try to connect the dots. But something completely new can't be found in what we have heretofore experienced and known. It comes from the source of all of that, and the functioning of the source lies outside the functioning of our own will and actions, even though it influences them. So "true creativity" can only be effortless. While we may work at shaping an inspiration once it arises, we cannot force the inspiration to come.

While that explains to me the effortlessness of Richard's composing, it doesn't explain the consistency of it. And here I turn to my understanding of meditation for answers. Meditation can align us with the source of all creation (and hence creativity). The mind shifts into a more open, intuitive mode, beyond intellect and logic. Composers have to "get out of the way" for their music to come into being. Meditation in its most essential form gets us out of our own way.

Richard gets into a meditative state to compose. After all the years of meditation, it's easy for him to do that. So Richard gets out of the way and the music comes. I should understand that -- it's how my meditations come. It's how everything I've ever accomplished creatively has come. And yet it still surprises me when it happens. It is always a wonderful, awe-inspiring mystery. It is always a gift.

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Richard's beautiful, meditative music is available on our Pure Light album (a compilation of background music from our podcast and CDs.)

We're all creative. Life is naturally creative and so are we. And yet so often our creativity seems to be stifled. There are millions of hits on Google for "creative blocks". Once you've tasted the joy of creativity flowing easily, it's extremely frustrating to hit those blocks. And if you are an artist, writer, musician or anyone whose work requires a lot of creativity, there's a sense of pressure to create that in itself can hamper the creative process. When the creative juices are flowing, it's a high. It's effortless. In fact, artists describe the creative process as one in which something simply comes through them. There's a sense that "I" didn't create this, it came on its own. It feels like a gift that comes spontaneously from a source outside ourselves. In fact, it's the bypassing of the "me" who gets involved in trying to control the creation that allows the creativity to happen. It's the "me" with all its doubts and anxiety about outcomes that becomes the block. It's the "me" who wants to control the creation that gets in the way.

This latest podcast episode is designed to disarm the me, to help you drop into the natural flow of creativity that's going on all the time in your own consciousness. Life is a flow of creativity. Our own consciousness is a flow of creativity. Ideas come, things get created naturally when we get out of the way.

Hope this meditation helps get your creative juices flowing. If you wish, you can use the meditation right before you do your creative work. Just let go of any expectation of outcomes and enjoy the process!

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