Use meditation to boost your creativity

Practical advice for everything from writer's block to major life decisions

In his 75th year, seemingly out of nowhere, the meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein started writing poetry. Or, as he tells it, the poems started to appear to him. A channel opened up, he says, out of which the words emerged, sparkling.

If that sounds a little far-out, let me put it in simple terms:

Many of us approach both creativity and meditation as arenas for striving. We push, we grip—when instead we should be settling back, receiving. As Joseph says, all of our forcing cuts us off from our awareness and our intuition.

What does all of this mean, practically?

Next time you’re stuck—on a creative problem or a major life decision—try sitting in meditation for a bit. You might even deliberately pose the question to yourself at the beginning of your meditation session—and then let it go and see what happens. Sometimes, when you relax the thinking mind, the subconscious mind can make connections and insights. It’s why so many of us have epiphanies in the shower.

I’m not making any grandiose promises here. It may take decades of meditation before a channel opens up for you and delivers fully formed poems. But I will say that, on Joseph’s advice, I have tried interspersing meditation into my writing process, and very often, it leads to genuine breakthroughs.

Joseph is on the pod today, talking about how to use meditation to boost your creativity—and much more. Click to watch or listen.

Below, paid subscribers get an episode cheatsheet, which includes key takeaways, time-coded highlights and a full transcript. Paid subscribers can also join the chat, comment on posts, participate in monthly live AMAs, and more.

Episode cheatsheet

The big takeaway

In this episode, renowned meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein discusses his new book of poetry, "Dreamscapes of the Mind." Dan and Joseph explore how Goldstein's decades of meditation practice inform his creative writing, discussing Buddhist concepts like impermanence and non-self through the lens of poetry. The conversation gets into mortality, finding beauty in ordinary moments, and balancing ambition with non-attachment.