Quiet your logical mind. Your mind’s intuitive aspect will not overpower the logical side because you currently give more credence to logical thinking and the feeling of being in control. You can encourage access to the intuitive side, however, by creating a tranquil atmosphere in which you remove stimuli for the logical part of your mind. In the process, however, be sure that your logical mind does not become involved analyzing the beauty or activity that is happening around you.

Sit in a comfortable position: one in which you can relax but won’t fall asleep. There is no mystery in meditation; you simply create a neutral situation which does not stimulate your logical brain. If you find it difficult to sit and meditate, try doing something you love such as gardening or walking. When faced with very difficult situations, I find it helpful to do something with enough physical effort involved to keep my mind busy. If this does not work, I increase my physical activity until I get tired. Then I sit down to meditate. One sure way to access your intuitive mind to place yourself in a situation in which there is no seeming logical solution. An example would be one of imminent danger. In such situations the logical mind gives up after running out of solutions, now the intuitive mind can be heard. As effective as it is, I do not recommend people pursue imminently dangerous situations as a meditation method.

Watch your thoughts as you meditate. Do not try to consciously stop thinking or try to block out thoughts. This will only raise your anxiety level. Close your eyes and watch your thoughts but do not hold on to them. See your thoughts as a moving billboard, observe them and let them move on. As you do this, you will eventually come to a place where you are not aware of thinking. A helpful adjunct to this practice is to watch your breathing. Inhale deeply and then let the breath out slowly. Repeat this procedure for several minutes remaining aware of the inflow and outflow of air in your body. If you get to the place where you see colors, hear sounds or buzzing in your ears, or are startled by the realization that you have not had a conscious thought for some time, you are doing very well.

Create a routine for your meditation. It is best to meditate early in the morning before the “busy-ness” of the day intrudes on you. You can start by meditating for just a few minutes and then extend your time to 10, 15, or even 30 minutes. It is good to keep a note pad beside you for both interrupting thoughts and insights. If thoughts occur to you as you meditate, write them down so your mind can let them go. You may want to follow up this meditation time with a few moments of writing in a daily diary. This can create a nice stream of consciousness for future reference. Read what you have written down the following day.

Read from a spiritual or personally meaningful book before you enter mediation. This helps to set your mind in a good place and to create a theme for your meditation that day.

Write down insights that you receive during mediation or later during the day. This gives the insights more validity in your mind. Whenever possible, act on these intuitive thoughts or at least take steps that will lead to their incorporation in to your life. Meditation will always be a game if you treat it as such. If you have questions that you want answered, write the questions down before the meditation and ask to have clarity concerning them. Do not let them become the only reason for your meditation as this can focus your logical mind on problem-solving. Your logical mind would love nothing more than to interrupt your meditation as it struggles to solve the problem.

Don’t problem solve while mediating. Meditation is for quieting your mind and creating a clean slate on which you can receive new information. The answers will come in their own time and in their own form. They may or may not come in meditation and you may or may not recognize them when they arrive. Have faith that intuition works and that solutions will come. Often it has been my experience that I receive an answer in a very different form than what I expected. For example, I often find that the problem for which I am seeking a solution is not a problem after all. I can assure you that intuition works very well. Most of the great discoveries and technical breakthroughs are the result of intuition and not logic or formal experimentation. As Einstein said, “You cannot solve a problem at the level of the problem.” Intuition and creativity are ways of rising above the problem so it can be seen in a new light and from a different viewpoint.

Intuitive solutions are different from logical solutions. As I said before, intuitive solutions come in their own time and cannot be rushed. You may think you need to have an answer but intuition does not provide the solution until all aspects of the “problem” are ready. Intuition taps into universal knowledge and universal timing.

The intuitive solution is inclusive and universal—the information you receive includes everyone and everything involved. If you prefer, it is a cosmic or macro viewpoint. Logical thinking tends to look at the “problem” from your individual or micro point of view. Creativity looks at all aspects and all viewpoints and tends to see the total picture and not just one viewpoint. Logical thinking can seem much more appealing because it gives us the feeling of control while the opposite is true of intuitive thinking. Since intuition includes everyone and everything in the situation, you may feel like you are involved in something larger—something knowable but not controllable. The intuitive solution is quite different in form; it takes practice to recognize and utilize it.

Use your intuitive senses in small ways. As you put intuition to use in your life, you will begin to see the benefits it brings to you in terms of abundance and happiness. These benefits will increase your confidence in your intuitive ability. As you use and learn to trust this ability, it will become more natural for you to use it in more complicated situations. Again I caution you to not make this a game, a way of showing off, or a new form of behavior justification. Keep your intuitive sense to yourself and nurture it through application and commitment.

Be alert for intuitive information from all sources, all the time. I call this inner “listening” because all the time I am “listening” for messages, clarity, and insights. Discerning when you get these insights can be quite a challenge. The audio example I use is of an “Aha!” and the visual example is that of a light bulb going on. These are positive experiences as if one is suddenly aware of a new twist or dimension. They come as clarity or as all the pieces falling together in your mind. The information may be in a stream of meaningless material of which one part sticks in your mind or carries a very definite image. The source can be from what you may consider positive, but it also can arrive in a negative form. Inner “listening” is not the same as a fearful or cautious thought, though it may be in the form of taking care and not proceeding with a project. The hardest part is to differentiate between fearful or limited thinking and real intuition and insights. The first is based on past experiences; the source is your limited mind reminding you of potential pitfalls. Insights and intuition come from your contact with the unlimited source and leave you with a feeling of clarity and awareness. When I say be alert all the time, I mean while you are awake. Do not forego your sleeping time. If you have a strong or reoccurring dream, “listen” to its message. Make an effort to recall dreams in the morning and during meditation to ask if they held any messages.

Awareness is the key to inner “listening.” Honesty is required of all who choose to follow the intuitive path because most problems, while seeming to be outside of us, come from our own blocks to receiving the unlimited potential awaiting us. It is very easy to blame our problems on others or the current economic situation. If we do this, we will never hear the answers that come to help us change our thinking. We must also realize that we have the power to change our thinking and thereby our experience of any situation. Intuition and inner “listening” show us the mis-thinking that caused our problem, but only if we are willing to honestly assess how we created the results we have.

“Accepting” is an important step towards happiness and abundance.

Source: Listening, Accepting, Being, and Awakening by Lee Coit

I’ve often wondered about these men and women. What gives them that special indefinable quality that makes them so enjoyable to be around?

Some will say its education, talent, money, humor or celebrity. But I think it’s something that’s within the reach of us all: curiosity.

Curious people are interested in the world and everything in it. They seek out new friends and experiences. They pay attention to what’s going on around them and why.

Astronomer Carl Sagan once lamented that when a child asks a perfectly good question like “Why is the sun round?” it’s not unusual for an adult to give a dismissive response like, “What do you expect it to be, square?”

(Of course, most adults probably don’t know that intense gravity pulls material towards the sun’s center, forming a sphere. But there’s never any shame in answering a question with, “I don’t know. Let’s find out.”)

By the time we reach adulthood, many of us are already jaded or closed-minded. We tend to speak with, read and praise people who share our point of view.

When our views are challenged, our instinct is to defend them (even if they might be wrong). In the process, we may miss the opportunity to learn something.

Other times it is the desire for certainty that suppresses our natural curiosity. After all, why look into a matter further when you’ve already got it all figured out?

Uncurious people tend to see the world in black and white. People are good or bad. Choices are right or wrong. Yet outside of mathematics, alternatives are rarely that stark.

Sometimes life comes in infinite shades of grey. And nothing demonstrates a low tolerance for ambiguity like a lack of curiosity.

High curiosity, on the other hand, opens us up to multiple perspectives. It is regularly tied to greater analytic ability, problem-solving skills, and overall intelligence.

Curiosity drove many of the world’s finest scientists and explorers. Our greatest discoveries often come when we question authority, the status quo, or our own beliefs.

Curiosity is also what leads many of us – often late in life – to take up the piano… or fly-fishing… or ballroom dancing… or visiting all 50 states.

And it is something that can be practiced. Often it’s just a matter of greater awareness. When you’re making your schedule, what are you planning that you haven’t tried before?  When you’re talking, what opinions are you hearing that you haven’t heard before? When you’re traveling, what are you seeing that you haven’t seen before?

Curiosity is essentially an attitude toward living. It shows we are interested in adding to our knowledge, our skills, our areas of competence. We are willing to break out of our routine and experiment with our lives.

When you’re curious, you’re energized. You’re learning. Your focus goes beyond yourself and your own petty concerns. You’re making discoveries, finding opportunities, adding to your quality of life.

Best of all, these pursuits don’t just make your life more fascinating.

Source: Alexander Green

Perhaps the greatest myth about creativity is the idea that it’s a rare gift or genetic endowment possessed by only a few. We see an original painting, feel moved to our core by a piece of music, or read about an incredible scientific discovery and mistakenly conclude that some people are born with creative talent while others are not. In reality, each of us is infinitely creative.

“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.”
- Buckminster Fuller

“It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.”
- Carl Sagan

Just as a picture is drawn by an artist, surroundings are created by the activities of the mind.
- Buddha

“Consciousness is the potential for all creation. The more consciousness you have, the more potential you have to create. Pure consciousness, because it underlies everything, is pure potential.”
- Deepak Chopra

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
- Lao Tzu

“Every creative act involves a new innocence of perception liberated from the cataract of accepted belief.”
- Arthur Koestler

“The Possible’s slow fuse is lit by the imagination.”
- Emily Dickenson

”Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.”
- Arthur Koestler

When you play and open yourself to new experiences, you enter into the present moment. You see the world with fresh eyes, relinquishing rigid ideas about how things “ought to be” and opening yourself to creative solutions and transformation. Here are a few activities to jump-start your creativity.

Write
Pick an object. It can be an everyday item off your desk, a travel souvenir, a favorite relic, or any other object that draws your attention. Now imagine that you have just discovered this item on an archaeological dig. Write a short story about what it is and how it was used. Speculate about the people and culture that produced the object . . . who used it? Was it reserved for special ceremonies? What did it represent to those who created it?

Sing
Choose a familiar song and make up new lyrics. Choose something simple such as a favorite children’s song or your favorite Beatles classic.

Go Outside
Take a brisk walk or a run in a beautiful park or somewhere in nature. Inhale the life force of the plants with your full attention, imagining the air entering your lungs, flowing to your heart, and fueling the millions of life processes taking place in every second. At night, go outside and gaze at the stars, feeling the unboundedness of the universe.

Paint
Go to an art supply or crafts shop and buy 3–6 paints in colors you love. You can try watercolors, acrylics, or whatever kind of paint appeals to you. Don’t worry about what you will paint – just choose colors that you make your heart sing. Also select a surface for your project . . . canvas, paper, board. Set aside half an hour where you won’t be disturbed and let yourself paint. Allow yourself to play and request a “silent period” from your inner critic. Paint with your fingers, your hands, or your nose! Let the child in you play freely.

Dance
Turn down the lights and turn up the music and let your body move! You can dance alone or invite a group of friends over. Let go of any ideas about whether you can dance. Let the music wash over you and free your body to move. You’ll feel energized and you may even release hidden reservoirs of creativity.

Learn
Find inspiration by taking a class or attending a workshop. Harness your creativity at SynchroDestiny, the Chopra Center’s empowerment workshop. Find out more here.

To tap into our deepest potential and creative reservoirs, another extremely valuable tool is the practice of meditation. When we meditate, we access the pure consciousness that is the source of all creative inspiration. We go beyond our internal dialogue and repetitive thoughts into the refreshing silence and stillness of pure awareness. With a regular, twice-daily practice of meditation, we gain more and more access to the field of pure potential and spontaneously receive creative thoughts.

As you meditate and cultivate inner stillness, you will be able to act from a place of calm, centered awareness. The combination of stillness and dynamic movement will allow you to create whatever you want. As you venture into the field of all possibilities, keep in mind that feeling uncertain is a sign that you are moving in the right direction – towards greater freedom and expansion.

You may also find it helpful to find inspiration from other pioneers of the unknown. Watch movies, read books about creative people, and immerse yourself in their inspiring stories, remembering that you, too, possess everything necessary to live a creative, fulfilling life. In the words of Julia Child – the renowned master chef who was 37 when she began her culinary career at the Cordon Bleu in Paris: “Try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all, have fun!”

Source: Deepak Chopra