In our first MA group meeting, we talked about kindness and explored a bit about what that meant to us all and to our practice. To me, it’s not just as a virtue between people – it’s the soil from which creativity needs to grow. Cultivating kindness towards myself within my own practice is a key part of experimentation & exploration. Compassion is also essential within the studio: to offer softness to the parts of ourselves that feel fearful, stuck, or uncertain.
When I’m immersed in making – whether drawing, printing, or experimenting – there are moments when the constant chatter of labels, judgments, and identifications seems to quieten. In those moments, I experience a kind of mindful awareness – a brief separation from the noise of thought, from my many identifications and expectations. There’s a sense of being simply present with the materials and the process itself.
This idea of stepping beyond thought – or loosening its grip – was echoed in a conversation between Deepak Chopra and Sadhguru on The Sadhguru Podcast: Of Mystics and Mistakes. Deepak said:
“There is no system of thought, whether scientific, mathematical, or quantum physics, that can give us the experience of reality, because reality is beyond thought.”
He suggests that thought can describe or model reality, but never truly let us experience it. Reality is encountered directly, through presence – through being.
Sadhguru expands on this by speaking about identification and how it becomes a source of suffering. When we identify too strongly with roles, opinions, or outcomes, we limit our experience of life. He describes thought as a kind of recycling of memory – a process that can only move within the boundaries of what is already known. True awareness, he suggests, arises when we rest in that space before thought, unburdened by identity or conditioning.
I recognise these dynamics in the process of making art. When I over-identify with being an “artist” or worry about the outcome, I feel constrained. But when I approach the work mindfully and compassionately, something opens up. There’s more freedom, curiosity, and playfulness. The work becomes a meditation – a way of being fully present rather than trying to achieve something specific.
Bringing These Ideas Into Creative Practice
Mindfulness, for me, means being awake to the process as it unfolds – noticing without judging, allowing without forcing. It turns art making into an act of awareness rather than control.
Compassion as a container for vulnerability
The creative process often exposes our insecurities and fears. Compassion creates the safety needed to stay open – to accept mistakes, to pause, to begin again gently.
Letting go of rigid identification
By loosening the need to define who I am or what my work should be, I create space for discovery. As Sadhguru says, identification is the root of suffering – and perhaps of creative limitation too.
Art as transcendence
When the mind settles and I lose track of time or self, art becomes a kind of transcendence – a direct experience of being, beyond thought. It’s here that creativity feels most alive and authentic.
Art-making, mindfulness, and compassion all seem to meet in the same place – in presence. To me, that’s where art truly begins.
Leave a Reply