Mindful or Mind Full? Why Meditation Prepares the Mind for Creative Breakthroughs
I have been meditating regularly for about two years using the Monroe Institute's “The Gateway Experience..” Once a day for a half hour. It’s been amazing for my overall outlook on life and wellbeing, but I was curious what it may be doing for my creativity, if anything. Is creativity is about packing your mind full of information or about emptying the shelves entirely? Research says it's both.
In my last post, "When Your Gut Knows the Idea is Great Before You Do,” I explored how gut instincts are really just our unconscious minds processing all the knowledge we’ve accumulated. What I’ve learned since is, meditation is the practice that makes that unconscious process sharper and more reliable. Meditation trains the mind to filter out noise, allowing your unconscious to work with greater clarity. And that makes it easier to recognize valuable insights when they emerge.
It’s sorta like organizing a library.
The Messy Library (A Mind Full)
Imagine your brain as a giant library. Over the years, you’ve filled it with books—every experience, every observation, every conversation, every past idea. When it’s time to be creative, you start rifling through the shelves, hoping to find the right combination of insights to spark something new.
But here’s the problem: if your library is a mess, the best books—the most original ideas—are buried under piles of noise. You reach for whatever’s easiest to grab, even if it’s not the most valuable. Your shelves are overflowing, but instead of creativity, all you get is frustrated.
Cognitive overload can actually decrease creative output. A study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that excessive information can overwhelm working memory, making it harder to form original connections (Colzato et al., 2012).
The Organized Library (Being Mindful)
Meditation doesn’t throw away your books. It doesn’t wipe your shelves clean. What it does is organize them. It clears the aisles so you can move freely. It puts the most useful books at eye level. It doesn’t make your brain emptier—it makes it more efficient.
Research supports this. That same 2012 study linked above from Colzato found that just 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation can significantly improve divergent thinking—the ability to generate multiple creative ideas. Another study showed that open-monitoring meditation, which encourages observing thoughts without attachment, enhances creative problem-solving by allowing the mind to wander more effectively (Baas et al., 2014),
So after meditating, when it’s time to be creative, you’re no longer scrambling through stacks of unrelated ideas. Your brain can quickly retrieve what’s relevant, combine the right insights, and deliver something that actually feels fresh.
meditation creates space for connections
This is why people who practice meditation often feel more creative—not because they stop thinking, but because they stop overthinking. Again, a cluttered mind is like a cluttered library—so many ideas, but no way to access the best ones. A mindful mind, on the other hand, creates space for connections, clarity, and those “aha” moments that feel like magic.
And here’s the kicker: meditation doesn’t just help you recognize a good idea—it helps you trust it. When your mind isn’t drowning in noise, your gut instincts become sharper. You start recognizing the right books to pull off the shelf without second-guessing.
A study from Harvard Business Review found that leaders who practice mindfulness meditation make faster, more confident decisions because they are better at filtering out distractions and focusing on what truly matters (Harvard Business Review, 2015)
The Balance: Mind Full and Mindful
So should you stuff your brain with new ideas or quiet it through mindfulness? The answer is yes. Creativity isn’t about choosing between a packed library or an empty one. It’s about maintaining the best library possible.
Fill your mind with knowledge, experience, and curiosity—then use mindfulness to clear the aisles and let the best ideas rise to the top. The next time you feel stuck, don’t panic. Maybe you don’t need more ideas.
Maybe you just need to find the right book.
Will Burns is the Founder & CEO of the revolutionary virtual-idea-generating company, Ideasicle X. He’s an advertising veteran from such agencies as Wieden & Kennedy, Goodby Silverstein, Arnold Worldwide, and Mullen. He was a Forbes Contributor for nine years writing about creativity in modern branding. Sign up for the Ideasicle Newsletter and never miss a post like this. Will’s bio.