Mindfulness and Creativity

Mindfulness and Creativity

As I bring the benefits of mindfulness training into different organisational environments I’m often asked by people commissioning the training whether mindfulness can enhance creativity or innovation. We’re beginning to learn that it can and a variety of studies point in this direction – some directly, some indirectly.

In one direct study, conducted by Jonathan Greenberg and his colleagues at Ben-Gurion University[i], which experienced meditators as well as a control group of people interested in meditation, were given a set of eleven logic problems.

The first six problems required complicated solutions, with many steps. The following three problems could be solved with the same complicated solution or with a much simpler two-step solution. The last two problems could only be solved with the simple, two-step solution.

They hypothesized that the experienced meditators would spot the simple solution quickly, while the control group would continue using the complex method out of habit. They were right. The experienced meditators switched from the complex method more often, and solved the simple problems more quickly, than the control group.

But, this experiment wasn’t randomised and it was possible that, rather than mindfulness fostering creativity, it was the other way around. Perhaps creative people are drawn to meditation in the first place. So they conducted a second experiment that addressed this issue. This time they randomly assigned people with no meditation experience into two groups. One group received a six-week mindfulness meditation programme, the other was assigned to a waitlist and served as a control. The participants tried to solve the same set of problems and the mindfulness meditators spotted the simple solution more often, and more quickly, than the controls.

Even just six weeks of mindfulness training can improve people’s problem-solving skills – allowing them to approach each situation a-fresh.

Then there are two fascinating studies that cast light on this issue indirectly.

To understand these, you need to consider what neuroscientists now know about the prefrontal cortex and the way it is activated bilaterally. The prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain just above the eye-sockets. When the left prefrontal is active, you’re in “approach mode”. That is, you exhibit interest, curiosity, happiness, compassion and other desirable emotions. When the right prefrontal is active, you’re in “avoidance” mode – experiencing the family emotions that cluster around fear, disgust, anxiety and aversion. Left is approach, right is avoid – and the ratio of left to right prefrontal activation at which you tend to settle predicts your levels of happiness and overall well-being.

In a much cited article published in Psychosomatic Medicine in 2003,[ii] Richard Davidson and Jon Kabat-Zinn reported the effects that eight weeks of mindfulness training had on workers in a high-pressure biotech business in Madison, Wisconsin. One group undertook an eight-week course in mindfulness training. A comparison group of volunteers from the company received the training later, and, like the participants on the first course, were tested before and after training by Davidson and his colleagues. Before the course, the whole group – as with many who work in high-pressure environments – was tipped on average towards greater right than left prefrontal activiation. They tended to describe themselves as feeling stressed. The group who received the mindfulness training reported afterwards that their moods had improved. They felt more engaged in their work, more energized and less anxious. This was borne out by their brain-scan results. Their left-to-right prefrontal cortex activation ratio had shifted significantly leftwards. These results persisted at the four-month follow-up.

So we know that mindfulness training increases the extent of left prefrontal activation. And this seems to impact on creativity.

In a study published in 2001, Ronald Friedman and Jens Forster[iii] examined how the approach and avoidance systems I spoke of above affect creativity. They set two groups of college students a simple task. Both groups were given a sheet of paper which showed a cartoon mouse trapped inside the picture of a maze. The task was to help the mouse find a way out of the maze. But there was one slight difference in the pictures the groups received. The ‘approach’ version of the picture showed a piece of Swiss cheese lying outside the maze in front of a mouse hole. The ‘avoidance’ version showed an identical maze except that, instead of a satisfying meal of cheese at the end, an owl hovered over the maze – ready to swoop and catch the mouse at any moment.

The maze takes about two minutes to complete and all the students who took part solved it in about that time, irrespective of the picture they were working on. You might therefore think that there was no significant difference between the groups. But the difference in the after-effects of working on the puzzle was striking. When the participants took a test of creativity soon afterwards, those who had helped the mouse avoid the owl came out with scores 50% lower than those who had helped the mouse find the cheese. The state of mind that was brought about by attending to the owl had produced a lingering sense of caution, avoidance and vigilance for things going wrong. Those participants were comparatively more right prefrontal cortex activated. This weakened their creativity, closed down options for them and reduced their flexibility when it came to the creativity task.

So when I’m asked these days whether mindfulness training can affect creativity, I feel readily able to say “Yes, most likely it does.”

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[i] Greenberg J., Reiner K., Meiran N. (2012) ‘‘Mind the Trap’’: Mindfulness Practice Reduces Cognitive Rigidity. PLoS ONE 7(5):

[ii] Davidson, R.J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., et al. (2003) Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 564–570.

[iii] Friedman, R.S., and Forster, J. (2001) The effects of promotion and prevention cues on creativity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81 (6), 1001–1013.