Artistic Inspiration – a state of effortless creativity as An effect of being connected to the own Self

The purpose of this project is to explore a method, which could allow artists to establish a sustainable state of psychological and emotional balance in which their creative output would be driven by a genuine inspiration.

Inspiration has been a driving force for creation of the most profound and influential works of art, science or philosophy in our history.
Undoubtedly every creator enjoys a state of sheer fulfillment when working out of inspiration, not feeling a pressure to come up with „some idea”, but simply following an inner urge to bring out that fruitful energy by capturing it in the form of idea, image, musical motif e.t.c. At that moment all the physical and mental abilities like thinking, drawing, playing an instrument are becoming tools for putting the original impulse into the form and bring it to its final realization.

Comparing that process with playing an instrument; most of the practicing musicians know how important it is to maintain relaxed an effortless technique while playing their instrument at a high level. Any unnecessary muscle tension or excessive movement eventually causes degradation of expressiveness and technique but also gives player a premature physical fatigue, not to mention a long-term health issues this condition would result into.

From the perspective of our brain activity, causing all the mental and emotional processes that build a complex system of our intellect and psyche. Not only our motoric skills subordinate to it, the whole artistic expression and creation of any type of form – is a product of that live system within us, which acts as a central computer for every job.

In other words a free mind can give way to inspiration in a similar way the optimized and relaxed playing technique allows a musician a full artistic expression and musical excellence on their instrument.
This “optimization” of mind through meditation has been proven to help developing the ability to maintain mental silence, along with the ability to manage mental and emotional processes. 1

The method of balancing our subtle system lies in working with our attention. Our attention has a tendency to get captured by the things that excite our mind. Whether it’s a thought, or reaction, our attention becomes “locked“ with a particular object, which among other side effects also limits our ability for a comprehensive perception and insight 4 . If this process goes too far it builds a psychic tensions within us causing a permanent blockages that influence our mental and emotional health as well as our creative abilities.
The aim is to learn to keep the mind in thoughtless awareness and free from distractions in order to use its potential more fully.

One of the things that philosophy, arts, science, psychology and religion have in common is that single source, which attracts the highest aspirations of the people from the ancient times. It has also been realized by many great personalities in all those disciplines that this source of inspiration and creativity does not belong to us individually but is transcendent of all the people and society as a whole.

However in order to bring that idea from philosophical theory to practice one has to have an actual experience of what philosophers, theologians, scientists, artists and some psychologists like C.G.Jung referred to. This is an experience that was known in ancient spiritual practices as Self-Realization3. The nature of such an experience requires us to bypass the level of our mental activity, which has been achieved by many famous personalities in arts and in spiritual teachings alike. Such an experience would have a deep and fruitful impact in the process of making art.

The music born from such becomes part of the collective cognition through the art and only as such does it surpass the ever-growing boundaries of cultural establishment and gives the aid to the genuine aspirations for which we as artists all have desire.

1 „ … The capacity of long-term meditators to establish a durable state of mental silence inside an MRI scanner was associated with larger gray matter volume in a medial frontal region that is crucial for top-down cognitive, emotion and attention control. This is furthermore corroborated by increased FC of this region during the meditation-state with bilateral anterior insula/putamen, which are important for interoception, emotion, and attention regulation. The findings hence suggest that the depth of mental silence is associated with medial fronto-insular-striatal networks that are crucial for top-down attention and emotional control.” (Gray Matter and Functional Connectivity in Anterior Cingulate Cortex are Associated with the State of Mental Silence During Sahaja Yoga Meditation – Kings College London. 22 Dec 2017 )

2 „Insight is a sudden comprehension—colloquially called the “Aha! moment”—that can
result in a new interpretation of a situation and that can point to the solution to a problem (Sternberg & Davidson, 1995). Insights are often the result of the reorganization or restructuring of the elements of a situation or problem, though an insight may occur in the absence of any preexisting interpretation.“

3 Self Realisation is a term known in Indian phylosophical and spiritual tradition, meaning the realization of own true Self. A similar term has been used by A.Maslow which he called „Self Actualization“. It is the last stage of his famous piramyde. In a more accessible way, Maslow described it as a stage where a full creative potential is to be realised along with with the actualisation of transcendent. C.G.Jung coined a term „ Self“ which represents the unity of the whole psyche including conscious and unconscious parts of it it. According to Jung the ultimate goal of personal human development and aspiration is to achieve the sense of the unified Self in the process of „individuation“.

All three concepts and their meanings can therefore be seen as synonymous .

ANTON PYVOVAROV
Independent Researcher

Is a saxophonist and composer who was born and raised in Ukraine. He started playing saxophone at the age of eleven and was shaped by broad range of influences from his music environment that included classical music, jazz and folk music of different cultures. Anton has recorded his first album at the age of nineteen and since then has performed continuously at various International Jazz festivals, appeared at several TV and radio shows in Ukraine. In 2007 Anton was granted a scholarship to study at the New School University in New York. After being graduate he kept on working in the group of his former teacher – legendary drummer Chico Hamilton, whose influence helped him to bring his skills to a new level and to develop his own voice. Nowadays Anton lives in Austria. He actively performs and writes music for large and small ensembles, performances solo and makes music for diverse electronic media. His Big Band pieces “Coming Back” and “Journey Of The Lightheaded” were nominated for prizes at the international composition competitions.