Standing meditation for creativity and artistic inspiration

Standing meditation, especially through practices like Yiquan, supports creativity and artistic inspiration by fostering relaxation, mindful structure, and deep presence. Releasing expectations and maintaining a consistent, disciplined practice allows these qualities to unfold naturally, encouraging authentic expression and personal growth.

Differences between sitting and standing meditation

For most, when one thinks of meditation, their mind will probably conjure up an image of someone sitting in a lotus position with index finger and thumb touching in a rounded position, looking peaceful. Sitting meditation can be incredibly powerful and bring the practitioner to deep stages of relaxation and enlightenment, or simply help with being calm and in the present. A little less known form of meditation is standing meditation or Zhang Zhuang, and even more mysterious is the practice of Yiquan (please see my landing page for a more detailed description of Yiquan).

Standing meditation differs from sitting meditation in that it can incorporate a variety of postures while maintaining a specific structure and rooting into the earth, holding these postures for sometimes very long periods of time, training the weight of the body to relax with structure, also clearing the mind and remaining present as in sitting meditation.

Standing meditation cultivates and opens energy channels in the body hence leading to numerous health, spiritual and energy and martial improvements. Different postures open different energy channels and will have different outcomes.  While these previously mentioned benefits can be gained from standing meditation, they are worth discussing in more depth and in their own time. 

Yiquan to cultivate creativity

In this article, as in most of my articles, I do not repeat traditional texts and philosophies but rather like to explain my personal experiences and learnings as it relates to not only the internal arts, but life in general: a philosophy of living, a blending of art, culture, music, energy and life.

I would like to focus on an area a little less talked about when it comes to standing meditation and this area is about how to cultivate creativity and artistic inspiration. As a multi-disciplinary artist myself, I have found the benefits of standing meditation to be absolutely instrumental in my ability to remain creative in many different areas of my life and art. To start the process, let’s begin with a few principles of standing meditation and how it can work for you.  All you will need as a beginning practitioner is some discipline and the desire to start a daily ritual practice.

Posture:

For the standing meditation postures the feet are generally shoulder width or a little wider, weight is slightly forward on the balls of the feet, knees are slightly bent, tailbone is tucked in, spine is long, chin is slightly tucked, eyes are on the horizon and up 5 degrees and the tongue is lightly touching the roof of the mouth (the tongue completes the circuit for the energy chanel that runs up the back of the body, continues up to the Bai-hui point at the top of the skull, then down the front of the body, passing through the tongue, continuing on down the front of the body to the lower dantien). Shoulders are relaxed, chest is relaxed, breathing is calm and normal. All tension in the body should be removed while still keeping structure. The skin should feel like it’s hanging off the body.

I will teach you a multitude of different postures but the details of those are not important right now. Simply put, as we stand still without tension, without our minds (bring back to center) present, the bad energy, negativity tension will slowly sink to the feet, then out of the body into the ground.  The pure, clean energy will begin to rise up the body into the head. Without distraction, without racing thoughts, simply being there in silence, in that quiet place or as quiet as one can make it. 

Quality of practice/ Quality of mind during practice:

As we stand relaxed, rooted, we clear our minds. If a thought comes into your head, acknowledge that thought, let it pass through and then return to the center, to the present. This will happen numerous times throughout any meditation session and this is normal. At some point you will become the “watcher” as you wait to catch a thought in the making and send it into nothing. This is the point of meditation, repetition and returning to center. The more you practice within meditation, the more you can apply to real life as you are going about your day. Most people do not become Zen Masters through meditation, nor do you have to be one to start meditating. We are only humans and we will always battle with the mind no matter how advanced one might become with their practice.

To be able to recognize when we are drifting away from our center in a thought and bring yourself “back to the nothing” is the goal. This will happen numerous times during meditation. It is a battle at first and for that matter, always, but this is meditation. One must lose the illusion that they must be in a complete state of bliss in order to meditate properly. 

During meditation, in addition to keeping a clear mind and remaining present, we also need to go through a checklist of posture, once again:

• tailbone is tucked in,
• spine is long,
• weight is slightly forward on the balls of the feet,
• chin is slightly tucked,
• eyes are on the horizon and up 5 degrees
• and the tongue is lightly touching the roof of the mouth,
• feet are connected to the ground, growing roots,
• breath is relaxed and normal.

Between monitoring our thoughts and staying in the present as well as continuously monitoring our posture and structure, even beginners will find that one can remain centered for a surprising amount of time in a session.

I practice Yiquan to find inspiration and connection.

In this place of being centered, this place of silence, of relaxation, the constant- this is where something magical happens. I cannot tell you why or how and to do so would only be theories. I am and will always be a student and I will not pretend to know exactly how it all works. What I can tell you through many years of dedicated practice is: this is the place where one taps into their true nature, their true light, the source. No expectations: just being.

It is a truly delightful place. It is addictive but also like a medicine that needs to be taken and can become an extremely valuable tool for enhancing creativity and artistic inspiration. I generally do not start any artistic endeavour without first meditating as I am then approaching the project from a place of quiet with no expectations and this is the place from which true artistic breakthroughs can happen. For me, different Yiquan postures tap into different channels and I use them for different outcomes. For example, one posture may promote artistic creativity, another may enhance hidden perception, another may help build my root and build my internal energy and so on.

When you reach that state of connection during meditation practice, it is where you encounter your true nature, your true light, your source. And there, you find a space for inspiration.

No expectations:

You cannot force something to happen during meditation or bring something into existence through meditation by thinking or planning for it.  Preconceived outcomes are dangerous to progress and quality in the practice and one must learn that the benefits will just happen with time and not when or how you expect them. Now, I am not referring to manifesting, which is a whole different area and powerful in itself but I won’t be discussing this.

To trust in the process and the time commitment means results. After almost 30 years of practice I am still surprised at the positivity that comes from meditation. One can go into it with the basic concept that something good will come out of it but nothing more. We are simply training to relax, we are training for structure and we are training to unblock and enhance and regulate energy channels in the body. It is not complicated. Anything further will be detrimental to your practice. No more thought needs to be put into why, it just needs to be done. Over time and with consistency, the way in which creativity will manifest will always surprise and delight. Again, the benefits do not necessarily come during meditation because we are doing nothing. The benefits come afterwards at the time and place of their choosing.

Applying standing meditation for rersonal creativity

While the basic principles are outlined here in this article, it is still highly important for you to seek out a qualified teacher for the correct postures, weighting, structure, relaxation and small details that are absolutely best learned in person. To meditate incorrectly with force and tension, incorrect posture, as well as with incorrect concepts or preconceived expected outcomes can be dangerous.

If we train together, I will show you the different postures that I use for creativity and inspiration, however these postures are also used for energy cultivation, health benefits, wellbeing, developing a strong body and structure and internal power for martial applications. It also must be noted that everyone is different and will have diverse experiences as a result.

In conclusion, standing meditation really becomes a multi-faceted tool that can improve many areas of one’s life, existence and personal well being. I am always open to sharing what I have learned from my own personal experiences and pass it on to those who are willing to commit to starting on the journey. 

If something in this article spoke to you or you would like to learn more, please contact me and we can set up some time to discuss.