The lived experiences of experienced Vipassana Mahasi meditators: an interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Research into the effects and mechanisms of mindfulness training draws predominantly on quantitative research. There is a lack of understanding about the subjective experiences of experienced mindfulness meditators, which may provide additional insights into the effects, processes and context of mindfulness training. This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of a novel group of experienced mindfulness meditators who practise Vipassana Mahasi (VM) meditation. The study aimed to understand how experienced VM practitioners make sense of the effects of practice and what processes they ascribe to it. Participants attended semistructured interviews, and their responses were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results yielded overarching themes including (a) improvements in hedonic and eudaimonic well-being; (b) insights into self, others and perception of reality; (c) attaining equanimity; and (d) physical and interpersonal difficulties. Participants perceived VM as a ‘cleansing’ process whereby maladaptive responses were eliminated through mindfulness, other supportive mental qualities, decentering and nonattachment. The findings revealed a complex and dynamic set of interdependent outcomes and processes, which are reinforced by Buddhist teachings and ethical practices. This study highlights the need for additional interdisciplinary research into topics such as insight generation and supportive mental qualities cultivated during VM, novel states of well-being informed by Buddhist constructs and interpersonal difficulties related to long-term practice. Findings also suggest that incorporating Buddhist teachings and ethics into mindfulness-based interventions may enhance practitioner understanding and implementation of meditation techniques.N/

Advancing Creativity Theory and Research: A Socio-cultural Manifesto

This manifesto, discussed by 20 scholars, representing diverse lines of creativity research, marks a conceptual shift within the field. Socio-cultural approaches have made substantial contributions to the concept of creativity over recent decades and today can provide a set of propositions to guide our understanding of past research and to generate new directions of inquiry and practice. These propositions are urgently needed in response to the transition from the Information Society to the Post-Information Society. Through the propositions outlined here, we aim to build common ground and invite the community of creativity researchers and practitioners to reflect up, study, and cultivate creativity as a socio-cultural phenomenon

Extraordinary : reflections on sample representativeness

In this chapter we reflect on a particular way of studying immensely high complexity, such as creativity, by investigating extraordinary achievers. The basis of our reflections are two empirical studies, one conducted in the area of haute cuisine, through interviewing top chefs, and the second conducted in the area of science, thorough interviewing Nobel Laureates. We explore why we feel that studying such extraordinary individuals can be more fruitful for better understanding creativity than trying to achieve an artificially manufactured sample that provides insights about the creative potential of the average individual. We outline the problems we see with the notion of representative samples from both conceptual as well as feasibility perspectives and offer an argument for studying the extraordinary instead

Exercise and Creativity: Can One Bout of Yoga Improve Convergent and Divergent Thinking?

While creativity is a vastly debated topic, little research has been dedicated to determining whether exercise can boost cognitive factors associated with creativity, such as divergent thinking. Yoga, as a form of exercise, comprises physical activity and open-monitoring meditation, which may increase divergent thinking. We compared performance on a test of divergent thinking in healthy adults, the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA), and one test of convergent thinking and field independence, the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), before and after one session of ashtanga yoga, and one session of aerobic exercise. Divergent thinking was not affected by either intervention overall; however, fluency of novel ideas generated was reduced post-intervention in both groups. Practice effects were registered for the convergent thinking task, and those in the yoga group performed better at this task both at baseline and following yoga, although yoga did not lead to a greater change from baseline performance. The current findings do not suggest that one bout of yoga is associated with an immediate cognitive benefit. However, further research is required onto whether long-term yoga practice may enhance divergent thinking