It’s one of the most important skills out there, yet it’s also the most difficult. Mindfulness has so many implications to our lives, both inside and outside of creativity.

Mindfulness is about taking control of how we perceive the world. We override the automatic behaviors that dominate our daily life and, instead, we view the situation from a fresh perspective, as if it had just come into existence.

Creative people who practice mindfulness tend to be more creative than those that don’t. This is particular true for divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is made up of three components: Fluency (the raw number of ideas you can create), Flexibility (the number of different categories of ideas you can create), and Originality.

Mindfulness has the biggest effect on flexibility, which is your ability to create a diversity of ideas. When you’re mindful, you’re less likely to commit the error of over-inclusive thinking, and this makes you better at generating a wide variety of ideas. Mindful people are less dependent on routines as well. When you break out of routines, you open yourself up to new possibilities, which gives you a better chance at stumbling upon innovative ideas.

Contrast this with someone who relies too much on automatic behaviors. To these people, how things were done yesterday is more important than how they can be done today. What’s scary is that these automatic behaviors can become so ingrained in you that you no longer realize that you’re even making a choice. Someone criticizes your work and you respond by getting angry or by thinking that they’re right and you’re not good enough. It happens so quick that it doesn’t even feel like a choice. But it is.

You can choose to be mindful. You can choose to hear the criticisms and not respond. Or you could choose to carry a whoopee cushion in your pocket so that the next time someone criticizes you with a stupid remark, you can respond with an awkward pause and a perfectly timed fart. You have options.

The best part about mindfulness is that it can be taught. When you first start using mindfulness, you’ll have short periods of time where you’re very clear before falling back into automatic behaviors. But as you get used to mindfulness training, these periods of clarity happen more often and become longer and longer. You will always rely on automatic behaviors to get through the day. Being mindful sucks a lot of energy out of the brain. The entire reason we rely so heavily on automatic behavior is because it’s a useful way for the brain to save energy. The goal isn’t to be mindful every waking hour of your day. It’s to practice being mindful in small moments so that you get good at realizing when your doing it. When you’re able to recognize that you’re doing it, then you’re able to break out of it.

As you’re creating today, be mindful of how you’re approaching the problems. Pay particular attention to what preconceived notions you’re bringing into your work. Often, the biggest constraint to our creativity is ourselves. We think we know what can and can’t be done, so we throw away amazing ideas that don’t fit out preconceived notions. Mindfulness is your best tool for breaking away from this. Be mindful. Recognize when you’re making assumptions so that you can actually question whether or not those assumptions are actually true. Often times, simply breaking one of your old assumptions is enough to lead you straight to an amazing breakthrough.

This weekend, I encourage you to use mindfulness not just for your creativity, but to live a happier life. You’re making assumptions about what has to be done both inside and outside of your creative work. Take a moment this weekend to simply experience what life is offering you. The next time you catch yourself saying “I have to this.” Pause. Give yourself a fresh perspective so that you can override the automatic behavior. Perhaps you’ll change your mind, or perhaps you won’t. Either way, the clarity will give you a new appreciation for what you’re doing, and who you’re doing it with.