Stretch the body, stretch the brain, stretch your words onto the page. These practices are more connected than you might have realized. Yoga opens your body, your mind, your breath. You writing voice comes out of your body, your mind, your breath. Your words come from your experiences, which are buried in the pulse of your heart, the neurons of your brain, and the core space and muscles of your body. And yoga can unravel and unleash this in a freeing way.
How many of you yoga humans also write? And how many of you writer humans also do yoga? I am in the second category. I write, and I am working on motivating myself towards a yoga routine, and it is dawning on me how doing yoga before I write will benefit my writing process. This would be a way of warming up my writing muscles, of relaxing my mind, of finding peace, and reaching deeper into my thoughts and memories. Maybe this would work for you too.
There are several ways that yoga will prepare you for going deeper in your writing, and helping to push you through your nervousness and writer’s block, and this is mainly through present moment mindfulness. Being in the present moment happens when I do yoga, and it happens when I write. Writing needs the present moment, and yoga brings you into the present moment.
I often tell writers and those doing therapeutic writing, to do things like write about the five senses, or write for five minutes without taking your pen off the page, or create an inspirational atmosphere where you write everyday (ie. candle, picture frame, desk you love, etc.). So that you can be in the present moment, and write from that place. So that you can write a more immediate and authentic piece.
So then, yoga can also help you do this. Try 15-20 minutes of yoga, or even 30-60 minutes before you write. Get up early in the morning, when you dreams are still fresh in your mind, start your day with a yoga session, and then sit down at your desk. See if your mind is more open, if your heart is more courageous about stepping forward, if the words and language come from deeper place and more willingly. See if, instead of sitting at a blank page and staring, you feel warmed up and ready to take the leap.
Yoga gurus, meet your fellow writers. Writers, meet your fellow yoga gurus. Take that deep calming breath. And… go!
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