om body
Unleash your
creativity How yoga inspires writing and creativity by training neurotransmitters. By David Holzer
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amma-Amino Butyric Acid (GABA) is a neurotransmitter in the brain that calms nervous activity. Studies have shown that people who suffer from depression and anxiety have low levels of GABA. Anti-depressants and alcohol activate our GABA receptors and relax us. This perhaps explains why so many writers have believed alcohol helped them write. Without knowing what they were doing, they found a way to make the GABA and inspiration flow along with the booze. Unfortunately, their bodies paid a toxic price. Yoga has also been proven to increase GABA, which is why, practiced regularly, it decreases our stress and anxiety. When I began yoga I knew nothing about GABA. But it’s the secret to why I became hooked. Before yoga, my writing routine was to sit down with no preparation other than a cup of strong coffee. I started practicing to get into shape after a long time of not looking after myself properly. But it was the effect yoga had on my writing that took me completely by surprise. Yoga changed my professional writing life forever.
Moving, meditation and writing
Yoga is often described as moving meditation. This was and is certainly true for me. As I became more comfortable with the asanas, the periods of time when I wasn’t aware I was thinking became longer. Most of the time, practicing yoga meant I lay down in savasana (corpse pose) with a mind as close to empty as mine will ever be. Because I wasn’t distracted by my thoughts, I freed up my creativity. When I lay down on my mat to relax I found that inspiration began to flow at a rate I’d never experienced before. I came up with story ideas that were often splendidly surreal. Poems popped into my head fully formed. I resolved plot twists that had been frustrating me for days. It got so that I had to ask my teachers if I could keep my notebook and pencil by my side throughout the practice. They were amused and intrigued – none of them had seen yoga have this effect before – but they could see how excited I was by what was happening.
Dedication, a personal practice and writing
The benefits of yoga for accessing inspiration are one of the reasons why it’s become so popular with people who do what’s called ‘life writing’. Life writing describes forms of personal, confessional writing. It covers things like memoir, autobiography, journal and diary writing as well as blogging. But, as every writer knows, inspiration on its own is not nearly enough. The German writer Thomas Mann said: “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” The minute you take your writing seriously, or start to earn a living from it, you know exactly what he was talking about. Hatha yoga evolved as a way to prepare devotees to be able to sit and meditate in a comfortable posture with a straight back and relaxed muscles. Writers need to be able to do precisely the same thing. Although this is great in itself, the benefits of yoga go way beyond just being able to sit in a healthy way. For writers, they outweigh other forms of exercise like running, walking or swimming precisely because yoga is a discipline. Once you show up on your mat you need determination, dedication and will power to get the most out of your practice. As you do with writing. Yoga is about extending your edge, the limit to which you can gently push yourself in a posture and stay there. Writers instinctively do the same thing. We increase the hours we can sit at our keyboards and we try to write more words at one sitting. Without
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om body them being rubbish, obviously. We work on areas in which we’re not so strong – anything from grammar to things like characterisation or dialogue. I’ve also found that I can apply lessons learned from practicing the asanas I don’t enjoy like Trikonasana (triangle posture) or which make me nervous – Sirasana II (tripod headstand) - to my writing. One of the truths of writing is that you should be prepared to confront the things that make you feel frightened, embarrassed or ashamed. Being brave enough to tell the truth can energise your work and encourage your readers to empathise with you or your characters. Yoga can also help overcome one of the challenges that every creative writer faces: finding your own voice. Practice yoga regularly and you begin to discover how asanas fit with your body. As a result, all of us develop our own unique practice and our identity as yogis and yoginis. Because there’s nowhere to hide on a yoga mat, we have to acknowledge the truth about what we can and can’t do. We have to accept ourselves. This awareness is the foundation for the way I write and what I write about. I wouldn’t have got there without yoga.
Asanas for writers
My writing day starts when I step onto my yoga mat. I sit, breathe to centre myself, and set an intention for that day’s writing. Once this arrives, I practice the sequence I spent many years creating to help me sit comfortably, concentrate, tap into inspiration and write. This is the sequence I now teach to people who want to practice yoga as a way to write better. It’s designed to be followed comfortably by yogis and yoginis of all levels of ability and takes around 20 minutes to complete. By the time my students finish my sequence they tell me they’re balanced, focused and energised but relaxed and ready to sit down and write. There are many postures that are enormously beneficial to writers but the simple ones are surprisingly effective. These are some I work with: 1. A lternate nostril breathing to balance the intuitive left and practical right sides of the brain. 2. D ownward facing dog to stretch out the back and hamstrings and gently start the blood flowing. 3. T ree pose for balance and to stretch the legs and cervical spine while strengthening the core and upper back. And here’s one last suggestion: try writing barefoot or in your socks. It makes me feel nicely grounded.
Why don’t you try?
I write for a living and the knowledge I share with my students reflects a lifetime’s experience of what does and doesn’t work. But here’s a simple exercise you can try. Immediately after you’ve finished your next yoga session, see if you can write for five minutes without stopping. Don’t think about what you’re writing or censor yourself. Forget about grammar and punctuation. Just write. I’m sure you’ll be kissed by the muse.
yoga for writers course
Starting on January 16, 2017, David Holzer will be teaching an introduction to yoga for writers online. This unique course, offered by the highly regarded Professional Writing Academy, is for writers and yogis of all levels. For details visit: profwritingacademy.com
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