Transform your writing and your life! A big statement, but sometimes in order to write, or create any art, it helps to simply get out of our own way— out of our heads, that is -and into our bodies. I recently came from a weekend of teaching at The Sedona Yoga Festival where I spoke before hundreds of people about vulnerability, language, and writing from the body.
This is how we transform our writing AND our lives.
Here’s a simple exercise you can try from the comfort of your home:
1. Step away from your writing desk, couch, favorite chair or wherever you usually write and stand up in a quiet place where you won’t be distracted or interrupted.
2. Take your shoes off and simply stand in place with your feet shoulder width apart and let your hands rest easily at your sides. Bend your knees slightly and feel into your center of gravity. Breathe into this center right below your navel.
3. Begin to rise up of your feet and bounce or jump lightly in place while shaking your arms and taking deep quick breaths in through your nose and exhaling vigorously through your mouth. Take ten of these deep breaths and long exhalations while actively shaking and bouncing.
(If you feel at all dizzy during this process simply stop the breathing exercise and sit down slowly.)
4. On the eleventh exhale close your eyes and come to stillness. And then breathe normally, feeling the energy moving through your body.
Go straight into a freewrite or focused writing practice based on the topic you were working on and write without stopping for a minimum of ten minutes. Notice any changes in your over-all energy, insight, or general creativity. Repeat throughout the day to keep your energy, vitality, and creativity flowing.
For more tips on writing, writing from the body, incredible mindfulness practices, and how to dramatically improve your writing, I hope you will join me for an extraordinary weekend workshop OR retreat at the amazing:
(California) ESALEN INSTITUTE June 12-17
(New York) the OMEGA INSTITUTE July 15-17
(Colorado) SHAMBHALA MOUNTAIN August 25-29
(Vancouver, Canada) or HOLLYHOCK Oct 1-2, 2016
