I began practicing yoga around the same time that I discovered music. As I pursued a career as a singer/songwriter, my yoga practice also grew and I eventually became certified to teach. These two loves have supported and sustained each other over the years. Now, as a Creativity Coach, I frequently draw on yoga and meditation concepts and practices to help support people in their creative work and offer “Yoga and Creativity” workshops.

Here are just a few of the ways that yoga can help support our creativity:

Yoga helps us to be more present

In order to create, we have to be truly present with whatever we are creating. Yoga teaches us to focus on the breath which in turn helps us to be more present with our creative work and our lives in general.

Yoga helps us to let go of resistance or blocks

Everyone has heard of “writer’s block” and this can hold true for any form of creativity. By overcoming resistance in our yoga practice, we learn how to overcome resistance and blocks in our creative work as well.

Yoga helps us to open our hearts and minds

In addition to learning how to open up our bodies on the mat, we are also learning how to open up our hearts and our minds. This translates to our creative work and we can find ourselves creating with more openness and freedom.

Yoga helps us create with more authenticity

One aspect of our yoga practice is that it can help us discover who we really are. The more we practice the more we shed external layers that reveal our true nature. Yoga helps us to tune into our instincts which can lead to greater authenticity in our creative work.

Yoga helps us get more comfortable with the uncomfortable parts of ourselves

In particular, practices such as Yin yoga and meditation can help us to truly examine ourselves and make friends with the dark and uncomfortable sides of our nature (we all have them!) Since our creative work can also involve a similar exploration, these two practices support each other immensely.

Yoga teaches us to go outside of our comfort zone

We learn how to challenge ourselves appropriately on our yoga mats – to test our edges and notice where we have drawn lines to keep ourselves in our boxes. As we begin to test these lines and edges, this can spill over to our creative work and we may notice that we begin creating outside the box as well.

Yoga helps us develop discipline, routine, and structure

While words like “routine” and “structure” may not sound very creative, it can certainly help with our creative output if we have a regular and dedicated creativity practice. If we show up for our yoga practice regularly, this can affect other areas of our lives, including our creativity. Many creative people struggle with a regular routine – and a yoga practice can help us become more focused and disciplined in general.

Yoga makes us braver

It takes a certain amount of courage to get on the mat and explore new and challenging poses. The more we get comfortable with taking these risks the braver we can be in our creative work.

Here are some specific ways that you can support your creative work through your yoga practice:

• Practice regularly.
• Practice different styles of yoga – have a routine, but also be open to trying new classes and styles. It’s okay if you don’t connect with all of them – just trying them is enough!
• Come to the mat with an idea or question about your creative work.
• OR the opposite…just let go completely of whatever you are working on and you might be surprised by what arises when you create that space!
• Keep a pen and paper by your mat and jot down ideas as they come up.

This is a cross-post with the wonderful local blog Sayogavannah.wordpress.com, a blog for yogis in my beautiful and creative Southern city of Savannah, Georgia created by Mary Crouse and Stacey Sedory. Please be sure to check it out and support their work as well!

Are you interested in hosting a workshop in Yoga and Creativity…or would you like individual Creativity Coaching that can draw on yoga and meditation techniques? Please contact me at Creativity@LaurenL.com – I’d love to talk to you!

Namaste and Happy Creating!

Do you think that you need vast quantities of unlimited and unstructured time in order to be creative?

Do you wish that you had this kind of time to follow a dream or passion?

The reality is that most people these days are incredibly busy and have multiple demands on their time. Does this mean that we can’t be creative?

Not at all!

A helpful practice is to find just twenty minutes a day to dedicate solely to your creative work.

It can be at any time of day that works for you. Many find that first thing in the morning works well. Why? Because as our days progress we run out of time and energy. It can be challenging to feel fresh and creative at the end of the day when often we just want to rest.

That being said, some people are night creatures who feel most creative in the middle of the night when the world is still. Whatever time of day works best for you is the best time to try this practice.

Here are some simple steps to add twenty minutes of creativity to your day:

1. Find a place where you can work.This can be anywhere where you feel comfortable creating and where, ideally, you will not be interrupted.

2. Set a timer for twenty minutes. Your smart phone should have a timer and an inexpensive egg timer works just as well.

3. Commit to doing ONLY your creative work during this twenty minutes. This is key! Do not check your phone, Facebook, get up and make a cup of coffee, play with your cat etc. Sit in your chair (unless your project requires standing or some kind of movement) for the allotted twenty minutes and focus solely on your creative project. Give it all of your attention – and intention – during this time.

4. Do it consistently. If you have a project that you’re working on i.e. a novel, a CD, a work of art etc. try to do this every day, if possible, or at least five times a week. Every skipped day means that you get further away from your project and it gets harder to return to it. Also, the more consistently you do this, the more your creative work will open itself up to you. It’s like a muscle that needs to be exercised.

5. Enjoy the rest of your busy day and life knowing that you made some much-needed time for yourself and for important, meaningful, soul work. You will see how good it feels and it will spill over to your more mundane tasks and chores. Everyone will notice that you’re happier – including yourself!

Can you find twenty minutes in your day?

Has anyone tried this practice? What are your thoughts? Is anyone curious enough to give it a try? I’d love to hear how it works for you!

This blog post was brought to you by a timer that was set to – you guessed it – twenty minutes!

Sunflower photo by Danny Dennis