20 Aug Yoga and Creative Writing
Hi I’m Susan, a playwright and creativity coach. I have a specific interest in theories of creativity and the therapeutic value of writing. Accordingly, I’ve developed my own creative writing courses based around unlocking creativity, and combined yoga and writing workshops with Sefali that look specifically at enhancing creative potential.
But first of all, let me tackle one myth and set it straight. You don’t have to be a ‘writer’ to gain benefit from writing.
Writing has proven links to enhancing your health, especially ?expressive? writing, a term coined by James Pennebaker in his ground-breaking research in this area. Expressive writing allows you to let your feelings out on the page, without the judgements or opinions of others. No-one ever has to see what you?ve said ? a fact that can be liberating for many.
Once you?ve written your feelings down, you can keep them as a record to see how your life progresses from that point, or you can burn the pages to cinders right there in front of your very eyes. This exercise can help those who feel buried under the cacophony of every day life to feel heard, at least by themselves or by the wider universe. It can help to set thoughts and emotions in order.
Most people have done some form of expressive writing throughout their lives, whether writing a letter to somebody that they never send, or more usually in the form of a diary or journal. Only the other day I was speaking to a friend who confided that without her journal, she would have found it almost unbearable to get through the misery of her adolescence.
Most days, I write three pages of a small pad in long-hand. I write whatever comes in to my head: what I’m having for dinner tonight, things I need to do later on, and often, feelings and emotions will unwittingly leak out. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, creative ideas will find their way into the sentences. This exercise is known as ‘Morning Pages’, as described by the writer Julia Cameron in her bestselling book The Artist’s Way. These are a great way to sift through the detritus that’s floating around in your head, and get rid of it, so that it feels heard, and therefore ‘dealt’ with. For some, once they commit a thought or worry to paper, the worry begins to lose its power.
The value of externalising emotions and feelings on the page without judgement is also beneficial in re-energising the spirit, as less cluttered emotional space leaves a healthy gap for creativity and inspiration to flow in.
By taking it a step further and writing creatively, perhaps recounting a personal experience in the form of a short story or poem, the mind acknowledges the experience whilst beginning to distance itself from it. The artistic work then takes on a life of its own, independent of its creator, but it remains an individual and unique expression, an imprint, of its creator at that point in time.
Allowing your brain to focus on a practical activity can channel emotions in a useful and constructive way, and allow the mind and soul to be soothed by the rhythm and order of words, and in the case of the combined yoga and writing class, also by the rhythm and shape of a particular posture. The achievement of creating something beautiful and meaningful to you can bring its own rewards.
More information on Unlocking Your Creativity’s wide range of creative writing courses and workshops can be found via www.susanhodgetts.co.uk. Susan also offers creativity and wellbeing lifestyle coaching.
http://www.susanhodgetts.co.uk
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