(Guest Post) Six Ways Yoga and Art Connect

Last week, Courtney, from the wonderful blog Yoga G33K asked if I'd be interested in having her write a guest post about her experience with a Yoga and Art Workshop she was a part of! I was so excited about the possibility and to hear about her experience. Today, I am excited to share it with you! Welcome Courtney, Thanks so much for sharing your story with us!

Hi! My name is Courtney and I’m visiting from www.YogaG33k.com where I write about yoga and all kinds of geeky stuff! I recently modeled yoga poses for an “Art and Yoga” workshop and wanted to write about the experience here at Art Asana! Eliza’s blog is always bringing art and yoga together in the most organic way and this workshop spoke to that so strongly. The students grabbed their charcoal and sketched madly as Blythe and I held yoga poses for minutes at a time. Throughout the workshop, several parallels between art and yoga arose and I wanted to share them with you.

Art and Yoga both invite….

1. Intention. Whether you’re on the mat or at the easel you always begin with an intention. We set an intention at the beginning of the workshop and no matter what it was it could’ve been translated into the yoga practice or the sketching process.
2. Breath & Body Awareness. Yoga may incorporate the use of breath and body awareness in a more literal sense, but this is a powerful way for your yoga practice to enhance your creativity and art. Being aware of the space within you and around you is very powerful on the mat and when being creative.
3. Relaxation. Both yoga and art allow for a space of non-judgment and peace. Letting go of your own expectations as well as the expectations of others is common ground for art and yoga. During the workshop it was easy to see the students opening up and letting their walls come down with each moment that passed and I’m sure you find the same experience at home on the mat or when you’re being creative.
4. A Practice. In yoga and in your creative space, there is a sense of coming back again and again to “practice”. Rolling the mat out and setting out your art supplies brings a sense of building on where you’ve been. A little bit at a time each day and you build your skills and confidence.
5. Movement and Fluidity. The brush across the canvas, catching a fleeting moment with your camera, and flowing through a vinyasa practice all invite you to be in the moment and flow. Being too rigid in either practice is considered something to avoid!
6. Energy Awareness. Being aware of the energy around you is something that makes art and yoga pop! A piece of art that captures the essence/energy of a moment is the piece that you connect with and yoga postures each hold their own energy that the student connects with as well. Being able to read this energy as an artist or a yoga teacher is immensely helpful.

So there you have it! I hope that combining your creative outlet with yoga will enhance both practices in every way! Namaste.

(Guest Post) Six Ways Yoga and Art Connect

What will you teach the new generation about creativity?

{"Create" Original Mixed-Media Painting}

Over at Scoutie Girl it's We Scout Wednesday and this week Tara Gentile asks,

"What will you teach the new generation about creativity?"

Ironically enough, as part of the thesis paper I'm working on, I've been exploring the idea that we are all innately creative. Every single one of us possesses an incredible creative capacity. Have you ever made a meal? Decorated a house? Made up a song? Written a sentence? Done an experiment? Spun around the dance floor to your own rhythm? Made a baby? Made someone laugh? Made something else? Congratulations, you have created! You are a creator! You have flexed your creative abilities! I believe that one of the main features of being human is our ability to create. In the past, our species has created fire, tools, methods of communication, social systems, and incredible structures to live, work and worship in, just to name a few. We come from a long legacy of creators. But over the course of life, we often become disconnected from our creative power, disconnected to this element of ourselves that is ultimately our link line to a greater power source. Our creative abilities disappear from our view under the layers of who we think we are.

I believe that our work in this life is to unearth who we really are from those layers. Each experience we encounter becomes yet another stage to perform that very act. Part of the fun of life is in the re-discovery of who we really are: bright, expressive, full, creative beings.

So, I will say to a new generation, to you, and to myself:

Do the work of unearthing the creativity that you possess and that is your birthright. Know you already have all the tools you need to find it and that doing so will make the world a better place. Make art. Make music. Practice. Dance. Move. Take in beauty. Make a meal. Make up a song. Make a positive change in your life. Make an offering to someone. Play. And don't ever give up.

What will you teach the new generation about creativity?

What will you teach the new generation about creativity?

Creativity Meditation Monday

At my week of teacher training, I felt so expansive. I was expanding to allow in the people around me, expanding to new knowledge, expanding out of my own fears in order to practice teaching the new things I’d learned. I expanded out so much that my immediate reaction when I arrived home was to contract. To sink down into myself and retreat. I’ve wanted to stay home, stay quiet, and burrow down into myself, absorb myself in fiction. To some extent, I think that I needed this, I needed to contract after a week of wild expansion. And now, I’m working on making space for both contraction and expansion. “As much as you contract in,” I hear my yoga teachers say, “expand out.” So I am working at making space to allow this full spectrum of experience.

The creative process pulses with this contraction and expansion too. Some days creativity is quiet, reflective, contractive, like it wants to draw itself into little tiny whispers of circles. Some days its loud and bold and screaming, “I AM HERE!” We need both of those kind of days. One helps us tune into our selves, helps us to draw in to the quiet part of our nature and the other helps us to expand our hearts outward and into the world. Today’s creativity meditation is about taking stock of where you are today, of whether your creativity feels contractive or expansive and then finding the space to embrace both. Enjoy the ride!

Gather your materials, you can work in paints, pencils, pens. You can use brushes or your fingertips, anything that will make a mark.Tune in to what is calling you and respond by collecting those materials around you. Find a quiet space to listen and create!

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Creativity Meditation Monday

OTG and MC Yogi

MC Yogi - Give Love (Giving4Living Mix) from MC Yogi on Vimeo.

I saw this video by MC Yogi on Lori Portka's blog, Happiness through Art (which is such a bright, cheery place itself! Her artwork is so colorful and fun!) and have suddenly become completely obsessed with MC Yogi.

How come I had not heard any of his music before?

I have been listening to this music video by MC Yogi every morning for the last couple of days. It uplifts me and reminds me to give love to myself and those around me. So, thought I would share it with you here today!

It's the perfect synergy between music and yoga!

I had decided that opening to grace and living fully from my heart would be this week's personal theme (and really my personal intention for the year 2010) and so it seemed so appropriate that I fell upon this song.

The song says,"open up your heart and let it shine the brightest" and when we do that, our love and lives can become limitless!

OTG and MC Yogi

Creativity Meditation Monday

Happy Monday and welcome to today’s Creativity Meditation! Have you ever noticed that you feel more connected to yourself and your world when you express yourself creatively? I do. I find that when I am feeling off kilter, it’s usually because I haven’t done anything to connect to my inner spirit, to that place inside of me that pulses with something bigger. More and more, I am learning how to tap into that place and cultivate trust in the guidance of that universal power. One of the ways I’ve learned to connect and trust my own insight is through creativity. In today’s Creative Meditation, I’ll share a creative exercise that invites you to tap into that under current of grace, of universal energy and listen to the guidance, and insight available to you there. This exercise is inspired by Betty Edward’s “Problem Analog Drawing Exercise” in Drawing on the Artist Within (1986).

Our meditation today will begin by tapping into the flow of the breath and then we will move into our creative exercise. After you finish the podcast, there are a few last ideas at the bottom of this post to end the meditation. The podcast is approximately 6 minutes long.

“Drawing turns the creative mind to expose its workings. Drawing discloses the heart of visual thought, coalesces spirit and perception, conjures imagination; drawing is an act of meditation.”

–Edward Hill, The Language of Drawing

For materials, gather together some paper and something to draw with: a pencil, a sharpie or other pen, or a thin paintbrush with paints. Find a comfortable, quiet place to sit with these materials in front of you. When you are ready to begin, press the play button on the podcast. Enjoy!

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Once you have listened to the meditation, hold your drawing out in front of you at arm length. Turn it upside down. Look at it sideways. See if you notice any insights arise. Perhaps they address the issue you brought to mind at the beginning of the exercise….perhaps something entirely different surfaces. On a separate piece of paper, jot down what you see in your pictures and anything else that comes to mind.

Trust whatever comes up.

May you learn to recognize and trust your inner light and your inner wisdom.

Creativity Meditation Monday

Creativity Meditation Monday

Welcome to today's creativity meditation! This time of year, as winter wanes in the Northern Hemisphere, my thoughts start to turn towards spring. My spirit starts longing for lightness. I start to feel affected by the heaviness of the cold and the dark. Maybe some of you feel this way too? Well, today's creativity meditation is about lightening things up by giving yourself permission to play! The mediation will begin by tuning into the breath, and then move into a play of creativity. (It runs for about 4 minutes)

So gather together the materials you want to play with!

In this spirit of play, perhaps try something new. If you always use watercolors, try markers. If you normally use colored pencils, try acrylic paints. If you are newer to art-making, pick any material you think would be fun to try!

After you gather up what you need, find a comfortable, quiet place to set up your materials. When you are ready to begin, press the play button on the podcast!

Enjoy!

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Creativity Meditation Monday