How Yoga And Meditation Help Me Write

Posted on | Monday, August 1, 2011 | No Comments

I was invited to tea recently at the home of a former school mate. It had been a year since I had met the hostess and a few months since I'd BK, another friend of mine, so the three of us had plenty to catch up on. Over vegetarian spring rolls and a delicious chocolate cake, stories of our school days somehow found their way into the conversation. During one particularly funny story, my friend BK told our hostess/school mate N that she had been amazed by the clarity of the latter's mind when we were in school. I had to agree; N is one of the smartest and most articulate people I know. 

BK's observation led me to reflect on my own life as a writer. When I was a journalist, my best pieces were written when I was in my quiet zone. A place where my thoughts were linked like beads on a chain and transmitted effortlessly to my waiting fingers. It didn't matter where I was, or how noisy the surroundings were. As long as I was in my quiet zone, nothing else mattered but translating my thoughts into words on the screen. Or as BK said so succinctly: clarity of mind. 

I can't tell you where my quiet place comes from, or where it goes sometimes when I so desperately need to write but can't manage to crank out more than a paragraph or two. What I can tell you is that yoga and meditation has somehow helped me get there. I still haven't figured out how and maybe I don't need to. All I know is the mornings I meditate for more than 10 minutes and the days I have yoga class are the most productive I have.


A little web surfing unearthed some answers. According to Psychology Today magazine, "Neuroscientists have found that meditators shift their brain activity to different areas of the cortex - brain waves in the stress-prone right frontal cortex move to the calmer left frontal cortex." That explains why I feel not only calmer after meditation or yoga, but refreshed as well. A 2009 article in the Creativity Research Journal  meanwhile, said that meditation supports creative thinking (particularly the incubation and illumination phases), even in novices, by inducing broad, open awareness in a state of low cortical arousal (e.g., increased low-alpha) enhancing sensitivity, reducing habituation to external (and perhaps internal) stimuli, increasing cognitive performance on complex problems and supporting novelty-seeking. According to the article, meditation promotes cognitive flexibility due to its transcendent, detached witnessing effect. "Strong associative thinking habits are suppressed allowing for the generation of new ideas," it said.

In other words, science has proven the link between meditation and artistic creativity. I must confess that before reading these articles, I was skeptical towards the calming effects of yoga and meditation. The reason was that I was afraid they would make me "too calm and docile" and affect my writing. The reverse is true; I now write with more clarity and enjoyment than I did pre-yoga and meditation. And all it takes is 15 minutes of meditation each morning and half an hour of yoga a day. If you're an artist, try it out for yourself. Persist with meditation and watch your creativity blossom. 





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