Starting a Yoga Journey: Embrace the beginner’s mind
In this new series, YogaIowa will address the uncertainties that arise when one first steps onto a mat, from studio etiquette to finding the discipline that’s best for you.
Ask the Teacher: How does yoga feed creativity?
A dedication to being present allows me to build upon potential, take chances, and shake loose notions of fear, failure, judgment, and a smothering preoccupation with perfection. My life, my practice, my art—they’re all entwined, fluid, and evolving passages. The destination may not always be clear, but the movement is always forward.
So we asked our teachers: How do you think yoga expands the potential of creative pursuits?
Creativity: natural gift or cultivated mindset?
I’m a writer. The voices originate within a colorful, swirling imagination filled with different people, places, and things. As an artist, I might be considered more of a right-brained thinker — the typical association with creative pursuits. If I had paid closer attention in math classes, perhaps I’d be an engineer and thus, more of a left-brained thinker — the standard link to analytical activity. Extensive research indicates the two hemispheres process information differently.
Peaceful Paths
As a universal divine space, it doesn’t have the usual boundaries of faith, culture, or tradition: it’s open to everyone, and provides a unique experience for each individual.
Ask the Teacher: Are you a peacenik, an activist, neither, or both? Why?
In myriad conversations with yoga teachers, I continue to learn the power of individual action, and what it represents during the sea change of local, national, and world issues. But this power can be subtle, and to respect an individual is to respect his or her course of action, or even non-action. […]
So we asked our teachers:
“Are you a peacenik, an activist, neither, or both? Why?”