Scribing a Warrior: The Interconnections of English and Yoga

Firstly, I'd like it to be known to the world that I dragged my ass out of bed at 7:00 to sun-salutation it up before class.

That's like 4:00 A.M. college student time. Bam.

As the yoga teacher and I introduced ourselves and I shook the pressing need for coffee out of my aching little head, I mentioned that I was studying English at Penn State. The teacher's eyes lit up.

"Oh, I was in English major in college too!"
So lots of people are English majors. Not that exciting, right?

We are a dying breed, after all (I guess job security is a thing and all that jazz). But what really astounded me is how many of the yoga teachers at Lila Studio are studying or have studied English at some point in their lives.

Is this trend coincidental? Or is there some similar attractive trait in both literature/writing and yoga? At first glance, the two activities couldn't be farther apart. Reading and writing are stationary. Yoga (duh) requires movement. Writing can be competitive. I have yet to see a "down dog" competition. Your stereotypical writer is the "tortured artist." The stereotypical yogi is chill and ready to om their way through life.

I don't know about you, but I doubt 100 pages of OMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM would be the next bestseller. But hey, never say never.

I've only officially been studying English for 8 months and yoga for 1.5 years, so I can only guess here. But both these hobbies seem to be modes of escape, while at the same time, further understanding the self.

In this instance, I am mainly going to talk about writing. But reading can relate to this connection as well.

When I am deeply involved in my yoga practice, I'm not thinking about that thing my hair is doing, or what I'm going to say to my boyfriend after class (mainly because I don't have a boyfriend...wheeeeeee single life).

In yoga, you see the world as connected. The breath makes us one and the same. We may have all come from different jobs, different families, different backgrounds, but in one room we create the same movement, the same sounds. It is an escape from personal worries and fears.

In my experience, it is particularly useful after breakups. For an hour and a half, you can have the bliss of not wondering if he's going to text you. It's a beautiful feeling.

During the practice, my only focuses are 1) on not falling over. Still working on that bit. And 2) Appreciating the beauty of my surroundings. How lucky we are to have that tranquil picture of the Buddha. How happy those St. Patrick's Day celebrators below the studio sound. How delighted that bird seems. Then 3) Not dying after the millionth sun salutation. It's not a perfect process.

After the practice however, I begin to get a clearer sense of the self. I appreciate my surroundings, but I don't let them deeply influence me. I get a deeper understanding of why I look for approval, why I grow anxious around a large group of people, and why I have an incessant need for a truckload of cream eggs.

So yay, being aware of the self. That's a thing.

The writing process is similar. While I'm in the middle of creating a story, I become deeply wrapped up in my characters' stories. Their dialogue flows similar to how a sun salutation would flow. I'm not thinking about how an audience would perceive the words, only how the right the words seem to fit on a page. It's like a jigsaw puzzle for the logically challenged. Only after I've finished the final word (or if I'm stuck and need some inspiration) do I read through my work and learn about my progress as an author and a thinker (or lack thereof), what I need to improve on, both as a writer and as a person.

You want an example, you ask?
Well.
So when I was 16, I had this massive crush. We're talking "won't eat won't sleep" type crush. Coincidentally, when I was 16, my best friends seemed to disappear for a few months...hmm, coincidences. And, being the wisened sophomore I was (hardeeharhar?), I was convinced that I knew exactly what type of guy I would be most compatible with. In the throes of my obsession, I wrote a much-too-autobiographical-for-anyone's good "novel" that ended up un-read on my googledocs.

And that I realized that the guy was kind of a dickhead and that maybe at 16 I didn't know all the secrets of the world. But that's not the story that made me learn about myself, thank God.

A year later, I wrote a story on eating disorders. At this point, I was well past the obsession with this guy and back on track with the food obsession. The characters weren't based on anyone I knew. The plot line was, for the most part, fictionalized. Being the sucker for romance I am, I had to throw a love story in there. Enter Forrest, the guy with dreadlocks. He wasn't perfect, but damn he was sexy. He had dialogue that would make a girl swoon and a writer not wretch. I doubt that miraculous combination will not happen again in my writing career.
Through this story, I learned not only how to get past a rather pesky food obsession, but also what kinds of people I wanted to surrounded myself around (not just in romantic situations but friend situations as well). Through a fictional world, I realized how I could focus my "real" world. The less autobiographical you get, the more you can learn about yourself.

Any yogi/writer combos out there? What are your thoughts on the two hobbies? Do you prefer one over the other? I'd love to hear your "what I learned about myself through writing/yoga" stories!

Namaste.