Yogaland Roundup

Being brave (and crafty) about creativity

---

Heads’ up to my Book Clubbers! We’re having our next book club meeting on June 29th. The topic will be How to Design a Yoga Practice for Bendy People. You have to register to get the link for the call with Libby. I’ve put that link at the bottom of this post (for paid members).

---

Hello, hello!

I’ve gained a lot of new subscribers over the past week so I wanted to offer a big, warm welcome. I hope you poke around the past posts — you’ll see some variety for sure: Meditations, essays, book club posts, and Yogaland Roundups.

I post these roundups (most) Fridays; the focus is whatever has been inspiring me that week, whether that’s podcasts, studies, books, funny memes. I try to focus on things that feel meaningful and positive to me. I will also, when the timing makes sense, let you know what Jason or I are up to in terms of courses and events.

To be clear, if I feature a product outside of our services, it’s never attached to a sponsorship — just something I love or find useful. Speaking of which, one of the ways that I keep the both the podcast and this Substack sponsorship-free is through your paid subscriptions.

You do not ever have to subscribe. I am truly grateful to have you out there, reading and engaging in whatever way feels best for you. But I do want to toot my own horn for a moment and say that 70% of you open this newsletter on the regular. And, damn, that just makes me feel like (hopefully) I’m offering something of value!

Brave Writing and Self-Expression

This week, I listened to the most lovely podcast recently called Moving Through Writing Resistance in Differently Wired Kids with Julie Bogart. Although the podcast is geared toward parents, I promise that it will resonate with anyone who has ever felt any self-doubt about their writing…annnnnd I’d wager to say that’s pretty much all of us.

I have made my living as a writer and content producer for decades and, as I listened to this podcast, it was a balm to my creative soul.

The thing that struck me immediately in the episode is that Julie put my own writing philosophy into words, which is this:

Writing is a form of self-expression.

Julie reminds us that, far more important than the grammar or mechanics of writing is the idea that our inner lives are important. On the podcast, she says:

I was raised in a way that valued self-expression…From a very early age I was taught that my internal world mattered. And that expressing it was important…

As I’ve raised children, and as I’ve worked with many thousands of parents, what I’ve discovered is that they don’t have that same perspective around self-expression. They’ve been taught to be guarded or to not value their own thinking and to put the performance of writing ahead of the self-expression of writing.

When she used the phrase “the performance of writing,” I just felt a big resounding, YES. For adults, social media has made writing into a constant performance. Worse, it’s made writing into a product for constant consumption. This really takes the fun out of writing. When creating feels endlessly calculated, when we feel self-doubt about sharing ourselves, when we feel pressured to create something that gets likes it’s just…exhausting after awhile. It doesn’t feed our creativity; it sucks us dry.

On the other hand, when we trust that sitting down and sharing ourselves in a raw way is, in itself valuable, we connect with that joy of sharing what Julie calls, “the snapshots of the mind.”

So much of what she advises on the podcast reminds me of what I used to recommend in my Content Blueprint for Yoga Teachers course. And while I’m not going to launch that course again, it’s motivated me to share one of my posts from that course soon. It’s called 3 Questions to Get Out of the Weeds.

Until then, go listen to the podcast with Julie or simply sit down and do some free-writing without any intention of making something that’s publishable. If you need tips or prompts for free-writing, let me know and I’ll whip something up for y’all.

Is ChatGPT your summer intern?

I will start by saying that I have spent very little time getting worked up about impending AI crisis. Yes, I fear that my child’s generation will be ruled by robots and that my beloved Netflix shows will be written by bots but, like so many of you, I’m mostly bogged down by the very material details of life staring me in the face right now — you know, things like where to move my elderly mom and how to heal the autoimmune plague that has currently taken up residence in our family.

So, if you’re anti-AI at all costs, I don’t mean to offend and you might want to skip this section. I was happy to (finally) see someone suggest that AI could be helpful.

In her recent Substack post, Courtney Maum walks us through how she used AI to stoke her creativity as she writes her next novel. I mean…WOW. That’s an application I wouldn’t have considered.

Is ChatGPT your summer intern?

Creativity is a tricky thing. For me, it is so fleeting. And, as a busy human, my moments of creativity rarely seem to sync up with the moments I am at my laptop ready to work with them.

Maum tells a fun and honest story about how, when faced with an entire rewrite of her current novel, she experimented with ChatGPT by asking it to write a description of the premise of her book and to give her a list of character flaws (based on the premise of her book). She was pleasantly surprised by the results! (I’d share the details but she made it a paid post so I don’t want to betray that.)

While Maum won’t ultimately use ChatGPT to write her book for her, these little moments of brainstorming helped her move through writer’s block and, as she says,

Nobody likes to be blocked creatively. But I am a Virgo. I WILL NOT STAND FOR BLOCKED.

I’m a Taurus and I won’t stand for it either 😂

Since reading Maum’s post, I stumbled upon another post about how to use ChatGPT in the NYTimes. They suggest using these “golden prompts:”

• Use the phrase, “Act as if” (Example: “Act as if you are a personal trainer…”)

• Use the phrase, “Tell me what else you need to do this” (In the personal trainer example, a prompt could be: “Act as if you are my personal trainer. Create a weekly workout regimen and meal plan for me. Tell me what else you need to do this.”)

(They also warn not to share confidential data or anything about your business that you would not want shared publicly!!)

That’s it for this week! Would love to hear if you’ve ever used ChatGPT or would consider it. I’ll keep you posted on my journey, too.

XO,

Andrea

Offerings & Events with Andrea & Jason

• Our current Yogaland Book Club selection is Yoga for Bendy People by Libby Hinsley. Join us! You’re not too late and you can read recent posts here.

• We’re closing registration for Jason’s Hybrid 300-Hour YTT in London next week! This program is the coolest — you do six days in person, with access to the online content one month before meeting. To learn more and register, go to Mission’s web site.

• A reminder that if you’d like to join our Book Club conversation with Libby Hinsley, How to Design a Yoga Practice for Bendy People, the link is below (and you’ll need to upgrade to paid to see it.)