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Befriend Your Body To Release Pain, Increase Creativity and Feel Great While Writing

Today’s article is a guest post by Ashley Josephine, a friend who is passionate about empowering busy women to embrace wellness through the practice of yoga and mindfulness. We talked about the need for writers to have a good physical practice in order to stay healthy, and Ashley wrote this article to offer us strategies for wellness at work.
It’s surprising how hard it can be for writers to actually start writing. Despite the fact we say we love to write, when it comes to completing projects, our self-discipline tends to fly out the window and excuses abound.
The act of writing can actually be quite painful – physically, emotionally and mentally. It’s only healthy to exercise our creative minds for so long before burnout becomes inevitable and it’s shockingly easy to become lost in fantastical realms that we forget exist solely in our heads.
As with all professions, the stresses we experience as writers need to be addressed to ensure a healthy, productive and efficient writing session and career. This three-part series outlines movement-based exercises and stretches that will help open your mind (and body) to new ideas and relieve the pain and tension common to many writers, novice and professional alike.
Watch the video demonstration of the following yoga practice.

Yoga for Mental Clarity

When you’re feeling burnt out, stuck, or all wrapped up in one plot line that you can’t seem to escape, try taking a break to restore mental clarity. The following exercises will help clear the cobwebs up above.
Forward Fold:
This pose will help stretch your low back and hamstrings, plus turn your world upside down. Enjoy the rush of blood to your head and surrender to gravity’s pull to feel relief and clear-headedness, allowing all your frustrations to roll of your shoulders.
Sunflower:
From a forward fold, wrap your hands onto your opposite elbows and make large circles with your torso, coming all the way up through standing and moving back down again. After a few circles in one direction, switch sides. This exercise will force you to use your abs, stretch the obliques and hamstrings plus raise the heart rate to get your blood moving. Go at your own pace to get back into the swing of things and out of a confusing rut.
Alternate Nostril Breathing:
When you allow one side of your brain to dominate for too long, you start to lose touch with the better qualities of your other half. Alternate nostril breathing is the perfect cure to balancing out your left- and right-brain tendencies.
Start sitting in a comfortable seated position and place your right hand on your thigh. Raise your left hand up toward your nose and close off your left nostril with your left thumb. Inhale through the right nostril, hold the breath, then close off the right nostril with the left ring finger, release the thumb and exhale through the left nostril. Pause at the end of the exhale, then inhale through the left nostril, cover the left nostril with the thumb again and release the left ring finger from the right nostril to exhale. Continue in this pattern until you feel a sense of calm restored throughout.
Legs up the Wall:

Legs up the wall is surprisingly relaxing

This relaxing pose is quite simple and performed exactly as it sounds. Taking weight out the feet and legs relieves and reverses the typical gravitational pull, giving your legs a rest from supporting your weight all day long. Reversing your blood flow by going upside down can lower your heart rate and help you relax according to the Mayo Clinic.
Start by scooting your rear end as close to the wall as possible and then place your legs on the wall. Close your eyes, breathe deeply and enjoy relaxing without worry.
Practice Suggestion:
Start your day with this practice or take a break with some or all of these poses when you’re feeling confused, lost, overwhelmed or stressed out.
The next two parts of this series will be published here.
Ashley Josephine has been studying yoga for 5 years and currently lives and teaches in Wichita Falls, TX. A writer, traveler and a whole lot of other things, Ashley believes wholeheartedly in experiences and is passionate about empowering women to embrace wellness with yoga and mindfulness based practices.
Sign up on Ashley’s yoga web site if you’re a woman working through life’s daily stresses who’s ready to enjoy life more. You’ll get worldly wisdom, yoga, meditation and other free resources delivered straight to your inbox.
Other places to connect with Ashley:
Ashley on Facebook
Ashley on Twitter
Leave a comment below to share relaxation and/or movement practices that work for you when you’re in need of creative reinvigoration.

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How To Measure Your Writing Success

Did your writing measure up this year?
That feels a little harsh, doesn’t it? But I bet your inner critic is asking the same thing – poking you to see if you and your writing measured up this year.
How do you make an honest assessment of your progress that’s not fueled by the gremlin’s sharp stick poking you? If you’re like my clients, it’s easy to forget all the boons and progress you made.
Last week I wrote about how our superlatives are killing us. How they represent a standard – best, most, perfect – that we simply can’t achieve. We also can’t assess progress on those terms.
So how do we glean satisfaction from our efforts? This article will help you absorb all the nutrients from your efforts and your successes so you can build on them next year.

Pause and absorb the nutrients of your successes

Happy moment in Paris absorbing the 2012 publication of my novel

These are the questions I ask myself and offer to my clients; I invite you to make the most of your writing year by answering them too. Make a pot of tea or pour a glass of wine and enjoy savoring your writing year. Look back at your mid-year check-in, and to use this metric to gauge your progress and process:
1. On a scale of one to ten, how satisfied are you with your efforts?
2. What could you have done (given all the circumstances of your life) to bring that satisfaction level up two notches?
3. On a scale of one to ten, how satisfied are you with the results of your efforts?
4. What acknowledgement can you give yourself for all you did and felt?
5. Check your numbers. List your numbers in the following categories that are meaningful to you:

  • Number of publications
  • Number of hours or writing sessions you logged
  • Number of writing retreats you gave yourself
  • Amount of money you earned from writing
  • Number of books sold
  • The amount of help you asked for and received
  • Number and quality of comments on your blog
  • Number and quality of reviews

The numbers are the external measurements, but they’re not the only way to assess your success. Go back to your satisfaction and really soak in all the effort you put into your writing. That is where you will be able to relish your good enough writing year – by measuring your efforts and not your results.
Sometimes answering these questions brings disappointment. For me, I never have as many comments or views as I want. But my expectations and disappointments don’t stop me. Don’t let yours put a lid on your writing, either. Use your dissatisfaction to fuel next year’s best writing efforts.
6. What didn’t happen that you wanted to happen?
7. What can you do differently next year?
8. How does this assessment help you set expectations that will help you feel successful?
9. Finally, what image can you post in your writing space that reminds you of your efforts in 2012? This photo of me proudly holding my book at Shakespeare and Company in Paris marks many hours of work come to fruition. The photo helps me savor all of it.

Be real, be kind to yourself

I’ve seen unrealistic expectations do more damage than good with my students and clients. Big dreams are great, I’m all for them, but expecting too much from ourselves can bring disappointment and discouragement. Examples include expecting ourselves to write every day no matter what. Thinking we can forge ahead no matter what the circumstances, season or level of our energy.
We’re human, and our energy ebbs and flows as much as our creative output does. Be kind to yourself as you assess your progress and reevaluate your process.
No one can tell you how to measure your success. I invite you to be clear about which metrics are important to you and why. Gleaning satisfaction from your writing this year can help point you toward what you need to enjoy even more success next year.
What helps you feel satisfied with your writing efforts? 
 

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Your Imperfection Is the Gateway to Your Happiness

My sink never seems empty of dishes. My notebooks are messy and my apartment is never clean enough. I don’t stay in touch with loved ones the way I’d like and I’ll never catch up on everything I have to do.
The one book I’ve returned late to the library is Brené Brown’s book, The Gift of Imperfection.
Are you imperfect too?
With Brené’s help, I’m coming to see how charming imperfection is. It’s the mis-aligned seams, the flower arrangement that isn’t quite symmetrical…those are the interesting parts of life.
And imperfection is the reality for all of us. ‘Perfect’ doesn’t exist – anywhere.
When people tell me they are perfectionists, I sense their inner critic is in charge. With impossibly high demands, this perfectionist monster robs our joy. We churn away at our work, never letting ourselves love the messy process.
I say enough! Our imperfections are a gateway to our humility. They force us to turn kindness and compassion on ourselves. The sentences we don’t quite master, the thought we can’t totally articulate, these are the places where we get to feel our unique humanity.
Embracing imperfection is vital to my clients’ writing process. Every successful, published piece starts as a series of messy drafts. Releasing the expectation of perfection isn’t always easy. But it is possible, and I’ve seen hundreds of my writing students get past their perfectionist bias.
We use free writing method to get our drafts out. To see gems among the imperfect, rambling paragraphs. To listen long enough to the stories that we’re most compelled to tell.
Ironically, the thing we seem to fear the most – unbridled chaos – is also the thing my clients love – losing themselves in their words, writing a way to explore and discover.
In my online writing course, Free Write Fling, I ask participants to share three words at the end of each writing session. These words simply describe their experience in the free write. The words are mind-blowing. What the free writing process engenders is nothing short of brilliant.
Why not let your imperfection be your best asset? Join us in October for the Free Write Fling.

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Seven Steps to Get Your Groove Back When You’ve Lost Your Writing Rhythm

You know the feeling – you’re writing regularly, feeling the flow of your unique writing impulse. You’re making headway on your project and you feel gooood.

Then life, as it is wont to do, throws a wrench in your rhythm, halting the sweet ratatatat of your keyboard. Events on a scale large and small, tragic or irritating interrupt:

  • vacation
  • honeymoon
  • illness, either yours or a loved one’s.

Once the chaos has settled, you start to hear the sound of your inspiration calling you back. You like this tune and truly want writing back.

But weeks pass and you don’t return to that project you flowed with so well before life intruded on your progress.

Despite our best intentions, life’s distractions can easily derail us from our writing.
It seems all the time we spent finding our writing rhythm and focus was a one-time investment, and we’re forced to learn the steps all over again.

But even though it may feel like it, you’re not starting from scratch. Try these seven simple steps to resume – and refresh – your writing groove.

Draw upon your past successes.
What structures, times or places helped you focus on writing? Resume your Friday afternoon writing date, return to your special writing café, and other rituals can be renewed.

When we consider what worked in the past, we will often get snagged by stories of how our plans fell apart. The inner critic loves to chime in with variations of “Remember what happened last time – it didn’t work! Why bother now?”

We lose trust in ourselves when we focus on what didn’t work. We build something sustainable when we turn a curious eye toward what will work for us.

If there are negative associations with any of those practices, what can you replace them with?

Manage your expectations.

We often set ourselves up to plunge back in, pens raised and charging forward with brio. We expect to spend hours at the work, producing pages and pages of scintillating prose.
But it’s more likely we’ll start slowly and ease back into our rhythm. Instead of letting your high expectations lead to disappointment, use little victories along the way to fuel more successes.

Fend off saboteurs.

If it wasn’t a major interruption but a foggy dissipation instead, what derailed you from your course? Knowing the main saboteurs can help you identify trouble when it shows up next time.

Write down all your naysaying excuses that beat you away from the keyboard. See? Once they’re exposed, they seem to carry much less weight. Keep the list handy for the next time you’re tempted to believe your saboteurs.

Start with a brief rendez-vous with your project.

This is a simple meeting to reacquaint yourself with your work. We’re talking a 15-minute ‘project assessment’. Take notes. Jot new ideas and insights.

If you are starting anew with shorter articles or blog posts, check what you had done before you took your sabbatical. Review your lists of content ideas to spark new posts.

Refresh your deadline.

Deadlines can motivate us, even self-imposed ones. Recall former deadlines. What worked? What didn’t? One of the most common mistakes we make is to be overly optimistic about how long things take.
What do you know about yourself and your pace? Use that to set a deadline that engages, not strangles you.

Keep your cards close to your chest.
Some writers find it useful to announce their intentions publicly. Others find the pressure of others’ expectations counter-productive.

I prefer a middle path. Speak your intention to your writing tribe: your writing buddies, former classmates and teachers, a coach, or your favorite writing forum.

Dial it just right.

When planning the return, people often envision something like this:
“I’ll write five days a week for two hours each day.”

What’s wrong with this picture?

We don’t operate in two-hour time periods. Saying we’ll strap into the writing chair for two hours is a guaranteed way to assure that you won’t do it at all.

Let this be easier by starting small – one or two 30-minute writing sessions per week are much easier to slip into.

Which approaches will you try to get your groove back?

Try any or all of these strategies to slowly but surely ease back into your groove. Focus on building trust, engagement and momentum for this new phase of your writing life.

Notice that these suggestions ask you to rely on yourself. Build a positive and sustainable relationship with your writing that can withstand the capricious fluctuations of life.

Set yourself up to win by choosing steps that are right for you, right for this time, right for your projects.
What has helped you return to your writing groove after losing your step?

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My Sane Book Launch

A few years ago I submitted an essay to a Funds for Writers contest. The challenge was to plan an exciting year in the life of your project. I thought it would be fun to draft a dynamic marketing plan for Chasing Sylvia Beach. I figured if I had to do the work of promoting a book, I might as well make it as creative as possible.
With brio, I generated tons of ideas about how I would get the word out. It was fun to let my imagination run free. I didn’t win the contest, but I left with a larger-than-life vision for the promotion of my novel.
Over the years, I hyped up the project with the aim of hitting Amazon bestseller lists. Then social media marketing exploded, and so did the plans. Facebook! Twitter! I even conceived of a scintillating idea to give away a weekend trip to Paris.
My fun marketing plan was now a monster, and one I had no hope of controlling.

Owning my launch

For all creators, there’s this moment where the rubber meets the road. This is the place where we truly ‘get’ that there’s a real limit to what one can do with one’s time, energy and attention.
Sometimes when we’re daunted by the scope of our vision, we abandon it altogether. But learning how to scale back is vital. The dynamism of our ideas demands both structure and flexibility.
A few months out to launch, the more anxious I became. The more I realized I couldn’t possibly execute on all my great ideas.
A breakthrough session with my business mentor  helped me see where I could scale back. With more attention to my own agenda and goals for the book (not someone else’s), I was able to focus on what was important in this launch.
It was important to me to enjoy the process as much as possible. My intention was to be focused and open to the wonderful surprises awaiting me on the other side of publication.
More relieved than disappointed, I started to embrace a sane book launch.

Ongoing calibration

Even with this new and liberating perspective, I struggled to keep my focus on my own agenda.
I was still spending too much time trying to follow others’ leads. Any time I needed to do something – write a press release, write back cover copy, come up with a blog tour plan – I’d do copious research about the ‘best’ way to do it.
Every time, I’d spend 20 minutes researching and then abandoning the thread. Overwhelmed, confused, disheartened, I’d not only lose the connection to my own original impulse, I felt incapable of doing it the way I was supposed to.
A call with my mastermind partner helped re-orient me. She advised me to unplug, step away from all the advice and how-tos, and get clear on what was meaningful for me.
Relief washed over me. Within an hour of our call, I found a solution to a challenge I’d been stumped by, and it wasn’t about Facebook at all.

Finally in the groove

At a party the other night, sipping a Fat Tire and munching on tapas. Conversation turned toward me when someone asked, “What are you up to?”
“I’m launching my novel this summer!” I replied with enthusiasm. We talked about it for a little while and then the conversation moved on. A friend turned to me and said “You seem so calm, so Zen!”
I thought about how stressed out I had been in recent months. How much emotional churn I had gone through as the launch date approached. How twice a day unbidden, this thought lurches its way into my consciousness, “OH MY GOD IT’S X WEEKS AWAY!”
This is a visceral thought/fear/impulse that rises up and passes away. If I jump on it, I’ll start squirreling away with all the details. And then I’ll spend my time feeling fearful and stressed.
When I am anxious, my mind is desperate for control. I start sending up thought flares, ordering to-dos and schedules. But the more I fuel the emotional churn with mental churn, the more miserable I am. This is the ever-faster treadmill feeling of overwhelm we know all too well.
This was when I realized, at that well-earned Sunday evening party that this is the moment I’ve been building toward since I started writing this book in 1999.
This is the time of my life. I get to see the fruits of my creative labor meet my audience and have an impact.
This is it.
I’m not going to blow this precious time by making myself insane. I’m not gunning for the best-seller list. I’m not pushing to promote my book like mad in the first three months of its life. I’m not attached to how people will receive this book. (I will keep telling myself that until I believe it!)
My focus now is to enjoy the process of preparing my work for its debut. I consider it a gift I sincerely give to the world.
Chasing Sylvia Beach officially launches on June 22nd, 2012. The pre-sale Limited Edition is available from June 11th – 21st. Get your copy from the author here.