Sit, breathe, do. 5 ways to boost your creativity with yoga.
I started at ING Business Banking as a UX design freelancer. And — although properly employed — I still work part-time to be able to follow my second passion: I teach yoga.
Right from the start, I practiced my two professions in parallel. And quickly realized that they complement each other wonderfully. It is an amazing privilege to teach yoga and take others on a spiritual journey. However, it’s also easy to lose your grounding when you spend a period of time dealing exclusively with spiritual topics and people. That’s why, as a sort of balance, I love having my job as a UX designer. With real people and real challenges. And as a designer, I benefit in return from my job as a yoga teacher. It starts with knowing what exercises I can do for tension and back pain. But it goes even further: yoga always helps me to move forward in the creative process. Be it the spontaneous inspiration during a morning yoga session or the solution to a complex problem after a spontaneous meditation. There are reasons why not only prominent über-creatives like Steve Jobs or Madonna practice yoga and meditation. As a freelancer, I was in many agencies and more than once there were regular meetings — in addition to the obligatory office yoga — where teams meditated together during working hours. And whoever I get to talk to at the bank or during conferences , I realize — yoga has not only become a mainstream body workout. People love how they can use it to relieve stress and calm their minds. And of course you can also boost your creativity with yoga. Here’s some easy examples, how:
1. Always keep moving
The simplest rule of thumb is that even a little movement stimulates circulation and gets more oxygen to the brain. So if you can’t think of anything, do a few quick sun salutations and the idea machine will run a little more smoothly again.
2 Change your perspective
Another well-tried trick: A problem that seems unsolvable suddenly looks completely different from a new perspective. Maybe an inversion posture like the headstand will help you see clearly again. You are still a bit inexperienced in yoga and don’t want to hurt yourself (and others)? Many people get further in their thinking if they briefly change the place, for example if they go outside for a few minutes. Instead of having a smoke you can perform some yoga postures there, of course.
3. Concentration, please
Experienced yogis know: The ability to concentrate can be learned. Because yoga is always about concentration, whether it’s practicing complicated asanas or focused breath observation. The trick to “making ideas” is to let your thoughts spin freely without losing the task at hand from the back of your mind. And that leads us to the next point….
4. Free your mind
Too much doggedness won’t get you anywhere creatively. The head must have room to think and be free from pressure and external influences. Often you can get further with your thoughts if you close your eyes for a few minutes and meditate. Or at least reel off a simple mantra (“Let. Go.”) in your head. (By the way, this technique also helps with spontaneous outbursts of anger when you don’t have any good ideas).
5. Nothing comes from nothing
There are days when nothing works at all in your yoga pracitce. The head does not want to calm down, the muscles weaken and something like a sense of balance is not to be thought of. And there are also days that are free of any creativity in your work. In both cases you just can’t do anything and that’s exactly what you should do then. If your timing allows, give yourself some uncreative time off from (creative) work. Your head can recover a little and you have time. Maybe for a round of yoga.
PS: In Hinduism, Sarasvati (सरस्वती) is a goddess for creativity, wisdom and arts.
