Strike a Pose
SEARCHING FOR A LITTLE CREATIVE INSPIRATION (AT WORK)? TRY YOGA!
By Emily Richwine
The ancient practice of yoga is certainly finding its place in the modern business world. Nike, HBO, Forbes and Apple — plus, just recently, Britton Marketing & Design Group — all offer on-site yoga classes to their employees. And why not? Yoga has been linked to everything from better heart health to lower blood sugar to stronger bones to stress relief.
Plus, research shows that corporations that offer yoga and wellness programs see $3 to $6 in savings for every $1 invested in the programs. A study by the American Journal of Health Promotion showed more than a 25 percent average reduction in health care costs for companies with well-designed programs.
“The power of yoga might just lie in nothing more complicated than the simple (yet powerful) act of quieting the mind.”
Still not convinced to don your stretchy black yoga pants and roll out your yoga mat next to your co-workers? Maybe this will help.
Yoga may have the power to spark our creativity.
Sound too good to be true? Skeptical New York Times science writer William Broad touched on the topic in his controversial book, The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards, published amid a bit of a media frenzy in 2012.
“By definition, the research [into creativity and yoga] is much more difficult to do properly than measuring hormones and muscle tension, brain waves and blood pressure,” Broad wrote, adding that, “Science tends to do the easiest things first.”
However, the well-known science writer (and, it should be noted, longtime yoga practitioner) goes on to say there is a fair body of evidence — albeit mostly anecdotal — that suggests that yoga can stir ideation and insight — and, yes, possibly even spark creativity.
Jeffrey Davis, creativity consultant and author of The Journey from the Center to the Page: Yoga Philosophies and Practices as Muse for Authentic Writing, wrote about three correlations between yoga and creativity in his 2012 article for Psychology Today. We found his observations fascinating, and more than enough motivation to keep up with our weekly after-work yoga classes …
Theory #1: Activating the Right Brain
One theory surrounding the subject of yoga and creativity is yoga’s ability to center the mind and balance the two hemispheres of the brain. We know that in everyday life, the left side dominates, but yoga is said to be able to activate the right side — the side linked to intuition, creativity, instincts, aesthetics, spatial reasoning and emotion.
This, science says, is a real thing. Jonathan Schooler of the University of California, Santa Barbara and John Kounios of Drexel University have studied brain scans and found that it is the right anterior temporal lobe of the brain that lights up during “Aha!” moments.
Andrew Newberg, a doctor at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia, used brain scans to study the effects of meditation. In 2001, he reported that brain scans of eight meditators showed increased blood flow to the right thalamus — the control center of the autonomic nervous system. A follow-up study focused in further on what we traditionally call yoga in the West:asana.
Participants in this landmark study were asked to practice a series of just 12 poses every day for three months. Those poses included adho mukha svanasana (downward facing dog) and janu sirsasana (head-to-knee forward bend) At the end of the study, brain scans of the participants found greater “overall activations in the right hemisphere rather than the left.”
Theory #2: The Power
of Neurotransmitters
Another theory goes deeper, pinpointing a powerful neurotransmitter, GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), as the source of creativity.
It’s no secret that many writing greats — Faulkner, Hemingway, Capote — favored alcohol to relax the mind and ignite creativity. Yoga, one can argue, is a kinder way to do the same thing. Just like alcohol, yoga causes levels of the powerful neurotransmitter to rise (in one study, nearly doubling). According to Davis, some neuroscientists suspect that the brain’s capacity for generating new neurons correlates with “idea genesis.”
And if you find yourself under a tight deadline and having to be creative on demand, remember the most important yoga cue there is: Breathe.
Just breathe.
Chris Streeter of Boston University studied the role of yoga in relation to GABA. In her study, participants attended yoga classes each week, practicing the same sequences. They were also encouraged to practice the sequences at home.
Streeter found that yoga overwhelmingly spikes GABA in beginners. In fact, her 2010 study reportedly is “the first time that a behavioral intervention [i.e., yoga postures has been associated with a positive correlation between acute increases in thalamic GABA levels and improvements in mood and anxiety scales.”
Theory #3: Relaxing into Greatness
Devote yoga practitioner and rock star Sting has openly praised yoga for its influence on creativity, once telling an interviewer that it produces a sense of inner calm from which the music flows.
“I don’t think you write songs,” Sting said. “They come through you. Yoga is just a different route to the same process.”
Sting could be on to something. The power of yoga might just lie in nothing more complicated than the simple (yet powerful) act of quieting the mind.
This theory is nothing new. Harvard physician Herbert Benson coined the term “Relaxation Response” in the 1970s. He defined it as our own ability to encourage our bodies to release chemicals and brain signals that make muscles and organs slow down, increasing blood flow and activity to the brain.
Around the same time of Benson’s early research, Elmer Green, a psychologist who studied master yoga practitioner and teacher Swami Rama, performed a study at Washburn University near Topeka, Kansas. In his study, a group of college students were asked to regularly practice “calming routines,” which included rhythmic breathing and progressive muscle relaxation — similar to what is done insavasana, or corpse pose, a common closing posture in western yoga classes. The students reported that the relaxation led to greater concentration, more confidence, enhanced organizational skills and general improvement in handling challenges.
The study went so far as to measure brain-wave patterns. Participants’ wave patterns actually slowed down to what scientists called the alpha state, with traces of theta wave patterns — an even slower rhythm that suggests that the brain’s hyper-rational executive decision-maker network can be quieted, enough so that other parts associated with the unconscious can be aroused.
Motivational speak and author Tony Schwartz, who studied biofeedback with Elmer Green, quoted the well-known researcher in his book What Really Matters: “If you want to truly grow, the only way you’re going to do that is through the deeper state of theta. That’s where you can interrogate the unconscious and even gain the ability to reprogram it. The true value of alpha is that it’s a necessary bridge between beta and theta.”
Perhaps this explains why so many of our great ideas come to us while we’re driving or in the shower. At the end of the day, we love all the scientific evidence, but mostly, how yoga makes us feel — relaxed and centered, and, yes, oftentimes even more creative.
Want to try it for yourself? Check out these “Five Poses to Boost Creativity” from our friends at Yoga Journal. And if you find yourself under a tight deadline and having to be creative on demand, remember the most important yoga cue there is: Breathe. Just breathe.
Namaste.
Emily Richwine
Copy Director (and our in-house 200-hour registered yoga teacher)
BMDG
Photos: Shutterstock
