Sat 17 May
1:30 - 3:30pm at Yogarise, Peckham

1st Floor 'Yellow Stairs,' The Bussey Building, 133 Copeland Road, SE15 3SN

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Time to get the notebook out, pen in hand, hand to page. It doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned writer or a newbie, this workshop will give you the space to think differently and let some ideas roam free. 

 

This weekend we’ll be using Jack Kerouac’s “Belief & Technique for Modern Prose” as our springboard. Kerouac didn't just talk freedom, he wrote it. His prose, uninhibited and open, is inspiring and addictive to read because it's true. When we come to the yoga for writers practice, the aim of the game is to connect to what is true, because that is what is interesting. To put it in Kerouac's words, "It's not a question of the merit of art, but a question of spontaneity and sincerity and joy I say. I would like everybody in the world to tell his full life confession and tell it his own way and then we'd have something to read in our old age."

 

Brenda Ueland, a favourite writing teacher of mine said a similar thing that I often read out in class:

“Gradually by writing you will learn more and more to be free, to say all you think; and at the same time you will learn never to lie to yourself, never to pretend and attitudinize. But only by writing and by long, patient, serious work will you find your true self.

And why find it? Because it is, I think, your immortal soul and the life of the Spirit, and if we can only free it and respect it and not run it down, and let it move and work, it is the way to be happier and greater.”

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The goal of writing and yoga is the same: to get to the truth.

 

So what will we do? 

We start with a gentle yoga flow to free up the body and soften the mind, to become malleable and free, followed by an extended deep relaxation to sink a little deeper into ourselves. From there we'll move straight into some writing prompts, Kerouac style, to free up the hand and get the words flowing; these prompts will encourage you to write wild secrets and scribbled shame (you can burn it all later), to open up your mind and listen in to your own creative voice. Each prompt will broaden the mind a little more, get a bit deeper until we move into a very freeing visualisation, before connecting up the dots with a creative writing exercise. Things will come up and some of it will keep you going, long after the workshop is over.  

 

You don’t have to share anything, you don’t have to be brilliant, you just have to be honest with your words, and that is very powerful. 

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A note to those of you who have joined this workshop before: the prompts are always different and the visualisation will be different too, no two workshops are ever the same. 

 

Come join!

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