Starting tomorrow, June 8th, I’m participating in this project Bindu Wiles created called 21.5.800:
For 21 days, we’ll be doing 5 days of yoga a week and 800 words of writing per day. WAIT!
Don’t stop reading! Hear me out.
Here’s the deal;
THE WRITING: The writing can be ANYTHING. Memoir, blogs, business plans, essays, fiction, free-writing, letters,……..ANYTHING. The point is to get writing again daily and to have the boundaries and challenge of a daily word count to reach.
THE YOGA: There are several options for you to do the yoga portion of 21.5.800 5 times in 7 days. Here are the options: 1. Go to a yoga class in your ‘hood. 2. Do a yoga dvd at home. 3. Take a 20-40 minute savasana* at home on the floor.
This could not have come at a better time for me! Since “starting fresh” last week, I’m really excited to participate in this project and challenge myself (I’ve never committed to yoga for more than 3 days straight so this should be interesting…). Also, I need redeem myself after having my not-so-successful (25) Days of Scriptwriting challenge/project. Since 21.5.800 has almost 200 people signed up, maybe having this community would help reach the daily goals. Here’s what I’m hoping to get out of this:
- More focus and clarity with my creative projects (whether it’s for my small business or web series)
- Get into the habit or routine of ideas flowing, creative energy running through my veins, and getting words on that piece of paper or computer screen.
- Meet/connect with others who are also doing this project
So, are you in?
photo credit: Elle *
During the last month of 2009, my mind has been in overdrive. I’ve actually started to think about the upcoming year and what I wanted and needed to do for the next 12 months and here’s what I’ve come up with:
- Create at least one film
- To be constantly writing something – even if it’s not a script (it can be poetry, blogging, etc.)
- Practice yoga regularly
- Learn web design
- Take more photos
- Become location independent
And after reading these inspiring posts from Jonathan Fields and Chris Brogan, I’ve decided to list my own 3 Words for 2010:
Courage. I know that fear will always be there. But instead of trying to make it disappear, I want to practice acknowledging it and going for my goals anyways, moving past it. This will definitely be a challenge, but I think it will be a rewarding one.
Create. To write/tell/show more stories and collaborate with like-minded, passionate people.
Play. I have this tiring habit of stressing myself out, not taking breaks for myself, etc. As someone that’s been “more work than play”, I’m excited to try new things this coming year whether it’s travelling, photography, yoga, taking up a new hobby, etc.
So what are your 3 Words for 2010?
photo credit: Diego Cupolo
Lately, I’ve gotten back on the yoga bandwagon after a very long break. Now that I’m back together with yoga, I can’t believe I stopped going to classes! I’ve been feeling much better physically and mentally! One of the things I plan to do for 2010 is maintain a regular yoga practice. Even if I can’t do this daily, I want to practice at least once or twice a week. No excuses this time. I repeat: no more excuses. I’ve thrown away a lot of time the past few years by using these. If I had cut down my excuses quota in the previous years, I’m pretty sure I would have gotten a lot more done!
Any so by developing a yoga practice, I also realized that I really need to develop a writing practice as well. I used just as many excuses and procrastination techniques with my writing as I did with yoga (and other things). But now that I’ve been collecting a bunch of stories that I want to put on paper, I know that they’ll just sit as little scribbles on post-it notes until I actually start writing.
Mary from Ruts and Grooves wrote a blog post on some advice for new writers that really got to me, reinforcing my idea of developing a writing practice for myself. I, too, had this fantasy of just writing when inspiration strikes. But the reality is that the first thing you write will be far from perfect and that you’ll be spending a lot of time with the re-write. And to get to the re-writing stage, I need to have some writing to begin with. I need to be writing more than I should be right now because nothing much will ever come from having myself just writing here and there. I’m really looking forward to what comes out of this writing practice. I know that there’ll be times of frustration where I’ll make up some excuse to go and write some other day … but I’m putting my foot down this time. I have a lot to gain by sticking with it.
In the words of Ashtanga Yoga founder Sri K. Pattabhi Jois: “Practice, and all is coming.”