Into the Wild

 

             I ran like an animal today in track. I knew I could all along. I don’t want to be a great athlete, I want to be an animal. I don’t care about writing for itself either. I do it for something else: To dig a deep hole so I can sit and not run when the wild animals I call up come to me. I know what to do with them. I note them on the page.            
                   --  Natalie Goldberg, Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life

       Natalie Goldberg’s bestselling Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life  is a small treasure of a book about how to be a better writer. The book that made her reputation as a writing teacher, it is a candid, accessible, easy to read excursion into the inner landscapes of the mind and heart of an aspiring writer. She completely nailed it when she wrote that we have to become better acquainted with our intuitive side -- our animal -- if we ever hope to release the passion and power that are rightfully ours. I read this book many years ago but only when I began teaching yoga did I have a small epiphany about how I could let my intuitive part, my animal, guide my writing. Well, now it's more fun than a barrel of monkeys! We all have wild animals and can call up these critters, note them on our pages, talk to them, hoot and holler with them.  As in literature, where animals often either stand in for certain characters or they are used to embellish or evoke an important mood or feeling, so it is in yoga. Certain asanas were created by the ancients through astute and longtime observation of animals and their characteristic behaviors. Lore has it that such poses can extend the animal's symbolic benefits to those who practice yoga.

  And You? 

        Here's a simple yoga sequence and writing practice to better acquaint you with your own animals featuring poses with animal names including those found in water (symbolic of emotion)  earth (symbolic of grounding)  and air (symbolic of inspiration). The proper alignment and execution of the asanas themselves can be found at www.yogajournal.com or you can practice them in a class at your local yoga studio. Follow the asana practice with the writing excursion and if you've never written a fable, now's your chance. The combined energy of this yoga+writing practice has amazing and memorable benefits. 

 

The Yoga Sequence 

Water  (emotions) 

Crocodile pose– adaptability 

 Dolphin pose– divine protection

Turtle pose– perseverance

Earth (grounding)

Dog pose–  guardian companion

Elephant pose– good fortune

Lion pose– courage

Tiger pose– power

Air (inspiration)

Eagle pose– perception

Owl pose– wisdom

Butterfly pose– soul

The Writing Practice          

        Aesop’s Fables is a collection of tales by the Greek storyteller Aesop, a slave in ancient Greece.  A keen observer of both animals and people, he portrayed most of the characters in his stories as animals, some with human characteristics personified with speech and emotions, but most of his characters retain their animal qualities: tortoises are slow, hares are quick, tigers eat birds, lions are regal and so on.  Write a fable about yourself as an animal endowed with human qualities who has an epiphany of some kind. The hero/heroine discovers something about values, purpose or meaning illustrating a lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim..."and so the moral to this story is...."

    1.     2 minutes. Look over the list of animal yoga postures.  Choose one that resonates with you, or maybe just a part of you that is unfamiliar but appealing.

    2.   5 minutes. List characteristics/qualities of that animal, positive and negative and then imagine the animal as a part of you and your identity as a writer. Choose a moral or lesson that you want to illustrate, then introduce the animal by describing it (and any other animals in your fable,poem/song). Based on their personality traits, how are they likely to act?  Choose the time and place of the story and describe a setting. 

    3.    5 minutes. Think of a  plot: What's the major problem or conflict is and who learns the moral/ lesson? How? Imagine some punchy dialogue. What's the surprise or unexpected element in the story? How do the characters solve the problem and learn the moral/lesson? 

    4.    10 minutes. Now write your fable (keep it short, no more than one paragraph) with your chosen animal as protagonist. Base your piece on an experience you’ve had personally or your imagination to create something completely fictional. Remember the idea is to portray the protagonist as displaying characteristics that will bring discovery and possibly even illumination through solving a thorny moral issue. Sum up your piece with “the moral to this story is” or with a pithy maxim a la  and so he/she realized that…(” the early bird catches the worm; there’s no place like home; etc.)

     5.     Share this story with someone, dead or alive! If the idea of reading your story aloud to someone not physically present seems odd to you then I invite you to free yourself of the chains on your imagination. Try it. The point here is that a listening partner doesn't respond or critique but is brought in merely to bear witness to your arrival at wisdom’s edge.