Writing is the Yoga for the Mind

I was always afraid to write after my 42 and 42.1 posts. Because writing takes two people — one to pour the mix of thoughts and ideas from the bowl of one’s head, and another to find an appropriate glass for that, fix articles and see if the author did not digress. That’s why many writers start with how do they feel about the writing they are about to do — to set some framework and mindset that both keeps them straight and sets the scope for themselves. It is similar to chanting of people in monasteries — it helps them to set their mindset and calm their minds.

People in monasteries do not do yoga. At least I haven’t seen any Buddhist monks who are practicing that. But people who came to meditation centers need to care about themselves to keep their body fit and yoga also makes them feel better by tightening their contact with the body. When I say “yoga” I actually mean any activity that keeps your body fit and let you concentrate on good feelings. I write, because I want to have good feelings. I write, because I want ability to write concisely, interesting, easily to read and to follow.

Writing needs exercise to expand the ability to concentrate on one idea, to keep story in your head and slowly unwind it as it lays down on the canvas. I know that writing is not easy. In 42 and 42.1 gave myself the freedom to write whatever I want and didn’t try to control it. And later I was afraid that maybe I wrote something wrong, something that discredits me or somebody else, and that kept me from writing more. I didn’t want to build my reputation by writing under my real name profile, when there is some garbage left in archives that people will eventually discover and then think about how it stinks in some way. I feel like it some posts emit odor that needs a warning sign. I mixed the feeling that I care about readers with feeling that I care about my reputation. I realize that these feeling make me hard to write. I wrote this post to put both of these feeling away, so instead of caring about how do I look like when I do my yoga, or how people feel when they see me doing my yoga in this public space, I just do my exercise.

People in the monastery gathered for Buddhist chanting and it is about time people in retreat centers do their morning yoga to meet the sun. I came to do my morning yoga too, and here is my chanting:

I write this post not for the fame, not for the people to like me, not for showing off, not for money, not to please anyone. I write this post to exercise my ability to convey information and make this world a better place.

Feel free to adopt and remix.