make time for your yoga by artsyville

Hi, hello there. Victoria Klein here – you might remember me from my 2010 Eco-DIY New Year’s Resolutions post earlier this year. I’m back to chat with you again, but not about setting goals or living sustainably. Let’s chat about yoga.

WAIT! Before you close this window or click on to something else, hear me out for a minute, okay? The misconceptions about yoga are rampant, but as a creative individual, you stand to benefit exponentially from its practice.

The concept is simple: move physically to be moved creatively.

We’ve all been there: hunched over the table or laptop, working away as the hours pass like minutes, barely grazing the beginning of that to-do list. You need a break … but how will you still get anything done if you take a break?

You can’t be productive if you work nonstop. Your shoulders get sore, your eyes dry out, your stomach gets angry from all the coffee/lack of food, your butt goes numb. Sound familiar? There’s nothing positive about pain, strain, dehydration, or pure exhaustion.
A short yoga practice can help stretch both your body and your mind.

Physically, most yoga poses feature exaggerated versions of things we do in everyday life, like sitting, walking, reaching, and twisting. Holding these poses allow our muscles to stretch in ways we don’t normally experience, giving them to chance to fully release stress and strain.

Mentally, yoga is a proverbial breath of fresh air (and can be practiced outside!). To prevent injury (and looking silly), yoga requires you to focus on each pose and the use of your breath consciously. No worrying about to-do lists or errands or chores. Just stay in the moment is give you body the creative challenge it desires and your mind the break is deserves.

Most yoga classes are 60 to 90 minutes long, but sometimes that just isn’t realistic for us creative types. Even just 20 minutes of yoga can help you return to your projects refreshed, revived, and re-inspired.

Of course, I’m speaking from personal experience here. I wouldn’t recommend anything that I haven’t tried myself. As a yoga practitioner for nearly 10 years, it has helped me personal and professional struggles I surely wouldn’t have overcome otherwise (e.g. cross-country moves, marriage, failed projects, major milestones, and ongoing dreams.)

I maintain a regular, every-other-day, 60-minute practice, but I also turn to yoga whenever my mind is racing or my body is throbbing. Just a few long-held, deeply-breathed poses set me back on the right path – creating things to inspire others.

Getting started with a yoga practice is easy, affordable, and fun – yes, I said fun. That’s the whole reason I wrote my first book, titled 27 Things to Know About Yoga. From community classes and simple supplies to at-home DVDs and introductory poses, you’ll know more about yoga than any other newbie. Bonus: yoga also does wonders for those times when you are devoid of ideas or forward momentum.

Whether you visit a yoga studio, practice at home, or embark on a mix of the two, yoga may be the physically creative outlet you are looking for. Forget what you’ve heard – try yoga for yourself & only then will you know what pure inspiration feels like.

How do you move physically to inspire your creativity?

ABOUT VICTORIA KLEIN
Victoria Klein is a freelance writer, photographer + creative dabbler. Her 1st book, 27 Things to Know About Yoga, was released in July 2010. Her 2nd book, 48 Things to Know About Sustainable Living, will be released in October 2010.

Am I writing about cat beds on Scoutie Girl today? Why yes I am.

If it’s true that creativity requires constraints, that our ideas are only able to get outside a box by first having been forced inside one, then it seems true that eco-creators are already one constraint ahead of the game, right?

True as that may be, it’s definitely as true that simply using recycled or repurposed materials isn’t going to get you any notice or notoriety as an artist, designer, or maker.

After all, any old college boy can make a table out of beer cans, but no one’s knocking down the frat house door offering to buy, photograph, enshrine, or otherwise give value to said table.

Except maybe the pledges. And only then because they have to.

What eco-friendly art and design teach us is that creativity isn’t only about constraint. It’s also about surprise. About unpredictability and unfamiliarity.

I love these repurposed and wholly reimagined suitcases-cum-catbeds by Love Nostalgic Whimsy because they add that element of surprise. They add a bit of cool to the whole get-some-vintage-materials-and-make-them-into-something-else equation. Somehow, even though they’re catbeds, and repurposed, and so very vintage, LNW has managed to create these super modern catbeds.

For me the genius is that even though all cat owners know that cats never sleep where you tell them to, because they’re cats, you kind of want to get one of these anyway. Hell, you kind of want one cats or no cats.

Heading to creative hotbed Providence, RI today to check out Queen of Hearts.  Enjoy!

Our mission at Queen of Hearts is to give artists a retail environment for their work to be displayed and sold.  People love to learn about the artists’ work they are purchasing first hand.  They enjoy the experience of being educated on the designer and the art they are purchasing.  This allows the consumer to connect an actual person with the product, and encourages them to continue to support local artists.  We simply provide an environment for the interaction to take place.

Supporting handmade is so important to me because I am also an artist as well as a boutique owner.  I understand how difficult it can be to get your work out there.  This is especially challenging for the handmade artist who may not have the resources to produce large numbers of their items.  Handmade items are unique, beyond anything you would ever find in a chain or box store.  People want to feel like an individual and buy something that is one of kind.  It is special to wear something that you will never see anyone else wearing.

I would like to emphasize how important it is for people to support there local businesses.  Yes we all know you can get everything cheap cheap at walmart, but those places put the mom and pop places out of business.  Of course us small businesses cannot purchase things as cheap as they can when placing a multimillion dollar order, BUT we are the places that build a community.

Queen of Hearts
222 Westminster St
Providence, RI  02903

Featuring:
kelly eident
sarah clover