How Yoga Can Help You Become a Better Storyteller

I attended a yoga class last week. First time ever.

I worked muscles and tendons that hadn’t stretched since the Reagan administration.

Some of those muscles protested mildly. Others screamed, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

Our instructor, Jessica, asked us to bend at the waist and touch the ground. She spotted me in my neanderthal pose — curved back, arms hanging down a foot from the floor — and said, “If this is a challenge for anyone, you can use the blocks.”

The blocks are big bricks of foam that the yoga-challenged use to elevate the floor. I slipped a block under each hand and resumed my neanderthal pose — this time with my fingers hanging just eight inches from the foam “floor.”

The guy on the next mat over whispered, “You can turn the blocks on their end to make them taller.”

That did the trick. I flipped the foam, extended my torso, let gravity go to work, and reached those blocks…

…with the tippy-top of my fingertips…

…just barely.

Waves of self-satisfaction washed over me.

Then I glanced around the room and saw most everyone else with their palms planted firmly on their mats. (Sigh!)

I took a deep breath and thought, “It’s not a competition.” And I felt better.

So it goes in yoga. So it goes in writing and storytelling.

When I coach clients, they study examples I share. They look around the room and see accomplished storytellers with palms planted firmly on the mat, and they think, “I can’t do that! I don’t have the gift.”

My response: It’s not a competition. Focus on yourself. Focus on where you are today. Stretch and go a little further tomorrow.

They call yoga a “practice.” The more you practice, the better you get. The further you will stretch. The more satisfied you’ll be.

Writing and storytelling are practices, too. Learn the moves and practice — every day. Just write — whatever you want. Don’t overthink it. Just practice.

Focus on yourself, not the others around you. Before you know it, you’ll plant those palms firmly on the floor.