The Sensual Art of Writing Yoga

Elevate Your Writing with the Magic of Yoga - By Jilly Shipway

Reading time: 3 minutes

Writing, like yoga, is a form of magic! A writer puts words on the page, and, done skilfully, the words will elicit an image in the reader's mind. As readers we are more likely to be able to picture what the writer is trying to convey if the writer appeals to our five senses. The five senses are touch, taste, smell, sound, and sight.

Touch is the smooth feel of velvet, or a handful of sun-soaked soil. Taste is the flavour of melting chocolate on the tongue. Smell is the scent of sandalwood. Sound is the hum of traffic outside as you lie down to relax in Savasana. Sight is what you see when you look at a rainbow. For our writing to come alive we must use all of our five senses, and furnish the reader with sensual, concrete details, if we are to open a window that allows them to peer into our world.

Writing sensually and evocatively takes practice. The Sensual Writing exercise, below, will get you into the habit of observing and recording the world around you with all your five senses. It will help to improve your writing, whilst at the same time lifting your mood by taking you out of your head, and into your body, bringing you firmly back to the present moment, which, as the Buddhists remind us, is a wonderful moment.

Students, on my online yoga writers’ course, were amazed at how transformative this exercise can be. They found that when they did the exercise, even in challenging circumstances, it changed their perspective, jolting them out of autopilot and into a mindful, appreciative state.

Exercise: Sensual Writing

This exercise can be done in a cafe, in the park, on a train, at home, in your garden, at the start or end of your yoga class, or anywhere else you choose. In your notebook you are going to write down 5 things you've observed for each of the five senses. So, for example if you are in a cafe, you might see a reflection of the street outside in your glass, or hear the clanking of crockery, the aroma of freshly ground coffee etc. If you are short of time, at any one sitting it's fine to just choose one of the five senses to focus on, for example you might just write down five sounds that you can hear. Next time round, focus on another of the senses. Or, if you've got plenty of time, go through all five senses in one sitting.

Touch...'I can feel...'
Taste...'I can taste...'
Smell...'I can smell...'
Sound...'I can hear...'
Sight...'I can see...'

Once you've finished recording these concrete details. Spend a few minutes just writing freely about any memories or impressions that arose, or were triggered, whilst you were doing the exercise.

It's worth noting that when you look at a scene, what you see and what you observe will be completely different to what I would have seen or observed, should I have viewed the same scene. That's because you are a unique human being, and so am I. Our perception will be clouded by what sort of day we're having, and our past experiences etc. How beautiful is that! And how boring reading would be if all writers wrote from the same point of view.

Writing, like yoga, gives us the space to draw inwards and process the inevitable messiness and beauty of our everyday lives. Writing also propels us to be curious and open to experiencing the sensuality of the world around us. The exercise above is from my online self-paced course, The Yoga Writers’ Handbook https://yoga-through-the-year-with-jilly-shipway.teachable.com/p/the-yoga-writers-handbook The course is for people who love writing and want to approach writing in a yogic way. The course shows you how to write in a mindful way that enhances your wellbeing, and how to write in a way that engages your reader. This course is for you, regardless of whether you want to write a yoga book, write an article for OM Yoga, or simply wish to deepen your understanding of both yoga and writing.

Defamiliarisation is word you often hear on creative writing courses. Put simply, it means we bring a fresh perspective to a familiar subject. We start to see the world anew, just as we do when we practice yoga. When we are on autopilot we miss out on so much of the rich texture of life. As a writer you need to slow down and take in the details of the world around you with all your five senses. In a word, you need to be mindful. As yoga practitioners we have a head start with this, as yoga is a form of mindfulness.