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creativity & awareness, a conscious response to adaptation in fitness & yoga

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Intro

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we all know about creativity, and we’ve all heard about awareness, and a lot of us are learning about fitness adaptation, where the body becomes accustomed to a level of exertion, so what’s the big deal?

well, how ’bout : lineage, continuity, connectivity

mind-body-fitness-yoga : interplay – with “play” being operative!

it’s good to know that creativity isn’t just something fun 😉 or frustrating

that creativity isn’t something that just happens when you make something arty

and awareness isn’t just something that happens when we realize we are aware of something

both awareness and creativity can, at times, be a choice

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Creativity and Awareness, Counters to Adaptation in Fitness

Awareness, Varying the Form of the Moment

it is said, i believe, in science, and in psychology, that an awareness of an event, alters that event, even if only at a micro level

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being, or becoming aware, of a portion of ourselves, in a moment in time, forces us to :

either accept and (hopefully) breathe through the pull or stretch or pain or pleasure we feel during a pose –

thus actually extending the boundary of adaptation by our body to the same pose; re-adapting the body to a new endurance level

kinda like road work on the path of our muscle memories – moving the “road ends” signs a little further out the path 😉

or,

change that pull or stretch or pain or pleasure, in any direction we choose

part of what i like to call, our yoga loophole 😉

nicole fleetwood, in her article on magazine of yoga, “work the pose: courage, embodiment and daily life” puts it this way,

“Working the pose brought me into an awareness of my wrestling with time – struggling with past and then anticipating the future..Working the pose was an opportunity not only to observe but also to embody time passing in the present moment.”

essentially, we are time…

and our passage in space, or awareness in it, offers us a creative opportunity to alter, day by day, moment by moment, our body’s adaptation to what has passed before  [1]

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Creativity, From Awareness

though fitness adaptation is invaluable for internalizing specific muscles and movement patterns for a specific purpose, things we want to be able to do correctly efficiently and unobtrusively (walking, running, breathing, etc), specificity enables us to focus on areas needing further developement, or correction (throwing a curve ball, learning a fun dance step, breathing, etc) –

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in yoga, my yoga i should say, using held poses and movements between poses, plus movement within poses, is something i tend to see as gestalt endeavor, meant to benefit my mind-body connection, and, possibly (hopefully) give me clues to existence – why am i here? why are we here? and does it matter, beyond that we are here?

personally, i don’t believe adherence to any system, yogic or otherwise, is necessary to sometimes hear whatever wisdom may be within us (though i’m open to picking up whatever i might can learn from “most” anyone) 😉

that said, in a very real sense, whatever point i may be at, in any moment in time, is a point of adaptation, by my body, my mind-body connection, for me, right now

and if yoga, barring the need for specific restorative stretching or strengthening, is a gestalt game in experience, then most anything i do that varies a routine, held or moving, is a challenge to my level of fitness adaptation at that moment in time

even if the challenge is teeny tiny 😉

and that said, awareness, as pointed out above, and more strongly so, creativity, as a response to adaptation by my body, is my next level of engagement with myself

awareness, at some level, i believe, engenders creativity

awareness is the ripple, creativity is the wave

probably two parts of one inner flow

subjective, yes, but…

it’s interesting that even within scientific discussion, we can find, from performbetterdotcom, a statement like [ please note, this link will not work for me on my proof check, so the link for performbetterdotcom is to a google search that shows the clickable link as the top entry ]  :

“Any pre-planned PD [ periodization model ] scheme is affected by subjective and objective feedback obtained from the athlete’s current state…”

hmmmmm 😉

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Creativity as a Form of Periodization

periodization is a method of training thought to be helpful in combating excess fitness adaptation, and can be used or viewed linearly or non-linearly

“the science of periodization” by jason shea, suggests :

“Although the general loading process (with respect to initial training levels) overtime may be considered linear, variations in volume and intensity that occur within a microcycle exhibit a nonlinear pattern…

“What may be meant by non-linear is not the periodization schedule, but when taken from motor learning context, the variability of practice schedule, otherwise known as undulating or concurrent periodization.”

ace fitness provides numerous suggestions how to incorporate periodization into one’s routines, among them :

• The number of repetitions per set, or the number of sets of each exercise
• The amount of resistance used
• The rest period between sets, exercises or training sessions
• The order of the exercises, or the types of exercises
• The speed at which you complete each exercise

for me, ace’s (partial) list above is a veritable gold mine for creativity!

just in regard to the third item, “rest period between sets” –

i can take license with myself, and say, “even professional sports athletes have an off-season!”

meaning, modulating training (practice) can include slowing down, or even taking a break…whew!

i know, even sounds almost blasphemous to me 😉

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Creativity as Experimentation

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i experiment in my art work

my poems are often feeling-searchings

my photography finds things in layers and versions!

my asanas, ahh my asanas 😉 it’d be easier to figure when i’m not experimenting!

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creativity is fun!

and for me, learning why, and how to trigger creativity, and use it, doesn’t take away from it 😉

but how would one, unaccustomed to so-called creative work “get” creative?

experimentation is one of the easiest means for me :

i don’t have to know anything about results

i need expect only the unknown –

and just try something…

wiggle a foot, stretch a shoulder, move fuller into my breath, lift a hand, shift a hip, lift a leg –

and see what happens 😉

repeat it, chunk it, enhance it, soften it, slow it down, run it smooth, make it jumpy, hold it –

september’s issue of yoga journal is what the editor, kaitlin quistgaard, rightly calls, in her editor’s letter, a “special music issue” –

within it, various musician artists are interviewed

among them, alanis morissette, says :

“the impetus to do yoga comes from the same place where my songs are birthed. when i’m writing songs or doing yoga, i’m curious about what’s really going on: what’s happening in my body? what’s happening in my heart? what’s happening in my life? what’s happening in the larger context of the planet? what’s happening in the evolution of consciousness? what’s happening in my knee? It’s all the same muscle of curiosity…

“that’s the most powerful quality i bring to my creative process….”

yes, i agree!

be curious…experiment…explore! 😉

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Applied Example

a super article, offering a fun example, is jill miller’s article, on gaiam’s site, “how to get out of that pose rut”

suggestions she offers include :

“shuffle around your yoga DVD collection” ; yoga cross training, with links to various styles of yoga, and props

also included is a nice sequence of photos illustrating her thoughts via triangle pose, trikonasana –

it’s amazing to see her variations –

my favorite titled pose is “twisted triangle run over by a truck” 😉

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Final Thoughts

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Choices

yesterday’s post, on using a pyramiding technique in yoga, mentioned how we can make choices to increase or decrease the load and thus, the effect, a pose may have on us

today, i suggest, that, though awareness “is” and counters adaptation to some extent, to become more fully whole, and i believe, remain close to that state, we have to decide we want to side-step our body’s natural plateauing of our efforts (adaptation) by :

* activating a creative, even if experimental, pose-choice-modification, while performing a pose for ourselves 😉

* that this is not only, by definition, creative 😉 but healthy for us!

* and that, even when we choose to plateau and enjoy our fruits for awhile, creative experimentation, is the easiest surest most fun way to put a ripple on the smooth surface of that plateau of fitness

and by recognizing that,

* awareness is an opportunity to acknowledge a state of being, and alter our body’s adaptation to the exertion and capability of doing that pose, by :

** either maintaining the pose beyond the current state of adaptation (some might say byond boredom)

or

** creating a nuance of adjustment, of any degree, and challenging that adaptation that way

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lineage, continuity, connectivity

science, mind, body, spirit

yoga, fitness, self

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afaa, and dr john w travis, at wellpeople.com, both agree that wellness is a choice –

and, as discussed previously, i believe yoga and wellness are of a family

awareness and creativity, like wellness in general, are choices

choices of enhancement – conscious choices of intent

choices i attempt to make each day, each practice

’cause sometimes i forget 😉

namaste – con dios – god be with you

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tidbit series

footnotes

[1]  my initial thoughts, on adaptation and how we can beneficially deal with it, is in my post :

“adaptation in yoga fitness and nature, thoughts“

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[2]  a post from yoga journal online, “periodize your practice” , came out today, and spoke directly and clearly about periodization

my comment on their facebook page, which i shared on my own fb pg, says,

“it’s so good to see this type of thinking applied to yoga; my post today on pyramiding in yoga fits right in… 

“really liked sage’s lines, “As you move into more concerted and intense training, your build period or competitive season, you’ll need to pay closer attention to the demands of your yoga practice” –

 “i really liked the way the info for that played out, learned much! thanks!”

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