Breathing Exercises: A Guest Blog by Janice Elsheimer

Routines for Writers is pleased to welcome Janice Elsheimer as our special guest every Tuesday in November. While we’re all busily writing away, Janice will give us tips and ideas for increasing our creativity. Please join us in welcoming Janice!

From the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, about 90 miles southwest of Asheville, NC.

I’m at the John C. Campbell Folk School for the week, assisting an artist friend, Redenta Soprano, who is teaching a class on drawing from nature. At Redenta’s suggestion, I put together my own still life composition to attempt a drawing based on what she’s teaching in her class. I’ve spent about an hour trying to render a miniature pumpkin, a spray of dried Chinese lanterns, and a brown oak leaf in pencil. The photograph I took of it looks great, but the drawing? Even with help from Redenta, it’s so amateurish and the process is so laborious that I’ve given up in frustration.

But there’s a bright side: I’ve discovered that all I want to do when I draw is get back to my writing. When I shared this thought with the visual artists in the class, most of them said the opposite is true for them: they just can’t sit still and write for more than a few minutes before they want to turn off the computer and get out the art supplies.

What’s the lesson here? Maybe one thing we can do to stimulate our creativity, regardless of where our talents lie, is to surround ourselves with people and activities that encourage us to create.

For me, whether it’s listening to an author at a writers’ conference, visiting the Morse Museum of American Art in my hometown, or attending a philharmonic concert, I’m getting my creative juices flowing. The trick is to give myself an opportunity to do what I call “breathing exercises” at least once a week. Then maybe once a year go away, for at least a weekend, somewhere I can dive deep into whatever sources of inspiration I find there.

The Campbell Folk School is just that sort of place. People come from all over the world to this magical spot to spend a weekend or a week immersing themselves in the study of everything from fine art to fiber art, from bookmaking to blacksmithing, from organic gardening to guitar building. Just being here is so inspiring that I, for one, am filled with the desire to get back to my sparse little room and my laptop after being around all these artists for even an hour or two. Although I can’t afford to take this much time out of my everyday life very often, there is one thing I can do every week, and that’s to take myself out for an hour to do some breathing exercises.

This idea is not unique. Most experts on creativity and creative production recommend something like it. I find my breathing exercises indispensable to balance my seat-in-chair time with some inspiration-collecting time.

Here’s an exercise to try in your journal today: Start with where you live or work and mentally spiral out in every direction, jotting down any place you can go for an hour or an afternoon to get your creative energy refreshed. From my house there are many lakes and parks within walking distance. What are some of the places you can walk to that might help you breathe some creative life into your writing?

Now think about places you love that are within a 15 to 20-minute drive from your house. I can name two botanical gardens, a sculpture garden, three museums, several libraries, and any number of cafes and bookstores where I can people-watch, look at books, and write. If going to the gift shop associated with an art museum gets your creative energy fired up, write that down. Bookstores and cafes work well for many writers, but how about a movie theatre or a concert at a local college? If I’m willing to drive an hour, I can spend the morning at the beach. Whatever inspires you, and however far you’re willing to go, making a list of these places is a good start toward incorporating breathing exercises into your writing life.

I’ve found that what keeps many writers from scheduling breathing exercises is the feeling that time alone is selfish time. In The Creative Call, I write: “All that I’m proposing is that you make an appointment with yourself to do something that might recharge your artistic batteries and to do it alone, even if it is just for one hour a week…When you give the artist within you this kind of quality time, you will have more to offer the people you love when you are with them.”

To paraphrase Mary Oliver, what do you plan to do with this one wild and precious week? Do this exercise in your journal and make an appointment with yourself to do one breathing exercise this week. See if this helps keep those artistic juices flowing.

Until next week,
Janice

Author and speaker Janice Elsheimer delivers the message that creativity is a pathway to personal and spiritual growth. Writers, visual artists, musicians, actors–folks who want to start exercising their artistic muscles fill her workshops, seminars and classes. They leave with a new sense of what is possible: a conviction that they can enrich their lives by developing God-given talents.