Austin, I’m heading your way! A month from today I’ll be presenting at the SXSW Interactive Festival. Back in August I put together a proposal for a session entitled Taming the Monkey Mind: Yoga and Creative Focus. I’ve never been to SXSW, though from the description of it from friends who have gone it felt like the perfect setting to discuss my interest in helping creative professionals use yoga as a tool to spur their imagination at will. Plus, SXSW will allow me to indulge every nerdy tendency I have (and there are many!) In January, my session was accepted by the SXSW selection committee and I’ve been off and running on the planning and preparation front ever since.
As part of being a speaker, I have the opportunity to bring along a co-presenter. SXSW is such an incredibly inspiring experience that I felt selfish not sharing the goodness so I asked my friend Jennilyn Carson of Yogadork.com fame if she’d be interested in co-hosting the session with me. Thankfully she accepted, submitted to the SXSW committee, and was accepted. I couldn’t be more excited! Her blog on yoga pop culture is one of the funniest, savviest, and honest channels out there. She’s an incredible writer, community-builder, and meticulous researcher. I feel honored to have her join in the fun.
Our session will be on Tuesday, March 15th at 5:00pm, room TBD – the last slot of the interactive festival. It’s the perfect way to close out the SXSW experience – sharing ideas and thoughts about the creative process and the use of yoga to enhance our imaginations. No pressure, all fun. Stop by and see us!
I’ll also be teaching a yoga class on Monday, March 14th at 9:30am thanks to the gracious Ari Stiles. Again, it’s a very chilled out beginner level session that’s meant to help you relax and recharge for the last two days of the SXSW Interactive Festival. Come play!
Here’s a description of the session from the SXSW site:
The perfect way to wrap-up your SXSW experience: a lively and carefree conversation about how yoga can help you easily access your creativity and imagination at will. We all know this feeling of being under the gun with a deadline, needing to access our most creative ideas at a moment’s notice. When we really need our creative muse to show up, she somehow has the uncanny ability to hide like a needle in a haystack and then show up at 3:00am as we bolt upright out of bed, making our way in the dark to scribble down the ideas she’s handed to us. For too long we’ve accepted that’s just the way creativity and imagination work – unpredictably.
Yoga – physical postures, breathing techniques, and visualization – helps us tap into our imaginations at will and with ease, exactly when we need them. A regular yoga practice keeps our minds sharp, helps us make connections between seemingly disparate bits of information that may otherwise go unnoticed, and imagine solutions to complex challenges. It gives us a way forward. This session is helpful for everyone who needs to tap into their own creativity on a regular basis – from performers to programmers, in all mediums.
This blog is also available as a podcast on Cinch and iTunes.
Christa Avampato 