Blog moved to www.nicolesheldrake.com

As of April 24th, 2011 this blog has moved to NicoleSheldrake.com.

Thank you for reading! The fun continues at our shiny new location.

My 40-day Yoga Challenge - 2 days to go

Photo courtesy of istolethetv

Why would I, after practicing yoga 4 - 7 times/week for two years, suddenly decide to do a 40-day yoga challenge? I already practice a lot of yoga, right?

Well, a yoga retreat on Galiano Island is the final draw prize. That's one reason I decided to do the challenge. I feel a little guilty that I only chose to participate this time because I want to win the retreat. Although I never win in draws. So maybe I shouldn't feel so guilty, since I recognize that I have a miniscule chance of winning. In fact, I know I won't win. But gosh darn it, I plan to at least be entered in the draw.

Reason two - I was curious as to whether a 7-day-a-week practice would be different from the 5-6 days/week I've recently been doing. Already I appreciate yoga immensely and can't imagine ever not practicing. In fact, I plan on taking the Semperviva yoga teacher training program next year. But what would a daily practice teach me?

Days 1 - 30: To be honest, the first thirty days were easy. My biggest challenge was trying to fit in two classes on the weekend instead of my usual one.


Day 31: I got sick. Sore throat, sneezing, sniffling, dizzy spells. Awesome. I was in denial the first couple days. When I started being unable to sleep because my throat hurt when I lay down, I decided to accept the facts. Now I had a decision to make, and this is where the 40-day challenge came in to play.

I could quit. I was sick. Yoga is about understanding your body and taking care of it. It would be perfectly acceptable to take a few days break and allow my body the time to heal. That's what my advice to anyone else would be.

I didn't quit. (bad yogini!)I used the challenge as a way to force myself to consider how my daily practice can heal, by adapting my yoga practice to my body's condition. And this for me, is the ultimate beauty of yoga. It's not a sport. It's nurturing, accepting and non-competitive. And the best teachers recognize that.

Case in point, on the day I felt the worst (dizzy spells and snot streams, hurrah!), I went to Dan's class. I went in the evening, when I was not dizzy and not so sneezy and snotty. I planned to meditate while the class was doing asanas. Although I'd seen people doing their own thing in other classes, I'd never done it myself and I felt a little nervous. To my relief, Dan's intro to the class included the invitation "And if you just want to sit still and meditate for the whole class, that's fine too." It was as though he could feel what I needed to hear and he said the words just for me. So I did meditate for most of the class, not stressing my body in any way but healing it through breath and a tiny bit of movement at the end of class.

The following day, I did the same thing. After class the teacher came up to me afterwards just to check that I was alright. Such a sweet man! This is Semperviva yoga studio, this is yoga, this is the yoga community - compassionate, nurturing, challenging.

How does this relate to writing? If we see writing as a practice, then the connection is clear. If your body's needs change day-to-day, then your mind's needs do as well. And while I agree that getting your bum in the chair every day is the first step to writing, accepting that your output may be different from yesterday or last week and not beating yourself up about it, is just as important. We will make progress if we do what we can every day. And the only way we are going to WANT to practice every day is if we feel gratitude for what we do, no matter how much, and if we accept daily change and work with it.

A daily practice that inspires, challenges and nurtures us is valuable, no matter what it is. The Semperviva 40-day yoga challenge has motivated me to stick with a daily yoga practice and has made me feel good about myself and what I can accomplish.

Day 38: Feelin' groovy!

What is your daily practice and what does it do for you?

April 21 update: I completed the challenge! Yay! Didn't win the retreat but I am so glad I did it - I feel fantastic. Day 41, 42, 43, 44 . . . coming up!

MATCHED, Elections and YA Dystopian Novel Popularity

In Canada, a general election is scheduled for May 2, 2011.

AND

The other day I finished reading MATCHED by Ally Condie, a young adult dystopian novel. The storyline:


In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one… until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow — between perfection and passion.

I was struck by the connection between the book and the elections after seeing this picture posted by a friend on Facebook:

Young Greens of Canada

The connection got me wondering why young adult dystopian novels are so popular recently. In a December 2010 NY Times article, author Paolo Bacigalupi suggests that teens "crave stories of broken futures because they themselves are uneasily aware that their world is falling apart." That makes sense to me.

These novels are being written by adults, not young adults (as far as I know). I'm curious, however, if they are being bought by a higher percentage of young adults or adults. In my heart, I hope young adults are buying them because maybe they will inspire the next generation to change the world.

Led by THE HUNGER GAMES and MATCHED (and many others), young adults are reading about people their age making a difference, in times not too dissimilar from our own. I've found the dystopian novels published in the last few years are more realistic than the adult dystopian books I've read, such as BRAVE NEW WORLD or 1984, making them easier to relate to, for me at least.


Elections are one opportunity to make such a change (or at least an attempt to make one but that's a whole 'nother blog). They are a start.

From THE HUNGER GAMES "May the odds be ever in your favour," and from MATCHED "I wish you optimal results," whatever changes you are choosing to make in your life.

What do you think about the popularity of YA dystopian books?

Edit on April 15: April 11-15 was dystopian week on Tor.com. There's a great Introduction to Dystopian Fiction which mentions a new anthology of dystopian literature which sounds fantastic. A further post has a Dystopian Round Table from the contributors to the anthology. Check it out!

yWriter, free and fabulous novel writing software

Shortly after starting on the second draft of my novel, I realized I didn't want to use a word processor any longer. I needed to keep track of my characters and move scenes around. I wanted to be able to rid my novel of specific content yet keep that content accessible. My word processor made this far too time-consuming.

yWriter has been my savior. A versatile yet easy-to-use software that is free and allows me to focus on writing, not scrolling.

Simon Haynes, an Australian computer programmer and author of a science fiction comedy series called Hal Spacejock, created yWriter as a tool for his own projects. He is always updating the software and is quick to respond if there are any problems.

My five favourite features:

1. Drag and drop scenes: If you decide that Skippy the magic bunny needs to die in Chapter 1 instead of Chapter 5, simply drag the scene from Chapter 1 to Chapter 5. Done.
2. Lists: Characters, locations and items. Record names, pictures, bios, goals and update them any time. Add characters to scenes and create reports to see how many scenes each character is in.
3. Export scenes, chapters or the whole project to different formats: Export to html, RTF, text, eBook, etc. Makes it easy to copy a scene into a Word doc if necessary or create a PDF.
4. Create outlines and synopses: Each scene has a space for the writer to input a scene title and another space for a scene description. yWriter allows you to export just these to a document so you have a ready-made outline or synopsis.
5. Details and Goals Tabs: Although I don't use theses tab as much as I should, they do assist you with tracking important structural elements of your scene. For example, the type of scene (action or reaction), if it's plot or subplot, the day the scene occurs and how long it lasts. The Goals tab provides a space to input the scene's goal, conflict and resolution.

yWriter saves your writing frequently and if you pair it with a free online backup system like Dropbox, you can access your project from any computer and never have to worry about losing a ton of data if your machine crashes.

If you already have a few thousand words written in a word processor, you can easily import your work-in-progress into yWriter.

For the new writer who wants to keep their novel organized without spending a pile of cash, yWriter is the perfect tool.

Download yWriter here and git yer writin' organized!

Comic: Hazards of Being an Author

 

From the pen of Debbie Ohi, a writer and illustrator who lives in Toronto, Canada. Find her on Inkygirl.com.