Attunement to Creativity

A workshop with Dr Anna McDonald and Linda Apps

Attunement + Yoga.

When a violinist wants to create music, the first thing is to tune up. 

This workshop is a practical guide to getting more attuned to your own creativity.  It takes the approach that body and mind can be attuned together to enhance creativity and wellbeing.

Does fear of criticism or comparison with others limit your performance?

Do you frequently react to your inner critic by doubting your own abilities?

Attunement is the art of listening inwardly, with self-trust, and letting your internal guidance flow into your life and creativity.  It is the opposite of reacting to the constricting and doubting inner critic.  Attunement means having the courage, audacity and self-love to live your creativity with joy and commitment. 

In today’s modern, media-driven lifestyle, it is easy to get mired in self-judgment, resulting in stress, self-doubt and clouded vision, and leading to tensions in the body.  Over time, these tensions can become unconscious and chronic, keeping us in certain patterns of thinking which don’t allow us to thrive mentally, emotionally or physically, and can be difficult to break free of. 

Learning attunement is a different approach to living creatively– one that enhances self-trust, relaxation and connection to the talents within you. It is a natural state, that is supported by the universal laws of nature, and leads to relaxation and health in the body.

The inner critic (a silent, but frequently active, mental pattern of adaptation that developed over time to conform to what we felt was expected of us) can lead to excessive comparison with others, self-doubt and lack of presence in the moment.  Yet at the same time, understanding its role and how to deal with it is a potent doorway to our gifts.  It acts as a guardian to the treasures in our inner world – the talents that are hiding behind learned, superficial judgments.  It has protected us, since childhood, from standing out from amongst the crowd – until we are ready to live from our deeper potential, be present, and live the abilities we were born with. 

This workshop teaches you how to extract yourself from the self-judging mindset, and instead melt into deeper attunement with your intrinsic creative gifts.  It is through greater attunement that you can find your “why” and realize that you already have what it takes to bring your creativity, ideas and talent into the world – along with your bodily strength and freedom. 

You will learn:

* What attunement feels like, and how it is a natural state which supports creativity.

* How the inner critic blocks attunement, and ways of dealing with it.

* Yoga techniques which create and support Attunement by stilling the mind and generating positivity.

You will come away with tools for mind and body that activate your joy, purpose and creativity, as well as joining a community that supports your wellbeing and connection to others.

Yoga - by Linda Apps

Yoga enhances our ability to attune to and liberate our creativity by quietening our minds so we can begin to recognise the conditioned responses, thoughts and beliefs that limit us. Once we can see clearly why we are reacting in a certain way, that clarity allows us make different choices.

In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras yoga is defined in Sanskrit as “cittavritti nirodhah” – the cessation of movements or fluctuations in the consciousness.

In yoga we move our body to quieten our mind and over time this disciplined practice allows us to see deeper into the lake of ourselves, and to become more aware of the conditioned responses and habits that determine how we relate to the world, what limits us and what creates waves on our lake. “Samskara” is the Sanskrit word used to describe the impressions, or mounds at the bottom of our personal lake that build up as a result of our experiences over time, and influence our habitual ways of thinking, believing and acting.

Much like the inner critic, it is these samskaras that can limit us when we want to break out of our comfort zone, try something new or grow to the next level in our work, personal life or creativity.

Yoga asanas and breathing techniques can help by creating the space and the internal quietness for us to see the samskaras and recognise what is controlling our choices and responses.

Our focused presence in stillness can also dissolve the samskaras, or mounds, over time. In my experience, this resonates with the work Anna does with the inner critic.

Our thoughts and beliefs can also be determined by our brain chemistry. If we’re anxious or depressed it will affect how we approach creativity, challenges and opportunities.

We can use different yoga asanas and breathing techniques to affect our brain chemistry for the better. Yoga can free us to believe that more is possible in our lives and act accordingly.

In this workshop we will practice simple yoga breathing techniques and asanas that help still the mind and create more positivity, to support Anna’s inner critic work.