my new project: 21.5.800

On June 8th, (this coming Tuesday) I’d like you to join me for a community project online I’ve created called 21.5.800.

For 21 days, we’ll be doing 5 days of yoga a week and 800 words of writing per day. WAIT!

Don’t stop reading! Hear me out.

Here’s the deal;

THE WRITING: The writing can be ANYTHING. Memoir, blogs, business plans, essays, fiction, free-writing, letters,……..ANYTHING. The point is to get writing again daily and to have the boundaries and challenge of a daily word count to reach.

THE YOGA: There are several options for you to do the yoga portion of 21.5.800 5 times in 7 days. Here are the options: 1. Go to a yoga class in your ‘hood. 2. Do a yoga dvd at home. 3. Take a 20-40 minute savasana* (see below) at home on the floor.

AND @zenpeacekeeper, who is a yoga teacher and a writer who is writing a memoir, is joining with us. She has created a yoga video especially for 21.5.800 that you can download for a mere $2 a day. We wanted to give people who live in remote places or who love practicing with @zenpeacekeeper a way to do yoga. It’s a beginner video. If you aren’t a beginner, you know how to practice more deeply in a beginner class, so no problem. Click here for the yoga video for 21.5.800.

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THIS AT ALL? Well, there are a few good reasons.

1. Committing to a short-term project that is challenging and has quotas brings results. In other words, imagine all the writing you will have done in 21 days: 800 x 21= 16,800 words. 16,800 words is roughly 67 pages.

2. Sometimes you need a buddy and support to get going and get back to the discipline of doing something. It’s easy to blow yourself off, but when other people are doing this and blogging about it, the energy is infectious.

3. The power of community is powerful. With other people online doing the project and blogging and/or tweeting about their process, you know that when you sit down to write or do yoga, many other people are doing the same thing and that’s a motivator.

4. Writing means sitting, and sitting means stiffness. Move a muscle, move a thought. Or for the people who are going to opt into savasana; still the body, still the mind. Either way, putting more movement or more stillness into your life is always a win.

5. Because there are tons of creative ideas and projects banging around inside your head and heart and because I care and want you to get those things out and onto the page, I’m creating a container that can be a vehicle for getting those things actually onto the page. This goes as well for the yoga: it’s easy to blow it off, but this way you are committing to a specific amount for a specific time.

SO. Who is going to be the first to join me and download the badges on this page and start spreading the word?

Ask your friends to do it with you. Let’s get the juices flowing. Let’s carve space and time for ourselves and throw off the shackles of procrastination, isolation, and regret.

AND HERE ARE SOME OF THE FUN THINGS YOU WILL GET ALONG THE WAY:

* I’ll be blogging LOTS about my own process

* Interviews with Gwen Bell, Marianne Elliot, Susannah Conway on community, yoga, and inspiration

* A link to Dr. Jeffery Thompson’s gamma waves music on iTunes for savasana

* A photo show at the halfway point from Susannah Conway on my blog

* Each other’s blogs to read and new friends and connections and sources of support that you haven’t discovered yet

So come on, jump on board even if you’re hesitant, resistant, or anything else. Just start where you are. You’ll be in good company. Download the badges to your website!! Spread the word!!

(* Savasana= corpse pose. This is a resting posture done at the end of yoga practice in a prone position on the floor. For some of you, you don’t do yoga and aren’t interested in starting. For others, you are burnt out and could really use some stillness in your life each day. I’ve included savasana as an option for people, because I want you to feel like you have every opportunity to make this 21-day challenge happen.

I will post a special short savasana blog right at the beginning of 21.5.800 or maybe even the day before, so everything you need to practice lying on the floor for 20-40 minutes per day listening to the music I am suggesting will be possible for you.)