Writers Who Do Yoga

I tried to do a little stretching last night, and have come to the conclusion that it’s time for me to take up some form of yoga. I never liked the idea of it when I was younger. I was never patient enough to sit in the poses and contemplate things. I wanted to move and didn’t feel like I needed to stretch much.

I’m older now. My body would appreciate it, I have more patience, and I have stepdaughter who’s about to get her driver’s license (aka, anything that brings me balance and serenity seems like a good move).

In typical Jess fashion, instead of just starting to stretch (or picking up the Christy Turlington Living Yoga book that’s been gathering dust on my shelf for ten years), I decided to get on the internet and look for writers who do yoga. It would be an even bigger motivation to start if I could guarantee some sort of idea circulation, plot epiphanies, or spiritual insights into the use/non-use of the Oxford comma.

When I typed “Writers who do yoga” into the Google search engine, the first hit on the list was Top Ten Reasons Not to Do Yoga. Not an encouraging start. Then there was an Amazon.com page that lists books involving Yoga for Writers.

Titles included:
Writing Begins with the Breath: Embodying Your Authentic Voice

The Journey from the Center to the Page

Those sounded interesting, but I really needed a big name for motivation. Something like Shakespeare or E.B. White or Kate DiCamillo. Then I tried Googling, “Famous Writers who do yoga,” and just got a bunch of links to random celebrities.

After a bit more searching, the only things I can confirm are that, while the practice yoga has been around a very long time:

Hemingway was not a yoga enthusiast.

Nor was Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Sylvia Plath—doubtful.

Beatrix Potter—doubtful as well.

George R.R. Martin—I really don't think so, but I don’t want to make any assumptions :)

In fact, the only author I could nail down as doing yoga for sure is Madonna. Didn’t know she was a children’s author? Click HERE. And I don't even know if she still does yoga. She might just lift weights, judging from this photo.


Anybody know of yoga-mat-toting authors?

And by the way, if anyone has some DVD recommendations for a beginner, let me know!