How Practicing ‘Yoga with Adriene’ Makes me a Better Writer

Don’t be an onion

Sometimes, we’re onions. We hide our best selves underneath the tough layers that life stacks upon us. We’re so busy spinning our wheels trying to do more and be more, we lose sight of why we started down the path.

Forgetting to take a breath, we accumulate stress like sheets of dust, visible only when things are already out of hand. We ask ourselves, “how did I get here?” and “where am I going?”

For the sake of my sanity (and my writing), I needed to stop being an onion.

Enter Adriene

I don’t remember how I found her. But I’ve taken enough trips around the sun by now to know that sometimes the universe gives you exactly what you need, at exactly the right time.

I had just moved to California, after living my first 25 years of life in the Midwest. Everything was different, and walking down the street to get groceries felt like a cross-country backpacking trip. Things were new, exciting, and yes, scary. Aside from my boyfriend and cat Loki who made the move with me, I was alone in a foreign land. It was stressful, and I was becoming an onion.

I decided I needed a yoga session to calm my nerves. I found a video on YouTube (with millions of views) created by a woman named Adriene. I thought I would do a few sun salutations, stretch out my muscles, and maybe find some peace. But what I got from a free, fifteen minute video was a masterclass in self-care, which helped me reconnect to my purpose in life: to be a writer. Slowly, layer by layer, I was peeled down to my core.

If you’ve never done “Yoga with Adriene,” (YWA) you might not understand why I’m dedicating an entire blog to fangirling her channel.

Adriene is that easy-going friend from college who tells you (with her kind words and calm actions) to slow your roll, trust yourself, and trust the process. What greater advice can be uttered to a fraught writer?

Adriene is an authentic personality whose built her brand on helping people “find what feels good.” You don’t have to be a pretzel to practice with Adriene. She’ll guide you through the breathing, movements, and frame of mind that will make you feel better in a matter of minutes. And we could all use a boost of positive energy in our lives.

While helping me cultivate my purpose through practicing yoga, Adriene also reaffirmed my belief in three critical qualities of effective communicators.

Translating Adriene’s Teachings to Effective Communication Strategy

Aside from stripping our stress away so we can communicate more clearly and effectively, what can Adriene teach us about becoming better communicators?

It goes back to the basics, those all-too-often forgotten principles of strategic communication.

• Engagement. Know your audience—understand their hopes, fears, journeys, and connect by tailoring your message to fit their wants and needs. Adrienne is masterful at anticipating the wants and needs of her audience, and delivering the type of content they’re asking for. She embraces the “comments” section, and engages with her subscribers to cultivate community.

• Trustworthiness. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. Your intention is just as important as your action. In public relations, practicing ethical communications is common sense. You want to develop meaningful connections between your client/company and their customers to build brand loyalty. Adriene, through years of posting free, high-quality instructional videos, has built her base of loyal subscribers. You know what you’re going to get when you click on one of her videos. She repeats simple but powerful phrases like “move like you love yourself” and “find what feels good,” setting intentions for her viewers that they’ve come to trust, know, and love.

• Authenticity. The simplest principle, and often the hardest to come by, be yourself. Authenticity is Adriene’s superpower. She never misses a moment to randomly burst into song, laugh at her accidental innuendos with a tell-tale “heyooo,” or pet her adorable dog Benji who has become a staple of YWA (his likeness even serves as a custom YouTube subscribe button). Adriene is real and unapologetically imperfect, which makes what she has to say so much more believable and important.

Take it from here

Try out Adrienne’s video for writers and let me know how it helped your writing (or simply how it helped you feel like less of an onion). Namaste.