“Lately I’ve been listening to Homer’s Odyssey on CD. Listening to classics on CDs is a part of my yoga practice. Because I am taking in this material while concentrating on breathing and physical effort—and also because I’m listening rather than reading—my mind seems to move into a right-brain, nonanalytic state. This piques my creativity, while it also hones my focus and mental reflexes for the long term, much as meditation does. Some yoga friends would argue that concentrating on an audio reading while practicing postures is the yogic equivalent of multitasking, that it undermines rather than cultivates focus. But for me it’s a unique way to immerse myself in the world of story while turning off the self-criticizing, over-thinking part of my brain.”
—Elizabeth Kadetsky, author of First There Is a Mountain (Little, Brown, 2004)