What happens when Curvy Yoga and Attuned Writing come together? To me it feels like exactly what I want more of in my life: connection with my body, moving in ways that feel good and that I’m curious about, letting my body say that thing I’ve been avoiding or didn’t know was there, then taking it all to the page and getting to both witness and be witnessed by others who care about truth and what it feels like in the body and sounds like on the page.
It’s a place for us to practice being ourselves, being human, not needing to impress anyone at all, least of all ourselves. There is not a thing to prepare ahead of time or do after. We’re creating the experience together each week through our willingness to show up and let what’s here be here. Once you get a taste of this practice, you start to want more of its flavor in the rest of your life, too. I know I do!
I’m calling this practice What the Body Knows. It’s not only Curvy Yoga and it’s not only Attuned Writing; it’s the threshold where the two meet. The juice happens in and through you, and in each of us doing it together.
I think of this style of practice as archaeological. It’s both digging deeper into your own experience and standing in awe of what is: right here, right now.
On the yoga mat this might look like coming into a pose and then exploring it through micro movements, breath, support, or how long you hold it. It might also look like hearing a particular invitation into movement and deciding you’d rather shift it in a way that makes the movement yours. This kind of practice doesn’t have a set way that poses need to look, and it doesn’t require everyone to be doing the same thing at the same time. Instead, it’s a way to be with yourself while being held in a container of other people doing the same thing for themselves.
From this place of connection, we then have the opportunity in this class to take what we’ve gathered from the mat onto the page. I think of this as an attuning practice. If it had an image, it would be of someone with their head turned to the side, eyes closed, listening to the life within and without. It’s also a movement practice: moving your body on the mat, moving your hand across the page, moving what’s within outside, and moving what you most want to embody inside.
Here’s How It Works
We begin each session with around half an hour of yoga practice. This will be a very body-led, inquiry-based practice rooted in connecting with yourself as you are in this very moment. I intend this to be a gentle, doable practice that you can very much make your own. You do not need a lot of space, and yoga props are not required (though if you already have some — or household equivalents, they are nice to have on hand). Sometimes we will practice from a chair, other times from standing, other times from seated on a mat. You are welcome and encouraged to always choose whichever of those is best for you even when I’m suggesting something else.
From there we will take a few minutes to get into a comfortable space for writing, then we will spend the rest of our time (around an hour) writing. The Attuned Writing process begins with me reading a poem and giving you a few jump-off lines to get you going. You know how we usually start our yoga with a few breaths? That’s what the jump-off line is: an inhale. Then you put pen to paper, exhale, and we write for no more than 15 minutes, pen never leaving the page (we will write twice per class). We write quickly so we can be in the moment and not give the inner critic space.
This isn’t about finding the right word or grammar or that one teacher who critiqued your writing twenty years ago who you can never get out of your head. This is about truth and letting yourself be open to whatever comes to mind and body, and it’s a powerful place to (re)connect with your authentic voice through the details of your life.
After we write, everyone reads what they just wrote out loud (yes, everyone! No skips! That’s part of what makes the container of the group so powerful because we’re all in it together, me included). We don’t offer feedback; we just listen, which is incredibly potent.
For me, some of the magic of the writing practice happened when I did it in community and got to both read what I’d just written and hear others do the same. It’s one of the few times in my life I’ve just said what I had to say without first giving a million disclaimers about how it’s not good enough or or apologizing even though I don’t really know why. And it’s also where I’ve finished what I said and had it held without commentary, just listening and breath and then moving onto the next person for the same thing. I have read when I’m bored with what I’ve written, when I’m sure no one else likes it, when I’m crying, when I can’t believe I finally said the thing I didn’t even realize I needed to say until that very moment, and so much more. Getting to be in the soup of real life with others is a gift.
I will be bringing my experience as a yoga teacher and writer to our time together, but mostly I will be bringing my full self as a human who shows up with the real stuff of life between her fingers, ready to feel it in her body and get it onto the page.
Want In?
This is for you if:
- You want to apply the heart and permission we practice here on the mat both there and on the page
- You’re curious about listening to your body and then letting it speak
- You feel enlivened thinking about getting to go deeper into your life in this way
This isn’t for you if:
- You want only an on-the-mat yoga practice and aren’t interested in the writing component of this class (or vice versa)
- You want feedback on your writing; you want writerly advice like grammar, structure, publishing, etc.; or you want to bring pieces you’ve already written to class. We write everything together in the moment. No writing experience or identifying as a capital W “Writer” required.
- You aren’t willing to read each piece to the group or keep your camera on during our time together. I ask you to keep your camera on and be in a private space so that people can feel comfortable knowing we’re all in this experience together and that your words will stay within the container of the group.
Dates and Details
These groups are necessarily small. Because we read our writing out loud, we can only have a max of 8 participants (and need a minimum of 5 to make it happen). The series below will open for registration to folks on the waitlist in mid-August and everyone else in late-August.
WHEN | Fall Series 2024
Tuesday Group (FULL)
Six Tuesdays, 10:00-11:30am PST | 1:00-2:30pm EST
: Sept. 17th
: Sept. 24th
: Oct. 1st
: Oct. 8th
: Oct. 15th
: Oct. 22nd
Thursday Group (FULL)
Six Thursdays, 4:00-5:30pm PST | 7:00-8:30pm EST
: Sept 19th
: Sept. 26th
: Oct. 3rd
: Oct. 10th
: Oct. 17th
: Oct. 24th
WHERE
Zoom (I will send you the link to join upon registering. There will not be recordings provided, and I ask each person to keep their camera on during our time together. Please plan to attend all sessions live in a private space in order to respect confidentiality.)
WHAT YOU NEED
Stable internet access, whatever you need to practice yoga comfortably, a notebook/journal, and a pen (hand writing is encouraged, though of course if that isn’t possible that’s okay).
COST
$180 for the series (paid in full or in two monthly installments of $90 each).
REGISTRATION
To get first heads up (and a discount!) when registration next opens, please click here to get on the waitlist.