Restorative Yoga & Journaling from the Heart

with
Cecelia Rice, 500hr RYT, RRC & Elaine Walters McFerron, LPC, MFA

Saturday, November 14th   1:00pm-5:30pm

Angela Phillips Yoga Studio
325 First Colonial Road, Virginia Beach

Fee $80.00

As the reflective energies of the New Moon shine upon us, please join Cecelia for this Restorative Yoga session which will relax the physical body, calm the mind and center balanced energies with an orientation toward opening your Heart . This practice is a triad of PRANAYAMA, RESTORATIVE YOGA POSES (extended moments of stillness while fully supported with bolsters, blankets, blocks) and GUIDED BREATH IMAGERY. Each yoga segment will be accompanied by journaling. Elaine will compassionately lead the journaling segments in a triad of OPENING, LISTENING and TENDING to the Heart.  Cecelia and Elaine will weave together moments of yoga and journaling to create a safe and sacred space for opening and listening to the voice of your Heart. We will conclude with a ritual for tending to the Heart.

Cecelia Rice, a yoga instructor since 1998, is also nationally certified by Judith Hanson Lasater as a Relax & Renew Counselor. She is an Intuitive and Healing Touch Practitioner. She has worked in the Healing Arts for 20 years.

Elaine Walters McFerron has been a psychotherapist for over thirty years. She practices at Wellspring in Virginia Beach. She is a writer and has kept a journal most of her life. She teaches creative writing and journaling at The Writer’s Studio. She is the Alumni Liaison and Graduate Lecture Facilitator at The Bennington Writing Seminars, Bennington College, Vermont.

Some Yoga experience required.  Please bring writing and/or sketching materials.

Space is limited.

To Register or for further information contact Cecelia Rice @ cmr.rice@gmail.com or 757-560-2703.

WE are well into this Fall season and the good writing is always inspiring.

People put heart into their work and risk everything by sharing their words, thoughts, understanding of what is written.

As writers we struggle to get words on the page. This morning I am at my desk putting words to paper, observing the flood of emotions that come with what is written, speaking a truth, my truth.  From my window I see parades of people: biking, hiking, going to gatherings. They pass in groups: families, couples, friends, occasionally a solitary person. It is tempting to follow them on such a bright day. A voice says, sit longer, write a few more sentences, listen.

THE WRITER’S STUDIO

to convey the sound of the soul

- Marguerite Duras

Creative Writing Workshop: Poetry and Prose

Teacher: Elaine Walters McFerron, MFA

A mixed genre of nonfiction and poetry, we will continue to discover what one offers the other. We will also discuss influences and inspirations and examine the creative process. This workshop involves writing exercises and discussion of participant’s work.  Text:  Lucile Clifton, Voices. Limited number of participants.  Six Sessions: $225. 6:30pm-8:30pm. September 9 (Wednesday),

September 22 (Tuesday), October 6, October 20, November 3, November 17.

On Keeping A Journal

Teacher: Elaine Walters McFerron, MFA

Poet Muriel Rukeyser writes, “What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? / The world would split open.” This ongoing workshop is designed to encourage using the journal as point of discovery and witness to a life. Limited number of participants. Six Sessions: $195. Tuesdays from 6:30pm-8:00pm. September 15, September 29, October 13, October 27, November 24..

Up Coming Workshop: Breaking the Line

Contact : Elaine Walters McFerron

ewmcf@yahoo.com or

thewritersstudio@yahoo.com

The Writer’s Studio located at

2940 N. Lynnhaven Road

Suite 130

Virginia Beach, VA 23452

757-486-6515

www.thewritersstudio.us

THE WRITER’S STUDIO
to convey the sound of the soul
- Marguerite Duras

Creative Writing Workshop: Poetry and Prose
Teacher: Elaine Walters McFerron, MFA

A mixed genre of nonfiction and poetry, we will continue to discover what one offers the other. We will also discuss influences and inspirations and examine the creative process. Text: Donald Hall, White Apples and the Taste of Stone. Limited number of participants. Four Sessions: $150. Tuesdays from 6:30pm-8:30pm. July 8, July 21, August 11, August 25.

On Keeping A Journal
Teacher: Elaine Walters McFerron, MFA

Poet Muriel Rukeyser writes, “What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? / The world would split open.” This ongoing workshop is designed to encourage using the journal as point of discovery and witness to a life. Limited number of participants. Four Sessions: $130. Tuesdays from 6:30pm-8:00pm. July 14, August 4, August 18, September 1.

Contact : Elaine Walters McFerron
ewmcf@yahoo.com or
thewritersstudio@yahoo.com

The Writer’s Studio located at
2940 N. Lynnhaven Road
Suite 130
Virginia Beach, VA 23452
757-486-6515

www.thewritersstudio.us

There will be at least two classes this summer: Creative Writing; Mixed Genre and On Keeping a Journal. Each will use texts as inspiration. They will begin in July. Contact Elaine@ ewmcf@yahoo.com

In the tradition of William Stafford, Robert Bly and David Lehman,

during the month of April, write a poem everyday.

EWM

A new workshop will begin February 24, 2009. We will read Mary Oliver’s book of verse, Thirst. Time will be spent on new work and revision. Come if you have a project or not to work in safe sacred space.

The workshop is led by Elaine Walters McFerron, MFA

call 757-486-6515 or email thewritersstudio@yahoo.com

if you have any questions.

Call and response, landscapes seen and imagined, visions and affirmations. Letters written in pursuit of literary life among  the daily activity of everyday lives. Sacred words almost whispered from one to another. A calling out and forth. A blend of reverent and irreverent. The reading is being planned for the spring 2009, location TBA.

We have moved through letters written by James Wright, William Carlos Williams, Denise Levertov, John Keats, and Emily Dickinson. In the past poems were always inspired by reading letters of writers. But not this time, Inspiration had not come for me or anyone else. I felt frustrated and failed as a teacher.

As an aside, I had asked everyone to write letters to each other  sharing literary process and thoughts regarding life. I also asked that we share writing paper each week.

I walked into the room on Tuesday evening feeling unprepared with only one note for discussion: Reflections on writing letters, written and received. Has it influenced your writing and how?

This discussion lasted more than one hour as people shared what they had received from one another: affirmation, joy, beauty, focus on the particular, the singular. One person looked for a message for the day. They all said they considered every detail: paper, ink, handwriting, stamps, added art work. Several said they used special stamps they had been saving: a Sinclair Lewis, a Marianne More. No one felt alone with words. No one felt abandoned by their intermittent despair about doing good work. Everyone felt heard, seen and even understood.

I discovered that the reading of the literary letters by writers was the back story to what was being written in the letters posted in the last few weeks. I learned to trust my own impulses, questions and suggestions. I felt relief and joy in what had been found.

EWM