JC Peters https://www.jcpeters.ca Poet, yoga teacher, workshop facilitator, studio owner, wine drinker, superhero Wed, 11 Feb 2015 17:49:50 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Feminist Yogi Tank Tops https://www.jcpeters.ca/2014/12/feminist-yogi-tank-tops/ https://www.jcpeters.ca/2014/12/feminist-yogi-tank-tops/#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2014 20:22:15 +0000 admin https://www.jcpeters.ca/?p=831 They’ve arrived! My dream yoga top declares me proudly as a Feminist Yogi.

I’ve decided to ship just a few out to those of you that have been asking for the tank as a special delivery!

If you can come to the studio and get them yourself, they are $30 including tax. If you want them shipped they are a few extra dollars.

They are simple grey ribbed fitted cotton tanks, quite long, with Feminist Yogi and the oceanandcrow.ca logo on the front and back. They come in Small, Medium and Large.

You can purchase it here.

Sizes
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Ocean and Crow Audio Yoga Classes https://www.jcpeters.ca/2014/11/ocean-and-crow-audio-yoga-classes/ https://www.jcpeters.ca/2014/11/ocean-and-crow-audio-yoga-classes/#comments Sat, 15 Nov 2014 17:50:13 +0000 admin https://www.jcpeters.ca/?p=820 This summer, I took it upon myself to expand my skillset and learn how to code. It always gives me a little jolt of pride when I learn something that’s often understood to be a “male” profession (I also unclogged my bathroom sink, and then didn’t fix my kitchen tap and woke up to a flood the other morning, so you win some, you lose some).

With this new superhero skill (that I’m still working on of course) I made a website through which you can buy the audio yoga classes I’ve been working to create over the last little while. You can download a five minute sun salutation or a full hourlong Yoga for a Hangover. Put it on your ipod, take it to the beach or the airport, do it in your livingroom.

The classes are intended for folks with some experience of yoga since the instructions are purely auditory, but my master plan is to create a big encyclopedia of images of poses and short instructional videos to help with each of the classes. Some of that is already on the website, but I’ll be building that over time. Go check it out and try a class! http://oceanandcrow.com.

In other news, Yoga for Feminists is coming up really soon! Take this course on the history, philosophy, mythology, and culture of yoga through a feminist lens, and then move it through your body with some asana. There are four courses over four months, but you can take as many as you like. The first one is December 6th, but you have to preregister for it by November 29th. Do it here: http://oceanandcrow.ca/node/1257.

My next Teaching as Storytelling Vinyasa Teacher Training is coming up in February. If you are a teacher and you want to work on your skills of cueing, sequencing, and holding space, take the course! Info here: http://oceanandcrow.ca/node/1241.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Yoga for Feminists https://www.jcpeters.ca/2014/05/yoga-for-feminists/ https://www.jcpeters.ca/2014/05/yoga-for-feminists/#comments Thu, 29 May 2014 17:14:54 +0000 admin https://www.jcpeters.ca/?p=741

Over the last week, the hashtag #yesallwomen has been all over my Facebook and Twitter feed. In part a reaction to the misogynistic message of the shooter Elliot Rodger in Isla Vista, the hashtag has created an opportunity for women to express the reasons why it’s tough sometimes to be a woman in the world. Here’s an article with more information: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2014/05/the-power-of-yesallwomen.html

This social media conversation tapped a line directly to my feminist rage veins. There are a lot of problems in this here world, and when you are sensitive to them, sometimes you get so mad you just feel like you are going to explode. One of the most valuable things yoga has taught me is that every emotion is important and has a lesson, including rage and anger. If you look these emotions right in their piercing fire eyes, you can acknowledge them for what they are and work with them mindfully, rather than, say, directing them at other people. It’s difficult to feel so deeply angry, but not at any particular person. The structures that support violence against women also support violence and oppression of men and other genders. Feminism, for me, anyway, is that which fights against these structures, not the fallible humans who are often unconsciously perpetuating them (including my own self, at times, of course!).

So where to direct this powerful flow of rage? To education, of course. To creating a story that can contain the intangible things I am so angry with. To create a vocabulary so that the structures that oppress us can become visible, so we can see them and work with them or reject them rather than mindlessly following their script.

This is why I wanted to create Yoga for Feminists. It’s starting as a workshop I’m leading in June, where we will take a look at some of the history, philosophy, and mythologies of yoga. Some of these classic structures come from a patriarchal and class-oriented history (for a long time, only upper caste “Brahmin” men were allowed to practice yoga, and lower castes were not allowed to learn or speak Sanskrit), and as Western women have taken on the practice of yoga as a monolithic thing, we are unconsciously filtering it through our religious and cultural values, and when we look at it as purely a path to peace, with no agenda, no critical thinking needed, we sometimes unconsciously support patriarchal and class structures as they work here in the West (lots of yoga advertising features young, thin, white women in exorbitantly expensive tiny pants).

The simple practice of looking at a thing through a critical lens and discussing it can illuminate the whole thing for us, and, in my opinion, tap into some of the aspects of yoga that are, I feel, innately empowering and potentially revolutionary simply because of the mindfulness and connection to the body that it can cultivate.

What I really want to know is what you think about all this. I’ll be offering some information and a yoga practice that feels feminist to me, but I’d love to know how you feel, what your experiences have been like, and what you think a feminist yoga looks like.

June 21st, 2:00-5:00pm, $35 at East Side Yoga, 1707 Grant St. Preregister here: http://eastsideyoga.ca/node/1164 

All levels of practice and all genders are welcome.

 

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Happy New Year! https://www.jcpeters.ca/2014/01/happy-new-year/ https://www.jcpeters.ca/2014/01/happy-new-year/#comments Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:23 +0000 admin https://www.jcpeters.ca/?p=605 Happy New Year folks! There is a new moon tonight as we transition into a new year, and I’m leading a daily/nightly meditation practice with the Moon Phase Goddesses. Check it out here: https://www.jcpeters.ca/nityas-the-eternal-moon-phase-goddesses-meditations-and-writing-for-jan-2014/

I’m teaching another Creative Flow: Yoga and Writing workshop on January 11th at East Side Yoga, and my next Teaching as Storytelling Vinyasa Teacher Training is February 7-10th.

I’m teaching lots at East Side Yoga and still have my regular Sundays plus the occasional sub at Semperviva Yoga. Come see me! Schedule here: https://www.jcpeters.ca/yoga-teaching-schedule/

Here’s hoping for lots of good luck granting our deepest wishes with the moon for 2014!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Teaching as Storytelling Vinyasa Teacher Training starts Feb 2014! https://www.jcpeters.ca/2013/11/teaching-as-storytelling-vinyasa-teacher-training-starts-feb-2014/ https://www.jcpeters.ca/2013/11/teaching-as-storytelling-vinyasa-teacher-training-starts-feb-2014/#comments Sun, 03 Nov 2013 17:18:27 +0000 admin https://www.jcpeters.ca/?p=547 Teaching as Storytelling: 25 hour Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training with Julie Peters

 

“I’m full. :) Full of delicious, nutritious new yoga food. Thank you so much for feeding me with such grace, intelligence and enthusiasm. As I digest and redigest all this new yoga food I reflect on the last 4 days we spent together. Many thank you’s Julie! You are truly inspiring and I can’t wait until I get to eat your yummy yoga food again. :) ” AZ (student)

“Just wanted to say thanks so much for your amazing training this week! The feedback from every class I’ve taught since has been “wow, I really liked your sequencing!” SS (student)

 

Join E-RYT Julie Peters at East Side Yoga for an exploration in how every great yoga class parallels the classic structure of a story. Learn concrete tools for effective, creative, and safe sequencing, and demystify intuitive elements of teaching so that you can hold space, read a room, and teach on the fly.

This training is great for teachers looking for a way to teach that is fun, easy, and most of all, true to who you are. We will discover tools for discovering and refining your voice as well as ways of understanding asana that can help create classes that are fun and make sense. Build confidence and learn to wing it well!

This training is eligible for Yoga Alliance CEUs. It does not stand in for a 200 hour teaching certification, but enhances that learning, or helps prepare if a 200 hour is in your plan. It’s also appropriate for interested students curious about teacher training, sequencing, or learning facilitation skills.

Words do not label things already there. Words are like the knife of a carver: they free the idea, the thing, from the formlessness of the outside. As a man speaks, not only is his language in a state of birth, but also the very thing about which he was talking. ~Inuit Saying 

Photo by Ash Tanasiychuk www.formatnoauto.com

Schedule:

  • Friday Feb 7th: 9:00am-11:30am and 1:30pm to 5:30pm
  • Saturday Feb 8th: 1:30pm to 5:30pm
  • Sunday Feb 9th: 1:30pm to 5:30pm
  • Monday Feb 10th: 9:00am-11:30am and 1:30pm to 5:30pm

Total hours: 25; 20 contact hours, 5 hours of homework.

Cost: $455 +tax (payment plans available; email [email protected])

There are 10 spots in this training, and payment plans are available. Reserve your spot today with a $100 deposit here: http://eastsideyoga.ca/node/941 or sign up in full here: http://eastsideyoga.ca/node/940

Email Julie with any questions: [email protected]

Topics and Themes:

Introduction to Teaching as Storytelling

  • The classic structure of a narrative
  • story comparison (Wayne’s World)
  • Nuts and bolts of effective sequencing

Art and Energetics

  • Your core message
  • Exploring your voice and languaging
  • energetics of postures (vocabulary)

The Science of Sequencing

  • How to put it all together
  • anatomy for safe sequencing
  • Sequencing as grammar

Teacher as Storyteller

  • Learning to read a room
  • Vinyasa Krama and teaching to all levels
  • Refining cueing and stepping away from demoing
  • Unlearning peak sequencing

Julie Peters has been practising yoga since the tender age of 12, and dug into its creative potential while completing her Masters degree in Contemporary Canadian Poetry at McGill University. She teaches Vinyasa, Yin and Restorative yoga as inspired by Krishnamacharya, Shiva Rea, Judith Hanson Lasater, poet Dennis Lee, and Radiolab, the podcast on curiosity. She owns East Side Yoga studio in Vancouver with her mom, Jane, has represented Vancouver twice at the Women of the World Poetry Slam, was on the 2012 Vancouver Poetry Slam team, and serves on the board of Vancouver Poetry House. She is also a writer for Spirituality and Health Magazine and elephantjournal.com. Learn more at www.jcpeters.ca

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Creative Flow: Yoga and Writing at Semperviva November 30th https://www.jcpeters.ca/2013/11/creative-flow-yoga-and-writing-at-semperviva-november-30th/ https://www.jcpeters.ca/2013/11/creative-flow-yoga-and-writing-at-semperviva-november-30th/#comments Sun, 03 Nov 2013 03:58:32 +0000 admin https://www.jcpeters.ca/?p=543 I will be returning to Semperviva Yoga with my Creative Flow workshop in just a few weeks! Bring a journal and watch what can happen as you explore a yoga practice with a writing practice interwoven. Details and registration here: http://www.semperviva.com/events/creative-flow-yoga-and-writing-with-julie-peters-2/

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Storytelling On and Off the Mat Yoga Retreat to the North Cascades https://www.jcpeters.ca/2013/08/teaching-as-storytelling-vinyasa-yoga-teacher-training-and-retreat-to-the-north-cascades/ https://www.jcpeters.ca/2013/08/teaching-as-storytelling-vinyasa-yoga-teacher-training-and-retreat-to-the-north-cascades/#comments Sun, 18 Aug 2013 19:47:07 +0000 admin https://www.jcpeters.ca/?p=517 Imagine this: you are in a beautiful space surrounded by old growth forests, wildflower meadows, and glacier-fed lakes in early October, just as the leaves start to turn beautiful colours. Outside, there are hikes, canoes for paddling in, and nothing but the sounds of birds and the winds in the wildflowers.

Wander inside and soak up some poetry and yoga classes that rinse the body, mind, and heart all at once. Get out your notebook and learn the secrets of a great yoga class as a practitioner or as a teacher.

Sound good? On the weekend of October 4-6th, I will be leading a weekend retreat near Diablo Lake at the North Cascades Environmental Learning Centre with Renton, WA studio Maya Whole Health. I am offering several yoga classes in both Vinyasa and Yin styles, with two lectures, one on employing the structure of a narrative to your yoga class for home practice or teaching, and the other on discovering your voice and learning to translate your own body’s vocabulary. Plus delicious food, wine, and beer, a naturalist led hike, and a screening of Wayne’s World (naturally). $480 for the whole shebang, just a 3 hour drive from Vancouver or Seattle.

Click here to register: http://clients.mindbodyonline.com/ws.asp?studioid=801&stype=-8&sTG=33&sView=day&sTrn=100000165

**BIO
Julie has been practicing yoga since the tender age of 12, and dug into its creative potential while completing her Masters degree in Contemporary Canadian Poetry at McGill University. She teaches Vinyasa, Yin and Restorative yoga as inspired by Krishnamacharya, Shiva Rea, Judith Hanson Lasater, poet Dennis Lee, and Radiolab, the podcast on curiosity. She owns East Side Yoga studio in Vancouver with her mom, Jane, has represented Vancouver twice at the Women of the World Poetry Slam. She is also a writer for Spirituality and Health Magazine and elephantjournal.com.

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Creative Flow: Yoga and Writing for Vancouver Meetup https://www.jcpeters.ca/2013/08/creative-flow-yoga-and-writing-for-vancouver-meetup/ https://www.jcpeters.ca/2013/08/creative-flow-yoga-and-writing-for-vancouver-meetup/#comments Sun, 18 Aug 2013 19:28:02 +0000 admin https://www.jcpeters.ca/?p=513 I am looking forward to offering a workshop specifically for the Vancouver Just Write Meetup Group! This 2 hour workshop will be a part of a weekend long urban writing retreat with Just Write Vancouver.

We will explore how yoga can help spark creativity from your body and help you to connect sensation and emotion with language. When we practice yoga, specifically the flowing Vinyasa style, we manufacture the alpha brain state which is the creative brainwave state of the writing groove. We will explore the stories in our bones, and tell a few of them, especially as we slow down towards the end of the workshop and listen more deeply to our bodies in Yin yoga poses. The practice is for any level of yoga and writing, and everyone is welcome. Please bring a yoga mat, any props you have (a sweater or scarf can do in a pinch!) and a writing journal.

Cost $30 ($25 for Just Write Meetup Members)

Saturday, September 7th, 9:30-11:30am

Suite Genius, 210-1737 West 3rd Avenue (near Burrard St)

Not a part of the Meetup? Join here:  http://www.meetup.com/JustWriteVancouver/

Reserve your spot now, space is limited!

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Coming back to the Seattle area! https://www.jcpeters.ca/2013/05/coming-back-to-the-seattle-area/ https://www.jcpeters.ca/2013/05/coming-back-to-the-seattle-area/#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 23:14:58 +0000 admin https://www.jcpeters.ca/?p=489 I’m excited to announce I’ll be returning to Maya Whole Health Studio in Renton, WA twice (twice!) over the next couple of months. The first time, my partner Daniel Shaw and I will be coming as a team to teach a workshop called Good Vibrations: Restorative Yoga and Sound that involves you relaxing on bolsters supported by me, a poem or two, and some (optional of course) healing touch, while Daniel plays crystal singing bowls, throat sings, and creates other crazy kinds of body music that vibrate you to your very cells. It’s delicious. Our next one in Vancouver is on June 22nd.

Then come back on Saturday for one of my Creative Flow: Yoga and Writing workshops where  I’ll be teaching the ways yoga can help spark a flow of creativity, and we will experiment with ways to turn on the right brain and get translating from body to mind and back again. It’s fun, it’s fascinating, it’s inspiring, and especially lately I’m realizing how incredibly therapeutic it can be to bring a pen and paper onto your yoga mat with you. My next one in Vancouver is May 25th.

I’m also so excited to be teaching a progressive style Teaching as Storytelling Vinyasa Teacher Training here in Vancouver over four Saturdays in August, and then an intensive three day blast of it at Maya in late September! Tell all your friends, Seattle, I’m coming for you! <3

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Spring News https://www.jcpeters.ca/2013/02/spring-news/ https://www.jcpeters.ca/2013/02/spring-news/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2013 19:22:55 +0000 admin https://www.jcpeters.ca/?p=474 Hello friends!

I’m about to start (this Saturday!) my Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training on Teaching as Storytelling. It’s one of my favourite things to teach this intimate course on teacher development, facilitation, holding space, and of course, sequencing. It’s like showing the little guy behind the curtain running everything: an awesome class ain’t magic, and you can do it too!

There’s still time to jump in if you’d like, I have a couple of spots left, so email me ([email protected]) if you want to jump up on it. If you can’t make it this time, but are interested, email me anyway, I’m considering doing an intensive in August over four or five days, and possibly another weekend series like this one. I’d love to know what would work for you.

I’ll also be teaching another Creative Flow: Yoga and Writing workshop at Semperviva Sun Studio on April 27th, from 1:00-3:00pm. It was SO awesome last time, it was a beautiful and quite emotional experience to explore poetry, yoga, and your own writing. I hope those of you that came last time can come again!

Also, I’ve been thinking a lot about gender issues lately, as those of you that read my articles probably know (did you SEE the Oscars?!), and I am helping one of my good friends, Alla Shishkov, develop a women’s discussion group intended to break our brains and really look at some of the issues that we deal with daily. Womanology: 21st Century Feminism will happen every other Friday evening at 7:30 at East Side Yoga. Manology, for my guys, happens at the Roundhouse Community Centre every Monday.

I have a few poems and articles up on my Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/juliejcp, or you can join my mailing list (which goes out monthly or less) here: http://eepurl.com/mHhlr.

 

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