Collegeville Institute starts year with two yoga and writing workshops

Regenerate Your Spirit, Generate New Writing participants pose for a group photo on Camano Island, Washington.

The Collegeville Institute has started out its Ecclesial Literature Project programming for the year with a double dose of writing workshops. On January 28, Regenerate Your Spirit, Generate New Writing was held on Camano Island, Washington. This workshop was led by Mary Lane Potter and Stacy Lawson.

Mary is the author of the novel A Woman of Salt, the story collection Strangers and Sojourners, and the memoir Seeking God and Losing the Way. Formerly a professor of Christian theology, she is now a writer who teaches creative writing. She has taught the Collegeville Institute regional workshop Writing Spirit, Writing Faith for several years. Breath and movement meditation—drawn from Jewish, Sufi, ecstatic dance, and automatic drawing traditions—have grounded her writing practice for decades.

Stacy is a writer, a seeker, a therapeutic yoga instructor, a creativity coach, and keyboard activist dedicated to encouraging truthful and brave dialogue. In her early days she taught writing, adult basic education, and ESL in community colleges and literacy centers.  Her work has appeared in Under the Sun, r.kv.r.y quarterly literary journal, Raven Chronicles, The 34th Parallel, Blue Lyra Review, Kveller.

Regenerate Your Spirit, Generate New Writing participants take part in a group discussion at Stacy Lawson’s home.

The next weekend on February 4, Embodied Writing: Moving and Creating for Community was held at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This workshop was led by Ellie Roscher, a yoga instructor, writing coach, and author. She is the author of several books including The Embodied Path, 12 Tiny Things, Play Like a Girl and How Coffee Saved My Life. She is also a member of the Collegeville Institute Board of Directors.

“Breath, rhythm, movement, deep listening—these are the skills fundamental to writing that are often ignored.

Both workshops brought a twist to their curriculum by incorporating yoga into the schedule. Regenerate Your Spirit, Generate New Writing summarized this approach in the workshop description, saying “Breath, rhythm, movement, deep listening—these are the skills fundamental to writing that are often ignored. Inspired by Genesis 1:2: “And the breath of God swept over the face of the waters,” this workshop will immerse participants in exercises that can help writers transform “wild and waste” into form and beauty.

Embodied Writing participants in a yoga session of the workshop.

“Writing and Yoga are two powerful, transformational spiritual practices that can bring us closer to God, ourselves, and each other.

Similarly, the description for Embodied Writing stated “Writing and Yoga are two powerful, transformational spiritual practices that can bring us closer to God, ourselves, and each other. As a writer and yoga teacher, Ellie Roscher loves to pair writing, breath and movement in a way that invites us to inhabit our bodies and experience deeper embodiment.”

“It was a great experience. The setting was fantastic and the teachers were knowledgeable and friendly.

The participants talked about their experiences in post workshop evaluations. For Regenerate Your Spirit, Generate New Writing, one participant said “It was a great experience. The setting was fantastic and the teachers were knowledgeable and friendly. There was good chemistry among the participants.” Another remarked “The day made me want more: more instruction on the relationship between body and writing, more time with this group of women to learn their stories, more time to write. That’s wholly a positive thing!”

Ellie is a great leader and teacher. I loved her thoughtful readings and writing prompts and her ENERGY and compassion.

From Embodied Writing, one participant said “I thought the flow was great, balance between writing and yoga just right. Ellie is a great leader and teacher. I loved her thoughtful readings and writing prompts and her ENERGY and compassion. I took home MANY ideas for digging into writing projects.” Another stated “It was a great day and very relaxing. As someone who is not a career writer, I was initially unsure how I would fit in this time and discussion, but it was all very accessible and fun to learn and experience.”

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