Yogas citta vrtti nirodhah —
Pantajali’s Yoga Sutra 1.2
yoga is the cessation of the modifications or fluctuations of the mind.
My Classes
In my in-person and zoom classes, I support students in their learning at all levels and ages from young adult to seniors in energizing and relaxing yoga.
- Yoga: Saturdays 9:15-10:30a in Park Allen
Westwood Unitarian Church, 11135 65 Ave, Edmonton, AB (contact me for info) - YOGA:Tuesdays 10-11:15a Strathcona Community League 10139 87 Ave, 2nd floor.
- YOGA: Tuesdays 7-8p Oct-June Beverly Heights Community League 4209 111 Ave (Sold Out)
- Downtown Edmonton for members of the Wîhkwêntôwin Community League
Winter: Stretch & Steep @Yogalife Studio 10419 124 St YogaLife
Summer: Yoga in Peace Garden Park 10259-120 Street
See calendar for information: https://www.olivercommunity.com/events/ - ZOOM YIN/YANG YOGA Wednesdays 6:30a or 7:30aMST
Contact me for more information. - I am available to teach non-lineage (ie no guru) group, private, semi-private, and corporate classes. I have experience in Hatha Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Yin Yoga, Chair Yoga, Pranayama, and Mindful Meditation.
- Additionally, I conduct YOGA WRITE Workshops.
For my writerly and academic biography, visit my NoGateNoLock blog.
Contact Janice.Williamson @ ualberta.ca for more information. (omit spaces)
My Yoga: Janice Williamson
Seeking relief from stress and depression in 1979, I studied and practiced asanas (postures), pranayama (breath work), and meditation. I have explored various yoga styles: Hatha, Iyengar, Ashtanga, Yin, Sivananda, and Flow along with Pilates and Zen Meditation. After retirement from a 32-year career as Professor of literary/cultural studies and creative writing at the University of Alberta, I completed 500+hr Advanced Yoga and Restorative Yoga Alliance certified teacher trainings. I also interned and trained in Yin Yoga, Chair Yoga, Mindful Meditation, and Yoga for joint mobility, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. I continue to study yoga, pilates, and strength training.
My Training
My yoga study began in 1978 at the Sivananda Yoga Ashram on Paradise Island in the Bahamas where I lived for four months. And I began classes in B.K.S. Iyengar and Vanda Scaravelli yoga methods when I returned to Toronto to study with the late Esther Myers. Over the following decades I practiced Iyengar, Yin, Ashtanga, Pranayama, and Hatha Yoga. Additionally, I studied Pilates and Zen Buddhist meditation.
Over the course of the COVID pandemic, I returned to yoga as a daily practice. Month by month yoga remapped my body. Yoga continues to help me manage a chronic autoimmune disease and its treatment.
A life-long learner, I continue my yoga studies with ongoing classes in Iyengar Yoga, Flow Yoga, and Yin Yoga. I am a registered teacher in the Yoga Association of Alberta.
My teacher trainings and workshops between 2021 and 2024 include:
Octopus Garden Holistic Yoga Centre, Toronto.
- 200hr YTT Teacher Training (Hatha Yoga, Pranayama, Yoga Nidra, Tantric Yoga, Meditation, Anatomy, Sanskrit, Yoga Philosophy & Ethics)
- 80hr Restorative Yoga Certificate
- Six-month 300hr YTT Advanced Yoga Teacher Training @Octopus Garden Holistic Yoga Toronto (pedagogy and practicums: sequences, breath work, systematic alignment, harmonious flow, cues, transitions, ethics, safety, trauma, biomechanics, the cultural politics and business of yoga). This also included a 50hr Mindful Meditation training with accredited meditation teachers.
Yoga Association of Alberta:
- 6hr workshop on Inversions with Iyengar Senior Teacher Teddy Hyndman
StudioBe.Community:
- Internship and teaching Yin Yoga & Meditation
Esther Meyers Yoga Studio, Toronto:
- Workshop and classes on Yoga for Aging Bodies including Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis, Chair Yoga, and Yoga for Joint Mobility
rise up yoga Teaching Philosophy
I adapt classes to our unique bodies. Yoga meets us on the mat however we arrive. Through every yoga class one’s mood and energy shifts as we learn focus, strength, flexibility — and to let go. Yoga can offer an opening for us to be present to ourselves in the moment, the here and now. It offers an alternative to being mired in the past or obsessed about the future. In so doing, yoga provides opportunities for insight that helps us move forward in our lives.
As a queer 72-year-old settler woman (she/her), aging feels like an accomplishment. The life force grows ever more intense. My yoga practice connects me to a body that is both frail and strong, restored and precarious, energetic and enervated, libidinal and filled with lassitude.
Yoga philosophy finds delight in the tensions of oppositional concepts such as Sthira which means “to stand, to be firm” in strength and steadiness and Sukha or the ‘good place’ of ease and softness.
Yoga sits comfortably with contradiction and paradox. The asanas involve counter-movements and forces. Over the course of our lives, our bodies fall apart and renew themselves. As we know more about the aging process, we understand the life-long importance of strength-building and mobility, as well as the value of a flexible spine.
rise up yoga = resilience & spirited action
The name of my yoga studio is an homage to the pop song “Rise Up” performed by Toronto’s Lorraine Segato and The Parachute Club. This song became a rallying cry for the women’s and LGBTQ2S movements and at the yearly Toronto International Women’s Day march. When I lived in the city, I helped organize this 5000-person event with the International Women’s Day Committee and sixty diverse women’s organizations.
Notes
For my yoga class videos, see:
JaniceWilliamsonYOGA @YouTube
Gratitude:
I am so very grateful to all of my teachers especially Cindy Campbell, Pat Harada Linfoot, Jennifer Helland, Teddy Hyndman, Darcie Ladd, Esther Myers, Lana Sugarman, Angela Yazbek, and my early Sivananda Ashram teachers.
Website photography:
- Photo of Staircase & Yoga Room by Janice Williamson at the Bloom Holistic Retreat 2022 with Pat Harada Linfoot & Jen Helland
- Janice Williamson photo by Habib Hassoun
- Janice & Veronika photo by Pat Harada Linfoot
RiseUpYoga
Founded by Janice Williamson, RiseUpYOGA is based in
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
RiseUpYOGA.ca 