Finding Your Voice Through Poetry, Yoga, and Journaling: An Interview with Catherine Sipher

The intersection of movement, wellness, and creativity is something I’m really passionate about. I’ve experienced firsthand how pairing my yoga practice, gym routine, and running schedule with my writing rituals is incredibly powerful.

When you move before you write, it opens up more creative energy and allows you to bring your whole body into the experience.

Today’s interview goes into just that. I’m very excited to introduce you all to Catherine Sipher, a yoga teacher and journaling guide—and an all-around inspiring woman who is making the world a better place.

During a season of life where she was experiencing big changes, journaling helped Catherine hear her own voice. She also found yoga. And the combination changed her life.

Moments of stillness gave her a way to reconnect with her body and voice.

Today, Catherine is an award-winning poet, journaling guide, and new yoga teacher who weaves all three practices together. She is the author of a poetry memoir and a companion journaling guide, hosts journaling circles for women, and brings her poetry into her yoga classes as a way to encourage grounding and reflection.

In this interview, Catherine shares how journaling, poetry, and yoga came into her life, what it’s really like to build confidence as a brand new teacher, how she structures her journaling circles, and how movement and silence have helped her voice come through.

Keep reading for an encouraging conversation about writing, healing, and finding your voice.

How did yoga, poetry, and journaling come into your life?

My origin story with all of this goes back to the end of 2019. I was a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom of six, living inside evangelical Christianity, and I realized that both my marriage and my faith were not working for me. That's the most succinct way I can say it.

My life felt very unsteady. I was rewriting my whole understanding of who I was, where I was going, and how I interpreted the world. There was a lot of questioning and wondering, and a lot of fear and confusion. That eventually led me to journaling, which helped me, for the first time, really hear my voice and know what I was thinking and feeling.

It helped me see in black and white what was going on in my life so I could understand it and find a way forward. That's when I found I was writing poetry. It came out through that first season of journaling, and I didn't even identify it as poetry at first.

It was also in that season that I started doing yoga consistently for the first time. Yoga had been frowned upon in evangelical circles.

I found it to be really powerful, especially the moment of silence and grounding at the beginning of a practice. Those were some of the only moments of true stillness I had, and it was incredible to see the emotions that would come up when I was given just 30 seconds to feel.

I had many beautiful experiences in my practice connecting, probably for the first time, to my body, even though I'd had six kids. I was really learning how to move and feel at the same time. Sometimes I'd think I was okay, and then I'd get into a pose and there would be an emotional release. I'd be crying with no thought leading up to it. Practicing yoga, journaling, and writing all became a super powerful part of my healing.

Then it all came to a head recently. Two years ago I published a book of poetry. It's really a poetry memoir, outlining the inner landscape of a woman re-becoming, using poetry as the medium to tell that story. Then I started hosting journaling circles for women to have carved-out, sacred time to write in silence and connect with their voice. I provide journaling prompts, and I started bringing poetry into those classes for inspiration.

Last summer it became evident that I wanted some extra training. I knew there was something else, and it just popped into my head: "Why don't you get trained as a yoga teacher?" That idea shifted me. I wasn't one of those people who goes into teacher training saying, "I'm never going to teach, I'm just here to be with my practice." Turns out I really fell in love with teaching, and I started right away. I bring my poetry into my classes as our theme, for the grounding at the beginning, and then as an invitation for response at the end. Just last month I published a companion journaling guide to go with my poetry memoir, with journaling prompts for each poem.

My dream—my goal and my hope—is to help women in particular, but really anybody who's open to it, create margin in their lives so they can connect within.

Whether that's through my prose, journaling circles, or journaling guides, these different modalities have been the core of what helps me, and I believe they can be really helpful for others if they want them.

So that's my mission now: to create spaces where people can process for themselves, because I truly believe we can be our own hero. If we just take the time to listen, we can find the resources within. And hopefully, if the healers are doing their job right, we're creating the right environment and space for people to do that instead of making them reliant on us.

Have any yoga teachers influenced you?

My introduction to yoga, probably like a lot of people's, was Yoga with Adriene on YouTube. It was accessible. She wasn't doing crazy poses and moving fast and making you feel bad about yourself. Her cues to connect with your body, breathe, and slow down were really powerful for me.

I hadn't attended many in-person classes. As a mom with so many littles, always pregnant or with a baby, it just wasn't possible for me to get to a local studio, so most of my practice was at home, except for the few classes I had taken when I was a hardcore runner

Then I lucked out with the studio where I received my teacher trained, because it was just down the street and t They mainly focus on serving women over 40. Most of the students are 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond.

It's all about staying safe, gaining a little more mobility and strength, and making sure we stay pliable. It's not about doing the crazy poses, and there's something beautiful to me in that. It's a warm, loving environment that's accepting of where you are in your body: "Great, do what you can, and let's see if we can keep you as healthy as we can." That rings true to me for what the purpose of yoga is. That's where my inspiration has really been.

Are you teaching a weekly class there?

Yes. I teach two Saturday morning classes, a 45-minute class and an hour-long class, which are basically the same class, just shortened. Then I teach mostly the same class on Tuesday nights.

It's an honor that they trusted me so quickly. It's been great practice for learning how to build and sequence classes, think about the average student who comes in, and how I can help them.

Teaching the same class gives me a lot of practice adjusting, and I'm getting better at adjusting on the fly. I keep notes for myself on what worked and what didn't.

Has it been a challenge to build your confidence as a new teacher?

Surprisingly, no. I've been someone who lacked confidence, but there's something about yoga in particular that has been so comforting to me. I've just trusted that I have the ability to do this.

I've been teaching about six months now, and I'm still nervous before most classes. I think, "Am I going to remember the sequence? What if my timing is off? What if I lose the class? What if this new thing I'm trying doesn't land? What if I jumble up my words?"

I really think the power of those first grounding moments in class isn't just for our students. It's so helpful for me. Once I've got us all breathing, I’m in the zone and think, "This is good. We're set."

I can be type A, so I make my plans and I know where I’m going with my classes. I'm not yet one of those teachers who can just wing it, but I think that's good for me right now. I still use a little cheat sheet, a printed order of the class, just in case I panic and forget where were we going? I'm getting better at seeing the time, recognizing what is and isn’t working for my students, and adjusting on the fly. I'm really proud of myself when we do that.

I've been surprised at how confident I've been. But that means my teachers did a really good job teaching us. At the same time, I know I'm barely scraping the surface of what the yoga world has to offer. There's a ton still to learn.

I'm still learning and growing, and it's been beautiful.

Tell us more about your journaling circles and your poetry memoir.

The poetry memoir was a half-accident. I was journaling and answering writing prompts, and I knew I wanted to use writing somehow in my life. So I joined a writing circle with a writing coach. I kept writing poetry every time I was given a prompt. After a season of that, I told her I had a large number of poems written, about 60. She suggested I put them into one document, so I did. That became the first draft. Then I worked with an editor and self-published them. It was super raw and vulnerable because they were initially journal entries, but I think that's where the power of that book lies. As people resonated with it, I began to see that my words were making a difference.

I thought, “What's the next best step for bringing this to other people? What's a good carrier for my work?” Then I thought back to the fact that it was journaling that made the difference for me. What if I created some journaling experiences for others? I didn't know what that would look like at all.

I took some inspiration from a writing group I had been in, but I focused on adding a little meditation and my own poetry to the writing exercises.

In my circles we start with a little seated movement, some seated yoga just to move our bodies, then we sit in silence with a little meditation, sometimes with a mantra and sometimes not, and then we move into writing time.

We never share what we write, because I think journaling should be super private.

We're not a writing group, and we're not trying to become better writers. We do talk about the experience at the end, but only briefly. I leave about five minutes for that so most of our time is spent writing or preparing to write.

It's been so interesting to watch my regular attendees get excited about seeing their own handwriting on the page, or about filling a notebook. I love hearing them say, "Whoa, I didn't realize that would come out today." That's what I needed, too. It's been super encouraging, and it's definitely an area I want to offer more for others: creating these experiences.

I'm not interested right now in proselytizing to anyone about anything. I'm not out there trying to convince people they need to journal. It's more about creating space for those who like to journal, but have a hard time getting to the page, or have questions about it. It’s an opportunity to experience journaling, to learn about it, and to block it off on your calendar so your laundry doesn't take over.

Journaling can be hard to do, especially when it involves looking at our own hearts. Those can be the touchy moments, the ones we try to push away.

A journaling prompt gives people the space to look inward for a few moments and set everything else aside. And that's what I feel yoga does, too.

I'm hoping to eventually offer yoga and journaling classes together. We'd move first and then head into a little meditation, because honestly, most of my writing and journaling has been so powerful right after a savasana or a time of meditation. That's the whole purpose of yoga, right? To practice the movements so we can move into a place of meditation, connecting and silencing.

I think that's when our voice becomes the loudest, after we've had a little bit of silence. That's when we can get our deepest insights about ourselves.

Movement helps in other ways too. Sometimes I'll put on meditative music, walk or clean, and then write by typing into my phone. It settles us. It helps shake things off a little before we find that stillness and let things settle. That's when the beauty truly comes out.

Does your journaling practice look the same every day?

It depends on what's going on. To be completely honest, it's not an everyday process for me anymore. Life is full, and I have a better sense of my inner voice now. I don't need it the way I desperately needed it when I first started, because back then I couldn't access my voice. I couldn't have told you what I was thinking or feeling, in my body or in my mind.

Now I can, and I notice when I'm falling into old patterns. Sometimes I need the page to help me work out what to do instead, to dissect it, and look into the reasons why. It's a slightly different tool now because I'm in a different place.

I have a couple of processes. If I feel really stuck, I'll use journaling prompts. I also keep a list of rapid-fire starters, like "Today was," "Today is going to be," or "Something I'm wondering about." Otherwise I just open the journal and start thinking about my day or whatever I'm processing, whether it's a business decision, a relationship thing, what's going on with my kids, or just feeling unsettled. That's where I turn when I have questions.

I also journal with my circles, which is more thematic. That's interesting because I've already picked the prompt, so sometimes I've already had the experience of it for myself. Other times I’m surprised by what comes up in my journaling though I planned the class. SometimesI end up journaling on something completely different from the rest of the group. I tell everyone they can mute me out and do their own thing the whole time. If the prompts don't resonate, ditch them. You can always write about why they're not resonating, or just sit in silence. That's totally fine too.

My practice is anchored by the circles I host, but it's also free-form, letting whatever wants to come out come out. I'm also a writer. I publish on Substack every week, so sometimes my journal entries turn into essays. Often, something will happen in my life, I’ll journal to process it, and before I know it, I’ve written an essay that I publish instead of keeping as a private journal entry. 

I have about six journals on my desk right now. I'm always writing something. I always have a journal with me wherever I go, a small one, and a bag big enough to hold it, because you never know when inspiration will strike or when you'll have an extra few minutes. I'd rather journal than doom scroll.

My biggest fear is leaving the house without a pen. What if I'm out of the house  and I don’t have apen? It's a bit of a joke, but it's the writer's life.

What upcoming events or offerings would you like to highlight?

I would love to have more people join my journaling circles. People can come to just one to try it out, or there's a membership option. We meet every other Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern, which is early for West Coast folks, but maybe a good time for some. 

I also offer live-stream yoga classes online. I'm building membership both of these spaces right now as well: Monday nights at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, and Wednesday mornings at about 9:30 a.m. Eastern. Both the journaling circles and the live-stream yoga are online, so people can join from anywhere.

I have other hopes and dreams, like workshops that combine yoga and journaling and help people get started journaling, but they're not fully articulated or created yet. They will come at just the right time. 

About Catherine

Catherine Sipher, RYT-200, is a Boston-based yoga teacher, poet, and journaling guide. She is the author of Barely a Whisper: Poems from the Heart of a Woman Re-becoming, a #1 New Release in Religious and Spiritual Poetry, and its companion journaling guide, which pairs reflections on the poems with prompts for the reader’s own page. She also leads intimate journaling circles for women. She brings her poetry, her years of teaching piano, and a love of community to every yoga class. Learn more at catherinesipher.com.

Read Catherine’s Book and Journaling Guide

Barely a Whisper: Poems From the Heart of a Woman Re-becoming

Barely a Whisper: A Companion Journaling Guide

Connect with Catherine

• Website: www.catherinesipher.com

• Substack: https://substack.com/@catherinesipher

• Catherine Sipher - Journaling circles

• Yoga schedule - online classes

Thank you, Catherine, for this wonderful interview, and for all you do!

Reader, are you a yoga teacher who’s also a writer? Be a part of this series on Alive in the Fire! Reach out to Rachel here to share more about your yoga and writing background.