Workshops with CE Credits for Nurses

We live in a culture that extols constant productivity. From sunrise to sunset, we move at a breakneck pace in order to meet the day's demands. Is it any wonder that we have distanced ourselves from the body's signals of discomfort? Such signals may be a particular chronic ache or perhaps a more abstract sensation of overall stiffness. This path leads to decreased energy and an inability to embrace each day with optimal vitality.

Tai Chi Easy is a practice that combines gentle exercises, breath practices, self-massage, and meditation to help you experience a refreshing, healing boost to body, mind, and spirit. Developed by master teacher Roger Jahnke, Tai Chi Easy enhances energy (qi) to strengthen and cleanse the body and mind. According to Chinese Medicine and philosophy, qi is the vital essence that creates health, well-being, and harmony.
During this workshop, you will be taught tai chi principles including breathing, relaxation, and mindfulness.

The human brain is the most complex object in the known universe, and the study of its structure and function is one of the most rapidly developing fields in contemporary science. Yet many great mysteries remain, including understanding the brain processes involved in memory, perception, mental illness, and arguably the greatest unanswered question in all of science: How are consciousness and mind related to the physical processes within the brain?

This workshop is a wonderful opportunity for you to enjoy the beauty of Big Sur and the healing waters of the Esalen hot springs, while gaining a foundation in the art and practice of Esalen Massage. During the weekend, participants will be taught massage methods that address the whole body: Esalen’s signature long, flowing strokes that support feelings of wholeness, connection, and integration; passive joint movement; and a variety of techniques to work with the major muscle groups of the body.

Esalen Massage is a moving meditation, a practice in presence and mindfulness, and a loving healing art. When practiced with focused attention, massage comes from a deep, quiet place that resides inside each of us. The practice of meditation can help access the parasympathetic nervous system, where healing originates. As we give a massage, this healing state of mind can permeate the field that practitioner and receiver create together.

This weekend is an opportunity for people practicing Zero Balancing to reconnect with Fritz Smith, with Zero Balancing, and with each other.
“It is critically important," says Fritz, "to periodically meet with like-minded people and to openly, freely, and safely discuss problems, insights, and successes of your work—in this case, the leading-edge therapy of balancing energy and structure.”

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
– John Quincy Adams

During an Esalen Massage, we experience a remarkable web of interdependence: a listening touch, a deepening breath, our nervous system soothed in connection with another. When we receive a massage we remember an easier time and "come home."

Cultures and spiritual traditions since the beginning of civilization have grappled with how to live a human life from a place of spiritual wisdom. How do we integrate the truth of the inner life with the requirements of our outer life? What supports us? The Enneagram and the Fourth Way tradition from which it springs can offer some answers to these questions. This new workshop will be an exploration of the deeper aspects of the Enneagram: the Essential Qualities, the Virtues, and the Holy Ideas.

Just as an acorn contains all the information to become an oak tree, you were born with a user’s manual for your life—including purpose, well-being, and peace of mind—right inside your own heart. How can we access and decode that user’s manual? This workshop introduces the tools and practices developed over twenty-five years of peer-reviewed research at the HeartMath Institute. The HeartMath process shows us that the concept “follow your heart” is not just a poetic metaphor, but can be methodically manifested by anyone.

Explore the world of spontaneous creation, an unpredictable territory beyond the expected where no rules apply. In a respectful and nurturing studio environment, you’ll receive individual attention and gentle guidance to help you open to inspiration, creativity, growth, and change. Using the powerful tool of “process arts,” you’ll be supportively invited to:
• Discover a creative voice that’s entirely your own
• Trust your intuitive perception, not the mind’s critical chatter
• Follow your energy rather than what looks good or makes sense

Deep bodywork, practiced with great sensitivity, is one of the most effective healing modalities available to the bodywork practitioner. Through slowly opening the body’s deeper soft tissue layers, we connect the mind to normally unconscious "stuck" areas of the physical body, which can release enormous amounts of previously held energy. This energy then becomes available to support the body’s innate capacity to self-organize and self-heal, enabling practitioners to support clients in overcoming previously stubborn, seemingly intractable physical conditions.