Inspired by 20th-century French writer Marcel Proust, we here at Esalen have created our own version of his favorite parlor game to dig just a little deeper — and differently — into our incredible faculty and staff.
Danielle Rubio loves witnessing those “aha” moments — when students finally understand “how free they are and that they’ve been the ones with the key to unlock themselves all along.” The somatic trauma coach, movement facilitator, and mindfulness teacher has been coming to Esalen since she was 22, soaking at the Baths and feeling “part of the cosmos itself.” She’ll be returning this September to lead Pulse and Presence: A Somatic Rite of Passage to Freedom, her invitation to explore — and experience — the freedom that is felt, embodied, and unmistakably your own.
What is Esalen to you?
Esalen, to me, is magic. I first came when I was 22, while living and working in Big Sur, and I still remember sitting in the tubs overlooking the ocean, feeling like I was part of the cosmos itself. There is something about Esalen that makes the vastness of the world and the universe feel immediate and intimate all at once. Esalen is a place of deep discovery, but it also feels deeply personal to me. Many of my teachers in movement and dance therapy have shared their work there since the 60s, so it feels woven into my somatic lineage and into the practices I now carry forward. In that way, Esalen feels like home. It is a school of life, a portal for transformation, and a sanctuary where people come to nourish themselves, reconnect with truth, and know themselves more deeply.
What do you do/are you doing at Esalen?
I’ll be teaching my Pulse and Presence workshop, which is a Somatic Rite of Passage to Freedom. We traverse the glorious terrain of our inner world using our bodies as the map and our sensations and emotions as our compass. We weave movement therapy, dance medicine, ancient Tibetan mindfulness, inner child healing, and nervous system repair work. This is where neuroscience meets spirituality; mind meets body; brain, heart, and soul create coherence.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
My idea of perfect happiness is knowing peace. No matter what is going on, there is an innate inner peace. It is living free; free of toxic society structures keeping people stuck; free of chronic mental looping; freedom from any thoughts keeping me in a belief that I am anything other than a wildly, luminous, whole bright light being of love..
Which living or dead person do you most admire in your field?
Hands down Gabrielle Roth as far as movement therapeutics. One of my favorite quotes is hers: “If you want to give birth to your true self, you are going to have to dig deep down into that body of yours and let your soul howl. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and trust that if you turn off your head, your feet will take you where you need to go.”
What is the quality you most like in a human?
Honesty. Honesty with oneself first and foremost. It’s incredibly fascinating in my 17 years of healing work to witness how often people lie to themselves. Radical honesty with self and others creates freedom. It’s scary because there are repercussions for the truth. Yet, there are repercussions for the lies too. But there is an energy fissure that gets created in the psyche and body when we lie to ourselves (others too but most key is our own self). There are far greater repercussions when you live a life that is untrue for you.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My daughter. I know the purest and most unconditional love because of her. She is the soul of my soul.
What about your work brings you the most happiness?
Witnessing a student drop the ego in real time and surrender to the flow of movement and take refuge in their own innate consciousness. I can feel it as I see it. And when we all pulse in a rhythm together from this place, free of the thinking mind and surrendered to the body and movement itself, it is pure magic.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
What I am doing. Getting to orchestrate a portal and guide people into this portal of transformation and guiding them to meet their highest selves. I am living it everyday. As a friend said to me once, “You built these wings out of nothing that most people would not dare to build. And now you fly and carry others on your wings until they create their own.”
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
Ooh good question. Well, if I transition to another being, I think I’d like to be some fantastical being in another dimension, some heaven realm. If it is on earth, I’d like to be a huge musician spreading love through my music.
What is your most treasured possession?
My healthy body, my ability to move and dance.
How do you maintain your practice(s) during challenging times?
Discipline. As they say, it takes a lot of discipline to be a free spirit. It’s about not reaching for the easy numbing and instead do the practices I know bring me back to myself and bring me more growth rather than a quick numbing or avoiding of what I am feeling.
What is your favorite component of your work?
Witnessing the aha moments by private clients and students when they receive a lived reference point of pure presence and start to live these moments of knowing how free they are and that they’ve been the ones with the key to unlock themselves all along. I can see it in their bodies, their eyes, their aura. I can see these glimmer moments and it is the most rewarding part of my work.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Probably intention. I don’t give up on myself or my clients. I ensure if I am intending something to happen, I give it my all.
What do you value most in your work/practice?
I value the deep intimacy created with my body, my subconscious, my emotions. The fact that the method I created, I use myself and can use it to return to my lived reference point of my true nature again and again. I value knowing my practice brings me closer to life, all of life, even the quote-unquote hard stuff. I’m able to be with it all, even when it hurts. This work ensures you are never running away from anything. And every time you feel it all, you extract the power from whatever situation you are in.
Who are your heroes in real life?
My beloved friends and chosen family who support all my revolutionary ideas and are there to dream big with me or just make food together and belly laugh all night. My daughter. My spiritual teachers and mentors. My Rimpoche, Ziji Rimpoche.
“Remembering to be as self compassionate as I can and praying to the divine that we're all a part of.”
–Aaron
“Prayer, reading, meditation, walking.”
–Karen
“Erratically — which is an ongoing stream of practice to find peace.”
–Charles
“Try on a daily basis to be kind to myself and to realize that making mistakes is a part of the human condition. Learning from our mistakes is a journey. But it starts with compassion and caring. First for oneself.”
–Steve
“Physically: aerobic exercise, volleyball, ice hockey, cycling, sailing. Emotionally: unfortunately I have to work to ‘not care’ about people or situations which may end painfully. Along the lines of ‘attachment is the source of suffering’, so best to avoid it or limit its scope. Sad though because it could also be the source of great joy. Is it worth the risk?“
–Rainer
“It's time for my heart to be nurtured on one level yet contained on another. To go easy on me and to allow my feelings to be validated, not judged harshly. On the other hand, to let the heart rule with equanimity and not lead the mind and body around like a master.”
–Suzanne
“I spend time thinking of everything I am grateful for, and I try to develop my ability to express compassion for myself and others without reservation. I take time to do the things I need to do to keep myself healthy and happy. This includes taking experiential workshops, fostering relationships, and participating within groups which have a similar interest to become a more compassionate and fulfilled being.“
–Peter
“Self-forgiveness for my own judgments. And oh yeah, coming to Esalen.”
–David B.
“Hmm, this is a tough one! I guess I take care of my heart through fostering relationships with people I feel connected to. Spending quality time with them (whether we're on the phone, through messages/letters, on Zoom, or in-person). Being there for them, listening to them, sharing what's going on with me, my struggles and my successes... like we do in the Esalen weekly Friends of Esalen Zoom sessions!”
–Lori
“I remind myself in many ways of the fact that " Love is all there is!" LOVE is the prize and this one precious life is the stage we get to learn our lessons. I get out into nature, hike, camp, river kayak, fly fish, garden, I create, I dance (not enough!), and I remain grateful for each day, each breath, each moment. Being in the moment, awake, and remembering the gift of life and my feeling of gratitude for all of creation.”
–Steven
“My physical heart by limiting stress and eating a heart-healthy diet. My emotional heart by staying in love with the world and by knowing that all disappointment and loss will pass.“
–David Z.
Today, September 29, is World Heart Day. Strike up a conversation with your own heart and as you feel comfortable, encourage others to do the same. As part of our own transformations and self-care, we sometimes ask for others to illuminate and enliven our hearts or speak our love language.
What if we could do this for ourselves too, even if just for today… or to start a heart practice, forever?
Inspired by 20th-century French writer Marcel Proust, we here at Esalen have created our own version of his favorite parlor game to dig just a little deeper — and differently — into our incredible faculty and staff.
Danielle Rubio loves witnessing those “aha” moments — when students finally understand “how free they are and that they’ve been the ones with the key to unlock themselves all along.” The somatic trauma coach, movement facilitator, and mindfulness teacher has been coming to Esalen since she was 22, soaking at the Baths and feeling “part of the cosmos itself.” She’ll be returning this September to lead Pulse and Presence: A Somatic Rite of Passage to Freedom, her invitation to explore — and experience — the freedom that is felt, embodied, and unmistakably your own.
What is Esalen to you?
Esalen, to me, is magic. I first came when I was 22, while living and working in Big Sur, and I still remember sitting in the tubs overlooking the ocean, feeling like I was part of the cosmos itself. There is something about Esalen that makes the vastness of the world and the universe feel immediate and intimate all at once. Esalen is a place of deep discovery, but it also feels deeply personal to me. Many of my teachers in movement and dance therapy have shared their work there since the 60s, so it feels woven into my somatic lineage and into the practices I now carry forward. In that way, Esalen feels like home. It is a school of life, a portal for transformation, and a sanctuary where people come to nourish themselves, reconnect with truth, and know themselves more deeply.
What do you do/are you doing at Esalen?
I’ll be teaching my Pulse and Presence workshop, which is a Somatic Rite of Passage to Freedom. We traverse the glorious terrain of our inner world using our bodies as the map and our sensations and emotions as our compass. We weave movement therapy, dance medicine, ancient Tibetan mindfulness, inner child healing, and nervous system repair work. This is where neuroscience meets spirituality; mind meets body; brain, heart, and soul create coherence.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
My idea of perfect happiness is knowing peace. No matter what is going on, there is an innate inner peace. It is living free; free of toxic society structures keeping people stuck; free of chronic mental looping; freedom from any thoughts keeping me in a belief that I am anything other than a wildly, luminous, whole bright light being of love..
Which living or dead person do you most admire in your field?
Hands down Gabrielle Roth as far as movement therapeutics. One of my favorite quotes is hers: “If you want to give birth to your true self, you are going to have to dig deep down into that body of yours and let your soul howl. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and trust that if you turn off your head, your feet will take you where you need to go.”
What is the quality you most like in a human?
Honesty. Honesty with oneself first and foremost. It’s incredibly fascinating in my 17 years of healing work to witness how often people lie to themselves. Radical honesty with self and others creates freedom. It’s scary because there are repercussions for the truth. Yet, there are repercussions for the lies too. But there is an energy fissure that gets created in the psyche and body when we lie to ourselves (others too but most key is our own self). There are far greater repercussions when you live a life that is untrue for you.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My daughter. I know the purest and most unconditional love because of her. She is the soul of my soul.
What about your work brings you the most happiness?
Witnessing a student drop the ego in real time and surrender to the flow of movement and take refuge in their own innate consciousness. I can feel it as I see it. And when we all pulse in a rhythm together from this place, free of the thinking mind and surrendered to the body and movement itself, it is pure magic.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
What I am doing. Getting to orchestrate a portal and guide people into this portal of transformation and guiding them to meet their highest selves. I am living it everyday. As a friend said to me once, “You built these wings out of nothing that most people would not dare to build. And now you fly and carry others on your wings until they create their own.”
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
Ooh good question. Well, if I transition to another being, I think I’d like to be some fantastical being in another dimension, some heaven realm. If it is on earth, I’d like to be a huge musician spreading love through my music.
What is your most treasured possession?
My healthy body, my ability to move and dance.
How do you maintain your practice(s) during challenging times?
Discipline. As they say, it takes a lot of discipline to be a free spirit. It’s about not reaching for the easy numbing and instead do the practices I know bring me back to myself and bring me more growth rather than a quick numbing or avoiding of what I am feeling.
What is your favorite component of your work?
Witnessing the aha moments by private clients and students when they receive a lived reference point of pure presence and start to live these moments of knowing how free they are and that they’ve been the ones with the key to unlock themselves all along. I can see it in their bodies, their eyes, their aura. I can see these glimmer moments and it is the most rewarding part of my work.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Probably intention. I don’t give up on myself or my clients. I ensure if I am intending something to happen, I give it my all.
What do you value most in your work/practice?
I value the deep intimacy created with my body, my subconscious, my emotions. The fact that the method I created, I use myself and can use it to return to my lived reference point of my true nature again and again. I value knowing my practice brings me closer to life, all of life, even the quote-unquote hard stuff. I’m able to be with it all, even when it hurts. This work ensures you are never running away from anything. And every time you feel it all, you extract the power from whatever situation you are in.
Who are your heroes in real life?
My beloved friends and chosen family who support all my revolutionary ideas and are there to dream big with me or just make food together and belly laugh all night. My daughter. My spiritual teachers and mentors. My Rimpoche, Ziji Rimpoche.
“Remembering to be as self compassionate as I can and praying to the divine that we're all a part of.”
–Aaron
“Prayer, reading, meditation, walking.”
–Karen
“Erratically — which is an ongoing stream of practice to find peace.”
–Charles
“Try on a daily basis to be kind to myself and to realize that making mistakes is a part of the human condition. Learning from our mistakes is a journey. But it starts with compassion and caring. First for oneself.”
–Steve
“Physically: aerobic exercise, volleyball, ice hockey, cycling, sailing. Emotionally: unfortunately I have to work to ‘not care’ about people or situations which may end painfully. Along the lines of ‘attachment is the source of suffering’, so best to avoid it or limit its scope. Sad though because it could also be the source of great joy. Is it worth the risk?“
–Rainer
“It's time for my heart to be nurtured on one level yet contained on another. To go easy on me and to allow my feelings to be validated, not judged harshly. On the other hand, to let the heart rule with equanimity and not lead the mind and body around like a master.”
–Suzanne
“I spend time thinking of everything I am grateful for, and I try to develop my ability to express compassion for myself and others without reservation. I take time to do the things I need to do to keep myself healthy and happy. This includes taking experiential workshops, fostering relationships, and participating within groups which have a similar interest to become a more compassionate and fulfilled being.“
–Peter
“Self-forgiveness for my own judgments. And oh yeah, coming to Esalen.”
–David B.
“Hmm, this is a tough one! I guess I take care of my heart through fostering relationships with people I feel connected to. Spending quality time with them (whether we're on the phone, through messages/letters, on Zoom, or in-person). Being there for them, listening to them, sharing what's going on with me, my struggles and my successes... like we do in the Esalen weekly Friends of Esalen Zoom sessions!”
–Lori
“I remind myself in many ways of the fact that " Love is all there is!" LOVE is the prize and this one precious life is the stage we get to learn our lessons. I get out into nature, hike, camp, river kayak, fly fish, garden, I create, I dance (not enough!), and I remain grateful for each day, each breath, each moment. Being in the moment, awake, and remembering the gift of life and my feeling of gratitude for all of creation.”
–Steven
“My physical heart by limiting stress and eating a heart-healthy diet. My emotional heart by staying in love with the world and by knowing that all disappointment and loss will pass.“
–David Z.
Today, September 29, is World Heart Day. Strike up a conversation with your own heart and as you feel comfortable, encourage others to do the same. As part of our own transformations and self-care, we sometimes ask for others to illuminate and enliven our hearts or speak our love language.
What if we could do this for ourselves too, even if just for today… or to start a heart practice, forever?
Inspired by 20th-century French writer Marcel Proust, we here at Esalen have created our own version of his favorite parlor game to dig just a little deeper — and differently — into our incredible faculty and staff.
Danielle Rubio loves witnessing those “aha” moments — when students finally understand “how free they are and that they’ve been the ones with the key to unlock themselves all along.” The somatic trauma coach, movement facilitator, and mindfulness teacher has been coming to Esalen since she was 22, soaking at the Baths and feeling “part of the cosmos itself.” She’ll be returning this September to lead Pulse and Presence: A Somatic Rite of Passage to Freedom, her invitation to explore — and experience — the freedom that is felt, embodied, and unmistakably your own.
What is Esalen to you?
Esalen, to me, is magic. I first came when I was 22, while living and working in Big Sur, and I still remember sitting in the tubs overlooking the ocean, feeling like I was part of the cosmos itself. There is something about Esalen that makes the vastness of the world and the universe feel immediate and intimate all at once. Esalen is a place of deep discovery, but it also feels deeply personal to me. Many of my teachers in movement and dance therapy have shared their work there since the 60s, so it feels woven into my somatic lineage and into the practices I now carry forward. In that way, Esalen feels like home. It is a school of life, a portal for transformation, and a sanctuary where people come to nourish themselves, reconnect with truth, and know themselves more deeply.
What do you do/are you doing at Esalen?
I’ll be teaching my Pulse and Presence workshop, which is a Somatic Rite of Passage to Freedom. We traverse the glorious terrain of our inner world using our bodies as the map and our sensations and emotions as our compass. We weave movement therapy, dance medicine, ancient Tibetan mindfulness, inner child healing, and nervous system repair work. This is where neuroscience meets spirituality; mind meets body; brain, heart, and soul create coherence.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
My idea of perfect happiness is knowing peace. No matter what is going on, there is an innate inner peace. It is living free; free of toxic society structures keeping people stuck; free of chronic mental looping; freedom from any thoughts keeping me in a belief that I am anything other than a wildly, luminous, whole bright light being of love..
Which living or dead person do you most admire in your field?
Hands down Gabrielle Roth as far as movement therapeutics. One of my favorite quotes is hers: “If you want to give birth to your true self, you are going to have to dig deep down into that body of yours and let your soul howl. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and trust that if you turn off your head, your feet will take you where you need to go.”
What is the quality you most like in a human?
Honesty. Honesty with oneself first and foremost. It’s incredibly fascinating in my 17 years of healing work to witness how often people lie to themselves. Radical honesty with self and others creates freedom. It’s scary because there are repercussions for the truth. Yet, there are repercussions for the lies too. But there is an energy fissure that gets created in the psyche and body when we lie to ourselves (others too but most key is our own self). There are far greater repercussions when you live a life that is untrue for you.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My daughter. I know the purest and most unconditional love because of her. She is the soul of my soul.
What about your work brings you the most happiness?
Witnessing a student drop the ego in real time and surrender to the flow of movement and take refuge in their own innate consciousness. I can feel it as I see it. And when we all pulse in a rhythm together from this place, free of the thinking mind and surrendered to the body and movement itself, it is pure magic.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
What I am doing. Getting to orchestrate a portal and guide people into this portal of transformation and guiding them to meet their highest selves. I am living it everyday. As a friend said to me once, “You built these wings out of nothing that most people would not dare to build. And now you fly and carry others on your wings until they create their own.”
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
Ooh good question. Well, if I transition to another being, I think I’d like to be some fantastical being in another dimension, some heaven realm. If it is on earth, I’d like to be a huge musician spreading love through my music.
What is your most treasured possession?
My healthy body, my ability to move and dance.
How do you maintain your practice(s) during challenging times?
Discipline. As they say, it takes a lot of discipline to be a free spirit. It’s about not reaching for the easy numbing and instead do the practices I know bring me back to myself and bring me more growth rather than a quick numbing or avoiding of what I am feeling.
What is your favorite component of your work?
Witnessing the aha moments by private clients and students when they receive a lived reference point of pure presence and start to live these moments of knowing how free they are and that they’ve been the ones with the key to unlock themselves all along. I can see it in their bodies, their eyes, their aura. I can see these glimmer moments and it is the most rewarding part of my work.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Probably intention. I don’t give up on myself or my clients. I ensure if I am intending something to happen, I give it my all.
What do you value most in your work/practice?
I value the deep intimacy created with my body, my subconscious, my emotions. The fact that the method I created, I use myself and can use it to return to my lived reference point of my true nature again and again. I value knowing my practice brings me closer to life, all of life, even the quote-unquote hard stuff. I’m able to be with it all, even when it hurts. This work ensures you are never running away from anything. And every time you feel it all, you extract the power from whatever situation you are in.
Who are your heroes in real life?
My beloved friends and chosen family who support all my revolutionary ideas and are there to dream big with me or just make food together and belly laugh all night. My daughter. My spiritual teachers and mentors. My Rimpoche, Ziji Rimpoche.
“Remembering to be as self compassionate as I can and praying to the divine that we're all a part of.”
–Aaron
“Prayer, reading, meditation, walking.”
–Karen
“Erratically — which is an ongoing stream of practice to find peace.”
–Charles
“Try on a daily basis to be kind to myself and to realize that making mistakes is a part of the human condition. Learning from our mistakes is a journey. But it starts with compassion and caring. First for oneself.”
–Steve
“Physically: aerobic exercise, volleyball, ice hockey, cycling, sailing. Emotionally: unfortunately I have to work to ‘not care’ about people or situations which may end painfully. Along the lines of ‘attachment is the source of suffering’, so best to avoid it or limit its scope. Sad though because it could also be the source of great joy. Is it worth the risk?“
–Rainer
“It's time for my heart to be nurtured on one level yet contained on another. To go easy on me and to allow my feelings to be validated, not judged harshly. On the other hand, to let the heart rule with equanimity and not lead the mind and body around like a master.”
–Suzanne
“I spend time thinking of everything I am grateful for, and I try to develop my ability to express compassion for myself and others without reservation. I take time to do the things I need to do to keep myself healthy and happy. This includes taking experiential workshops, fostering relationships, and participating within groups which have a similar interest to become a more compassionate and fulfilled being.“
–Peter
“Self-forgiveness for my own judgments. And oh yeah, coming to Esalen.”
–David B.
“Hmm, this is a tough one! I guess I take care of my heart through fostering relationships with people I feel connected to. Spending quality time with them (whether we're on the phone, through messages/letters, on Zoom, or in-person). Being there for them, listening to them, sharing what's going on with me, my struggles and my successes... like we do in the Esalen weekly Friends of Esalen Zoom sessions!”
–Lori
“I remind myself in many ways of the fact that " Love is all there is!" LOVE is the prize and this one precious life is the stage we get to learn our lessons. I get out into nature, hike, camp, river kayak, fly fish, garden, I create, I dance (not enough!), and I remain grateful for each day, each breath, each moment. Being in the moment, awake, and remembering the gift of life and my feeling of gratitude for all of creation.”
–Steven
“My physical heart by limiting stress and eating a heart-healthy diet. My emotional heart by staying in love with the world and by knowing that all disappointment and loss will pass.“
–David Z.
Today, September 29, is World Heart Day. Strike up a conversation with your own heart and as you feel comfortable, encourage others to do the same. As part of our own transformations and self-care, we sometimes ask for others to illuminate and enliven our hearts or speak our love language.
What if we could do this for ourselves too, even if just for today… or to start a heart practice, forever?
Esalen Institute
55000 Highway 1
Big Sur, CA 93920
US: 1-831-667-3000
info@esalen.org
