Workshops

Learn how mindfulness and self-compassion can change everything about how you feel, how you relate and how you live ― for good.

In this workshop, Shauna Shapiro ― a leading scientist studying the effects of mindfulness + compassion on well-being ― shows us that acting with compassion toward ourselves is the key. She explains basic brain science and offers powerful science-based practices to alleviate anxiety, boost creative thinking and deepen our sense of belonging and purpose. With practice, we can literally rewire our brains for greater feelings of calm, clarity, connection and joy.  We will immerse ourselves in the natural beauty of Esalen, allowing the sounds of the ocean, the magnificent views  and delights of the gardens to nourish and support us.

This workshop is appropriate for anyone curious about mindfulness + compassion and how to deepen our connection with the beauty and mystery of life. All are welcome.

Recommended Reading: Good Morning, I Love You: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Practices to Rewire Your Mind Sounds True, Boulder, CO. By Shauna Shapiro.

This workshop includes an additional $390 faculty tuition. For anyone facing financial hardship, Dr. Shauna Shapiro invites you to contact her directly for tuition scholarship at slshapiro@scu.edu.

To breathe well is to live well. When we befriend the breath, we expand our capacity for choice, change, joy, and healing. When we embody breath — allowing limbs and bones to express outwardly the dynamic, unceasing pulsation of life within — we touch freedom.

In this new and electrifying experiential workshop, we’ll explore and deepen our connection to our breathing bodies through a number of somatic pathways: embodied movement, breathwork, presencing exercises, meditation in motion, and sound.

Operating from philosopher Havi Carel’s conception of breath as “a juncture of the physiological, psychological, existential, spiritual, and cultural,” we’ll practice dancing and digging at this intersection and, in effect, access a felt reconnection to our wholeness.

Join Sadia in her signature practice, which draws from her many deep pools of training and experience. This deeply embodied practice will include:

• A movement practice that draws equally from hatha yoga, calisthenics, ritual, Qigong, dance, and your own intuition.
• Intuitive breathwork and pranayama to help you connect more honestly to the nature of your aliveness.
• Sounding practices to liberate the use of your voice and guide you toward expanded breath capacity.
• Guided dance rituals to help you develop inner attunement and feel the limitless power of embodied expression.
• Restorative moving meditation to access the powerful convergence of attention and surrender, giving you an embodied understanding of the power of yielding to both breath and life.

Together, we’ll form a sacred community of breathing beings and establish conditions for the unobstructed flow of life force within and around our bodies — and our lives. The natural, subtly explosive intimacy that exists between body and breath — and between you and your breathing body— can emerge anew, rendering you more sensitized to desire, pleasure, purpose, and power; to who you are, what you want, and why.

You are what you practice. Or, as the Buddha said, “Whatever you frequently reflect and ponder upon, that becomes the inclination of your mind.”

This essential observation is examined from our intertwined perspectives on contemplative practice, brain science, and music. Through interactive inquiries and guided meditations, Nikki Mirghafori will lead a journey into mindfulness and compassion cultivation. Neuroscientist Clifford Saron will take us on a voyage of discovery into the mysteries of the brain and neuroplasticity. San Francisco Symphony cellist Barbara Bogatin will inspire us with Bach and provide a rare glimpse from inside the process of musical creativity.

Each day unfolds with a thematic focus, allowing us to dive deep into the three intertwined practices and perspectives. Together, we will:

• Experience guided meditations on the themes of samatha(concentration), vipassana (insight), and metta (loving kindness), and their application to daily life.
• Learn how scientists understand the impact of musical and meditative practice on our brains and bodies as revealed through current research.

• Understand how mindfulness practice enhances musical craft and expression.
• Share ongoing learning in group discussions and inquiries.
• Exult in the joy of music through deep listening to live cello performances.

This workshop is for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of themselves and their connection to others through the lens of mindfulness, science, and creativity. Whether you’re a meditator, musician, clinician, or simply curious, you’ll find valuable tools and perspectives to enrich your personal and professional life. No previous experience in meditation, music, or brain research is necessary!

Join us for this unique exploration of how these practices can harmonize, offering paths to inner peace and more joyful engagement with the world.

Qualified participants can receive 18 CE credits via the Spiritual Competency Academy. Click HERE to learn more.

What innate potential lies dormant within you? What dreams are yearning to be expressed? What does it look like to be fully alive, live an integrated and embodied life, and become an engaged part of the larger ecosystem of nature and community? It’s time to meet your future self and find out.

This workshop focuses on creating a robust, loving relationship with the best future version of you — the one who can help you pivot the direction of your life toward your heart’s vision. We will learn how to communicate with and embody that future self while mapping out the new terrain of your life in a process we call “futuremaking.” Using the sciences of imagination, transformation, and hope, you’ll chart a course for your next chapter.

Join us for a four-day workshop where we will engage in futuremaking experiences, including talks to spark insights; small and large group discussions to ground learning; guided imagery, meditation, and creative processes to connect you with your deeper wisdom; and movement and deep engagement with the beauty of Esalen to renew your spirit.

As we weave cutting-edge science with deep experiential practices and rich connection with kindred spirits, you’ll move forward — not back to “normal” or even a “new normal” — but ahead into a new extraordinary. Your future self is calling for you!

Recommended Reading: Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life by Marilyn Schiltz and Cassandra Vieten.

This workshop has an additional $30 of faculty tuition.

Do you love the beauty of the outdoors and delight in the wonder of nature? Do you want to learn how to meditate outdoors? Would you like practices to stay grounded, connected, and open-hearted in life? Then what better place to discover all this than in the majesty of the Big Sur coastline, where we are serenaded by the lulling sounds of the ocean, cradled by rolling hills, and uplifted by exquisite gardens?

Following ancient spiritual traditions that value the transformative power of nature, this experiential workshop will be spent entirely outdoors to explore embodied sensory practices in the natural beauty and mystery of Esalen. Whether during a sunset meditation as we listen to the soothing waves or while we sit graced by the stillness of cypress trees, we will open to the profound serenity and wisdom of nature.

You will learn about the practice of mindfulness — the capacity to be present to ourselves and our environment — and how it supports a rich, contemplative relationship with nature. You will discover how meditative time outdoors leads to beautiful states of joy, peace, wonder, and love. You will also experience greater connection with yourself, with others, and with the larger web of life.

Recommended reading: Awake in the Wild and A Field Guide to Nature Meditation by Mark Coleman

Join ceremonial leader and wisdom carrier Erika Gagnon on a sacred journey as we gather to look beyond the false duality of a divided self and the destructive concept of “self versus nature” to discover how to live in harmony and balance within ourselves and the world around us.

You are your greatest healer and greatest medicine, and this is your opportunity to examine what that means while sharing healing wisdom, practices & ceremonies. This workshop will offer you tools to transform trauma and unhealthy patterns and to realign your body, mind, spirit, and soul, as we explore the origins of dis-ease in our physical, mental-emotional and spiritual bodies.

How can we honor the gifts, and heal the wounds that we have inherited from our ancestors? How can we identify any social, cultural, racial, religious, and historical energies that may be influencing our lives? We will explore all of this, and discuss the importance of ceremonies, sacred altars, and medicinal plants.  You will have the opportunity to participate in a traditional South American healing ceremony, a sound healing and “doctoring” ceremony, and a water blessing prayer ceremony.

You will be invited to reconnect to your authentic wisdom and power with clarity, gratitude, and forgiveness. When you honor and heal your ancestral lineage and connect to the natural and spiritual elements of this planet, you strengthen your connection to the sacred in everyday life.

We are all interconnected in this giant web of life, and every day is a gift in the service of unconditional love for yourself, your community, humanity, and our planet. If you feel the call to be a part of a new humanity that lives in harmony and balance upon this Earth, we invite you to join us in this celebration of life.

Note: Please bring a journal to write in, and items for our altar, including photographs of loved ones and ancestors and sacred objects that have meaning for you.

Special Note on Gift Economy:  For this workshop, Esalen will not be collecting the typical leader fees. Erika embraces the tradition of the gift economy and reciprocity. The leader’s compensation will be self-determined by each attendee. At the end of the workshop, participants will offer a donation amount that reflects their feeling of gratitude, value, and desire to support Erika and her ongoing work.

BIPOC SCHOLARSHIP: Erika has established a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, person of color) scholarship for her workshops.  For more information on receiving one to participate, please contact her at ErikaGagnon11@gmail.com

“A brain without a body couldn’t think.” — Moshe Feldenkrais

“We want to get you to a place where gravity is your friend, a nourishing force.” — Dr. Ida P. Rolf

Human beings are relational by nature. We are an intricate web of anatomy, energy, space, and time that takes shape through our life experiences. Our physical structure, function, and sense of self are reflected in our fascial layers and formed by our early development, by principles of self-organization, and by how we engage with our environment.

When we fall into habitual patterns, parts of ourselves become undeveloped, unseen. If our bodies are given a setting in which to relate to gravity, others, and our environment with curiosity and attunement, we can be free to move and relate with more choice and ease.

Using the grounds, waters, and spirit of Esalen as our laboratory, Kate and Kevin will use the Feldenkrais Method and Gestalt process as a guide to contact and nurture the influences of the subtle body – our relationship to ground, gravity, and the space between.

In this workshop, participants will:

• Identify the habitual relational patterns that prevent us from cultivating ease in our lives.
• Investigate how the subtle body is influenced by the principles of emotional anatomy, tensegrity, neuroplasticity, and self-organization through experiential movement.
• Be guided through Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lessons tailored toward the subtle body and creating more sophistication in functional movement.
• Explore sensation, weight, gravity, and relationship through movement and contact.
• Learn tools of Gestalt Relational Process to increase presence and awareness and integration of ourselves.

Recommended Reading: Feldenkrais, The Potent Self: A Study of Spontaneity and Compulsion; Gladis, Tales of a Wounded Healer: Creating Exact Moments of Healing; Bodywise: An Introduction to Hellerwork for Regaining Flexibility & Well-Being.

You deserve to feel ease and joy in your body as you age.  Movement, time in nature, breath, quiet contemplation, and “Aha!” moments all contribute to expanding happiness and delight in life. Though this is true, you may face challenges. Changes to our bodies — aches and pains, joint replacements, osteoporosis, heart issues, and other conditions — may challenge us to find new ways to understand ourselves and maintain grace of movement and attitude.

During this workshop, you’ll discover therapeutic yoga and embodied inquiry techniques that increase awareness, empower exploration of your unique body now, and increase your ability to take good care of yourself. Learn to feel yoga poses from the inside out, aligning them well to tune into the energy flowing through your body, and find qigong movements and yoga postures that best serve you.

We have a week together to listen to our inner wisdom and the quiet intelligence of the body. We have the space to share our ideas, fears, limiting scripts, and dreams for our futures.

Together, we will find:

• Fluid and effortless movement in qigong.
• Core strength and healthy alignment in yoga.
• “Effortless effort” in movement, accompanied by acoustic guitar and singing bowls.
• Gratitude and loving kindness in meditation.
• Pathways to joy through embodied inquiry.
• Clearer understanding of our bodies, our joints, and our lymph, endocrine, and nervous systems.
• Ways to honor our unique bodies, minds, and hearts with these practices at home.

We will be joined during our week by guest faculty and musician JJ Jeffries, who will guide us in “embodied inquiry” and play lovely acoustic guitar during some of our yoga and meditation practices.

This workshop is suited for anyone with a basic understanding of yoga. People working with injuries or body challenges are welcome if they can still participate in practice and have permission, if needed, from their medical provider. Modifications will be given for various ability levels. Participants need to be able to get up and down off the floor on their own. If you are not sure if this workshop is suited for you, please contact Tracy.

In search of balance, the ancient sages of China walked into the woods to attune themselves to nature in its sublime integrity. The timeless wisdom uncovered in their wild wanderings was called simply Tao, “The Way.”

Qigong — the practice at the heart of Taoism — is dedicated to harmonizing body, mind, and spirit with the elements of nature. In this age, when so many of us feel disconnected and overwhelmed, wilderness remains a powerful healer and teacher, and qigong can bring us back to center.

Join us to learn an accessible qigong form called wai dan gong (“easy Tao”) while immersing in the majestic landscape of Big Sur, the ancestral homeland of the Esselen tribe. We rise each morning to practice, harmonizing breath and movements with the flow of waves greeting Esalen’s cliffs. After breakfast, we set out on a wilderness hike to mindfully explore Big Sur’s enchanted redwoods, sun-steeped meadows, and mountains that rise from the sea. All along the trail, we explore qigong and Taoist philosophy as pathways for returning to a grounded, spacious, revitalized state of being — in harmony with nature, embodying Wild Tao.

Notes:

• Answers to frequently asked questions about the workshop can be found here.
• Various hiking abilities can be accommodated, bearing in mind that day hikes are between three to eight miles in length, with uneven and often steep terrain. If you have any questions about your ability to participate, please read the workshop FAQs.

This workshop includes an additional $60 of faculty tuition and $40 to cover park fees.

We will become our opposite if we do not learn to accommodate the opposite within us. — Carl Jung

At the heart of contemplative life is the archetypal journey home to our essential nature, our basic goodness. The Buddha taught that we come to experience this essential nature through the embodied integration of meditative quiescence (shamatha) and contemplative insight (vipashyana). In this workshop, we will cultivate quiescence and insight through the “four applications of mindfulness” of the body, feelings, mental states, and phenomena, which invite us to develop a self-aware gaze, or metacognition.

We will meditate indoors and out and learn how to work with challenges along the path through Feeding Your Demons® (FYD). This Buddhist-based practice is an exquisite five-step process in which we offer attention and compassion to our inner obstacles, our “demons,” rather than struggle with them. In this context, demons are those thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that block our experience of freedom. A 2018 FYD pilot study found that FYD was associated with increased self-compassion, emotion awareness and self-regulation, satisfaction with life, and decreased stress, craving, depression, and intolerance for uncertainty. FYD transcends spiritual constructs, serving as a meaningful tool for anybody, regardless of religious affiliation or personal philosophy.

In this retreat, you will experience:

• Meditation indoors and in nature, gazing over the Pacific Ocean, weather permitting.
• Discussions on the seminal Buddhist teachings called the “four applications of mindfulness.”
• Feeding Your Demons (FYD) practice.
• FYD with drawing/art.

All are welcome. Please bring loose, comfortable clothing, a journal, and writing implements. Paper and art supplies will be provided. If you have art supplies you like, such as colored pencils, pens, pastels, or watercolors, feel free to bring them.

Recommended Reading: The 4 Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Bunaratana and Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict by Tsultrim Allione.

This workshop includes an additional $5 for materials.

Join us to experience deep rest and renewal! You need and deserve this. So many of us are overtaxed by constant demands, burdens, and worries, especially those of us providing extra support for others through caregiving, healthcare, activism, and other service-oriented jobs.

We bring you expertise in the science, art, and practice of restoration from stress.

• Learn the practical and cutting-edge science of stress resilience.
• Be guided into states of deep rest and rejuvenation through meditation, yoga nidra, and restorative yoga.
• Awaken all of your senses to reconnect with your body and increase vitality through gentle yoga, expressive movement, nature immersion, and sound healing.

Immersed in the beauty of nature at Esalen, our work is well supported. We will learn and practice new ways to restore ourselves, and you will develop a toolbox of short practices that support your daily rejuvenation and sustained vitality.

Recent brain research reveals how constant predictions based on old information can run our lives. As we are flooded with current sensory information, our brains compare past and present to identify discrepancies called “prediction errors,” updating the old predictions to create a better working model of the world.  

Inaccurate predictions are often based on unconscious habits of moving, feeling, and thinking — responses developed as childhood solutions to surviving family systems. We’ll make the big people happy so they will love us. Or we’ll try to stop them from hurting. We shift our behaviors toward pleasing or protecting. With mistreatment, we shut down. All these solutions required muscular enforcement. Later, these reactions became adult behaviors — maintained by habitual contractions in our necks, eyes, jaws, backs, and bellies —  but predictions based on protective habits are no longer needed or helpful as we recover from injuries.

We can dissolve the hold these old patterns have over us, not by willpower, leaving old instructions in place, or superimposing new commands, but by kinesthetically sensing in our body where — and how — we keep compulsively reenacting them.

CFR® increases the amount and quality of our incoming sensory information. By bringing habits into awareness through exploratory floor work, we connect them to brain areas more supportive of change. By realizing they were clever ways to survive, we develop the self-compassion essential for healing. As our predictions become more accurate, based on the present time, we can make better choices.

Bring your issues, your lingering problems from injuries, and a desire for increased joyful movement.

Please note: This is an advanced class. Participants must have taken CFR® Week 1.

In this retreat, you will get in touch with a deep relaxation to rejuvenate the body and the mind through non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) and yoga nidra. No matter your reasons — whether you need a break from the constant pressure, are in a life transition, or just want to delve deeper into your meditation practice — this retreat will provide space and time for contemplation and reflection.

The term non-sleep deep rest, coined by Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, refers to a waking state of deep relaxation that maintains awareness. Evidence suggests reaching this state through NSDR protocols such as yoga nidra can reset dopamine levels and provide other physical and mental health benefits — including better sleep and enhanced neuroplasticity.

We’ll go on an inner journey together, and the hope is we’ll emerge more connected to both ourselves and our life paths to leave feeling refreshed and deeply rested.

Together, we will:

• Practice yoga nidra for restoration and rejuvenation.
• Discover the connection between nondual meditation and yoga nidra for deepening our meditation practices.
• Reflect on where we are in our lives and leave with a greater sense of self-connection and clarity.
• Dialogue about meditation for connection and community.
• Learn about the link between non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) and better sleep.

This workshop includes an additional $50 faculty tuition.

True happiness is not about acquiring anything; instead, it comes from opening to the natural joy and aliveness inside you. As we are bombarded with messages that heighten our fear and sadness about the world, more than ever, it is vital to understand the importance of joy as a central aspect of mindfulness practice. We need to remember how to stay connected to that place inside that makes life worth living. Our cultivation of well-being and joy can become our gift to a troubled world.

This workshop is based on James Baraz’s popular 5-month Awakening Joy course that thousands have taken since 2003. You will learn basic principles and other supportive practices to develop your natural capacity for well-being and happiness, presented in a user-friendly way.

This workshop offers practical tools to incline the mind towards joy through silent meditation and interactive experiential processes.

Themes include:

• Inclining the mind toward healthy states
• How mindfulness weakens negative and strengthens positive mind states
• Gratitude practices to deepen well-being
• Working skillfully with difficulties
• The power of letting go
• Integrity practices and healing from the past
• Learning to love ourselves
• Compassionate action

Recommended Reading: Awakening Joy: 10 Steps to Happiness by James Baraz and Awakening Joy for Kids – Jams Baraz

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. — Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi

Partners Ihab and Ora Balha, a Muslim man and a Jewish woman, are trained in the Mevlevi tradition of Jelaluddin Rumi, one of the greatest mystics and poets the world has ever known. Together, they will share the wisdom of the whirling dervishes, which has been passed down for 750 years.

Each day will include:

• A taste of the sweetness of the mystical philosophy and heart-centered mindfulness techniques of Sufism.
• Daily instruction on traditional whirling and chanting.
• Nightly Dhikr, one of the major rituals of Sufi spiritual practice, where attendees can sing and dance with live musicians in ecstatic union with the Divine.

The whirling dervishes, mystics who believe one’s path is to God, are devoted to developing one’s abilities and capacity through emotional, intellectual, and physical practices. This workshop will deepen your connection to love, creating an internal peace that brings harmony and healing to the world.

“When you plant a tree every leaf that grows will tell you, what you sow will bear fruit. So if you have any sense, my friend, don’t plant anything but love, you show your worth by what you seek.” — Rumi

Recommended Reading: The Last Barrier: A Journey into the Essence of Sufi Teachings by Reshad Feild, Essential Rumi by Coleman Barks, Rumi Comes to America: How the Poet of Mystical Love Arrived on Our Shores by Bruce Miller

Open to the mysteries and remember the full truth of who and what you are — a magical multidimensional human being and an integral part of all creation. Join Gitanjali, creator and founder of the Syntara System School of Energy Awareness, as she leads you on a skillfully curated journey through your subtle body and morphogenic energy fields, exploring consciousness in deeply integrated and embodied ways.

Culturally, we don’t have a lot of language or context for the unseen realms. In this experiential workshop, we will explore ancient practices and innovative frameworks that will allow you to integrate the sacred with the mundane, becoming a more powerful and compassionate co-creator of the world we know is possible.

Some of the techniques we will use are:

• Meditation and visualization
• Transmission teachings
• Energy work
• Subtle body movement
• Breathwork
• Journaling
• Relational skills

Together, we will gather on these sacred lands, commune with the natural world, embody our essence nature and remember our deep belonging. Honoring all that has come before as we move with awareness towards an emergent future.

Some of the frameworks shared will include:

• The Torus: the fundamental energy pattern of all creation.
• The Aspects of Being: a structural map of our ephemeral nature.
• The 4 States of Consciousness: a simple model to presence and partner with our awareness and mindfully transform our perceptual state.
• Resonant Stories: a framework that grants access to the intersection of our soul lineage with our ancestral lines, paradoxically rooting us more firmly in the present.

Our days will follow a nourishing schedule of experiential practices woven together with refined structural teachings, delicious meals, community connection, soaks in the healing waters, and reciprocity with the nature spirits and land.

This work is accessible to beginners while being nuanced enough for those more advanced on the path. Join us!

“You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Join herbalist, medicine woman, and plant spirit teacher Marysia Miernowska for a nourishing, magickal weekend of deep communion with the Earth, Waters, Autumnal Air, and Eternal flame within you.

In a safe and sacred container, you will be guided in:

• Shamanic Tea Meditations
• Drinking herbs for the Fall
• Entering restorative states of embodied meditation
• Connecting to the land and elements
• Making herbal medicine from the land to take home
• Making flower essences
• Plant ID and learning about nourishing medicinal herbs, many which likely grow around you.
• Earth based rituals & journal prompts
• Wildcrafting and gardening

Through restoring the ancient knowledge of folk healing and plant medicine, we hope to heal the separation that has occurred between ourselves and nature and awaken a collective passion to protect this Earth we all call home.

Recommended Reading: Miernowska, The Witch’s Herbal Apothecary: Rituals & Recipes for a Year of Earth Magick and Sacred Medicine Making.

This workshop inclides a $40 materials fee.

Have you created the impact you want? Are you showing up the way you’d like? Are you going in the right direction? You have never before been where you are right now. You have never been the age you are today, never had the experiences you now possess. This is your time to pause and reflect. We rarely allow ourselves the opportunity to stop and look at what is changing — or discover what we truly need to feel fulfilled.

This very interactive workshop will include lots of experiential exercises. Though we will cover valuable theory and there will be plenty of reflection time, this will not be a series of talks/lectures. There will be movement, coaching, a little dance, and lots of activity. All participation will be voluntary at all times.

Our goal is to step back from our lives and renew. We will create a courageous community to both challenge and nurture ourselves. Participants will have the opportunity to learn what brings them joy and purpose, and then cultivate a vision to serve as a foundation for both the next year and next phase of life.

We will engage in a progression of individual and group exercises focused on reflection, movement, and listening to our inner wisdom. We’ll discover how to navigate major life transitions and learn skills to access our intuition. We will uncover the behaviors that support our overall success, and reveal which ones undermine our goals and fulfillment. If you are passionate about having a more powerful and authentic impact on the world around you, this program of renewal will be especially valuable.

This workshop has an additional $15 of faculty tuition.

We all long to be happy. Happy as in deep contentment. We all long to feel at ease, to be at peace, to know that we’re okay and that we belong. Most of us are deeply habituated to believing ourselves to be separate, and that we must fix ourselves in order to earn and experience deep connection. Being separate and broken though are illusions. We forget that belonging is already seated in the heart of who we are — and that it’s always available if only we look within. When we do, we can transform far more than just our own lives.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Have you ever touched this peace, this contentment, this deep return to belonging?
• Have you ever struggled because you recognized the world around you did not reflect this experience of humanity’s true nature?
• When faced with the enormity of the collective problems before us, how can one individual’s spiritual practice make a tangible difference in our world?

These questions will guide our time together on retreat as we explore how meditation, mindfulness, and contemplative technologies designed for the realization of who we truly are can — and must — be applied collectively. Our daily meditation practice will serve as a framework onto which we will begin to weave teachings with personal reflections. You will have the opportunity to connect to yourself and others and the world beyond in solo and group exercises, and discussions that inspire us to put our values into action.

We hope you will join us in this return to belonging, this remembering of the deepest truth of who we are, with the intention of using this understanding to transform our own lives and the world we share.

When was the last time you gave something your undivided attention? Nearly 2,500 years ago, Buddha worried we had become too distracted — and that was before paper, let alone smartphones. In 2022, our days are filled with convenient distractions that promise happiness while mostly delivering busyness and frustration. So many of us today live life in a hectic fog, working too much and noticing too little.

There is a different way. For this weekend workshop, we will disconnect, slow down, and meditate together. We will learn the ancient Zen practice of sitting still, bringing our full awareness to what is now.

Our time together will follow a gentle schedule of sitting meditation punctuated by brief lectures, group discussion, relaxing meals, and soaks in the healing baths, all while exploring the process and practice of mindful living. We’ll be listening to our own bodies, noticing the food we eat, and truly engaging with the people around us – exploring what it means to be fully present.

Together we will explore everything you need to start, revive, or deepen your daily meditation practice. You will receive instruction in traditional Zen Buddhist meditation and we will sit together in guided sessions, practicing what we’ve learned. We’ll work together on everything from the mechanics of sitting posture to the mental barriers we all face. We’ll discuss how to overcome common obstacles to meditation and the many ways to incorporate more mindfulness and presence into our daily lives.

Whether you’re brand new to meditation or even if you’ve been practicing for years, join us in learning how to bring meditation into your life and mindfulness to your work and home – today and every day. Come reclaim a healthier and happier way to be.

Recommended Reading: Buddha’s Office, by Dan Zigmond

Open to people of all backgrounds and experience levels, this workshop will explore the lessons that traditional African spirituality can teach us about creation, how the universe was brought into being, how to manifest things we want in the world, and how to fashion a life filled with divine harmony. It will first introduce the world of African ritual through a screening of Marques Redd’s highly acclaimed film Obi Mbu (The Primordial House): An Igbo Creation Myth — a fantasia of dance and theatrical performance.

From there, we will:

• Use dreaming and astral projection exercises to experience the Primordial Blackness, the Source of Creation.
• Energize intention through ritual body painting and dance.
• Symbolically activate the cosmic strings that form the structure of the universe for materialization and attraction.
• Employ the magic found in everyday spaces and thresholds
• Use guided meditation in darkness to surrender the ego and explore the mysteries of death and resurrection.

Transcendent and practical, traditional African rituals are an important part of our global spiritual heritage. They can help you effect transformation, cultivate vitality, and expand your consciousness. This workshop will provide you with many tools that you will be able to use to plug directly into potent spiritual energy and empower your life!

Recommended Reading: Of Water and the Spirit by Malidoma Some and Cosmologies by Mikael Owunna

This workshop includes $85 of additional faculty tuition.

Join us for an extended opportunity to explore the true essence of Esalen, and find yourself in the process. Like a snapshot of all that we do here on campus, this workshop is composed of enlivening and heart-opening classes that are driven by Esalen’s founding areas of focus: Heart, Mind, Body, Spirit, and Community.

During this month-long program, a cohort of like-minded students will have the opportunity to lean into the richness and diversity of programming that has both grown up on campus and is being infused into its current culture. In addition to working in service to the running of Esalen, the workshop classes have been designed to support the process of healing, transformation, and joy.

Classes will be led by the Esalen Resident Faculty Team, each bringing something uniquely transformative to the daily experience. Practices will include:

• Gestalt Awareness Practices
• Esalen-style “check-ins”
• combinations of breathwork, yoga, and inspirational writing practice
• Dance and movement
• And more!

Come experience Esalen for a heartful and healing month of service and transformation!

Uncertain times have shaken and are shaking our habitual ways of being. Individually and collectively, we are experiencing anxiety, disconnection, and the reality of impermanence even as we begin our journey into the ever-forming new “realities.” Now more than ever, we need to let our somatic system know safety by connecting to our somatic and emotional intelligence, easing into open-hearted social connections and the natural world — so we may settle and ground in our organism’s capacity for resilience, self-regulation, and inherent belonging.

A sense of deep belonging and connection is the natural state of our being. Our nervous system and physiology are wired to feel belonging. We are being called to greet change in manners not previously known to most of us — individually and collectively. To know and feel our belonging in these times asks us to grow awareness — to cultivate genuine heartfelt curiosity, to have courage to feel our vulnerability, and increase our capacity for authentic compassion.

Together, we’ll explore using a variety of practices:

• Grounding and centering tools and techniques that let our nervous system, physiology, and heart feel safe and move from habitual reactivity: to choice, resilience, and trust in the body’s innate wisdom.
• Practical sitting, walking, and laying awareness practices that build mindfulness, somatic intelligence, and embodied connection will be introduced and practiced daily.
• Gestalt Awareness Movement practices that invite us to trust our body’s capacity for organismic self-regulation and co-regulation.
• Neuropsychological concepts and practices that can be perceptually felt and embodied in our daily life while feeling our awakening heart and inherent belonging.
• Through exercises and time together in group, paired, and solo practices, we will have space to connect with Self, others, and the natural world on the Esalen grounds.

Listening deeply, life conspires to let us know the heart of interconnectedness even in the midst of the unknowable. We will draw from various wisdom traditions, contemplative practices, contemporary somatic and neuropsychology to explore ancient, yet new ways of belonging to ourselves, others, and to the other-than-human world to which we participate. When we embody the birthright of our interconnectedness and the heart of belonging, ever-changing life lives through us.

This workshop is appropriate for all levels of experience with the understanding that participants are exploring in a model of education and growth. Please expect to be indoors with some sessions outdoors on the Esalen grounds. A welcome letter will be sent upon registration along with additional information about our time together.

What shackles bind your higher self’s ascent? What reservoirs of latent power lie dormant within your being? How can you deepen your communion with your highest self to unleash its limitless potential and guiding light?

Embark on a sacred journey of soul discovery with medium and spiritual guide AJA and multidisciplinary hypnotherapist Laurnie Wilson. Immerse yourself in a deeply personal exploration across four nights to elevate your connection to your higher self and spirit guides and unveil the profound blueprint of your soul’s journey.

Our experience begins with a sacred ceremony, grounding us in intention and opening the gates to divine wisdom. We’ll be guided by AJA each morning as she leads us through the veils of consciousness to commune with our spirit guides and discover insights in the form of spiritual activations.

In the afternoons, Laurnie’s HypnoYoga sessions will help you integrate these revelations, nurturing your body and spirit to support your understanding of your unique essence.

Each evening, AJA will channel messages from your spirit guides to illuminate your path and help guide you toward your soul’s purpose. Meanwhile, Laurnie will help you explore your soul’s blueprint and empower you to embody the changes necessary for transformative growth.

As our journey culminates, a powerful closing ceremony will help you seal your newfound connection to your higher self and spirit guides to infuse you with clarity and purpose. You’ll return home with new tools to understand your own divine blueprint and translate revelations into tangible changes in your life.

You hold the key to your inner compass. Join us and gain the tools to unlock the limitless potential of your soul.

This workshop is your opportunity to reckon with the digitization of our times, reclaim the lost self from technology, and rewire your relationship to creativity.

“What will you do with your one wild and precious life?” Mary Oliver asked in her beloved poem The Summer Day. The average person now spends 61 to 80 days each year on their smartphone devices, and technology companies are becoming even more effective at designing apps that psychologically captivate and sustain the attention of hundreds of millions of people. We are faced with a collective conundrum that holds great grief for what we have lost and great opportunities for what we might create moving forward.

Recent psychological research shows that individuals with insecure attachment styles (anxious or avoidant) are more vulnerable to compulsive relationships with their smartphones as they attempt to experience a reliable ‘secure base’ through devices over direct relationships.

How can we remember the power that lies in our hands? How can we reclaim our unlived lives, rewire our neuropsychology in community, and shift our attention toward our souls’ longings and creative potential?

With the support of a community, a collective of creative souls, each day together will include:

• A guided morning meditation practice for connecting internally to self.
• A reading and reflection on the poem of the day.
• An instructive lecture on the latest psychological and attachment research on the impact of technology on the human experience.
• A collective creative practice of engaging with others to embrace discomfort and the practice of being with the unknown intentionally.
• Personal time to be with the land and one’s own creative muse.
• Community evening gatherings, including heart-warming practices to rest and digest.

Your hands are the living hands of your ancestors — and we are here for such a brief, precious time. In this one life, something uniquely expressed is meant to come through you, and you have this opportunity to bring something new onto this resilient earth and into this fragile world. Put down your device and reclaim your creative right to contribute the art that can only come through your hands.

Do you face challenges with focus and time management? Do you struggle with emotional hypersensitivity or frustration tolerance? Do you find it hard to follow through on tasks or commitments? Or to be reliable and consistent? If so, you are not alone.

Millions of people suffer daily from conditions associated with these executive function challenges. Though commonly referred to as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), these symptoms are not limited to this single condition, and they are often exacerbated by our complex, fast-paced, high-tech lives.

ADHD and related issues often leave people with a sense of self-doubt, shame, or unworthiness. The good news is that with mindfulness, compassion, and the application of skillful techniques, it is possible to move through life more effectively with care and wisdom.

In this workshop, through engaging in various mindfulness meditations, loving kindness and forgiveness practices and contemplative inquiry, you will discover how these challenges interrupt our functioning, how to navigate them, and how we can meet ourselves with compassion, forgiveness, and a good sense of humor.

Emotional well-being is the next frontier of health and a central challenge of the 21st century, according to US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.

Guided by Berkeley Professor Dacher Keltner, scientific consultant on Pixar’s Inside Out and Inside Out 2, we will tour the latest science and practice of emotional well-being.  In this workshop we will consider emotions in the body and brain; emotional expression and intelligence; how emotions influence our relationships, narratives, and search for meaning; and emotional regulation, wisdom, and acceptance.

Grounded in these advances, participants will:

• Explore the power language and culture has in shaping our capacity to understand emotions in a granular and complex way.
• Gain awareness of their own core passions and how they guide their sense of identity and meaning.
• Become skilled in the practice of emotional intelligence and in expressing and seeing emotion in others clearly and with authenticity.
• Gain an understanding of the centrality of emotions to relationships and how to cultivate kindness, forgiveness, love, and play
• Learn tools for emotional regulation, how to gain perspective while experiencing hard emotions such as anger and shame, and to practice acceptance by seeing the wisdom of emotions.
• Gain insights into cultivating emotions beneficial for intimate and work relations.
• Understand the role of emotions in our personal, moral, and spiritual lives.

The right balance of emotions could make up a majority of our well-being, and this course will provide the insights, tools, and practices to move us toward greater meaning in life.

Recommended Reading: Understanding Emotions by Dacher Keltner, Keith Oatley, Jennifer Jenkins

All light arises from darkness, including insight, creativity, vision, joy, and possibility. The luminous darkness is the healing presence and receptivity through which we also access light. It is the field of all potential and emergence that we sometimes forget in the context of ordinary life and habit. In this deeply restorative retreat, at the threshold of a new year, we will commune with the luminous darkness to listen deeply, renew possibility, and set conscious intentions for our lives and our world in the year ahead.

Resting in embodied presence, we will reflect on and harvest lessons from the past year and release limiting beliefs. This regenerative and transformative process is about remembering who we really are — and stepping into  possibility on behalf of our collective.

We will deepen our capacity for compassion and clear seeing  through:

• Meditation and Dharma talks
• Relational mindfulness and inquiry
• Conscious movement and dance
• Embodied practices to invoke the realm of dreaming and conscious imagination and to embrace shadow and the unknown
• Reflective writing
• Deep time in nature

This workshop, inspired by Eden’s book Luminous Darkness, draws upon the wisdom streams of Buddhist meditation and mindfulness, non-duality, deep ecology, somatic awareness, and conscious dance. This work is heart-opening, transformative — and also incredibly fun!

Recommended reading: Luminous Darkness: An Engaged Buddhist Approach to Embracing the Unknown by Deborah Eden Tull

This workshop includes an additional $40 faculty tuition.

Meditating in noble silence offers a special opportunity to focus inward, deeply connect with oneself, and reflect on life goals. The New Year, with its connection to the winter solstice and new beginnings, is the perfect time to silently journey inward. You are invited to set intentions and explore, through seated and moving meditation, themes of self-kindness, self-care, and nurturing.

This retreat is a quiet, reflective New Year celebration with the opportunity to discover a deep, centered place within. The week will be spent in periods of noble silence with two extended periods a day for various meditation practices. Lunch will be at a silent table. You will continue your meditation or join the open activities of the day at Esalen in mindfulness. Mark will guide you through a series of practices of both stillness and movement to build the momentum of concentration and awareness.

This mindful meditation will utilize the rich, sensual experience of Esalen — the sounds of the ocean, the feeling of the air, and the beauty of its colors and textures — as well as the rich experience of our own bodies and minds. Evenings will be open to mindfully enjoy the beauty and community, or you may choose to continue silence in inner retreat. New Year’s Eve at Esalen usually includes a community-wide celebration of some kind, which is an option but not required.

Recommended Reading: Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Imagine your relationship expressing the true depths of your love and commitment. If you are in love, this retreat is an opportunity to rise even higher in love. If you are in crisis, it is an opportunity for healing on the deepest level. We all carry some degree of negative programming from our past, and there are loving and effective ways to transform this programming into a positive and vibrant celebration of our connection.

During this workshop, you will experience exercises and practices for you to do with each other, therapeutic coaching of each couple by the Vissells, the support of other couples and time for sharing after each practice.

You’ll acquire a collection of tools for deeper appreciation and communication building, including healthy communication of feelings, our partner as a mirror, understanding and respecting each other’s differences, conflict resolution, healing past hurts, sexual wellness, inner child/inner parent, taking responsibility and developing a true inner connection. Take the opportunity to explore these tools with your partner during the workshop and learn to incorporate them into everyday life as you continue to improve your relationship at home. For more information, visit www.SharedHeart.org.

This workshop welcomes couples of all gender and sexual orientations.

How much are you present in your own life? Most of us spend more time worrying about the future, replaying the past, or getting lost in fantasy than experiencing what life offers us right now. This moment is our opportunity to be directly intimate with our lives while learning through difficult lessons how to open our hearts.

Mindfulness — or vipassana — meditation is the practice described by the Buddha for developing wisdom, compassion, and peace by learning to be conscious and aware of what is happening in the present. Using breath, body sensations, thoughts, and emotions, we can find out how to be more fully awake. When we see directly that the nature of reality is change, we become more capable of meeting each situation with spontaneity, fearlessness, and love.

In this workshop, you’ll be introduced to this meditation practice and the principles on which it is based. There will be periods of silent sitting and walking meditation as well as discussions to help provide a foundation for your own mindfulness practice in your everyday life.

Recommended Reading:  Awakening Joy: 10 Steps to a Happier Life by James Baraz and  The Experience of Insight by Joseph Goldstein

Join Heidi Rose Robbins for an enlivening exploration of your astrological chart. Through group study, movement, writing, and poetry, we’ll bring our astrological map to life — and in so doing, we will practice loving, act courageously, and fully embrace our next life steps.

In this workshop, we will come together in the beauty of the circle to reflect and share wisdom. Your astrological chart is a lens through which you can see yourself and the gifts you have to share. As we study the map of the heavens from the moment we are born, we can become ever more generous and daring, naming our fears and uncertainties and courageously offering up our gifts to liberate love in others and ourselves.

During our time together, we will focus on:

• Exploring our personal astrological charts to uncover our greatest strengths, challenges, and clues about our future paths.
• Embodying astrological energies by moving and stretching our bodies into new spaces. No prior movement experience is required.
• Journaling and collage to visually and artistically express the planets and astrological signs in our charts.
• Using poetry to reveal and embody different aspects of our astrological map.

Once we receive your birth data, we will prepare your unique astrological chart, and you will receive it in the workshop! All are welcome. Previous knowledge of astrology, poetry, or movement is not necessary. Come with an open mind and a willingness to embrace the richness of your astrological chart.

Recommended reading: Everyday Radiance: 365 Zodiac-Inspired Prompts for Self-Care and Self-Renewal by Heidi Rose Robbins; Zodiac Love Lettersby Heidi Rose Robbins; Wild Compassion by Heidi Rose Robbins

This workshop includes $10 for workshop materials.

When was the last time you gave something your undivided attention? Nearly 2,500 years ago, Buddha worried we had become too distracted — and that was before paper, let alone smartphones. In 2022, our days are filled with convenient distractions that promise happiness while mostly delivering busyness and frustration. So many of us today live life in a hectic fog, working too much and noticing too little.

There is a different way. For this weekend workshop, we will disconnect, slow down, and meditate together. We will learn the ancient Zen practice of sitting still, bringing our full awareness to what is now.

Our time together will follow a gentle schedule of sitting meditation punctuated by brief lectures, group discussion, relaxing meals, and soaks in the healing baths, all while exploring the process and practice of mindful living. We’ll be listening to our own bodies, noticing the food we eat, and truly engaging with the people around us – exploring what it means to be fully present.

Together we will explore everything you need to start, revive, or deepen your daily meditation practice. You will receive instruction in traditional Zen Buddhist meditation and we will sit together in guided sessions, practicing what we’ve learned. We’ll work together on everything from the mechanics of sitting posture to the mental barriers we all face. We’ll discuss how to overcome common obstacles to meditation and the many ways to incorporate more mindfulness and presence into our daily lives.

Whether you’re brand new to meditation or even if you’ve been practicing for years, join us in learning how to bring meditation into your life and mindfulness to your work and home – today and every day. Come reclaim a healthier and happier way to be.

Recommended Reading: Buddha’s Office, by Dan Zigmond

Join bestselling author, Grammy-nominated musician, and award-winning speaker Justin Michael Williams in this transformational and deeply interactive workshop at Esalen Institute. By blending science-backed strategies with empowerment, this session is designed to unlock your full potential and foster a space of connection, wellness, motivation, and confidence.

In this inspiring journey, you will:

• Explore the 6 Life Zones to find the key areas required for fulfillment in the full 360 degrees of your life.
• Discover how to change your habits and reach your goals by learning the untold science-backed methods of transformation and achievement.
• Create your power action plan for the year ahead to help you overcome limitations and keep the drive to succeed.
• Experience the uplifting power of music to bring the change from your mind to your heart, along with resources to take home after you leave campus.

Together, we’ll create your personal action plan for 2025 and define your next steps with a simple and proven method that you can take into the new year. This is your moment to reset, renew, overcome fear and self-doubt, and say “yes” to everything that lies ahead. Awaken your true power for the year ahead!

This program has been designed from the ground up to welcome people of all genders, races, identities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Join us!

Recommended reading: Stay Woke, by Justin Michael Williams

Immerse yourself in a restorative workshop designed specifically for male-identifying people of color. This unique experience offers a sanctuary for growth and self-discovery, fostering a supportive community where participants can connect and build meaningful relationships.

Black boys and men of color have limited opportunities to engage in mind-body healing practices, and there are not nearly enough representations of Black male wellness; this workshop provides tools for transformation, healing, and empowerment while also addressing the interconnected issues of mental health, racial disparities, and community well-being.

Danny and Darnell combine meditation, yoga, and reflective writing to create a nurturing space for participants to explore their inner selves and cultivate mindfulness. Through guided meditations and intention-setting exercises, participants will center their energy and focus on their personal growth journey.

This workshop features:

• Rejuvenating Hatha Yoga sessions, engaging participants in gentle stretches, balancing poses, and breathing exercises to promote physical and mental well-being.
• Yoga Nidra sessions to provide deep relaxation and inner exploration for a meditative state of consciousness.
• Reflective writing sessions to offer a profound opportunity for self-discovery and life visioning, guided by thoughtful prompts.
• Shadow work writing sessions to confront and integrate repressed aspects of the self for holistic healing.
• Somatic movement, breathwork, and primal movement exercises to facilitate healing and emotional release.
• Healing circles to enrich the experience, fostering support and collective healing energy.

With reflective writing and a closing circle, participants will be able to process their experiences, express gratitude, and set future intentions to carry them well beyond Esalen.

“Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What is important to me?”

Asking yourself these questions will activate your inner authenticity and allow you to move forward and live your life in alignment with your truest self. The answers to these questions will help you navigate life’s journey with direction, motivation, and inspiration. Perhaps the greatest regret of the dying is that they lacked the courage to live a life true to themselves.

In this workshop, you will reconnect with your authentic self through a series of exercises — such as guided meditation, self-inquiry, journaling, Emotional Freedom Technique (also known as tapping) — and one-on-one and group sharing and embodiment practices. This curated process is designed to allow you space to get clear about:

• Your purpose
• Your core values
• Your message
• Your big vision

With that clarity, you can create your manifesto, a written statement declaring who you truly are. Let that sink in: We will first uncover this hidden self, and then, together, we will manifest this being into reality.

Together, we will explore:

• Guided meditation to calm the mind and tap into your inner guidance and higher potential.
• Self-inquiry to explore the powerful questions that connect with your true self and what matters most to you.
• Journaling with a focus on cognitive processing to reduce stress, improve memory, boost mood, regulate emotions, increase physical vitality, and improve relationships.
• EFT tapping to clear subconscious blocks and rewire your subconscious mind.

Discover practices to connect and practical tools to reprogram your subconscious mind and heal your connection with your truest, deepest, highest self. You will also learn to apply these insights for authentic interactions with others. As you deepen the embodiment of your native self, you’ll experience the freedom of simply being you. This is one of the greatest victories possible: living a courageous life true to yourself — with no regrets.

Please bring a journal and pen to every session.

Recommended Reading: Everyday Initiations by Anne Van De Water

A journey to heal oneself and awaken deeply from within. Through meditation, yoga, and time in nature, we will tap into the stories our bodies have to tell and develop skills to nourish ourselves in 2024.

This workshop focuses on the transition from one year to the next as an opportunity to purposefully cultivate a sense of renewal. During our time together, you will be guided to explore and experience what this means for you personally.

Ritual invocations of energy and the power of the Esalen grounds themselves will support your healing journey by providing an intentional space for you to reflect on all you have experienced individually and collectively within your community during the past year.

Throughout the weekend, we will share new ways of grounding and connecting to the sacred energy of nature and the elements constantly surrounding us.  This supports the act of renewal, cultivates greater presence, and creates capacity to build and replenish energy throughout the coming year to support continued health and well-being.

In this workshop, all participants are invited:

• To understand themselves at a much deeper level.
• To begin deep personal transformation and discover tools to support their work.
• To gain a heightened sense of awareness and presence in ritual practice.
• To experience new ways of relating to nature, to receive the energy around them, and to form relationships with the natural world.
• To experience how healing resonates within a community.

We sleep one-third of our lifetime, an average of 20 to 25 years. Dream yoga is a practice that spans every moment, waking and sleeping. It is a powerful tool of awakening used for hundreds of years by the great masters of the Tibetan traditions. Foundational practices in dream yoga change the practitioner’s relationship to all experiences, develop conscious awareness and often lead to lucidity in dreams. Unlike in the Western psychological approach to dreams, the ultimate goal of Tibetan dream yoga is the recognition of the nature of the mind or enlightenment itself.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche will discuss the relationships between dream and waking, and dream and death. He will show how the causes of dreams are related to the six chakras, and how we can heal blocks in the chakras. He will teach the “four preparations” for sleep and the uses and methods of lucid dreaming.

Recommended reading: Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep and Rinpoche, Sleep & Awakening the Sacred Body.

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Join Janet in this nourishing and revitalizing weekend, designed to replenish the nervous system and adrenals, boost the immune system, and ground our hearts and minds in simplicity. We will drop down through body-mind-spirit to find space between effort and surrender, allowing our internal systems to release toxins and integrate the powerful wellness generated by our bodies through our physical practices. Slow and fluid movement, restorative postures, meditation, pranayama (breathwork), and chanting will refill the mind, body, and spirit.

We will create space in our body for introspection and move out of the cyclical fight-or-flight response to cultivate sustainable power, rest, and healing.

We’ll practice:

• Slow yoga to build sustainable power.
• Restorative postures for regeneration.
• Meditation toward stillness.
• Pranayama to balance hormones and the whole being.
• Chanting to awaken the heart’s longing.

Please bring an eye pillow. If you are driving, please also bring a sandbag and bolster.

CE Credit Available: 10 hours Continued Education credit for Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT) available through Yoga Alliance; see leader.

This workshop includes an additional $100 faculty tuition.

Restore.

It can take time and great effort to move away from the ego affirming busyness of modern day life toward a reflective stillness. In this workshop we will cultivate this slowing, deepening, and going within.

In a community setting, we will allow ourselves to dive below the surface of our thoughts and identities to know ourselves more intimately and untether from the chords that hold us to old behaviors and belief structures. Our practice will include:

• Slow nourishing yoga movements.
• Restorative postures to cultivate regeneration.
• Meditation, mantras, writing, and intentional silence.

With the power of this land, the healing waters, strength of community, and nourishment of slowing down, we will move toward a listening, supple, healing body.

Please bring an eye pillow, and if you are driving, please also bring a bolster and sandbag.

CE Credit Available: 25 hours Continued Education credit for Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT) available through Yoga Alliance; see leader.

This workshop includes an additional $200 faculty tuition.

Have you noticed the painful effects of self-judgment? Do you feel tormented by negative critical self-talk and the harsh words of the inner critic?  Are you prone to judging everything you do as not good enough, not quite right, or not up to some impossibly high standard? Do you find yourself harshly judging your meditation, your practice, or your other spiritual practices?

If you wish to be free from the influence of the inner critic, this workshop offers tried-and-tested methods for overcoming the challenges of self-judgment.

During this course, you will be shown:

• How to recognize judging thoughts.  
• To deal effectively with inner critic attacks.
• How to distinguish between negative judgment and wise discernment.
• The importance of self-acceptance, self-compassion, and  love as antidotes to the critic.
• The need and role of humor in helping us with the critic.
• To cultivate forgiveness in response to judgment.

The course will be a combination of talks, interactive exercises, mindfulness, self-compassion, loving kindness techniques, and meditations. This will be a practical and experiential course taught with lightness, compassion, humor, and the need to not take ourselves too seriously.

Recommended reading: Make Peace with your Mind – How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Help Free You from the Inner Critic, by Mark Coleman

This workshop includes an additional $100 faculty tuition.