Beginning March 9, 2026 we will begin maintenance work at the baths on Mondays. Learn More.
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Due to road closures along Highway 1 to our north and south, Esalen is closed through April 11.
Esalen Institute is open! However, Highway 1 to the south is closed — please review the current travel advisory.
past workshop

The Inverted Tree: Living from the Spine Through Movement, Meditation and Mantra

March 9–13, 2026

dhruva

Engage the body’s sensorial continuum as a site of somatic inquiry and exploration. Work with breath, the senses, movement, sound, words (mantra), imagination, and feeling to curate somatic experience. Sensitize yourself to the subtle rhythms and energies of the cerebrospinal axis which influence our moods, states and quality of our attention and relationship with the outer world. Attending and awakening to the spine can become a powerful tool in anyone’s personal path and repertoire of psychosomatic practices.

Together, we’ll play with the metaphor of the spine as an “inverted tree,” an organism with its roots “above” (the immaterial realm) and branches “below” (the material body), inviting us to initiate a new relationship with our bodies, senses, and sensorial environment.

Components include:

  • Sensitizing to and living from the spine.
  • Sessions on breath and energy work (prāṇāyāma).
  • Choreographing breath, movement, and attention.
  • Exploring somatic dimensions of sound, mantra, and voice.
  • Intensive on sitting to meditate (āsana) versus meditative movement.
  • Visualizations and readings from ancient texts of yoga and tantra.
  • Integrating words and poetry with yoga and movement.
  • Finding stillness, curating pleasure and immersion through movement and posture.
  • Incorporating inspiration, imagination, and creativity into your own practice.
  • Asking and reflecting upon the purpose and promise of your practice (whatever it is).

This workshop is designed for anyone engaged in or experimenting with some form of embodied practice, including meditation, movement, yoga, breathwork, energy work, voice work, journaling, and writing. Come ready to experiment, reflect, and connect.

dhruva

dhruva is a teacher and practitioner of Indian traditions of philosophy and embodied praxis, especially Yoga, Vedānta, Buddhism, Jainism, Classical Theatre, and Poetics. He is trained in the Krishnamacharya-Desikachar tradition of Yoga as well as the principles of Abhyās Somatics and studied at the University of Chicago and Harvard Divinity School.

Full Bio