We choose love this February, and every day throughout the year. We embrace that warmth, the love for and of our whole self, in order to spread that healing, joyful power out into the collective.
This newsletter is decidedly not surrendering to the machinations of the corporate holiday named after Saint Valentine. Rather than relying on greeting card companies to express transformative human emotion and experience, our intention this month is to grow love's definitions and celebrate all its emotive powers. Romantic love, body love, community love, love as a healing force, and furbaby love. To that end, we’re also dropping into the love many of us feel for this place: a healing container designed to nurture these myriad ways we love.
Over 60 years ago, this exceptionally stunning stretch at the world’s edge inspired two big-thinking dreamers to establish a center dedicated to exploring our human potential and bringing about the very best in humankind. So, if our shared mission of healing and growth makes that area below your rib cage and above your diaphragm swell, read on for more good gushing and unapologetic joy about what, who, and how we love.
The 100-acre patch of Mother Nature we sit upon holds many special spots that effortlessly produce awe and wonder. We caught up with some upcoming faculty and asked them to share their favorite locations — where exactly they feel Esalen’s mystique and beauty most acutely. Also, check out a short video with the top places for Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, Dave Morin, Mac Murphy, and Don Hanlon Johnson.
"The idea of celebrating the body and pleasure supported by the freedom of the ’60s and ’70s became central." Today's Healing Arts department continues to honor Esalen's commitment to embracing love for our whole self — body, brain, heart, and spirit: "We believe loving touch is what heals."
Our pets might be the easiest beings to love. Their ability to feel and show love, their loyalty, and the adorable ways they show gratitude, present one of the most supportive and soulful relationships bipedal mammals like us can access. Research indicates that pet and animal lovers tend to be kinder people filled with empathy thanks to all the oxytocin we emote for our four-legged friends. Get a macrodose of Esalen’s cutest shmoopies!
If a weekend or a week workshop isn’t enough, imagine if you could stay longer and press pause on your everyday life. Dedicate four weeks to explore yourself and start the journey of personal transformation in one of our Live Extended Education Programs. If you’re ready to take the LEEP, we’re accepting applications for these exciting programs.
The Essence of Esalen: Heart, Mind, Body, Spirit, Community, March 11 – April 7, 2023 with Esalen Faculty
The Art and Science of Personal Transformation: Clearing Unhelpful Patterns and Acquiring New Tools, May 6 – June 2, 2023 with Devarshi Steven Hartman
The Essence of Esalen: Heart, Mind, Body, Spirit, Community, June 3 – July 1, 2023 with Sadia Bruce, J.J. Jeffries, Cara Chandler, and Douglas Drummond
Integrative Gestalt Coaching, July 1–29, 2023 with Perry Holloman and Johanna Holloman
Meditation as Medicine for the Mind: Tibetan Yogic Practices for Health and Well-being, July 29 – August 26, 2023 with Alejandro Chaoul
Ground of Belonging: An Embodied Inquiry into Courage, Connection and Community, September 23 – October 21, 2023 with Steven Harper
Streams of Energy: Eastern Bodywork and Movement, October 21 – November 17, 2023 with Jim Gallas
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Yoga, meditation, intuitive movement, and breathwork teacher Sadia Bruce shares her thoughts on living enthusiastically, cultural fluidity, and internalized belonging: “What we need today will differ from what we’ll need tomorrow.” Bruce tells us how teaching, “an intimate act of co-creation,” brings her happiness and why practice must shift “to accommodate the dance.”
A beloved Esalen Massage elder reflects on the summer of ’69 and the Esalen of that very poignant time in American culture. “I wasn't a hippie,” she says. “But I was fringe; I believed in the movement.” Peggy Horan tells the tale of a formative moment: young people discovering themselves through cutting-edge spiritual practices and psychedelics — all to a soundtrack by Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez.
Guest Services Supervisor Nani Almanza had not even heard of Esalen before moving to the Central Coast in 2013. “Suddenly, I was in the exact place I had dreamed of!” She likens finding her way here to “washing up on the shore of a beautiful island after being lost at sea.”
This month, we are searching for love philosophically, spiritually, bodily, and psychologically — and across a range of genres. Finding the right book with the right words just might bring you closer to the love you desire. Here are a few titles to deepen your understanding of the most transformative human emotion.
Yoga, meditation, intuitive movement, and breathwork teacher Sadia Bruce shares her thoughts on living enthusiastically, cultural fluidity, and internalized belonging: “What we need today will differ from what we’ll need tomorrow.” Bruce tells us how teaching, “an intimate act of co-creation,” brings her happiness and why practice must shift “to accommodate the dance.”
A beloved Esalen Massage elder reflects on the summer of ’69 and the Esalen of that very poignant time in American culture. “I wasn't a hippie,” she says. “But I was fringe; I believed in the movement.” Peggy Horan tells the tale of a formative moment: young people discovering themselves through cutting-edge spiritual practices and psychedelics — all to a soundtrack by Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez.
Guest Services Supervisor Nani Almanza had not even heard of Esalen before moving to the Central Coast in 2013. “Suddenly, I was in the exact place I had dreamed of!” She likens finding her way here to “washing up on the shore of a beautiful island after being lost at sea.”
This month, we are searching for love philosophically, spiritually, bodily, and psychologically — and across a range of genres. Finding the right book with the right words just might bring you closer to the love you desire. Here are a few titles to deepen your understanding of the most transformative human emotion.
Yoga, meditation, intuitive movement, and breathwork teacher Sadia Bruce shares her thoughts on living enthusiastically, cultural fluidity, and internalized belonging: “What we need today will differ from what we’ll need tomorrow.” Bruce tells us how teaching, “an intimate act of co-creation,” brings her happiness and why practice must shift “to accommodate the dance.”
A beloved Esalen Massage elder reflects on the summer of ’69 and the Esalen of that very poignant time in American culture. “I wasn't a hippie,” she says. “But I was fringe; I believed in the movement.” Peggy Horan tells the tale of a formative moment: young people discovering themselves through cutting-edge spiritual practices and psychedelics — all to a soundtrack by Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez.
Guest Services Supervisor Nani Almanza had not even heard of Esalen before moving to the Central Coast in 2013. “Suddenly, I was in the exact place I had dreamed of!” She likens finding her way here to “washing up on the shore of a beautiful island after being lost at sea.”
This month, we are searching for love philosophically, spiritually, bodily, and psychologically — and across a range of genres. Finding the right book with the right words just might bring you closer to the love you desire. Here are a few titles to deepen your understanding of the most transformative human emotion.
Esalen Institute
55000 Highway 1
Big Sur, CA 93920
US: 1-831-667-3000
info@esalen.org
