Esalen Institute is open! However, Highway 1 to the south is closed — please review the current travel advisory.
Learn More.

Learn more.

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

Flowing Through Transition: A Sacred Autumn Pause

October 18–21, 2024

Jillian Pransky with Guest Musician Garth Stevenson

“Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.” —Chinese Proverb

Join us for deep release and renewal as we pause to align with autumn, acknowledge the sacred cycle of life, and move gracefully through this transitory season.

Autumn is a time of letting go and accepting the impermanence of things. For many spiritual traditions, it has long been an opportunity to slow down and reflect. During this period of great change, our yoga and meditation practices can help us feel more grounded, rooted, supported, and nourished. We can create more intentional pauses and open to the sacred present moment as it is while we also fortify our inner resources, nourish our own “roots” for health and wellbeing, and expand our capacity for compassion, connection, and heartfulness. This allows us to slow down to reflect, release, and recalibrate — to consciously participate in the process of closing one chapter and starting anew.

Using a series of yogic and ayurvedic balancing techniques, Jillian will weave heart-based practices with slow flow yoga, deep restorative relaxation, and Metta meditation. Plus, we’ll incorporate inner reflection, seasonal ritual, and self-love to collaborate with the present and flow through fall with reverence, peace, and ease.

With an emphasis on rooting while opening change, we will work with multiple practices to meet this moment of transition and transformation. More than ever, we can benefit by pausing and restoring our energy and nurturing ourselves in order to better nurture our world.

Garth Stevenson will add deeply healing vibrations with his double bass to help us cultivate the balance between grounding and releasing into the spaciousness of the season.

Throughout this retreat, we will practice outdoors and embrace the Autumn elements to truly be with life’s changes and arrive more fully in the present moment.

Recommended Reading: Deep Listening By Jillian Pransky

This workshop includes an additional $135 faculty tuition.

Jillian Pransky

Jillian Pransky, C-IAYT, is the author of Deep Listening and an international presenter. A student of Pema Chödrön’s since 1998, she infuses her yoga classes with mindfulness practices, compassion, and ease. Jillian's offerings harmonize the body, mind, and spirit, with nature and the environment to create deeply integrative healing. 

Full Bio

Garth Stevenson | Guest Musician

Garth Stevenson was raised in Western Canada, where nature became his primary inspiration and the common thread between his life and music. His albums, Alpine, Flying, and Voyage, are informed by his experiences carrying his 160-year-old double bass into nature, including Antarctica and Tuva.

Full Bio