On Our Bookshelf: Recommended Reads by Our Spring Workshop Faculty

“Imagine always being able to count on your own mind being kind to you — no matter what challenges life presents. That is your birthright, and now is the time to claim it!” Abramson, the founder of Stanford Medicine's mindfulness program, applies his 30+ years of mindfulness teachings to his beloved workshop of the same name as this guide for self-care. Both are opportunities to unite body, mind, and soul for a “self-nourishing whole person.” With concrete examples, techniques, and relatable stories, this roadmap to self-love will strengthen your ability to give to others by loving you first.

The creator of the Halprin Life/Art process shares the ideas and thinking underlying her approach to expressive arts therapy. “The entire repertoire of our life experiences can be accessed and activated through the body in movement,” writes Halprin. Called an “essential resource” for anyone interested in the integration of psychotherapy and the arts, this volume offers theoretical foundations and practical models of applications from one of the leading pioneers in the field of movement/dance. Those interested in an in-person experience led by the author can sign up for her March workshop, Art as Medicine, designed both for artists as well as those who are “simply lovers of art seeking to open the doors of their own creativity.”

Many of us endure unsatisfying or even unwanted touch. With her groundbreaking new model, including the four “quadrants” of giving and receiving touch (“the Serving Quadrant,” “the Taking,” “the Accepting,” and “the Allowing”), the Wheel of Consent® creator Betty Martin challenges the basic ideas of intimacy, connection, and interpersonal touching that have not had nearly enough dialogue. “When you engage with another — whether a lover, friend, or colleague — are you doing what they want you to do or what they allow you to do? What is the difference, and why does it matter?” Martin, with over 40 years of experience as a hands-on practitioner, first as a chiropractor and later as a somatic sex educator, certified surrogate partner, and sacred intimate, helps readers recover the ability to recognize their wants and set clear boundaries. This includes her “pleasure-forward” approach — a holistic frame to unlearn childhood conditioning and discover what we actually want. She’ll lead her Personal Empowerment Through the Wheel of Consent® workshop this March to explore these concepts in the most effective way, somatically — in the body.

On a recent Voices of Esalen podcast episode, workshop leader Chandra Easton shared how her teacher, author and pioneering Buddhist leader Tsultrim Allione, “updated” the teachings of 11th-century Tibetan yogini Machig Labdrön for the Western practitioner: “She blended gestalt and empty chair therapeutic methods with this Tibetan Buddist practice called Chöd, or ‘severance,’ which is how you translate Chöd.” In doing so, Allione created a simple yet extraordinary approach for resolving negative emotions, relationships, fears, illness, and self-defeating patterns. “What we call demons are not materially existing individuals with huge black forms, frightening and terrifying anyone who sees them. A demon means anything which hinders liberation,” writes Allione. The evidenced-based, guided five-step practice Feeding Your Demons® (FYD), which transforms your so-called “demons” into allies, will be one of the tools shared by Easton and Eve Ekman during their spring workshop, Transforming Adversity Into Insight: Feeding Your Demons and Cultivating Emotional Balance.

This enchanting guide by herbalist, medicine woman, and plant spirit teacher Marysia Miernowska shows readers how to harness the great powers Mother Earth holds. Learn to grow medicine, harvest from the wild and home gardens, process plants, and make remedies while enjoying this book’s beautiful illustrations, poetry, journaling prompts, and much more. Miernowska will lead a nourishing, magickal weekend workshop on physical and spiritual healing from medicinal herbal infusions to “awaken the energies of spring’s renewal within us and all around.” Sign up for Awakening Spring Within: Somatic Herbalism, Plant Spirit Meditation, and Nature Connection and learn to harness some in-person magick at Esalen this March.

Cushnir, a leading voice in the world of emotional connection, identifies a very universal problem in his opening pages: “We simply don’t know how to deal with our emotions, either when they’re actually arising or in their aftermaths.” He makes the case that emotional connection is “the path to our greatest possible wisdom and achievement, no matter the field of endeavor.” With this book, structured into four chapters (“Getting Ready,” “Feeling and Not Feeling,” “Breaking Through,” and “Profiles in Emotional Connection”), he identifies principles to help readers make emotional connection a regular part of their lives — to feel them fully and take their wisdom to heart. Cushnir will employ many of the practices described in his book during his upcoming experiential workshop, Setting Your Heart on Fire: A Passionate Practice to Liberate Your Life.

Documentary filmmaker, yogi, and poet Hawah Kasat has distilled a volume of poems from over 1,500 pages, submitted from 16 countries. This e-book expands the literary tradition of yoga with pieces by Shiva Rea, Krishna Das, Esalen workshop leader Sianna Sherman, and many more. Half of all sales are donated to One Common Unity. Kasat will be at Esalen to guide participants through depths of silence and solitude with silent meditation practices, pranayama (breathwork), asana (movement), and dharma talks for his spring workshop, Inward Bound: Exploring Silence, Movement, and Meditation.