Nature & Sustainability
Website program category as of 2022
COME TOGETHER! A Festival of IntraConnectivity and Spirit | Day Pass
With Daniel Siegel, Elissa Epel, Little Bear Tom Nason, Rhonda V. Magee and Douglas Drummond
We live in times of high existential stress with both ever-increasing personal, societal, and global pressures and the constant pain of witnessing ecological crises and widespread social injustices. These challenges also create opportunities to reconsider our relationships to self, one another, and the planet — and to choose a life of peak purpose and interconnectedness. […]
COME TOGETHER! A Festival of IntraConnectivity and Spirit | ETMC Day Pass
With Daniel Siegel, Elissa Epel, Little Bear Tom Nason, Rhonda V. Magee and Douglas Drummond
We live in times of high existential stress with both ever-increasing personal, societal, and global pressures and the constant pain of witnessing ecological crises and widespread social injustices. These challenges also create opportunities to reconsider our relationships to self, one another, and the planet — and to choose a life of peak purpose and interconnectedness. […]
Wild Pilgrimage: Backpacking Journey to Esalen
With Fletcher Tucker and Emily Linders
Embark on an intentional wilderness journey through the sublime and seldom-traveled backcountry of Big Sur, concluding at the coastal grounds of the Esalen Institute. Among the fleeting gifts of Spring – free-flowing creeks, boundless wildflower fields and vibrant wildlife – immerse in the wild with an intimate cohort (up to twelve participants), practice awareness and […]
Love Thy Nature: Forest Bathing for Homecoming and Belonging
With Sylvie Rokab
What if you could heal modern-life isolation and thrive by deepening your bond with nature? By combining the ancient practices of forest bathing and mindfulness, this program guides you to awaken pleasurable embodiment, experience awe and wonder, and learn simple yet powerful daily practices to deepen connection with yourself, your loved ones, and all existence. […]
Big Sur Wilderness Experience: Springtime
With Steven Harper
Esalen is the trailhead to one of the most spectacular mountainous coastlines in the world. With the Big Sur wilderness as the primary teacher, participants will explore the beauty of this wild coast — one of the most spectacular mountainous coastlines in the world — which includes ancient canyons of redwoods, dramatic coastal beaches, rugged […]
We Are Earth, Air, Fire, and Water: Empowered Elemental Healing
With Erika Gagnon and Jovinna Chan
We are not separate from nature. We are nature. If we separate from nature, then we separate from ourselves. Join Erika Gagnon and Jovinna Chan for their first collaborative workshop: a dynamic weaving of ancient wisdom, somatic movement and dance, sound healing, breath practices, and traditional ceremonies and rituals. The four elements are the basis […]
Creative Path: Hiking and Artistic Connection on the Big Sur Coast
With Fletcher Tucker and Noël Vietor
Sitting in stillness to draw a flower, tracing the mountain’s slope with brushstrokes by eye, following the sound of waves down corridors of memory, and free association through writing – these are gestures of connection as much as they are creative acts. Join us for an intimate creative workshop on the enchanted grounds of Esalen […]
The Nature of Movement: Embodiment and the Wilds
With Steven Harper
“You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here.”~ Alan Watts Throughout the ages and across cultural traditions, nature has inspired the human spirit. The wilderness of Big Sur allows us to imprint the collective wisdom of this alive and wild […]
Revitalize Your Purpose with Forest Bathing
With Sylvie Rokab
What does nature / the cosmos have in store for your life today? What yearns to be birthed in and through you? What if Nature can help you release what stands in your way? Join us in this deep partnership with the more-than-human world at wondrous Esalen to help you identify and dissolve the obstacles […]
Ancestral Plant Medicine
With Xochitl Ashe
What if our lives could feel magical? What if we felt supported in every way? Join us for this delightful weekend as we connect with plants, ancestors, and ancient wisdom from Mesoamerica and Peru to nourish our hearts and replenish our spirits. Ayni is the Quechua word for “sacred reciprocity” — the way we humans […]
Life as a Ceremony: South American Indigenous Wisdom for Healing and Connecting with the Earth
With Xochitl Ashe
Use for 4-Night weekday workshops, 6-Night Mon - Sun workshops, or 7-night Fri - Fri workshops--RG will autocalculate the correct pricing. We need the medicine of joy, magic, and fun. What if our lives could feel like a sweet ceremony, where all is sacred? What if we felt supported in every way? Join us […]
Reunion with the Wild Earth: Hiking and Nature Connection in Big Sur
With Fletcher Tucker
How would it feel to move into a meaningful relationship with the living world? Beyond a mere passive appreciation of nature? In the long arc of human history, people across all cultures and traditions have lived in communion with the lands they called home. Though this intrinsic connection has been largely severed in our modern […]
Wild Presence: Relational Gestalt Practice in Nature
With Dorothy Charles, Noël Vietor and Fletcher Tucker
“Wilderness, by itself, has its own way of teaching. The direct experience of wilderness can spontaneously bring wholeness back into the human community.” – Manual of Gestalt Practice in the Tradition of Dick Price When we are present in the here and now, every moment in the natural world represents an opportunity to enrich, heal, […]
A World We Can Love: A Rewilding Retreat for Climate Resilience
With Willa Baker and Susan Bauer-Wu
How do we move from fear to a world we can love? How can we face the crises of our time with heartfelt and actionable responses? We are on the brink of profound planetary change in a time ripe with potential. If there was ever a moment to think about who you are and how […]
Wild Tao: Hiking and Qi Gong in Big Sur Wilderness
With Fletcher Tucker and Jim Gallas
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 […]
Embraced by the Earth: Embodied Herbalism, Plant Meditation, and Folk Medicine
With Marysia Miernowska
“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 […]