The Power of Breath: Embodied Liberation

To breathe well is to live well. When we befriend the breath, we expand our capacity for choice, change, joy, and healing. When we embody breath — allowing limbs and bones to express outwardly the dynamic, unceasing pulsation of life within — we touch freedom. 

In this new and electrifying experiential workshop, we’ll explore and deepen the relationship of self-to-breathing-body through a number of somatic pathways: embodied movement, breathwork, presencing exercises, meditation in motion, and sound. 

Operating from philosopher Havi Carel’s conception of breath as “a juncture of the physiological, psychological, existential, spiritual, and cultural,” we’ll practice dancing and digging at this intersection, and in effect access a felt reconnection to our wholeness.

Join Sadia in her signature practice, which draws from her many deep pools of training and experience. This deeply embodied practice will include:

• A movement practice that draws equally from hatha yoga, calisthenics, ritual, Qigong, dance, and your own intuition.
• Intuitive breathwork and pranayama to help you connect more honestly to the nature of your aliveness.
• Sounding practices that liberate the use of your voice and guide you toward expanded breath capacity.
• Guided dance ritual that will help you develop inner attunement and feel the limitless power of embodied expression.
• Restorative moving meditation to access the powerful convergence of attention and surrender, giving you an embodied understanding of the power of yielding to both breath and life.

Together we’ll form a sacred community of breathing beings and establish conditions for the unobstructed flow of life force within and around our bodies and our lives. The natural, subtly explosive intimacy that exists between body and breath — and between you and your breathing body — can emerge anew, rendering you more sensitized to desire, pleasure, purpose, and power; to who you are, what you want, and why. Join us for this incredible experience.

Important Note: Effective January 7, 2022 in response to the rapid spread of the new Omicron variant, Esalen moved to require all guests and faculty to provide proof of negative test results at time of check-in.

For this workshop period, the testing requirements are being moved into accordance with the following guidelines: Tests must be taken within the last 72 hours PCR/NAAT) or 24 hours (if antigen), and results must come from a laboratory or healthcare or test provider.

Proof of an PCR/NAAT test taken must be provided upon arrival at Esalen, and a negative COVID-19 test is required for entry onto the Esalen Campus.

Please contact Esalen Reservations with any concerns or questions.