Yoga Nidra Retreat: Rest, Restore, and Rewrite Your Life

Experience five days of deep restoration, reflection and intention. Using the profound practice of Yoga Nidra guided meditation, we will begin to restore the body, clear the mind, and shift the habitual patterns that may have been attained during the pandemic, and that keep you from being calm, clear and balanced.

Yoga Nidra uses guided meditation to access a state between waking and sleeping where you can systematically release stored physical, emotional and mental tensions. Begin to let go of the old beliefs and habits that keep you locked in your past and fearful of your future. Experience your emotions fully, knowing that you have a grounded and calm inner presence. Then take this felt sense of being back into your personal life, family life, work life, and love life.

We’ll move our bodies, clear our minds, and create intentions to live not from unconscious past programming but from a new perspective — the perspective of knowing your true self. All you have to do is show up, lie down, and let go. We will use two different lineages of Yoga Nidra — iRest and Integrative Amrit Method — for our inner exploration. Join us as we deeply rest, restore, and rewrite our lives.

Please bring blankets, a yoga mat, an eye pillow, and anything else you need to lie comfortably on the floor for extended periods of time. And we’ll be outside much of the time, so bring layers!

Recommended reading: Yoga Nidra: The Art of Transformational Sleep, by Kamini Desai; and Yoga Nidra: A Meditative Practice for Deep Relaxation Healing, by Richard Miller

Come prepared for adventure! Due to social-distancing requirements and in accordance with Monterey County and California state guidance, Esalen will be hosting all workshops and open classes in modified indoor-outdoor spaces, covered outdoor spaces, and outdoors. Please come prepared with warm, layered clothing, as well as wet weather gear in case Mother Nature blesses us with rain during your stay. Workshops will be held in a covered space with heaters, and may move back and forth from outdoor spaces into covered spaces.