Return to Esalen

Almost exactly two years after my first stay at Esalen, I went back for a five day CranioSacral 2 workshop. My first visit was for CranioSacral 1 and I came with two great friends. One of those friends, Jerry, lives there now!

Last time, I was attached to someone and detached from just about everything else. I wasn't sure what the immediate future held. It was at Esalen that Jerry and I decided it was time to look for jobbie jobs when we got home -- put entrepreneurship on hold for a while. This time I wasn't attached to anyone, but I had a job (coincidentally returning to the same company that hired me two years earlier) waiting for me when I got back.

Esalen seems to attract those in transition. Between relationships, between careers, between moves. It's a great place to hang your hat for a while, re-charge, rejuvenate, reevaluate, and be yourself. Maybe more yourself than you've ever been. It's a place to strip down to who you really are, literally and figuratively. I don't think its a coincidence that the monarch butterflies call it their home for the winter.

And when people get real, they get huggy. At least the kind of people that Esalen attracts do. Like seriously huggy. I have never seen such hugs! I wanted to do a series of photos of people hugging. The only reason I didn't do it was sheer laziness. If I didn't have my camera handy, I had enough time to go back to my room and get it. That's how long these hugs often were. There's a lot of love at Esalen.

I had a bit of an emotional release when I was there. My last full day was a big roller coaster. It started out with a 7:30 am yoga class which was great. By breakfast I was in tears. I was pulling out of it by lunchtime when one of my classmates offered to give me a massage. I soaked in the tubs after lunch and received a wonderful, much needed Thai massage before returning to class in the afternoon. By dinner time I was feeling great. Jerry left that afternoon. Up until then, I had mostly been socializing with him and his friends or the TAs from my class. I hadn't really been mixing with my classmates. That all changed at dinner. I had a great meal with four of my classmates -- the beginning of an adventurous night. It was Wednesday which is didjeridoo night at the baths and we didjeri-did it. I had an amazing night that I will not soon forget.

I'm heading back to Esalen for the next class in December. Jerry will still be living there and my new friends from class are almost all returning. Can. Not. Wait.