Far from the Madding Crowd: The Importance of Retreats

Big Sur, California: The  Esalen Institute, August 2013 where I teach one or both workshops: The Way of Story and Heal Your Self with Writing, annually every August.

Life gets faster reducing our down time more each year. Though man is a social being, to be at his best, times of retreat and turning inward are vital to a balanced life. The importance of slower paced sojourns into places of beauty such as Esalen nurture the soul and bring out what is best in all of us. This is why it is so special to teach in such places. If the relationship with our deeper Self is not nurtured, then other relationships will not be fulfilled as they might be.

I saw myself when I shut my eyes: space, space, where I am and am not.

Octavio Paz, Nobel poet