Inspired by 20th-century French writer Marcel Proust, we here at Esalen have created our own version of his favorite parlor game to dig just a little deeper — and differently — into our incredible faculty and staff.
Micha Merrick opens up about the joy she finds from cooking with her grandmother's kitchenware and watching peace settle over clients — even if she's too modest to take credit for the latter: "I am truly just a witness and mirror to their own self-healing process." The birth doula, herbalist, and facilitator of transformational retreats speaks lovingly about Esalen, harvesting flowers, and her rituals and practices — "There's a lot of pleasure surrounding me as I work" — but it's her "creative flower-child parents" and all the traditional healers who have shared with her their wisdom who make Micha truly grateful.
What is Esalen to you?
Esalen is a place of deep resonance, holding the raw power of earth, sacred water, Esselen indigenous history and presence, culture-shifting history of the 20th century, and all that flows freely from epic spaciousness.
What do you do/are you doing at Esalen?
I practice a form of herbal-bodywork using fresh local plants combined with sound healing and intuitive counsel called the Herbal Clearing Ritual. My private sessions, including rituals and tarot readings, can be booked through Healing Arts Alternative services. I also create a weekly communal flower bath open to all, the Bathing Ritual of Self Renewal, honoring the water, the ancestors, and the elements of earth.
Who are your heroes in real life?
All of my traditional healers, shamanic midwives, and folk-herbalist teachers in Bali, Thailand, Lahu Tribe, and here in the US. Ebu Robin Limm and all of the midwives at Bumi Sehat [Community Health and Education and Childbirth Centers within Indonesia] in Ubud. Homeprang Chaleekanha, Na Lae, Mor Noi, Pi Jem and Timmy Kaossaard and all my teachers in Chiang Mai, Thailand. My Esalen massage teachers, Peggy Horan, Ellen Watson, Debora Meadow, Vicky Top, and all the powerful healing matriarchs of Esalen.
What is your favorite component of your work?
The first part of the Herbal Clearing is like art therapy and plant medicine combined. As we make the medicine bundle together, there is a self-awareness that rises. Taking time to meditate on the beauty of our living herbs and flowers, you discover a lot about yourself too. They can be a mirror for how you are in the world. Once you set your intention, I work with the plants on your body. You experience the warmth of steamed herbal tea as the bundles are pressed into your skin and sweeping of fresh aromatic plants and flowers. I simultaneously use various sound healing instruments to facilitate shifting states of consciousness. The intersection of self-awareness, intention, touch, plants, and sound brings forth the transformation. I can’t separate a favorite component. It’s all part of the magic.
What is your greatest extravagance related to your practice?
I love being in the wild and the garden harvesting the fresh plants. I love creating pure beauty, covering sweet humans in flowers, and bringing magic into the baths. There’s a lot of pleasure surrounding me as I work. I’m very blessed. This supports me, as well as my client, as I step into witnessing whatever wounds my client is ready to heal.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Believing you have to be a “master” of just one skill, or believing that one person alone is “the master.” We are all multidimensional beings with the potential to develop ourselves and share in this dance of life. Everything we learn informs our other areas of expertise, enhancing our meaningful contributions to the greater whole. It’s time to step away from the hierarchical idea of mastery and its linear connotation of dominance.
What is the quality you most like in a human?
The ability to be deeply attuned — to self, to others, to plants, to touch, to sound, or movement — all the ways deep presence can manifest. The focus of a highly attuned person is palpable.
What about your work brings you the most happiness?
I love seeing a sense of peace or clarity settle through my client’s body when they have chosen to heal something within themself or discover a new facet of their being. I am truly just a witness and mirror to their own self-healing process. I’m often deeply inspired and remember how to heal myself as I hold this tender human space for others.
What is your most treasured possession?
While my musical instruments and sound healing tools are high on the list, I have to say that I truly treasure having my grandmother's basic kitchen utensils. It gives me great joy to open my cans and grate my carrots with the same tools her hands held every day. It’s like a throughline of ancestral energy running through the little tasks of daily life.
Who are your inspirations?
The Oracle of Delphi, Hildegard von Bingen, and my creative flower-child parents who showed me how to live uniquely, outside the box.
What do you value most in your work/practice?
Reconnecting humans to our source, our earth, our true nature. This work offers healing that is both deep, truthful, and joyful. It goes bravely into the shadow spaces and surrounds whatever is ready to be healed with gentleness and beauty.
“Remembering to be as self compassionate as I can and praying to the divine that we're all a part of.”
–Aaron
“Prayer, reading, meditation, walking.”
–Karen
“Erratically — which is an ongoing stream of practice to find peace.”
–Charles
“Try on a daily basis to be kind to myself and to realize that making mistakes is a part of the human condition. Learning from our mistakes is a journey. But it starts with compassion and caring. First for oneself.”
–Steve
“Physically: aerobic exercise, volleyball, ice hockey, cycling, sailing. Emotionally: unfortunately I have to work to ‘not care’ about people or situations which may end painfully. Along the lines of ‘attachment is the source of suffering’, so best to avoid it or limit its scope. Sad though because it could also be the source of great joy. Is it worth the risk?“
–Rainer
“It's time for my heart to be nurtured on one level yet contained on another. To go easy on me and to allow my feelings to be validated, not judged harshly. On the other hand, to let the heart rule with equanimity and not lead the mind and body around like a master.”
–Suzanne
“I spend time thinking of everything I am grateful for, and I try to develop my ability to express compassion for myself and others without reservation. I take time to do the things I need to do to keep myself healthy and happy. This includes taking experiential workshops, fostering relationships, and participating within groups which have a similar interest to become a more compassionate and fulfilled being.“
–Peter
“Self-forgiveness for my own judgments. And oh yeah, coming to Esalen.”
–David B.
“Hmm, this is a tough one! I guess I take care of my heart through fostering relationships with people I feel connected to. Spending quality time with them (whether we're on the phone, through messages/letters, on Zoom, or in-person). Being there for them, listening to them, sharing what's going on with me, my struggles and my successes... like we do in the Esalen weekly Friends of Esalen Zoom sessions!”
–Lori
“I remind myself in many ways of the fact that " Love is all there is!" LOVE is the prize and this one precious life is the stage we get to learn our lessons. I get out into nature, hike, camp, river kayak, fly fish, garden, I create, I dance (not enough!), and I remain grateful for each day, each breath, each moment. Being in the moment, awake, and remembering the gift of life and my feeling of gratitude for all of creation.”
–Steven
“My physical heart by limiting stress and eating a heart-healthy diet. My emotional heart by staying in love with the world and by knowing that all disappointment and loss will pass.“
–David Z.
Today, September 29, is World Heart Day. Strike up a conversation with your own heart and as you feel comfortable, encourage others to do the same. As part of our own transformations and self-care, we sometimes ask for others to illuminate and enliven our hearts or speak our love language.
What if we could do this for ourselves too, even if just for today… or to start a heart practice, forever?
Inspired by 20th-century French writer Marcel Proust, we here at Esalen have created our own version of his favorite parlor game to dig just a little deeper — and differently — into our incredible faculty and staff.
Micha Merrick opens up about the joy she finds from cooking with her grandmother's kitchenware and watching peace settle over clients — even if she's too modest to take credit for the latter: "I am truly just a witness and mirror to their own self-healing process." The birth doula, herbalist, and facilitator of transformational retreats speaks lovingly about Esalen, harvesting flowers, and her rituals and practices — "There's a lot of pleasure surrounding me as I work" — but it's her "creative flower-child parents" and all the traditional healers who have shared with her their wisdom who make Micha truly grateful.
What is Esalen to you?
Esalen is a place of deep resonance, holding the raw power of earth, sacred water, Esselen indigenous history and presence, culture-shifting history of the 20th century, and all that flows freely from epic spaciousness.
What do you do/are you doing at Esalen?
I practice a form of herbal-bodywork using fresh local plants combined with sound healing and intuitive counsel called the Herbal Clearing Ritual. My private sessions, including rituals and tarot readings, can be booked through Healing Arts Alternative services. I also create a weekly communal flower bath open to all, the Bathing Ritual of Self Renewal, honoring the water, the ancestors, and the elements of earth.
Who are your heroes in real life?
All of my traditional healers, shamanic midwives, and folk-herbalist teachers in Bali, Thailand, Lahu Tribe, and here in the US. Ebu Robin Limm and all of the midwives at Bumi Sehat [Community Health and Education and Childbirth Centers within Indonesia] in Ubud. Homeprang Chaleekanha, Na Lae, Mor Noi, Pi Jem and Timmy Kaossaard and all my teachers in Chiang Mai, Thailand. My Esalen massage teachers, Peggy Horan, Ellen Watson, Debora Meadow, Vicky Top, and all the powerful healing matriarchs of Esalen.
What is your favorite component of your work?
The first part of the Herbal Clearing is like art therapy and plant medicine combined. As we make the medicine bundle together, there is a self-awareness that rises. Taking time to meditate on the beauty of our living herbs and flowers, you discover a lot about yourself too. They can be a mirror for how you are in the world. Once you set your intention, I work with the plants on your body. You experience the warmth of steamed herbal tea as the bundles are pressed into your skin and sweeping of fresh aromatic plants and flowers. I simultaneously use various sound healing instruments to facilitate shifting states of consciousness. The intersection of self-awareness, intention, touch, plants, and sound brings forth the transformation. I can’t separate a favorite component. It’s all part of the magic.
What is your greatest extravagance related to your practice?
I love being in the wild and the garden harvesting the fresh plants. I love creating pure beauty, covering sweet humans in flowers, and bringing magic into the baths. There’s a lot of pleasure surrounding me as I work. I’m very blessed. This supports me, as well as my client, as I step into witnessing whatever wounds my client is ready to heal.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Believing you have to be a “master” of just one skill, or believing that one person alone is “the master.” We are all multidimensional beings with the potential to develop ourselves and share in this dance of life. Everything we learn informs our other areas of expertise, enhancing our meaningful contributions to the greater whole. It’s time to step away from the hierarchical idea of mastery and its linear connotation of dominance.
What is the quality you most like in a human?
The ability to be deeply attuned — to self, to others, to plants, to touch, to sound, or movement — all the ways deep presence can manifest. The focus of a highly attuned person is palpable.
What about your work brings you the most happiness?
I love seeing a sense of peace or clarity settle through my client’s body when they have chosen to heal something within themself or discover a new facet of their being. I am truly just a witness and mirror to their own self-healing process. I’m often deeply inspired and remember how to heal myself as I hold this tender human space for others.
What is your most treasured possession?
While my musical instruments and sound healing tools are high on the list, I have to say that I truly treasure having my grandmother's basic kitchen utensils. It gives me great joy to open my cans and grate my carrots with the same tools her hands held every day. It’s like a throughline of ancestral energy running through the little tasks of daily life.
Who are your inspirations?
The Oracle of Delphi, Hildegard von Bingen, and my creative flower-child parents who showed me how to live uniquely, outside the box.
What do you value most in your work/practice?
Reconnecting humans to our source, our earth, our true nature. This work offers healing that is both deep, truthful, and joyful. It goes bravely into the shadow spaces and surrounds whatever is ready to be healed with gentleness and beauty.
Photos by Ami Sioux and Stephanie Lewis.
“Remembering to be as self compassionate as I can and praying to the divine that we're all a part of.”
–Aaron
“Prayer, reading, meditation, walking.”
–Karen
“Erratically — which is an ongoing stream of practice to find peace.”
–Charles
“Try on a daily basis to be kind to myself and to realize that making mistakes is a part of the human condition. Learning from our mistakes is a journey. But it starts with compassion and caring. First for oneself.”
–Steve
“Physically: aerobic exercise, volleyball, ice hockey, cycling, sailing. Emotionally: unfortunately I have to work to ‘not care’ about people or situations which may end painfully. Along the lines of ‘attachment is the source of suffering’, so best to avoid it or limit its scope. Sad though because it could also be the source of great joy. Is it worth the risk?“
–Rainer
“It's time for my heart to be nurtured on one level yet contained on another. To go easy on me and to allow my feelings to be validated, not judged harshly. On the other hand, to let the heart rule with equanimity and not lead the mind and body around like a master.”
–Suzanne
“I spend time thinking of everything I am grateful for, and I try to develop my ability to express compassion for myself and others without reservation. I take time to do the things I need to do to keep myself healthy and happy. This includes taking experiential workshops, fostering relationships, and participating within groups which have a similar interest to become a more compassionate and fulfilled being.“
–Peter
“Self-forgiveness for my own judgments. And oh yeah, coming to Esalen.”
–David B.
“Hmm, this is a tough one! I guess I take care of my heart through fostering relationships with people I feel connected to. Spending quality time with them (whether we're on the phone, through messages/letters, on Zoom, or in-person). Being there for them, listening to them, sharing what's going on with me, my struggles and my successes... like we do in the Esalen weekly Friends of Esalen Zoom sessions!”
–Lori
“I remind myself in many ways of the fact that " Love is all there is!" LOVE is the prize and this one precious life is the stage we get to learn our lessons. I get out into nature, hike, camp, river kayak, fly fish, garden, I create, I dance (not enough!), and I remain grateful for each day, each breath, each moment. Being in the moment, awake, and remembering the gift of life and my feeling of gratitude for all of creation.”
–Steven
“My physical heart by limiting stress and eating a heart-healthy diet. My emotional heart by staying in love with the world and by knowing that all disappointment and loss will pass.“
–David Z.
Today, September 29, is World Heart Day. Strike up a conversation with your own heart and as you feel comfortable, encourage others to do the same. As part of our own transformations and self-care, we sometimes ask for others to illuminate and enliven our hearts or speak our love language.
What if we could do this for ourselves too, even if just for today… or to start a heart practice, forever?
Inspired by 20th-century French writer Marcel Proust, we here at Esalen have created our own version of his favorite parlor game to dig just a little deeper — and differently — into our incredible faculty and staff.
Micha Merrick opens up about the joy she finds from cooking with her grandmother's kitchenware and watching peace settle over clients — even if she's too modest to take credit for the latter: "I am truly just a witness and mirror to their own self-healing process." The birth doula, herbalist, and facilitator of transformational retreats speaks lovingly about Esalen, harvesting flowers, and her rituals and practices — "There's a lot of pleasure surrounding me as I work" — but it's her "creative flower-child parents" and all the traditional healers who have shared with her their wisdom who make Micha truly grateful.
What is Esalen to you?
Esalen is a place of deep resonance, holding the raw power of earth, sacred water, Esselen indigenous history and presence, culture-shifting history of the 20th century, and all that flows freely from epic spaciousness.
What do you do/are you doing at Esalen?
I practice a form of herbal-bodywork using fresh local plants combined with sound healing and intuitive counsel called the Herbal Clearing Ritual. My private sessions, including rituals and tarot readings, can be booked through Healing Arts Alternative services. I also create a weekly communal flower bath open to all, the Bathing Ritual of Self Renewal, honoring the water, the ancestors, and the elements of earth.
Who are your heroes in real life?
All of my traditional healers, shamanic midwives, and folk-herbalist teachers in Bali, Thailand, Lahu Tribe, and here in the US. Ebu Robin Limm and all of the midwives at Bumi Sehat [Community Health and Education and Childbirth Centers within Indonesia] in Ubud. Homeprang Chaleekanha, Na Lae, Mor Noi, Pi Jem and Timmy Kaossaard and all my teachers in Chiang Mai, Thailand. My Esalen massage teachers, Peggy Horan, Ellen Watson, Debora Meadow, Vicky Top, and all the powerful healing matriarchs of Esalen.
What is your favorite component of your work?
The first part of the Herbal Clearing is like art therapy and plant medicine combined. As we make the medicine bundle together, there is a self-awareness that rises. Taking time to meditate on the beauty of our living herbs and flowers, you discover a lot about yourself too. They can be a mirror for how you are in the world. Once you set your intention, I work with the plants on your body. You experience the warmth of steamed herbal tea as the bundles are pressed into your skin and sweeping of fresh aromatic plants and flowers. I simultaneously use various sound healing instruments to facilitate shifting states of consciousness. The intersection of self-awareness, intention, touch, plants, and sound brings forth the transformation. I can’t separate a favorite component. It’s all part of the magic.
What is your greatest extravagance related to your practice?
I love being in the wild and the garden harvesting the fresh plants. I love creating pure beauty, covering sweet humans in flowers, and bringing magic into the baths. There’s a lot of pleasure surrounding me as I work. I’m very blessed. This supports me, as well as my client, as I step into witnessing whatever wounds my client is ready to heal.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Believing you have to be a “master” of just one skill, or believing that one person alone is “the master.” We are all multidimensional beings with the potential to develop ourselves and share in this dance of life. Everything we learn informs our other areas of expertise, enhancing our meaningful contributions to the greater whole. It’s time to step away from the hierarchical idea of mastery and its linear connotation of dominance.
What is the quality you most like in a human?
The ability to be deeply attuned — to self, to others, to plants, to touch, to sound, or movement — all the ways deep presence can manifest. The focus of a highly attuned person is palpable.
What about your work brings you the most happiness?
I love seeing a sense of peace or clarity settle through my client’s body when they have chosen to heal something within themself or discover a new facet of their being. I am truly just a witness and mirror to their own self-healing process. I’m often deeply inspired and remember how to heal myself as I hold this tender human space for others.
What is your most treasured possession?
While my musical instruments and sound healing tools are high on the list, I have to say that I truly treasure having my grandmother's basic kitchen utensils. It gives me great joy to open my cans and grate my carrots with the same tools her hands held every day. It’s like a throughline of ancestral energy running through the little tasks of daily life.
Who are your inspirations?
The Oracle of Delphi, Hildegard von Bingen, and my creative flower-child parents who showed me how to live uniquely, outside the box.
What do you value most in your work/practice?
Reconnecting humans to our source, our earth, our true nature. This work offers healing that is both deep, truthful, and joyful. It goes bravely into the shadow spaces and surrounds whatever is ready to be healed with gentleness and beauty.
“Remembering to be as self compassionate as I can and praying to the divine that we're all a part of.”
–Aaron
“Prayer, reading, meditation, walking.”
–Karen
“Erratically — which is an ongoing stream of practice to find peace.”
–Charles
“Try on a daily basis to be kind to myself and to realize that making mistakes is a part of the human condition. Learning from our mistakes is a journey. But it starts with compassion and caring. First for oneself.”
–Steve
“Physically: aerobic exercise, volleyball, ice hockey, cycling, sailing. Emotionally: unfortunately I have to work to ‘not care’ about people or situations which may end painfully. Along the lines of ‘attachment is the source of suffering’, so best to avoid it or limit its scope. Sad though because it could also be the source of great joy. Is it worth the risk?“
–Rainer
“It's time for my heart to be nurtured on one level yet contained on another. To go easy on me and to allow my feelings to be validated, not judged harshly. On the other hand, to let the heart rule with equanimity and not lead the mind and body around like a master.”
–Suzanne
“I spend time thinking of everything I am grateful for, and I try to develop my ability to express compassion for myself and others without reservation. I take time to do the things I need to do to keep myself healthy and happy. This includes taking experiential workshops, fostering relationships, and participating within groups which have a similar interest to become a more compassionate and fulfilled being.“
–Peter
“Self-forgiveness for my own judgments. And oh yeah, coming to Esalen.”
–David B.
“Hmm, this is a tough one! I guess I take care of my heart through fostering relationships with people I feel connected to. Spending quality time with them (whether we're on the phone, through messages/letters, on Zoom, or in-person). Being there for them, listening to them, sharing what's going on with me, my struggles and my successes... like we do in the Esalen weekly Friends of Esalen Zoom sessions!”
–Lori
“I remind myself in many ways of the fact that " Love is all there is!" LOVE is the prize and this one precious life is the stage we get to learn our lessons. I get out into nature, hike, camp, river kayak, fly fish, garden, I create, I dance (not enough!), and I remain grateful for each day, each breath, each moment. Being in the moment, awake, and remembering the gift of life and my feeling of gratitude for all of creation.”
–Steven
“My physical heart by limiting stress and eating a heart-healthy diet. My emotional heart by staying in love with the world and by knowing that all disappointment and loss will pass.“
–David Z.
Today, September 29, is World Heart Day. Strike up a conversation with your own heart and as you feel comfortable, encourage others to do the same. As part of our own transformations and self-care, we sometimes ask for others to illuminate and enliven our hearts or speak our love language.
What if we could do this for ourselves too, even if just for today… or to start a heart practice, forever?
Esalen Institute
55000 Highway 1
Big Sur, CA 93920
US: 1-831-667-3000
info@esalen.org
