Raja Yoga and Meditation | Michele Hebert and Mehrad Nazari, Ph.D.

Let this dynamic husband and wife team guide you through the Raja Yoga method as developed by Walt Baptiste. This well-grounded practice for the purposeful evolution of consciousness strengthens and purifies both body and mind. Pranayama breathing heightens energy levels, Chakra techniques promote balance, and meditation connects you with your sacred self.

Mehrad Nazari, Ph.D. has been a senior teacher of the Walt Baptiste method of Raja yoga for over15 years. He is a continuing education specialist in yoga for the American Council on Exercise, and has led yoga and health retreats internationally.

He was personally trained by yoga master Walt Baptiste, and studied with Zen master Kyozan Joshu Roshi and others, including Swami Veda and HH. Dalai Lama. Dr. Nazari is an adjunct professor of international business negotiation, which he taught for ten years at United States International University in San Diego. He advocates the application of yoga principles in our daily and corporate lives.

Michele Hebert, a regular Rancho La Puerta and Golden Door instructor since 1987, is a visionary in women's mind, body, health and spirituality. A yoga and meditation teacher, fitness expert and author, she pioneered the first meditation-based stress management program at the renowned Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, CA, and developed Introduction to Meditation at UC San Diego. She leads yoga and meditation programs at premier spas and retreat centers internationally. As a senior teacher in the Walt Baptiste method of Raja yoga, her work has been transformational in the lives of thousands, over a 30-year period. Michele's approach blends yoga, meditation, fitness and nutrition. Additional information: http://www.spaspirit.com.

Culinary Experiences at La Cocina Que Canta | Executive Chef Gonzalo Mendoza

Gonzalo Mendoza, Rancho La Puerta’s Executive Chef, has been delighting Ranch guests for 15 years. His delicious soups, vegetarian cuisine, and salads have been acclaimed by not only guests but publications such as Gourmet and Sunset magazines. Chef Mendoza studied at the Cordon Bleu in Mexico City and at The Culinary Institute of America, in St. Helena, California and Hyde Park, New York.

Gonzalo offers one hands-on cooking class -- Thursday at 4:00 pm -- 3.5 hours, during which you will enjoy preparing your own meal along with fellow cooks. The class takes place at La Cocina Que Canta, our new culinary center. You also will have the opportunity to harvest produce you use from our organic garden, Tres Estrellas.

For more information and registration, please click here.

Culinary Experiences at La Cocina Que Canta | Chef Emeritus Michel Stroot

Michel Stroot, Chef Emeritus for La Cocina Que Canta at Rancho La Puerta, served as executive chef of The Golden Door resort and spa for over 30 years and is the first spa chef ever to be nominated for a James Beard Award. Michel brings to Rancho La Puerta his secrets for preparing dishes that celebrate seasonal freshness, but also are elegant and simple. Michel is the author of "Golden Door Cookbook" and "The Golden Door Cooks Light and Easy." A pioneer in the field of healthful cooking, the Belgian-born chef combines classic French techniques and European sensibilities with America's freshest foods. As a chef, Michel has helped to define a bold style of cooking that is light and luxurious. As a visiting cooking teacher at La Cocina Que Canta, he will guide you in the preparation of innovative dishes, using timesaving techniques. Michel has been praised by some of the world’s most distinguished food and restaurant critics, in publications such as The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Gourmet Magazine, and Vogue. Former New York Times food Editor Craig Claiborne called him "a kitchen genius" whose creations are "tantalizing and singularly inspiring."

Michel offers two hands-on cooking classes -- Wednesday at 11 am and 4:00 pm -- 3.5 hours each, during which you will enjoy preparing your own meal along with fellow cooks. Classes take place at La Cocina Que Canta, our new culinary center.

For more information and registration, please click here.

The Blessing Way | David Baum

The Blessing Way
The poet Rumi said, “Let the beauty we love be what we do”, but how do we know. The Navaho have a way of understanding beauty. They call it “The Blessing Way”. It’s intention is to create “good hope and beauty” in one’s life. This thought-provoking talk will start your week by giving you some specific tools to open your eyes to the blessings that are always available, and deepen your connection to a greater mystery of unseen support. You will learn specific practices to enhance healing, harmony and peace and understand how ten minutes a day can invoke positive blessings and avert misfortune.

The Tao of Humor
If Victor Borge was right, and the shortest distance between two people is a smile, then how do we do it more? This fast paced and focused workshop will present an original model of humor, and provide participants with a way to laugh harder, and connect with humor in greater and more effective ways. This is not a tickle your friends and let’s be silly workshop, but a serious and fun investigation into styles of humor use, and what each individual can do to strengthen, deepen and ultimately be happier in their important relationships.

David Baum is an expert in fearless change. He integrates 25 years of experience as a nationally respected consultant in change and innovative thinking. His clients’ call him a "transformational travel agent,” helping them figure out where they want to go and how to get there faster. He is the author of the best selling, “Lightning in a Bottle: Proven Lessons in Leading Change” and “The Randori Principles: The Path of Effortless Leadership.”

His work includes conflict mediation in Belfast, Northern Ireland, President Clinton's Summit for America's Future, post-conflict entrepreneurship for women in Bosnia-Herzegovina and facilitating a national strategic plan to abolish the death penalty in the United States. His clients have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the World’s Children’s Prize and the Conrad Hilton Award. Additionally, for 25 years he has been leading workshops in cross-cultural leadership on a remote island in Northern Ontario. Baum has a doctorate in organizational psychology and a second doctorate in divinity.

An Evening with Linda Wertheimer | Linda Wertheimer

As National Public Radio's senior national correspondent, Linda Wertheimer travels the country and the globe for NPR News, bringing her unique insights and wealth of experience to bear on the day's top news stories. A respected leader in US media and a beloved figure to listeners who have followed her three-decade-long NPR career, Wertheimer provides clear-eyed analysis and thoughtful reporting on all NPR News programs. Before taking the senior national correspondent post, Wertheimer spent 13 years as a host of NPR's flagship news magazine, All Things Considered.

Her numerous journalism awards include those from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for her anchoring of "The Iran-Contra Affair: A Special Report" (a series of 41 half-hour programs on the Iran-Contra congressional hearings); from American Women in Radio/TV for her story "Illegal Abortion;" and from the American Legion for NPR's coverage of the Panama Treaty debates. She was named one of the top 50 journalists in Washington by Washingtonian Magazine, and one of America's 200 most influential women byVanity Fair.

A New Foreign Policy: Obama's First Year | Phyllis Oakley

Phyllis Oakley is an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (the graduate school of international relations of the Johns Hopkins University). Before her retirement as a career foreign service officer with the State Department, she served as assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research, and for Population, Refugees and Migration. She and her husband, retired ambassador Robert Oakley, have two children and five grandchildren in the Washington area. Phyllis will share insightful observations on foreign policy trends.

Our Financial Future | Jewelle Bickford

Jewelle Bickford, Senior Strategist at GenSpring Family Offices with 15 offices throughout the United States, advises wealthy families about their investments, charitable and estate plans and goals. Before joining GenSpring in April 2009, Jewelle Bickford was one of the 21 worldwide Rothschild Group investment banking Senior Advisors. Prior to April of 2007, she was a Global Partner concentrating on cross-border new business origination for North America and the U.K. Before 2001, Mrs. Bickford was Senior Managing Director and head of Debt Capital Markets for Rothschild Inc. She also was a member of NM Rothschild’s Global Banking and Treasury Committee. Mrs. Bickford merged her investment banking firm, Bickford & Partners Inc., into Rothschild Inc., in 1994. As president of her firm, she was responsible for managing its origination and private placement activities including the placement of over $40 billion of asset backed securities.

Mrs. Bickford attended Randolph Macon Women’s College and received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in 1977. She presently serves on the Board of Directors of the SEC-registered Torrey Funds and the Board of Women for Women International. She is the past President of the Trisha Brown Dance Company and is a Trustee Emeritus of Randolph Macon Women’s College and serves on the Business Committee of the Metropolitan Museum. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Founder of the Task Force on the Council’s initiative on the role of women in economic and political development in the Middle East and South East Asia. She is also a member of The Committee of 200, Women’s Forum and the Advisory Council of Afghan Women Leader CONNECT, A Special Program of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.