NIA Week | Debbie Rosas

Nia is a body-mind-spirit fitness & lifestyle practice. Through expressive movement – The Body’s Way - Nia empowers you to achieve physical, mental, emotional & spiritual well-being.

In 1983, at the height of the no-pain no-gain fitness mentality, Debbie Rosas began to question traditional models for exercise & began to craft a more holistic way of being healthy in one’s body. She discovered that getting fit & healthy through pleasure is the way to heal and is the key to health. From their discoveries – Nia was born.

Debbie Rosas grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and discovered Kinesthetic learning since she was dyslexic. She developed her expertise & passion for human anatomy while studying to be a medical illustrator in college. Her interest in physiology, anatomy & health care propelled her into a career in the fitness industry, and in the early 1980’s, she founded one of California’s largest aerobics companies.

Culinary Experiences at La Cocina Que Canta | Visiting Teacher Romney "Nani" Steele

Romney Steele is a writer, cook, visual artist, teacher, and the author of My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family, and Big Sur (2009), and Plum Gorgeous: Recipes and Memories from the Orchard (2011). As the granddaughter of Bill and Lolly Fassett, founders of Nepenthe Restaurant in Big Sur, she grew up at the family business and opened Cafe Kevah, located on t he grounds of the property.

Romney has worked as a chef, freelance writ er, recipe consultant, food stylist and cookboook author. As a teacher, she promotes creativity and fearlessness in the kitchen by encouraging students to follow their intuition and use all their senses. She currently runs a culinary program for emotionally challenged children in Oakland, CA, and mentors at-risk youth. She is also the co-creator of The Cook and Her Farmer, a " pop-up" that celebrates gathering around the table for honest foods, and soon-to-be brick and mortar cafe in the historic part of downtown Oakland. Part of its mission is to nurture the growth of future cooks and farmers.

On the Web: www.romneysteele.com

Romney offers three hands-on culinary experiences, 3.5 hours each, on Tuesday at 11 am and 4 pm and Thursday at 4 pm, 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.

Essential Tai Ji: The Five Elements of Moving Forces of Nature| Chungliang Al Huang

Master Chungliang Al Huang is the founder of the Living Tao Foundation, an international cultural-arts network for lifelong learning. He is also director of the Lan Ting Institute, a cross-cultural study and conference center at the sacred and historic Wu Yi mountain in China, and at Gold Beach on the southern Oregon Coast in the USA. An extremely well-known Chinese Master, he grew up in China steeped in the studies of the classics, fine and martial arts. He came to the USA as a student in 1955 to become an architect and performing artist and began building bridges in East/ West cultural synthesis, teaching at all the Human Potential Centers around the world, including Esalen Institute and Omega Institute in the USA; and Findhorn and Dartington Hall in the UK.

The Seat of Our Words - How Communication Shapes our Lives | Barbara Healy

Have you ever been frustrated conversing with someone? Have you walked away from conversations feeling dissatisfied? Why do people hear things differently? We all have instantaneous perceptions about others and the things they say, as if they are absolute truths. As we communicate in a fast paced world, we can no longer rely on our ability to connect with just a few people and not others. When we assess and learn about our style and the styles of others, we learn new ways to interact and be with others in a way that is more effective and joyous for us all. Join Barbara Babenco Healy, executive coach, leadership expert and speaker, in highly interactive, experiential, holistic and engaging daily sessions and take home learnings and new tools from the Ranch that can improve your life forever!

Daily Sessions:

• What is my Communication Style Anyway?
• Exploring My Communication Style with Others
• Conversing with Different Styles
• “AHA” – I Can Flex My Communication Style
• Sustainability: Taking My New Tools Home

Barbara Babenco Healy

Barbara is an executive coach and leadership consultant and the Founder of Barbara Healy Associates, a company that develops people and organizations while creating solutions that meet business needs. Barbara incorporates the values of “mind, body, spirit” into her life and work and has been visiting the Ranch since 1984. She has a proven track record of helping both senior and emerging leaders discover and live their values congruent with the values of the organizations they are working in, leading to healthier and happier high performance workplaces.

Barbara is a seasoned executive with more than 25 years experience as both a corporate executive and an external coach and consultant in a wide variety of settings including small businesses, medium size companies, large corporations as well as non-profits and private individuals. With a focus on change as a constant, and using a participatory approach, she builds trusting partnerships while challenging leaders to identify limiting beliefs and shift to new perspectives while building the foundation for success and results over the long-term.

A life-long learner, Barbara is an “awesome” facilitator and speaks and presents at multiple conferences, organizations and associations, particularly on communication, coaching, employee engagement, leadership development and multi-generations in the workplace and in philanthropy. Barbara is featured in the book, “Mastering the Art of Success,” along with Jack Canfield and Les Brown. She is the proud wife of Jack and mother of Ryan and Dan (who she often presents with). The four are currently drafting a book about Leadership and the New Generation.

On the web: www.barbarahealyassociates.com

Find and Share Your Voice | Roy Rogosin

A "voice-on" experiential workshop in discovering the tools to help you resonate from within. Breathing exercises, guided meditations and techniques of vocal production will lead to the comfortable and confident ability of each participant to produce their personal and uniquely authentic sound.

Whether as a business executive, public speaker, amateur or professional singer, this experience will bring you confidence in the sacred art of self-expression. Through active participation, and with no previous experience necessary, each individual’s unique voice will be accessed. Presentation and exploration of the physical components of vocal techniques will create the basis for unselfconscious public speaking and singing with pride and confidence.

Conductor and composer Roy M. Rogosin has accompanied great artists throughout the world, including Johnny Mathis and Michel Legrand. He has written for the stage, television, and motion pictures, as well as having conducted some of the world's finest orchestras from the London Philharmonic to the Cincinnati Symphony, and in venues from Amsterdam's Concertgebouw to the White House. Mr. Rogosin currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he is artist in residence at St. John's college.

Self Expression through Digital Photography | Lynne Harty

Lynne Harty is a commercial and fine art photographer from Asheville, NC. During a series of classes taught this week, Lynne will talk about expressing yourself through photography, photographing people in nature, and Digital 101: How to manage all those digital files piling up on your computer. We will also have a session where we wander the grounds to take photographs together of whatever subject matter the group wants to explore. For samples of Lynne’s work, please visit her website at www.lynneharty.com

Self Expression through Digital Photography: Lynne Harty, a commercial and fine art photographer, will describe ways in which your personal photography can serve as an outlet for self expression. She will show some of her personal photo projects to stimulate you to create your own way of recording the visual part of your life.

Digital 101: Bring all of your questions about how to make the transition from film to digital photography to Lynne Harty for this fact filled session. Find out how to organize all of those images taking up space on your computer, how to convert your images to black and white, and how to get good prints from your digital files. Basic retouching principles will be shown as well.

Photographing People in Nature: Lynne Harty will talk about the basic principles of photography and how to apply those to photographing people in nature. Topics will include the importance of light and composition in creating a mood and talking to your subject to help them help you get the image you want.

Photo Walk: Tour the grounds of the Ranch with Lynne Harty as we photograph each other and our surroundings. Bring your camera, questions and your enthusiasm.

Sexuality and Health – and Live Longer and Better! | Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D.

Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D. is a sociology professor at the University of Washington in Seattle and the new sexuality expert for the AARP. She holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, where she was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow; and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale. She has received numerous awards and has authored 14 books, including "The Great Sex Weekend," "The Lifetime Love and Sex Quiz Book," and "Everything You Know About Love and Sex is Wrong."

Dr. Schwartz co-authored Glamour's monthly "Sex and Health" column for years. She also has contributed to many other magazines, journals, newspapers and appears regularly on national TV programs and documentaries. She lectures nationally and internationally on relationship topics, women's issues, parent and child issues, communication between men and women in intimate and work relationships, and maintaining personal and family well-being in today's world. Her most recent book is "Prime: Adventures and Advice about Love and Sex in the Sensual Years" (HarperCollins).