Inspiration: Yoga and Writing | Phyllis Pilgrim and Irene Borger

Moving into the triple pleasures of breath, asanas, and writing, Phyllis Pilgrim and Irene Borger have designed an integrated program of yoga and writing that generates the optimal condition for summoning the creative self. Whether you have been writing and doing yoga for a long time, have not studied yoga or written at all, or are beginning a creative project of any kind, you are invited to breathe in new life and inspiration.

• 10am Yoga Fundamentals: Level 1 / Progressive – Sunday through Friday
• 3pm Yoga and Writing (110 min) – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday

Writer and teacher Irene Borger's work has appeared in many publications including The Los Angeles Times, Vogue, O, Architectural Digest, and on The Wall Street Journal arts page. The director of the Alpert Award in the Arts, she oversees the giving of five annual $75,000 grants to outstanding artists in the performing and the visual arts. Previously she served as a member of the dance history faculty at University of California, Riverside, and, for ten years, was the artist-in-residence at AIDS Project Los Angeles; the workshop she developed has become a model for writing-as-healing programs throughout the country. Irene first came to the Ranch in 1977, and has been presenting programs here since the mid-1980's. A longtime meditation student, she is working on a book on listening.

On the Web: http://tinyurl.com/7jou9ys and www.alpertawards.org

Phyllis Pilgrim has been inspired by the teachings of BKS Iyengar, H.H. the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hahn, and Shinzen Young, among others. She explores the nether regions of the world, with a spiritual component to each adventure. Recent journeys include hiking the Inca Trail, visiting Dharamsala to listen to the teachings of the Dalai Lama, and trekking in Tibet, Bhutan and Tasmania. Phyllis will teach the daily 9:00 am Yoga fundamentals for beginners in addition to co-presenting with Irene in the afternoon workshops.

Phyllis is the author of “The Hidden Passport” which tells of her young life in Japanese concentrations camps in Java in WW2. She reveals much about her life and philosophy enhanced by her practices in yoga and meditation”. www.phyllispilgrim.com

Culinary Experiences at La Cocina Que Canta | Visiting Teacher Virginia Willis

Virginia Willis is the author of the acclaimed cookbook, “Bon Appétit, Y’all! Recipe and Stories from Three Generations of Southern Cooking” (Ten Speed Press). The book has been featured in House Beautiful, Ladies Home Journal, and was rated the top comfort food book of 2008 by The Chicago Tribune. She has been a guest on Martha Stewart Television, Paula Deen’s Best Dishes, and Real Simple. A graduate of L'Academie de Cuisine and Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne, previously she honed her attention to detail as the Kitchen Director for Martha Stewart Living Television where she supervised the food segments for the Emmy-award winning television show. Other television credits include Epicurious, Bobby Flay, Shirley Corriher’s Kitchen Secrets Revealed!, and Natalie Dupree. In addition to “Bon Appetit, Y'all,” her writing credits include: editor for “The All-New Joy of Cooking”; author of “Pasta Dinners 1,2,3”; co-author of “Home Plate Cooking”; and editorial assistant to Anne Willan for “Cook It Right.” Her articles have appeared in Country Living, Family Fun, and Eating Well.

For more information about Virginia, please visit www.virginiawillis.com.

Virginia 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.

Focus on Youthing: A Hypnotic Approach to Anti-Aging | Bee Epstein-Shepherd, Ph.D.

This week we FOCUS ON YOUTHING: A HYPNOTIC APPROACH TO ANTI-AGING™ a revolutionary program that will help you look, feel and be younger. The program reduces stress (the fastest-ager) and motivates behaviors that are characteristic of youthful energetic people. It is actually possible to slow down the aging process using hypnotic techniques.

The INTRODUCTORY EVENING PROGRAM gives you the opportunity to learn about the positive power of hypnosis. Hypnosis is the fastest and most effective way to produce positive change by eliminating negative habits, reducing fears and phobias, and as a weight control tool. It is also used as a complement to traditional medicine, easing surgery, speeding healing, and reducing pain. Now hypnosis can help you look, feel and be younger. You will learn how and why it works as an anti-aging tool. The combination lecture and demonstration will help you understand hypnosis and to have the experience of a brief hypnotic induction with positive suggestions. It is recommended that you attend this session to get the most out of the rest of the hypnosis programs.

LOOK AND BE YOUNGER BY CONTROLLING WEIGHT

Research shows that hypnosis when combined with a weight control program increases the success rate by 96%. And those who add hypnosis to their weight control efforts are 146% more effective in keeping weight off long term. Participants will be hypnotized to achieve and maintain their ideal weight and keep up the healthy habits that promote well-being and youthfulness.

SLOW DOWN AGING BY REDUCING STRESS AND GETTING MORE SLEEP

You will be amazed at how quickly you can de-stress with hypnosis. In a matter of minutes you can be relaxed, calm and free of muscle tension. This allows the mind and body to refresh itself and regenerate with sleep. When you have less stress and enjoy better sleep you will slow down the physiological aging process. In this session you will experience total stress relief and learn to recreate this condition at home.

SELF HYPNOSIS TO TURN BACK THE CLOCK

Learn a simple self-hypnotic technique that is flexible enough to use when focusing on youthing, physical health, and to use to achieve other any of your other goals-both personal and/or professional. Just for fun—how about a hypnotic face life??

Bee Epstein-Shepherd, Ph.D. has helped people attain personal and professional excellence since 1975. She is now in her "retirement career" as a hypnotherapist practicing performance psychology. Since 1985 she has impacted more than 250.000 people in over 450 cities internationally by teaching self-management and peak performance. She has 10 years experience teaching management and business psychology courses at the college level and consulting for major corporations. She is author of "Stress First Aid for the Working Woman," "How to Create Balance at Work, At Home, In Your Life," "Free Yourself From Diets,” “Mental Management for Great Golf: How to Control Your Thoughts and Play Out of Your Mind” and "Building Champions, A Guide for Parents of Junior Golfers." Between 1996 and 2006 she was mental skills coach to some of the world’s best golfers. In 2008 she published a CD program Youthing™, a Hypnotic Approach to Anti-Aging, a revolutionary program designed to slow the aging process. She presents customized Youthing workshops and also hypnotizes individuals to reduce stress, improve memory, overcome sleeplessness, conquer fears, control weight and negative behaviors. She is certified by the American Institute of Hypnosis, The National Guild of Hypnotists, The Time Line Therapy Association, and as a Medical Hypnotherapy Specialist. She is listed in several Who's Who publications including Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who in the World.

On the Web: www.DrBee.com

The Hidden Dimension of Human Communication | Peter A. Glaser and Susan R. Glaser

Peter A. Glaser, Ph.D. and Susan R. Glaser, Ph.D. received their doctorates in Communication from the Pennsylvania State University. Authors of the internationally acclaimed book, Be Quiet, Be Heard: The Paradox of Persuasion, they have been married business partners and co-presenters for 39 years. Drs. Glaser have published three books and more than 40 research articles. Their research on transforming organizational culture has received the International Association of Business Communication Research Foundation Award for bridging communication theory and practice. Feature stories have been written about them in Business Week, Nation's Business, National Business Review, Working Woman, Success Magazine, and the Washington Post. The Glasers joined the faculty of the University of Oregon in 1975. Active consultants since then, their work has taken them around the world working with leaders from Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Weyerhaeuser, Tektronix, Hyundai, and Sony Corporation. They spend February in New Zealand working with leaders from both the private and public sectors. They have worked with federal, state, and local government leaders throughout the US, Canada, and the U.K., including their ongoing work with the US Congress. The Glasers now offer research-based multi-media learning materials, including an on-line learning system. Their latest book, Be Quiet, Be Heard: The Paradox of Persuasion, is in its fifth printing and now available as an audiobook. Learn more about the Glasers by visiting www.theglasers.com and www.facebook.com/glasers.

Their lecture series at Rancho La Puerta includes four programs that are based on the Glaser’s international award winning research:

1.    The Hidden Dimension of Human Communication
A world of communication lurks below the surface of our awareness.  When we are in conflict, this hidden dimension often catapults us into confusion and emotion, thwarting creative resolution and action.  This presentation reveals these veiled dangers that can shake the very core of our intimate connections and offers a productive alternative.

2.    Quality Listening in High Stress Situations
When interpersonal pressure is on, listening is the first casualty.  When dialogue turns to criticism, we often revert to nonproductive response modes which block communication even when it contains segments of truth vital to problem resolution and personal growth.  This session provides a 5-step model for transforming defensiveness and blame into insight and agreement.  A couple’s trust increases when each person feels heard and understood.

3.    Raising Delicate Issues
Why is it that our partner too often feels defensive when we try our best to provide them with helpful insights?  How can it be that we torpedo our own efforts when trying to convey suggestions which we are convinced can improve our partner’s behavior and our relationship? This presentation provides a four-step model for raising issues which renders remarkable results:  solving the problem and strengthening the relationship without generating a negative reaction.

4.    Perceptions and Reality
How do we create meaning from our perceptual world?  Why is it that we can be so wrong even when we are certain that we are reading our partner with complete accuracy?  This program reveals the fragility of our perceptual processes and provides a productive alternative which allows us to clarify assumptions even when our partner is quiet or confusing.  A 4-step model is presented to clarify perceptions while enhancing understanding and trust.

Bullying in our Relationships: Parenting, Marriage and More | Carol Smaldino

The Bully and the Brain Freeze: When Being Smart isn't Enough

"Why did I stay for so long?"; "Just leave him!"; "I can't believe such a smart person could act so stupid"; "I thought I was being mindful and it led me nowhere."
These are quotes that could be from most of us or our friends about any kind of relationship. The mystery lies in there being parts of us which are vulnerable, human, ready to be hurt or seduced or fooled no matter how smart we are. Getting to know the clues, and getting and giving the compassion to regain dignity and choice is no easy deal, but it's central to so many of our lives.

There is no exit without awareness, leverage, and strategy. This stuff applies to the more serious issues of cult involvement and exits, and also to the less dramatic (on the surface) issues of seduction into subtle but powerful states of mind control.

IN TRAINING FOR MAKING MISTAKES

Much of the advice we get can sound Zen in tone but leaves us flat when we are at home and the messiness of emotions gets the better of us. The advice is too often given in the ceilings of our lives where frequently enough, our real life encounters are in the basements or what can feel like the dungeons!

Making mistakes is easy enough without awareness, but with! is another story. Tolerating mistakes gets tough when most of us have greater expectations than we even realize, even impossible ones. Learning from the depths and allowing for the mixed emotions of ambivalence, sadness, disappointment and temper, is a hallmark of sanity.

PARENTING: TAKING THE POWER OUT OF POWER

Relationships, especially parenting, are often filled with power tactics and power struggles. Power either creates relationships of fear and domination or becomes a series of ragged places of resentment and ongoing hurt and spite. Here are the whys and some of the hows to use relationship as structure, and very importantly a focus on the difficulties of going from a power base to one that emphasized connection. Much easier said than done, but it is doable and freeing with supports and tools. And it's exciting and adds to resilience in other relationships as well.

LAUGHING OUT LOUD

Comedy wakes us up, lets us commiserate and complain, and often can lighten our load in a tough moment or afterwards.
Letting ourselves get in touch with the mischief of the child inside and the change makers of our time, letting ourself say what is to us the complete un-obliterated truth about the complexities of living, can be as freeing as anything else. Shall we laugh? Not a requirement...

Carol Smaldino is a certified social worker who has been in private practice for over 25 years. Before her Masters degree, she worked for the Bureau of Child Welfare with unmarried mothers for 3 years. She also worked at Roosevelt Hospital for a year and a summer as part of both the Child and Youth Project (mostly with non-English speaking Hispanic families) and the Emergency Room as a summer social worker.

After attending the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, connected with Yeshiva University, she worked for five years in a residential treatment center with very disturbed children, adolescents, families, and—as she came to realize— a truly "batty" administration. After a few years of doing therapy and supervision for a mental health clinic, she went out into the world of private practice.

Carol is known for her creativity, honesty, humor and deep sensitivity to her patients and to those who seek her help. She is known also for her ability and willingness to challenge them in their growth, and her willingness to challenge herself in the process. Carol has told almost everyone she knows that her patients are among her favorite people because they for the most part are or become open to their own (and her own) intense and unembellished honesty.

Amazing Oceans of Life | Mark Hixon

Dr. Mark Hixon will present the following four programs:

AMAZING OCEANS OF LIFE
Explore the beautiful and bizarre creatures that inhabit our seas, from tropical coral reefs to the deep abyss, with a leading expert. Dr. Mark Hixon uses stunning photographs, vivid video clips, and entertaining dialog to bring the undersea world indoors.

CORAL REEFS: Rainforests and Canaries of the Seas
Explore the greatest concentration of life on the Earth including the life of corals, the amazing biodiversity of reefs, how coral reefs benefit humans, and how humans are threatening the very existence of reefs.

ABYSS: Bizarre Creatures of the Deep Sea
Explore the dark recesses of the oceans, inhabited by creatures that look like characters from science fiction movies. Much of this presentation will be accompanied by video taken from deep sea submersibles.

SIMPLE WAYS YOU CAN HELP TO SAVE THE OCEANS
Listen and discuss how the seas have suffered from human activities, especially bottom trawling and ocean warming and acidification. Dr. Mark Hixon will focus on how the invisibility of the seas and the myth of their inexhaustibility have led to environmental problems that require each of us to become better ocean stewards.

Mark Hixon is the Hsiao Endowed Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Hawai’i. His research expertise is the ecology of coastal oceans, including kelp forests and coral reefs, which he has studied in many locations around the globe, as well as adjacent deep-sea ecosystems. A National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, Fulbright Senior Scholar, and associate editor of multiple scientific journals, Mark was honored in 2004 by the Institute for Scientific Information Citation Index as the most cited author on coral-reef ecology in the Northern and Western Hemispheres. He is past chair of both the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee (for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and the Ocean Sciences Advisory Committee (for the U.S. National Science Foundation). His on-line TED talks and TV appearances about sea life are both informative and entertaining.

On the Web: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/biology/?q=profile/mark-hixon