Rhythm & Restore: Nourish and Replenish With Immersive Sound Healing and Slow Yoga

In a world that asks us to move faster, produce more, and stay continually switched on, there is another rhythm waiting beneath the noise: the steady pulse of our own being. Rhythm & Restore is a yoga retreat at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, built around a simple invitation to slow down, listen inward, and remember what it feels like to feel and heal.

Led by yoga teacher Janet Stone and sound-healing musician Christian DiMarco, this immersive workshop weaves slow, nourishing yoga with restorative practices, Yoga Nidra, meditation, chanting, breathwork, and live sound healing. The work is rooted in the nervous system, with an emphasis on working with it rather than against it, so that regulation, spaciousness, resilience, and ease have room to grow.

If you carry tension you cannot seem to put down, or a sense of being always on alert, this is a space to ask a different question: what becomes possible when we stop pushing and begin listening?

What to Expect

The days move between activation and rest, effort and surrender, movement and stillness. Practices are designed to support the body in releasing habitual patterns of tension and hypervigilance while inviting deep restoration.

- Slow, gentle yoga that awakens circulation and vitality without depletion.
- Restorative postures and Yoga Nidra that create space for profound rest.
- Breath, chanting, and sound as pathways into resonance and vagal toning.
- Live sound healing, where vibration, rhythm, silence, and resonance carry participants somewhere words cannot reach: a return to the sanctuary within.

Participants leave with a deeper understanding of how strength can be built not only through doing, but through the intelligence of rest.

About the Lineup

Janet Stone traveled to India in 1996, where she dedicated herself to a conscious evolution through yoga. She blends a wealth of knowledge and yoga experience into a unique approach to Vinyasa yoga, one that is vigorous yet sumptuous. Janet teaches in San Francisco and leads retreats internationally. In this workshop, she guides the slow yoga and restorative practices.

Christian DiMarco is described by Esalen as a world-renowned sound-healing musician. He accompanies the workshop with live sound, shaping the vibration, rhythm, silence, and resonance that anchor the sound healing portion of the retreat.

Venue & Logistics

The retreat takes place at Esalen Institute on the coast of Big Sur, California. Registration options include a workshop with an on-site stay, a workshop with an off-site stay, and an individual day pass. The workshop includes an additional $220 in faculty tuition, and Esalen offers scholarships for those who need them. Highway 1 conditions around Big Sur can affect travel, so review Esalen's current travel advisory before you plan your journey.