Meet erica cole: guide & facilitator

We had the good fortune of connecting with erica cole and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi erica, what inspires you?
i am inspired by everything: music, art, the creative process, dreams — things words can’t describe. also, sonic meditations and deep listening. 

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
i believe letting go is more about settling into yourself – about patience rather than release. essential nidra evolved from a spacious quality i held first for myself, and then for my clients. i was always in some creative process. i taught writing, i took photos. i got my masters in counseling and taught yoga before yoga nidra for several years. i developed my own hybrid of mindfulness and combined it with yoga nidra and nature based techniques that i have always centered my life around. i went through a deep integrative process with nidra. i wanted to truly embody it, and that meant years before offering it to others in the way i do today. it’s a very deep and potent technique and to understand the profound wisdom and philosophy behind it meant first immersing myself in the journey. i was already a wellness practitioner and that helped a lot, but so did the environments and teachers i trained and practiced with before i was ready to cultivate my own voice as a facilitator. also, nature immersion and somatic practice was part of my commitment to this path. i wanted to access the quality of atmospheric resonance and tie that into my offerings. for me the entire process was finely tuned, and highly personal. i knew that giving myself time to grow into this role would be the only way that i would feel clear and grounded in what i’d be sharing. there were many iterations, and many layers of process before i felt the timing was appropriate. as far as my brand and story, i’m not sure i ever intended to create one. i guess if i would describe it in any way, i would just say that i consider energy to be the foundation for all of life. so the energy in our bodies and auric fields corresponds to the same energy that fuels the stars and the sun – the same energy that creates all plants, animals and living matter, on earth and beyond. so if we aren’t in a state of flow… if we can’t access these points of rest internally and tune into the universal energy rhythms that we come from originally, we won’t be on a path that is in sync with truth. so for me, uniqueness without identifying ourselves is the art of essential nidra. i want everyone to feel free to express themselves as they actually are.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
i’d likely just want to spend time at home, cooking meals and listening to music. i really adore whole organic foods and i’m endlessly inspired by music. and of course nature. hours spent in green spots without a specific agenda.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
tracee stanley

Website: essentialnidra.com
Instagram: @essentialnidra