Services: Mindful Hiking

Daylong Mindful Hike by Kelly Werner, Ph.D.

Description: We spend so much of our lives in our thoughts and on our devices. Take a day to reconnect with your body, being and others in nature. In this daylong, we'll repeatedly connect to our breath, body and senses and attune to the plants, water, and the earth that surround us. This immersion in the natural world will widen our ability to be resourced by nature.

Who should take this daylong? Anyone (15 yrs and up) interested in being more present for their lives, sensing their interconnection with nature, cultivating mental clarity, and accessing a space of stillness and inner ease. Beginners to advanced mindfulness practitioners are welcome. We will hike for 5 miles up and down hills in the sun at a moderate pace. Therefore a moderate level of physical fitness is ideal.

What will the workshop cover? This workshop provides practical instruction in present-moment focus and attention training, using nature as the anchor for awareness. The science of mindfulness and nature practice and their beneficial effects on emotion regulation and well being will be discussed. Guidance for a variety of mindfulness practices will be given including: focused attention, sensory awareness, reset pause, open awareness, embodiment, interconnection with nature, and paired conversations about experiences. There will be plenty of time for discussion about your own practice.

Flow of the Day: Guidance through the different meditation practices will be given every 30 minutes or so throughout the 5 hour hike. We'll practice is stillness while sitting, during more strenous walking, and during slow meandering walking. We'll reconviene as a group periodically for discussion of the previous practice segment. Most of the practice parts and hiking will be in silence, with some time alloted for social connecting, discussion and guided paired conversation. Spending an embodied connected day our in the natural world invites us to wake up to the preciousness of this moment and the beauty of the earth we all share.

Registration: email kelly.h.werner@gmail.com

"To bring your attention to a stone, a tree or an animal does not mean to think about it, but simply to perceive it, to hold it in your awareness. You can sense how still it is, and in doing so the same stillness arises within you. You sense how deeply it rests in Being. Completely at one with what it is and where it is. In realizing this, you too come to a place of deep rest within yourself."

– Eckhart Tolle