My job as the Youth Program Manager at Venture Outdoors - is to get children…
Take a Mindfulness Hike with your Guide, Alicia Broudy
Meet Alicia Broudy
I have been practicing and teaching yoga for about 12 years. Though I have always loved the outdoors, I really leaned in to more intentional time spent outside during COVID quarantine. When our gyms and yoga studios were closed, I turned to a walk on the trail for my physical and emotional health. There was no denying the healing effects of a walk in the woods! In May 2022, I completed a 10-day Mindful Outdoor Guide training at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. This training combined yoga and mindfulness with forest bathing research and practice. It was transformational. I am so happy to share these practices with others!
What is mindfulness?
I like Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition of mindfulness. Kabat-Zinn suggests mindfulness is what happens when you “pay attention, on purpose, in the present moment, without judgment.” That seems simple enough to me… to just pay attention.
How is it connected to the outdoors?
When we practice mindfulness outdoors, we are simply paying attention to the sights, sounds, and sensations we experience. By doing this, we become more aware of our surroundings. When we become more aware of our surroundings, we might also become more aware of our role in protecting and preserving those surroundings.
Join the next Mindfulness Hike
I lead a Mindful Outdoor Experience, which is a little bit of yoga, a little bit of forest bathing, and a little bit of ceremony.
Forest bathing, or shinrin yoku, came out of Japan in the 1980s. It is the practice of “taking in the forest atmosphere” through the senses. There are a lot of documented benefits to simply being outdoors: taking in the smell of trees, listening to the sound of running water, getting sun on the skin, and so on. So that is what we will be doing!
We will move and walk with intention, while paying attention, to what we can see, feel, hear, smell, and taste.
This will be a NEW monthly series from now through November. Each week we’ll focus on a different sense. You can join just one or join them all.
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