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Guiding a Mindfulness Workshop at the Well-Being Festival - 22nd July 2023
It was great to join the Woodland festival today, at the Glade in Dartington, despite the pouring rain. As we entered the Sequoia Trees “Cathedral of North Woods” (as we call it), the up-beat of the music added a new flavour to the woodland soundscape. We were welcomed by a warm atmosphere and interesting stalls selling food, crystals and essential oils and one explaining about the benefits of Forest Bathing. There were people gathered around the fire listening to songs in one space and people doing yoga under a waterproof canopy in another.
Inside the Nest, the ecological wood building within the Glade, a talk about “Earth Wisdom” was taking place. I was about to give a Mindfulness workshop after that very talk. It has been a couple of years since I had given a public workshop in person and it was fine as the atmosphere from the place and the people was welcoming. 13 adults and three children attended the workshop and almost all actively participated in the meditation’s practices and enquiries.
For me, it felt great to be facilitating the workshop inside the nest. A year ago, in early Spring I conducted a Forest Bathing Research Project for “sensitive people” there and the venue felt quite cold. Now with the wood stove, the scent of the pine essential oil on the burner and the warmth coming from the people present, it felt the perfect venue to be working from. Great to hear the Mindfulness workshop received positive feedback which is heart-lifting for me as starting from October this year I will be leading a Mindfulness Day Retreat once a month in that venue.
The Nest
The ‘Mindful by Nature’ project of 5 monthly day retreats has been created in collaboration with ‘Woods for Wellness’, a partnership project that provides subsided woodland wellbeing services, intertwining the natural healing effect of the woods with professional therapeutic guidance. This means that more people can have access to the mindfulness day retreats as they are partly funded.
After the workshop, with my partner, we bought some delicious food and joined the group that were sat by the fire, enjoying the live music
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