About Us
Our Origin Story
Mindful of Nature is inspired by a deep love of the natural world and the power of being in nature with mindful attention. Mark Coleman began exploring meditation in nature over thirty years ago. It was a natural synthesis of his lifelong learning of mindfulness practice and a deep appreciation and attuning to nature as a place of wonder, refuge, and renewal.
Mark began leading nature meditation retreats two decades ago and quickly discovered how profound and nourishing they were for participants. Those programs inspired his first book, Awake in the Wild – Mindfulness in Nature as a Path of Self Discovery.
Since that time, he has led more than a hundred nature meditation retreats worldwide. In 2012 Mark began offering nature meditation teacher training to grow the reach of mindful nature programs and has trained over 100 nature meditation teachers.
To broaden the outreach and accessibility to mindfulness in nature programs, Mark founded Mindful of Nature. With the support of grants and funding, Mindful of Nature delivers nature meditation programs, classes, and retreats to: those in the helping professions including first responders, teachers, health care practitioners; to young adults and at risk youth; as well as to those working in the environmental field and to business and organizational leaders. We deliver programs through Mindful of Nature teacher faculty, as well as by providing funding for outside approved teachers who deliver mission aligned programs.
Mission Statement
Mindful of Nature is a nature-based organization, that helps foster people’s connection, awareness, and love of the natural world through offering mindfulness-based nature practices, programs, and retreats, which in turn helps people develop care and stewardship for the earth and all species.
Objectives
- To educate and guide people in the techniques and practices of mindfulness in nature that support a deeper and more engaged relationship with the natural world.
- To offer programs where people access a natural sense of well-being, healing, joy and peace through meditation in nature.
- To increase access to nature for underserved populations, elders, and communities who have diminished access to the outdoors.
- Offer programs encouraging youth and young adults that foster understanding and connection to their local environment.
- To offer programs to first responders, health care workers, teachers, and other service professionals as a support for resilience, mental health and well-being.
- To work with leaders, change-makers and environmental visionaries and support them using nature-based practices and perspectives.
- Delivering evidence-based programs and courses available in various formats, from half-day to one-day offsite programs, to multi-week courses, to residential retreats.
- To research current nature meditation programs that demonstrate the efficacy of cultivating mindfulness in nature
Populations Served
- Underserved population to include elders and communities who have diminished access to the outdoors.
- Youth and young adults.
- First responders, health care workers, teachers, veterans, and other service professionals.
- Leaders, change-makers and environmental visionaries and activists
Mindful of Nature strives to serve everyone, regardless of race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin or disability status.
Founding Director
Mark Coleman is an inner and outer explorer, who has extensively studied in the Buddhist tradition since the mid-80s. He is passionate about sharing his nature-based meditation practices and has taught Insight meditation and nature retreats worldwide for the past twenty years. Mark’s journey with meditation began in his late teens in London as a punk rocker. He was drawn to the peace and clarity it brought. This path took him to India and the US, immersing in long retreats with renowned teachers in the Insight meditation including Christopher Titmus, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and Sharon Salzberg, and later in the Dzogchen tradition with Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche.
But, it was meditating in nature that captured Mark’s heart. When he moved to the US he fell for the vast landscapes of the Rockies, Sierra’s, and the deserts of the South-West. An unabashed nature lover, he sensed nature as a perfect temple for mindfulness and began integrating meditation and nature as a path of practice for himself and later teaching others. He realized the joy, peace, wisdom, and freedom taught in Buddhism was accessible by meditating outdoors.
