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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My journey into the world of ecotherapy began in my teen years in the 1970s when I read works about Native American holy men and healers. From books like Black Elk Speaks and Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions I learned to trust my own inner wisdom. From books like Rolling Thunder and Seven Arrows I learned to trust the healing power of nature. And from Joseph Campbell’s collected works and Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan series I learned the power of personal myth.
In the 1990s I began to explore my Celtic and Norse heritage and read works by those who followed Celtic and Norse spiritual paths. The more I explored the teachings and the sagas of people from all around the world, the more I learned that what the original peoples of the Earth all had in common was a reverence for nature and a deep respect for nature-centered spirituality.
What I learned from all my explorations is that the further back you go into history, the more human beings have in common. We all started out on a nature-centered path, and the rites and rituals our ancestors all shared had more commonalities than differences.
For all my sacred Ancestors who set my feet on the path, and for all my fellow pilgrims on the path, thank you for what you have done for all of us. May we all have the wisdom to see.
ABOUT THIS HANDBOOK
This is the second edition of Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Workbook. The original workbook was published in 2015, and the sciences of mindfulness and ecotherapy have advanced a great deal since that time. This second edition was updated to reflect this new research. This edition, like its predecessor, was written to accompany the 12-week Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy workshop series. Some of the exercises in this new edition have changed based on participant feedback regarding what is more helpful in facilitating nature experiences.
This new version of the handbook introduces the 12 skills of Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) and introduces one of these skills at each of the 12 sessions in the program. Although this book is designed to accompany the 12-week Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy workshop series, it may also be completed on your own at home. The experiential nature of the work allows anyone with access to outdoor spaces the opportunity to complete the series. If you are interested in participating in a workshop series near you, you can visit the Mindful Ecotherapy Center’s website at www.mindfulecotherapy.org. The website contains a directory of Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy programs worldwide at
https://mindfulecotherapy.org/directory-2
If you are completing this workbook on your own, you may visit the website or email me at [email protected] for resources, assistance, or clarification. I’d also love to hear your feedback regarding this edition of the workbook!
CHANGES IN THE SECOND EDITION
The original edition of this workbook was published in 2015. The second edition made several changes. Some of these are as follows.
The first six sessions of the program deal with mindfulness. The order of these sessions was changed based on participant feedback. This was done to make the skills taught in these sessions follow a more logical order of progression.
The My Animal Legend exercise that was in Session 9 of the first edition was replaced by a Spirit Animal exercise because the My Animal Legend activity was a bit too long to complete in a one-hour session. This exercise will be developed into a full program later. The Spirit Animal exercise is more concise while still illustrating the skill of that session, Nature as Teacher.
There seems to be a misconception that the Spirit Animal exercise is “cultural appropriation” because Native American cultures engage in the practice. While it is true that the practice is widespread in the Native American community, it is a tool that has been used by most, if not all, cultures at one time or another. The Spirit Animal section was therefore expanded to include multiple citations from multiple sources demonstrating that the practice of taking a Spirit Animal is and was widespread, dating back to, and including, Neanderthals over 60,000 years ago.
The information about finding your birth tree using the Celtic ogham in the session on centering was deleted because it was too culturally specific. It was replaced by a Centering Tree exercise that is more generic and culturally inclusive.
New studies that were released after the date of the publication of the first edition have been included in the session material. These citations are referenced at the end of the sections in which they appear, and whenever appropriate the citations are included within the chapter materials.
Finally, some of the text has been edited and/or modified for clarity.
I’d like to thank everyone who offered feedback. Without your input these improvements would not have been possible!
If you are completing this workbook on your own, you may visit the website or email me at [email protected] for resources, assistance, or clarification. I’d also love to hear your feedback regarding this edition of the workbook, and your suggestions for improvement of future editions!
Overview of the Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Workbook and Program
Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) is a blending of Mindfulness and Ecopsychology. MBE uses nature to facilitate mindful awareness. MBE is used as a framework for helping individuals and families to find deeper connections in their own lives, and to give more meaning and enjoyment to the activities of daily living.
0.0 Introduction to Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
-Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Most people enjoy spending time outdoors. The existence of state and national parks, public beaches, mountain resorts, and other outdoor recreational facilities can attest to this fact. We seek nature because it is not only enjoyable, but healthy as well. A large and growing body of research demonstrates that nature is good for the mind as well as the body.
Not only is spending time in nature relaxing and healthy. It can also facilitate mindful states of being. What is mindfulness, and why is it important? Mindfulness is simply a way of paying attention to the moment in which you find yourself by focusing on your immediate experience rather than on ruminations and negative thought patterns (Carlson, et al 2004). These negative thinking cycles may be producing stress depression, or anxiety. By entering mindful states, we break these cycles. Scientific study continues to demonstrate that mindfulness increases attention and concentration, facilitates calmer states, and helps with stress reduction. Mindfulness works so well in this capacity that it has been referred to as the “penicillin of mental health.”
The Mindful Ecotherapy Center was founded in 2007 to create programs that use natural environments to facilitate mindful states. In 2010 the tools and techniques of ecotherapy and mindfulness were blended in a program known as Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE). MBE uses nature to facilitate mindful awareness, the first skill of MBE, covered in the materials for Session 1 of the Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy 12-week program.
For those of you interested in learning more about mindfulness and ecotherapy, and how they work well together, there is an extensive list of citations and references at the end of this book.
Since 2008 the Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy program has helped individuals and families to find deeper connections in their own lives, and to give more meaning and enjoyment to their activities of daily living. It has proven particularly effective in helping victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and other types of traumas. Our facilitators around the world have also had much success using the program for substance abuse recovery.
By re-integrating ourselves with nature through Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy, we can tap into nature’s healing power and to heal the earth as we heal ourselves.
Carlson, L.E., Speca, M., Patel, K.D., & Goodey, E. (2004). Mindfulness-based stress reduction in relation to quality of life, mood, symptoms of stress and levels of cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) and melatonin in breast and prostate cancer outpatients. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2004 May; 29(4):448-74.
0.1 What is Mindfulness?
Think about the last time you were stressed out or depressed about something. Hold that thought in your mind and ask yourself, “Was the stress due to something that happened in the past? Was it about something that may or may not happen in the future? How much of what I was anxious about has to do with right now, at this very moment, as I read this sentence?”
Mindfulness is a way of paying attention to what is happening right now, in this moment, with intention.
By focusing on our experiences in the now, from moment to moment, we come to realize that we are free to choose which thoughts and feelings to pay attention to, and which thoughts and feelings not to focus on. This doesn’t mean that we’re trying to stop thinking or feeling. It means that we’re just making a conscious choice on how much attention to focus on those thoughts or feelings. It doesn’t mean that we’re trying to avoid those thoughts or feelings either. It just means we recognize that they can’t have any influence on us unless we choose to let them.
Think about it this way: The past only exists in our memories. The future is only a projection of the past. That is to say, the future is only our educated guesses about what we think might happen based on our past experiences. Anxiety about future events is the result of playing the odds based on past experiences and expecting similar occurrences to happen in the future. Mindfulness is a way of using the present moment to choose what to believe about the past and the future. We can choose which memories to pay attention to, and which projections about the future to focus our attention on. Mindfulness isn’t about trying to make anxious or depressing thoughts and feelings go away. It is about choosing whether or not to dwell on such thoughts and feelings.
Imagine that everything that has ever stressed you out or depressed you is written on this page. Now hold this book about six inches from your nose, or as close to your face as you can while still being able to read the words on this page. With the book this close to your face, how much of your surroundings can you see? If you’re like most people, you probably can’t see much of anything in the immediate environment except this book. You might catch a glimpse here and there of something in your peripheral vision, but overall, all you’re going to be able to see is the pages of this book.
If your stressful thoughts and feelings were written on this page, they’d be in the way of you being able to see the overall picture clearly. The words on this page would be blocking your view and making it difficult to see the big picture.
When we let our stressful thoughts and feelings occupy all our attention, then like this book, they tend to block our view of anything else that might be going on in our lives.
Instead of having all your stressful and depressing thoughts written on this page, imagine that they’re written on a boomerang. If you tried to throw that boomerang away, it would eventually come back to you. If you weren’t careful, it might actually smack you in the head on its return trip! The harder you try to throw this boomerang away, the faster it comes back to you. When we try to “throw away” stressful and depressing thoughts and feelings, they tend to come right back at us as well. That’s because, like it or not, stressful and depressing thoughts and feelings are just as much a part of us as happy thoughts and feelings. Trying to throw them away is trying to throw away a part of ourselves. When we try to throw away the experience of those types of thoughts and feelings, we’re engaging in something called experiential avoidance.
What if, instead of trying to throw that boomerang away, you simply set it in your lap? If you did this, those negative thoughts and feelings written on the boomerang would still be with you, but they wouldn’t be blocking your view. You could still see and interact with the world, but you also wouldn’t be trying to throw away a part of yourself.
Mindfulness in this context is a way of setting that boomerang of stressful and depressing thoughts in your lap so you can see the world around you (Maher, 2021). It’s not a way of trying to throw those thoughts and feelings away. Remember, if you try to do that, the boomerang may come back with a vengeance! Instead, mindfulness is about learning to accept that such thoughts and feelings are a natural part of existence and accepting that we don’t have to let them keep us from interacting with the world unless we consciously choose to do so.
Bharate and Ray (2021) describe this as meta-awareness; or the state of being aware that you are aware. In this state of meta-cognition, we are aware of ourselves as thinking and feeling individuals. We also become aware that our thoughts and feelings are not our destiny. They are simply processes of the mind.
In a 2021 study, Maher demonstrated that teaching mindfulness skills to university students helped to ameliorate symptoms of stress and performance anxiety and was an inexpensive and effective way to enhance student well-being and to improve student performance.
Bharate, G., & Ray, S. (2021, May 11). The wandering mind, the focused mind and the meta-aware mind. https://doi.org/10.31231/osf.io/8zjeb
Maher, Christina. (2021). The Benefits of Mindfulness for University Students. Building Healthy Academic Communities Journal. 5. 42-57. 10.18061/bhac.v5i1.7735.
0.2 Upstairs Brain vs. Downstairs Brain
In their book, The Whole-Brain Child, Dan Siegel and Tina Payne-Bryson introduce the concept of upstairs brain and downstairs brain as a convenient metaphor for how thinking and feeling are processed in the brain.
Feelings of depression, anxiety, sadness, and other emotions are generated in a part of the brain called the limbic system. This “downstairs” portion of the brain is only interested in three things: Fighting, fleeing, or freezing. In fight mode, the downstairs brain wants to protect you from harm by fighting against the threat. When it is triggered, your heart may race, your palms may get sweaty, and you may have a sharp increase in irritability and anger. In flee mode, you may experience a similar adrenaline rush, but in this instance your brain is preparing your body to run away from the danger. In freeze mode, we tend to retreat inside ourselves. This is the deer-in-the-headlights feeling of “If I’m very quiet and still, the bad thing won’t see me.”
When you’re in fight, flee, or freeze mode, your downstairs brain is preparing you to deal with a real or perceived threat in the only way it knows how. When your downstairs brain is engaged, the upstairs part of your brain tends to get overwhelmed.
The upstairs brain, in contrast, consists of the neocortex of the brain, is the part responsible for thinking things through, figuring things out, and solving problems. When the downstairs brain takes over, the upstairs brain is out to lunch. That’s why when you’re emotionally overwhelmed it is nearly impossible to figure out a way to deal with it. Upstairs brain is all about finding solutions to problems, but downstairs brain is all about fighting, fleeing, or freezing. When your upstairs brain is overwhelmed, thinking things over isn’t going to work. That’s because at that point your downstairs brain is in charge. For those times when your downstairs brain is running the show, mindfulness is a way of disengaging from the thinking cycle for a while so that you can re-center yourself and reconnect with yourself and the world around you.
If you find yourself in downstairs brain mode, where emotions are running the show, mindful states are a way to take a break for a while to allow your anxious thoughts and feelings to calm so that the upstairs brain can take charge again. Note again that mindfulness is not about “telling yourself not to think about it” or trying to avoid unpleasant feelings. Instead, it is about sitting quietly with those unpleasant feelings until you can re-engage.
In his book, Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence, Dr. Siegel demonstrates that learning emotional regulation of the downstairs brain through mindful awareness leads to improved immune system functioning, decreased inflammation, improved cholesterol, improved cardiovascular functioning, and increased neural integration.
This increased neural integration includes improved problem-solving, self-regulation skills, and improved adaptive behaviors, making it possible to adapt to new or stressful situations more easily and with less difficulty.
Siegel, Daniel J. and Payne-Bryson, Tina (2011). The Whole Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind, Random House, New York, NY.
Siegel, Daniel (2020). Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence. New York, NY, Random House.
0.3 Doing Mode vs. Being Mode
Another aspect of mindfulness is stepping outside of doing mode and entering being mode.
When we’re caught up in thought and feeling cycles that lead to depression and anxiety, we usually feel that we should be doing something to fix it. The problem with this is that sometimes there is nothing you can do to fix a problem. Mindfulness is a way to escape this cycle of trying to fix things by simply focusing on our moment-to-moment experience. When we are doing this, we are in being mode. In being mode we are not trying to fix anything. We are not trying to go anywhere. We are not trying to do anything. We are not trying, period. Trying is doing, and being mode isn’t about doing.
In being mode we are free to enjoy our experiences from moment to moment by focusing on what our senses are telling us rather than focusing on trying to find a way out of a problem. When downstairs brain is engaged, and upstairs brain is temporarily disconnected, moving into being mode allows us a little breathing room.
0.4 Thinking Mode vs. Sensing Mode
The way to move from doing mode to being mode is to shift our mental energy from thinking mode to sensing mode. Our brains only have a finite of energy to spend on any given task at any given time. If we have a stressful or depressing thought cycle going on, we can shift energy from what our thoughts are telling us by engaging our internal observer to start focusing on what our senses are telling us. As you read this paragraph, can you feel your breath going in and out of your lungs? Were you even aware you were breathing before you read the previous sentence? When caught up in thinking cycles, we’re focusing on the boomerang of unpleasant emotions and expecting it to return with a vengeance. But by shifting our attention to our direct experiences and focusing on what our senses are telling us, we’re able to move into sensing mode.
When in sensing mode we are no longer giving energy to ruminating cycles that are leading us to states that we do not want to experience. We can move to sensing mode by focusing first on our breathing, then on our direct sensory experiences of the current situation. We do this by using all of our senses, in the moment, to explore the environment around us. What do we hear? What do we see? What do we smell? What do we taste? What do we feel? By asking ourselves these questions, we can move into sensing mode.
Fuller, Jessica. (2021). Skills and Lessons Learned during the 2020 Pandemic: A Behavior Analytic View of Honing Mindfulness, Awareness, and Kindness, New York, NY. Routledge.
0.5 A Tale of Two Wolves
A grandfather and his grandson were once walking through the woods. The grandfather noticed that the grandson was quieter than usual, so asked what was bothering him.
“I had an argument today with my best friend,” the grandson said, “and now I’m so angry with him I don’t know what to do!”
The grandfather thought about this for a moment, and answered the grandson, “I’ve had times like that myself, where I’ve been so mad I could hardly think straight. But then I remember that there are two wolves inside of me who are constantly at battle.”
“One wolf is the good wolf. He is calm, friendly and wise. He always looks after the pack, and always takes care of everyone, especially the ones who can’t take care of themselves.
Grandfather continued, “The other wolf is mean, angry, and evil. He makes fun of the other wolves, and constantly starts fights. He is always angry, and he is never satisfied. These two wolves are always at war within me.”
The grandson looked at his grandfather and asked, “Which wolf will win?”
“The one I feed,” the grandfather replied.
Mindful states help us to move from thinking mode to sensing mode. The more energy we spend on sensing, the less energy we must spend on thinking. Based on the tale of two wolves above, we could see the two wolves as “thinking wolf” and “sensing wolf.” The more energy you give to sensing wolf, the less energy you give to thinking wolf. The less energy thinking wolf receives, the weaker thinking wolf becomes. Conversely, the more energy sensing wolf receives, the stronger sensing wolf becomes. By shifting from thinking to sensing, you’re not trying to ‘kill’ the thinking wolf. You’re not engaging in doing mode by trying to make the thinking wolf go away. You’re simply depriving it of energy so that it may eventually go away on its own. Even if it doesn’t go away on its own, you’re not focusing your attention on it. Since your attention isn’t on it, thinking wolf can’t grab you by the throat, refusing to let go.
Of course, focusing on what your senses are telling you is a type of thinking as well; however, the difference is that focusing on what your senses are telling you is a type of thinking devoid of emotional content. If you’re in a thinking cycle that is causing you anxiety or depression, then anxiety and depression are emotions. But unless you hate trees for some reason, simply sitting quietly in a forest and observing a tree as if you are an artist about to draw that tree is an exercise devoid of emotional content. By focusing on the emotionally neutral stimuli found in nature, we give ourselves the opportunity to feed the sensing wolf.
The exercises in this workbook all involve a type of doing, but it is a type of doing that is emotionally neutral. The exercises here, unless otherwise specified, are a type of doing that trains your brain to focus on your experiences in the here and now, devoid of troublesome emotional content.
Miller, Brian. (2021). Breathing Lessons: Skills for Activating Parasympathetic Recovery. 10.4324/9781003049043-8-11.
0.6 Basics of Mindfulness
Think about something that has made you anxious recently and ask yourself this: Was the anxiety a product of the circumstances in which you found yourself, or was it a result of what you believed about those circumstances? If the anxiety was a result of the circumstances themselves, then nothing can be done to change the situation, because we can’t control what goes on outside of ourselves. But if it’s the result of what we believe about those circumstances, we can consciously choose different beliefs that don’t lead to anxiety and depression. The essence of mindfulness is accepting that while we cannot change what goes on outside of ourselves, we can change our beliefs about it so that we become proactive rather than reactive.
Mindfulness accomplishes this goal through several basic skills as described by Marsha Linehan, the founder of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. The skills of mindfulness used in Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy include Observing, Describing, Fully Participating, Focusing on One Thing at a Time, Being Non-Judgmental, and the Power of Intention.
Linehan, Marsha (1993). The Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder, Guilford Press, New York, NY.
Mehlum, Lars. (2020). Mechanisms of Change in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy for People with Borderline Personality Disorder. Current Opinion in Psychology. 37. 10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.08.017.
0.7 What is Ecotherapy?
For most of our existence homo sapiens has lived in harmony with nature as hunter/gatherers. Such a lifestyle requires a vast knowledge of the seasons, and of the patterns and habits of wildlife, and of plants and herbs and their healing powers. Industrialization and urbanization are fairly recent phenomena on an evolutionary scale. We still carry the genetic memory of our ancestors who lived in untamed nature. Our brains are wired for the outdoors and nature. A growing body of research demonstrates that not only do we feel better when we make time for nature, it is also a requirement for good physical and mental health!
The field of ecopsychology studies how humans interact with nature. Ecopsychology is a philosophy combining elements of psychology and ecology. It is the study of the fact that mental health is contingent upon the health of the environment. Humankind and the environment are part of an interrelated system. We are not separate from nature. We are a part of nature.
At its core, ecopsychology suggests that there is a synergistic relation between planetary and personal well-being; that the needs of the one are relevant to the needs of the other. In short, what we do to the environment, we do to ourselves. Ecotherapy is the practical application of this knowledge. In ecotherapy nature is the “therapist.” In practicing the techniques of ecotherapy, we allow the healing power of nature to work its magic on us.
Hölzel et al (2011) demonstrated that meditative states of mindfulness stimulate neural growth in the cerebral cortex in the areas of the brain responsible for emotional regulation, good judgment, insight, and impulse control. Nature experiences have been demonstrated in several studies to produce meditative states (fascination, relaxation, and mindfulness).
Hölzel, Britta, Carmody, James, Vangela, Mark, Congletona, Christina, Yerramsettia, Sita M., Garda, Tim, & Lazar, Sara W. (2011). Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 191 (2011) 36-43.
0.8 Benefits of Ecotherapy
Experiences in and with nature, or natural experiences, are ways in which we consciously choose to allow nature to work its healing magic on us. Some types of natural experiences include:
Facilitated Wilderness Experiences
In these types of experiences, a trained facilitator takes you into the woods for an adventure. These events can be anything from a wilderness experience in ecotherapy led by a therapist or counselor, to a hunting trip led by a wilderness guide. Mutz and Müller in 2016 demonstrated that facilitated wilderness journeys in the Alps increased self-efficacy, mindfulness, and subjective well-being.
Naor, et al (2020) in a metastudy on wilderness experiences found that the silence such adventures naturally provide emotional release, and promote resting of the mind, a sense of peace and tranquility, the opportunity for introspection and reflection, a sense of being fully present in the moment, and a feeling of emotional restoration. In short, wilderness experiences, whether facilitated or unfacilitated, promote mindful states of being.
Such programs may also reduce feelings of time pressure and mental stress amongst participants, creating a greater sense of calm and self-efficacy.
Mutz, Michael & Müller, Johannes. (2016). Mental health benefits of outdoor adventures: Results from two pilot studies. Journal of Adolescence. 49. 105-114. 10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.03.009.
Naor, Lia & Mayseless, Ofra. (2020). The Wilderness Solo Experience: A Unique Practice of Silence and Solitude for Personal Growth. Frontiers in Psychology. 11. 547067. 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.547067.
Animal Assisted Therapy
Animal therapy in the form of contact with pets and/or wild or domesticated animals enhances self-actualization and can lessen symptoms of depression.
In 2016 Min et al reviewed multiple Animal-Assisted Therapy interventions and found that such activities are highly beneficial to mental, physical, and social health and well-being of the children. Animal-Assisted Therapy was particularly helpful in treating pain, illness, trauma and cancer, and mental and developmental disorders. The study also found that Animal-Assisted Therapy was effective for social and educational purposes such as developing social skills and helping children learn more effectively.
According to Pai-Dhungat and Verma (2020), connection between humans and animals is imprinted in our collective subconscious and to some extent molds our emotional world. The study demonstrated that the presence of pets/animals helps victims of sexual assault feel more comfortable in therapy settings. Animal-assisted interventions also reduce anxiety, depression, and other post-traumatic stress symptoms. According to the study, the positive feelings that pet therapy induces during therapy sessions with sexual assault victims goes far beyond just the therapy sessions themselves. The effects are long-lasting and continue long after the therapy interventions are over.
Other studies have shown that owning pets, or even just watching fish in an aquarium (Clements, et al, 2019), can greatly reduce stress. There are many other ways that animals can help us lead happier lives, as any pet owner can tell you!
Clements, H., Valentin, S., Jenkins, N., Rankin, J., Baker, J. S., Gee, N., Snellgrove, D., & Sloman, K. (2019). The effects of interacting with fish in aquariums on human health and well-being: A systematic review. PloS one, 14(7), e0220524. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220524
Min, Myat & Mohd, Omar & Cho, Cho & Raheema, Zaw. (2016). A Review on Animal-Assisted Therapy and Activities for Healthcare and Teaching of Children. Journal of Education and Social Sciences (JESOC). 5. 40-46.
Pai-Dhungat, Jayant & Verma, Aparna. (2020). Animal Assisted Therapy. The Journal of the Association of Physicians of India. 68. 81.
Therapeutic Gardens
Sempik & Spurgeon (2006) demonstrated that therapeutic gardening reduces stress and lessens symptoms of depression. Blair (2009) discovered that gardening can be used as a means of helping school children to enhance self-sufficiency, social identity, meaning, and self-integration.
Thaneshwari, et al in a 2018 literature review reported that therapeutic gardening assists in stress reduction of staff and patients, facilitates more rapid healing in hospital settings, increases work efficiency and reduces cost of treatment for health care facilities. The study also found that therapeutic gardening eases suffering from mental illnesses like autism, dementia, and Alzheimer’s.
There’s just something very healing about planting something and nurturing it as you watch it grow that makes it a healing experience.
Blair, D. (2009). The Child in the Garden: An Evaluative Review of the Benefits of School Gardening. The Journal of Environmental Education, WINTER 2009, VOL. 40, NO. 2
Sempik, J. and Spurgeon, T. (2006). Lessons learnt – Evidence from practice: The use of plants and horticulture in promoting health and well-being in: Proceedings of the 6th International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens, Richmond: Botanic Gardens Conservation International in association with Oxford: University of Oxford Botanic Garden (ISBN 1-905164-13-0).
Thaneshwari, Thaneshwari & Kumari, Poonam & Sharma, Rishu & Sahare, H.A.. (2018). Therapeutic gardens in healthcare: A review. Annals of Biology. 34. 162-166.
Vacations
Sponselee, et al (2004) discovered that outdoor activities reduce stress and restore energy. If you’ve ever enjoyed a vacation spent camping, hiking, walking on the beach, or participating in other pleasurable outdoor activities, then you’re already aware of the regenerative power of taking time off to appreciate nature. Roggenbuck & Driver (2000) found that you don’t even need a facilitator or guide to enjoy health and well-being benefits from the use of wilderness areas.
Jain and Goel (2019) found that vacations act as buffers against the stress of daily living. They found that vacationers feel just as happy and rejuvenated after some time has elapsed as they did while on vacation, and that vacationers differ from non-vacationers in terms of their happiness, resilience, peace of mind and mindfulness levels. Their study also explored different subtypes of vacations and found that the effects were greater when more vacation time was spent outdoors.
Bhalla, et al (2020) found that vacations have benefits in multiple dimensions, including physical, cognitive, stress reduction, sense of wellbeing, and overall self-esteem.
Bhalla, Rohan & Nathani, Navita & Agarwal, Sumedha. (2020). ECOTHERAPY: NATURE VACATION FOR MULTIDIMENSIONAL WELL-BEING. Vol. 7, 174-180.
Jain, Sanya & Goel, Yashi (2019). Assessing the Therapeutic Effects of Vacationing, The National Life Skills, Value Education & School Wellness Program IJSHW ISSN:2349-5464, Jan-April 2019, Vol. 5, No.1
Purcell, A.H. Corbin, J.D. Hans, K.E. (2007). Urban Riparian Restoration: An Outdoor Classroom for College and High School Students Collaborating in Conservation, Madrono, Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 258–267, 2007.
Roggenbuck, J.W. & Driver, B.L. (2000). Benefits of Nonfacilitated Uses of Wilderness. USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-15-VOL-3.
Sponselee, A.M., de Kort, Y. & Meijnders, A. (2004). Healing Media: The moderating role of presence in restoring from stress in a mediated environment. Presence 2004.
Architecture Incorporating Natural Spaces
Nature can be incorporated into the home environment through the use of plants, an aquarium, or even recorded nature sounds. Alvarsson et al (2010) studied the positive mental health effects of listening to nature sounds and found that just listening to recording of the sounds of nature could reduce stress and hasten recovery after stressful incidents.
Han and Li-Wen (2019) in their international study found that having plants in your house can increase mental and physical health, aid in emotional regulation, and improve attention and concentration.
In a metastudy in 2019 Clements, et al found that having an aquarium in homes or offices had positive effects on mood, stress reduction, physical and chronic pain, improved nutritional intake and decreased body weight.
Alvarsson J, Wiens S., & Nilsson M. (2010). Stress and recovery during exposure to nature sounds and environmental noise. Int. J Environ Res Public Health, 2010 (7) 1036-106.
Clements, H., Valentin, S., Jenkins, N., Rankin, J., Baker, J. S., Gee, N., Snellgrove, D., & Sloman, K. (2019). The effects of interacting with fish in aquariums on human health and well-being: A systematic review. PloS one, 14(7), e0220524. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220524
Han, Ke-Tsung & Ruan, Li-Wen (2019). Effects of Indoor Plants on Self-Reported Perceptions: A Systemic Review, Sustainability 2019, 11, 4506; doi:10.3390/su11164506
Outdoor Classrooms
Purcell, et all in 2007 revealed that outdoor classrooms enhanced many critical factors of the educational experience, including: Enhanced retention, better focus, more attention to detail, less hyperactivity, more relaxation, increased confidence and self-esteem, and better cognitive functioning.
A 2019 study by Guardino, et al reported that both teachers and students demonstrated an increased perception of wellbeing, pleasure, and interest when teaching and learning in the outdoor classroom. The study also found that children with disabilities were less distracted and more on-task when working in an outdoor classroom.
Guardino, Caroline & Hall, Katrina & Largo-Wight, Erin & Hubbuch, Charles. (2019). Teacher and student perceptions of an outdoor classroom. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education. 22. 10.1007/s42322-019-00033-7.
Min, Myat & Mohd, Omar & Cho, Cho & Raheema, Zaw. (2016). A Review on Animal-Assisted Therapy and Activities for Healthcare and Teaching of Children. Journal of Education and Social Sciences (JESOC). 5. 40-46.
Mutz, Michael & Müller, Johannes. (2016). Mental health benefits of outdoor adventures: Results from two pilot studies. Journal of Adolescence. 49. 105-114. 10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.03.009.
Purcell, A.H. Corbin, J.D. Hans, K.E. (2007). Urban Riparian Restoration: An Outdoor Classroom for College and High School Students Collaborating in Conservation, Madrono, Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 258–267, 2007.
0.9 Characteristics of Natural (Nature) Experiences
In a 2005 study on the effects of nature, van den Berg and ter Heijne introduced the concepts of focused attention and fascination. Focused attention is a concentrated cognitive effort to avoid distractions in the environment, while fascination is a natural interest in the environment, requiring little or no effort of concentration. The study found that wilderness or nature experiences produce fascination while man-made environments tend to require more focus. Environments that promote fascination have been demonstrated to reduce stress, improve concentration, and promote overall wellbeing.
A natural environment (including flora, fauna, natural scents, music or natural sounds, etc.) promotes fascination and requires less reliance on focused attention. With less demands being made on focused attention, more cognitive resources are available for the heightened awareness necessary to achieve a peak experience or a mindful, meditative state.
A metastudy on the benefits of ecotherapy by Franco et al (2017) concluded that experiences in natural spaces lead to increased self-esteem, an increased internal locus of control (meaning that people feel in control of their circumstances instead of being controlled by their circumstances), deep reflective experiences, vision-questing (determining a life path), enhanced abstinence effects for people with addictions, feelings of connectedness to nature; feelings of oneness, lowered heart rate and blood pressure, enhanced stress management capabilities, better immune system functioning, lessened recovery time from illness or surgery, and better quality-of-life ratings from people who live in suburbs designed to incorporate green spaces.
Franco, L. S., Shanahan, D. F., & Fuller, R. A. (2017). A Review of the Benefits of Nature Experiences: More Than Meets the Eye. International journal of environmental research and public health, 14(8), 864. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14080864
Mutz, Michael & Müller, Johannes. (2016). Mental health benefits of outdoor adventures: Results from two pilot studies. Journal of Adolescence. 49. 105-114. 10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.03.009.
Van den Berg, A. E., & Ter Heijne, M. (2005). Fear versus fascination: Emotional responses to natural threats. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25 (3), 261-272.
0.10 Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy: An Integration of Mindfulness and Ecotherapy
“Nature has her proper interest; and he will know what it is, who believes and feels, that every Thing has a Life of its own, and that we are all one Life.”
‒ Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“Magic, indeed, is all around us, in stones, flowers, stars, the dawn wind and the sunset cloud; all we need is the ability to see and understand.”
‒ Doreen Valiente, Natural Magic
“The Gods and Goddesses of myth, legend and fairy tale represent archetypes, real potencies and potentialities deep within the psyche, which, when allowed to flower permit us to be more fully human.”
‒ Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon
For millennia prior to the Industrial Revolution, people lived together in small tribes, whether in nomadic bands or geographically fixed in location in villages or towns. We spent our time and earned our living as hunter-gatherers, and our minds and bodies evolved in this type of environment. Evolution wired our brains for nature.
With the advent of agriculture, we settled down more and more, and began to build cities. With cities came modernization. First, we built machines, then, with the discovery of electricity, we began to build electric machines. Thomas Edison’s invention of electric light forever robbed the night of its power to evoke mystery, awe, and terror by creating a perpetual electric twilight in our towns and cities. This artificial light made more hours available to labor in the factories. The more domesticated we became, the more the wilderness retreated beyond the city limits. We ceased to mark time by the cycles of the seasons and began to keep time by the factory whistle.
While our minds may have retreated from nature, our bodies did not. Evolution programmed us to need nature, and our bodies and minds still respond to it.
Our modern, mechanized lifestyle has brought about many changes for the better. We live longer and more productive lives, and we are healthier in many ways than we have ever been in the history of humankind. But our hearts still long for the cry of the wilderness.
Ecopsychology studies the relationship between mental health and the environment. This field of research views the mental health of humankind as a part of the geo-ecosystem that is the living planet we call Earth. If all life on Earth is interrelated, then what happens to the rest of the planet affects us all. Ecopsychology recognizes that not only does the environment impact our physical health, but it also has a direct influence on our mental health. While artificial, stressful, polluted environments have the power to harm, nature has the power to heal, both physically and mentally.
From the perspective of ecotherapy, everything is connected to everything else. According to this holistic paradigm, people don’t exist in a vacuum. They are part of the larger system of their neighborhood, and of the even larger system of their particular societies, and ultimately the system of all life on Earth, circles-within-circles. Each of these systems communicates to us in different ways, and we interact with each of these systems. The individual is not only a part of a system of interacting human beings, but also as a part of an ecosystem. We interact with the environment, and the environment interacts with us. For those who know how to listen, the wind in the trees can sing to us. The view of a mountain range or a moonlit ocean can tell a story. The smell of the first flowers of spring can speak just as clearly as a loved one’s voice can. The touch of a ray of sun can be as powerful as a lover’s caress.
On the other hand, a crowded, polluted city street can communicate as well. The messages we get from our environment have an impact on us, whether we are consciously aware of that impact or not. This environmental impact changes our sense of self, and our sense of wellbeing.
If we could make a paradigm shift to a lifestyle that makes room for nature, what would that do to our sense of wellbeing?
In a 2019 study Albrecht et al demonstrated that nature-based mindfulness helped participants develop the ecological self, including pro-environmental behaviors such as mindful consumption, helps individuals cope with climate change, depression, and stress, enhances wellbeing, enables a more creative, considered, and holistic way of thinking, and motivates social activism. In short, practicing mindfulness in nature creates a paradigm shift in those who participate in it.
The Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) Program is one of the paths to help to make this paradigm shift. MBE is a 12-week nature program. Each session meets outdoors for about 90 minutes and is guided by a trained MBE facilitator. This handbook was designed to accompany the 12-week program, but if the program isn’t offered in your region, you may also use this book to complete the exercises on your own.
There is also a worldwide directory of trained Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy Certified Facilitators on the Mindful Ecotherapy Center’s website. The Mindful Ecotherapy Center offers an online facilitator training program as well. For details, visit the website at www.mindfulecotherapy.org.
If you are a mental health professional interested in becoming a certified Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy facilitator, we offer courses online at the website as well.
Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy is a set of 12 skills and a 12-week program. Each session of the program focuses on one of the skills of MBE. The outline in the next section below is an introduction to MBE and an overview of the content and topics of each of the 12 sessions.
The rest of this workbook is divided into chapters. Each chapter focuses on one of the skills of Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy. If you are completing this workbook as part of a workshop, your homework is to read the material for each session prior to participating. The activities in each session will be done during the workshop, so don’t try to complete them ahead of time. Just read over the materials so you’ll have a good idea of what to expect in each session.
If you are completing the workbook on your own, feel free to do the activities at any time, at your own pace. Many of the activities require or suggest outdoor locales. You may use your own best judgment as to whether the weather is appropriate in your location for any suggested activities. If you’ve had to postpone an activity due to bad weather, try it again when the weather is better. In doing so you’ll get the full benefit of each exercise.
Adler, Margot (1986). Drawing Down the Moon. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
Albrecht, Nicole & Morgan, Briony & NJ, Albrecht. (2019). The Importance of Nature Based Mindfulness. Online Journal of Complementary & Alternative Medicine. 2. 10.33552/OJCAM.2019.02.000544.
Borchers, J.G., and Bradshaw, G.A. (December, 2008). How green is my valley—and mind. Ecotherapy and the greening of psychology. Counseling Today, pp. 38-41.
Brown, D., Forte, M., & Dysart, M. (1984). Visual sensitivity and mindfulness meditation. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 58(3)775-784, June, 1984.
0.11 Outline/Overview of the Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) Program
Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy consists of 12 skill sets. The Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy program is a 12-week program, with one session per week. At each session, one of the 12 skills of Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy is discussed and practiced. The skills of Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) include:
Session 1: Mindful Awareness
Mindful Awareness is a way of tuning in to what is happening right now, at this moment. It is a shift from doing mode into being mode. Mindful Awareness involves the skills of Observing, Describing, Fully Participating, Being Non-Judgmental, Focusing on One Thing at a Time, and Being Effective through the Power of Intention. Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) teaches you these skills.
Altner, N. (2002). Mindfulness Practice and Smoking Cessation: The Essen Hospital Smoking Cessation Study. Journal for Meditation and Meditation Research, 2, 9-18.
Behan, Caragh. (2020). The benefits of meditation and mindfulness practices during times of crisis such as COVID-19. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine. 37. 1-8. 10.1017/ipm.2020.38.
Session 2: Living in the Now
Living in the Now means leaving Doing Mode and entering Being Mode. In Being Mode we learn that there is no past, there is no future. There is only this present moment. Living in the Now means allowing yourself to be in this moment…here and now. Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) teaches you the skills of Living in the Now.
Demarree, Kenneth & Naragon-Gainey, Kristin. (2021). Individual Differences in the Contents and Form of Present-Moment Awareness: The Multidimensional Awareness Scale. Assessment. 107319112098660. 10.1177/1073191120986605.
Session 3: Letting Go
The art of Mindful Acceptance can best be described as the Art of Letting Go. Once you have done everything in your power to solve a problem, you have done all that is possible to do, so at that point worry and stress are counterproductive (Davis 2021). Note that letting go of the stress and anxiety doesn’t necessarily mean letting go of the problem itself.
For example, suppose you have a car payment coming up, and you don’t have the money to pay it. This would naturally cause you anxiety. If, after brainstorming for solutions, you find that you still don’t have the money to pay the car payment, then at that point you’ve done all you can do. At that point, you let go of the anxiety associated with the problem.
That doesn’t mean that you let go of car payments altogether. You’ll make the payment when you can. In this instance, “letting go” just means that you won’t worry about not being able to make the payment. The energy you might have used worrying about the situation could be put to better use in trying to come up with solutions. Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) teaches us how to let go through the power of radical acceptance.
Davis, Sophia. (2021). On letting go. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. 5. 10.1016/S2352-4642(21)00054-7.
Session 4: Radical Acceptance
Mindful Awareness teaches us the art of acceptance. Emotional reactions to our circumstances are natural, but that doesn’t mean that we must react to these emotions. The mindfulness skill of acceptance teaches us that we can experience these emotions without engaging in cycles of behavior that lead us to negative consequences.
Acceptance teaches us that we are not our thoughts, and that we are not our emotions. At any time we can choose which thoughts and emotions we wish to respond to. If, at any time, we should engage in thoughts and behaviors that lead to negative consequences, this does not mean that we have become “bad” persons. This simply means that we are human beings, and as humans we are entitled to make mistakes. Each mistake is an opportunity for growth and learning. Forgiveness is a skill and an art. The place to start with learning the art of forgiveness is in learning first to forgive ourselves when we make mistakes. Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) teaches you the art of Radical Acceptance.
Childs, D. (2007). Mindfulness and the psychology of presence. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice 80, 367–376.
Josefsson, Torbjörn & Ivarsson, Andreas & Gustafsson, Henrik & Stenling, Andreas & Lindwall, Magnus & Tornberg, Rasmus & Böröy, Jan. (2019). Effects of Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) on Sport-Specific Dispositional Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, and Self-Rated Athletic Performance in a Multiple-Sport Population: an RCT Study. Mindfulness. 10. 10.1007/s12671-019-01098-7.
Session 5: Wise Mind and Wise Body
When you are being logical, rational, and devoid of emotion, you are said to be in Rational Mind. When you are allowing your thoughts to be driven by your emotions, you are said to be in Emotional Mind. The goal of Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy is to achieve Wise Mind. The mindful concept of Wise Mind is the joining of Rational Mind and Emotional Mind in perfect balance and harmony. It is a moving beyond opposites to a mindful state of acceptance.
Likewise, when we come to realize that there is no line between mind and body, and that they are one and the same, we can move beyond the duality that implies that mind and body are separate entities. From there we see that the body can change the mind, and the mind can change the body (Zhang & Chennubhotla, 2021). Wise Mind is the first step to living in True Self. Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) gives you some of the tools you will need to help you develop your own Wise Mind and your own Wise Body.
Zhang, Niushen & Chennubhotla, Sushma. (2021). Mind-Body Therapies. In book: Integrative Headache Medicine (pp.133-151), Springer.
Session 6: Centering
Centering yourself is allowing yourself to get in touch with and being open to your True Self. It is allowing yourself to realize that you are perfect just as you are, even with your imperfections, because those feelings and desires are also a part of who you really are. If you accept your imperfections and integrate them into your way of thinking and feeling about yourself, you will obtain peace of mind, and you will be centered. Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) teaches you how to Center.
Dorais, Stephanie & Gutierrez, Daniel. (2021). The Influence of Spiritual Transcendence on a Centering Meditation: A Growth Curve Analysis of Resilience. Religions. 12. 573. 10.3390/rel12080573.
Session 7: Connecting
Suppose you could take all the spiritual paths practiced worldwide, put them into a cauldron, and boil them down to their essence. What would remain? I believe that the common thread to all spiritual practices is a feeling of connection. In this sense, spirituality means connection to others, or connection to the divine, or simply connection to nature and to ourselves.
In short: spirituality in its essence is connectedness. If you think back on the spiritual experiences you’ve had in your lifetime, do recall feeling connected on some level? Many describe spiritual experiences as a sense of oneness. Oneness implies connection to something outside ourselves. In this sense, even an agnostic or an atheist could achieve spirituality through connection. Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) can be one of the paths you use to re-connect to spirit.
McCoy, Derek. (2020). Learning by Connecting with Others. 10.4324/9780429321290-10.
Session 8: Nature as Metaphor
Each of us lives in our own personal fairy tale called “my life.” We all have good things that happen to us, and we all have bad things that happen to us. We create our own personal myths by choosing which things to focus on in our own lives. The good news about the myth of our lives is that we are the authors. If we don’t like the way the story is going, we have the power to do a rewrite at any time.
We can’t always choose the circumstances of our lives, but we can always choose the story we create about those circumstances. If you go out into the woods and start observing things, you will notice something begin to happen. You will begin to create stories about the events you observe there in the forest. These stories that spring to mind in the woods can tell you a great deal about what is going on in your own unconscious mind, if you know how to pay attention to them. Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) teaches you how to pay attention to those stories.
Heyden, Yoav. (2021). An exploratory study of the use of metaphor in the practice of ecotherapy. Master’s Thesis, Stellenbosch University.
Session 9: Nature as Teacher
Our ancestors knew hundreds of medicinal uses of local plants and herbs. They knew the seasons, when to plant, when to harvest, how to forecast the weather by the behavior of plants and animals, and a host of other things based on their observations of nature.
The lessons our ancestors learned haven’t gone away. They’re still there, waiting in the forest like an open book. All we must do is to learn how to read it. Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) teaches us the language of nature so that we may read its “book.”
Ayotte-Beaudet, Jean-Philippe & Beaudry, Marie-Claude & Bisaillon, Véronique & Cordeau, Patrice. (2020). Outdoor classes in higher education during the context of COVID-19 in Canada: Guide to support management during the first phases of implementation.
Session 10: Nature as Nurture
A large and growing body of research has demonstrated that nature has incredible healing and nurturing powers. People who go into the woods become calmer, more relaxed, less stressful, and healthier. Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) can be used to tap into the nurturing power of nature.
Nadel, Meryl. (2019). Natural Environment as Refuge, Nurturer, Catalyst. 10.1093/oso/9780190496548.003.0001.
Session 11: Nature as Healer
Research continues to demonstrate the healing power of nature. People in hospital rooms that have windows overlooking a garden recover faster than those who do not. People who swim with dolphins recover from depression more quickly than people who take antidepressants (Antonioli and Reveley, 2005). Children with ADHD who play outdoors regularly display fewer symptoms than those who do not (Blair, 2009). These are just a few examples of the many beneficial effects of the healing power of nature. Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) helps you to connect to this healing power.
Alvarsson J, Wiens S., & Nilsson M. (2010). Stress and recovery during exposure to nature sounds and environmental noise. Int. J Environ Res Public Health, 2010 (7) 1036-106.
Antonioli, C. & Reveley, M. A. (2005). Randomised controlled trial of animal facilitated therapy with dolphins in the treatment of depression. British Medical Journal, 2005, vol. 331, no. 7527, pp. 1231–1234.
Bhalla, Rohan & Nathani, Navita & Agarwal, Sumedha. (2020). ECOTHERAPY: NATURE VACATION FOR MULTIDIMENSIONAL WELL-BEING. Vol. 7, 174-180.
Blair, D. (2009). The Child in the Garden: An Evaluative Review of the Benefits of School Gardening. The Journal of Environmental Education, WINTER 2009, VOL. 40, NO. 2
Session 12: Living in True Self
Do you remember a time when you knew exactly who you were, what you wanted to be, and where your life was going (Shipman, 2019)? When you do something that isn’t healthy for you, or make a mistake, which part of you is it that recognizes the mistake? What part of you is it that holds the highest dreams and aspirations for your life (Facco, et al, 2019)?
Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) recognizes that part of you as your True Self (Durbano. Et al. 2021). The ultimate goal of Mindfulness-Based Ecotherapy (MBE) is to realize your True Self, and to live in it (Beliavsky, 2020). Doing so allows you the opportunity to re-connect in positive ways with nature, with others, and with yourself.
Beliavsky, Vlad. (2020). Free Will in Rogerian Theory. 10.1007/978-3-030-41571-6_3.
Durbano, Federico & Irtelli, Floriana & Marchesi, Barbara. (2021). The Real Self and the Ideal Self. 10.5772/intechopen.98194.
Facco, Enrico & Alkhafaji, Benedikt & Tressoldi, Patrizio. (2019). In Search of the True Self. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. 39. 10.1037/teo0000112.
Shipman, Alan. (2019). The True Self. 10.1007/978-3-030-12289-8_17.
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