Mindful Birding combines observing birds with mindfulness techniques, creating a practice that incorporates a heightened awareness. Labeling or identifying birds is not the primary focus, but instead, the intention is slowing down and noticing, using birds as our guides.
Through a guided experience, we’ll practice simple mindfulness exercises to engage our sensory awareness while intentionally tuning into the birds surrounding us.
Techniques and prompts accompany the gently guided walk and / or “sit spot” experiences, which strive to enhance our observation skills, promoting a deepening of our experiences with birds around us. This in turn amplifies the multitude of benefits birds provide to our overall wellbeing.
Participants will be provided “Ornitherapy Journals” and offered prompts to increase observation and awareness to have a take-away from the experience to continue the practice in their relationships with birds around them.
This workshop will operate as a NOTAFLOF (no one turned away for lack of funds) event. Please contact Donna de Ville ([email protected]) if you need financial assistance to join this workshop.
Benefits of Mindful Birding:
· Enjoy a reprieve from life stressors and pressures
· Stimulate and promote a more positive overall wellbeing: mind and body
· Gain enhanced sensory awareness (sight, sound, smell, touch)
· Better understand birdlife through intentional observation
· Sharpen your observation skills
· Enhance your observation skills, while building a stronger foundation for overall bird
identification
· Increase self-reflection through birds and the natural world
Meet the Instructor:
Holly Merker – Facilitator & Guide
Holly has a background in art therapy, but today employs nature and birds to achieve the same result of mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing through her work as an award-winning author, Mindful Birding leader, Wellness Counselor, Podcaster, and certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide (ANFT). Holly has paired her professional backgrounds in art therapy and over twenty years of bird guiding and
environmental education, with coursework in MBSR, and the practice of Forest Therapy, in order to provide rich sensory experiences through nature-based wellness programs. Holly’s gently guided experiences incorporate accessibility for all mobility and skill levels and are designed to be welcoming and inclusive to all people. Learn more at Ornitherapy.com