Rediscovering our Wildness
Thursdays 4-5:30pm EDT/1-2:30pm PDT
July 2, 9, 16, 23 • Online via Zoom
All Ages
Mindfulness and Nature
A Contemplative 4-week Course for All Ages
This course is an invitation to deepen our relationship with the natural world and to lean into nature as a means of support and remembering our belonging. Through meditation and activities, we will explore what it means to be human, in a body, as part of the earth and how we can reconnect with our own wildness and embrace our place in the cycles of nature.
Session 1: Where We Begin
We’ll begin our exploration together by uncovering the stories of nature from childhood, family, and culture that contribute to a sense of separateness between us (as individuals and humans) and the rest of the natural world.
Session 2: Seeing our Belonging
This session will invite us to understand our reciprocal relationship with nature and how we inherently belong to the earth. We’ll explore the cyclical processes of living and dying and what we can know about ourselves by being willing to be with the unknown.
Session 3: Compassion and Nature
In this session we’ll explore any difficult emotions we might have and how we can draw from the Earth as a support during difficulty. Through a collective ceremony we’ll process what comes up, learning how to access the compassion of the Earth as a group.
Session 4: Expressing Our Wildness
There is a wildness inside us that is a constant reminder that we are not so separate from nature. In this session we’ll explore the wildness within us, and learn to re-engage with it in a full self-expression of our true nature.
Create connections with yourself and others that can make a critical difference in how we navigate this time of planetary change.
Teachers
Cara Lai
Cara Lai started meditating over ten years ago, and began sitting long retreats regularly in 2011. Most of her practice has been in the IMS/Spirit Rock tradition, although she has explored many other avenues of self-discovery. She seeks to find freedom through her own intuitive process, however that may vary from the ways we normally think about Buddhism, and to help others do the same. Nature, intuition, and the body are all integral to her teaching. She teaches for Inward Bound Mindfulness Education and works as a mindfulness-based psychotherapist, artist, and occasional wilderness guide. She has a Masters in Social Work from the University of Vermont; and in the past has worked in a therapeutic high school, an adoption agency, and various outdoor education settings. In 2020 she will complete the Spirit Rock Teacher Training Program. In her spare time she enjoys walking and watching plants grow.
Khalila Archer
Khalila Archer is a mindfulness and yoga instructor with 20+ of personal practice. Introduced to yoga and meditation in her teen years, she has attended many multi-day silent meditation retreats, including two month-long retreats. Her background includes over a decade as a wilderness educator leading multi-day expeditions for a variety of educational organizations, as well as teaching interdisciplinary curriculum in formal classroom settings and beyond. She holds a B.A. in Adventure-based Environmental Education from Prescott College and over 500 hr Yoga Teacher Training hours. Khalila teaches meditation retreats for all ages through Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) in both residential settings and remote wilderness environments. Her teaching is grounded in nature awareness and connection, mindfulness meditation as a means for insight, care, and well-being, and social justice praxis that recognizes our interdependence and collective need for freedom. Khalila currently serves on the iBme Board of Directors and is part of the core faculty for the iBme Mindfulness Teacher Training.
Cost and Accessibility
The sliding scale for this 4-week Contemplative course is $40 – $150.
If your family earns $75,000 or more per year, then we request that you pay the full price. If your family earns less than $75,000/year, you may self-select an amount to pay. If you are in true economic hardship (e.g, recently lost job, health situation, etc.) we are offering the discounted rate of $40. If you cannot afford the discounted fee please email registrar@ibme.com and we’ll make it work for you. No teen will be turned away for lack of funds.
Application Deadline
July 2, 12pm ET/9am PT
Cost
$150 suggested tuition for families making over $75,000 a year • $40 – $150 sliding scale
Duration
90-minute sessions, 4 times
Ages
All ages welcome
Adults ages 26+ are encouraged to scale back participation to allow us to center on teen and young adult voices