The Eco Resilience Initiative

An eco wellness initiative for personal development, environmental stewardship, and resilient living

The Mind Body Ecology Institute is committed to supporting the health of individuals, communities, and the environment—right in our hometown of Fort Worth.

Through our Eco Resilience Initiative, we offer nature-based programs that promote personal wellness, strengthen community ties, and encourage care for the local environment.

These programs help participants develop simple and meaningful practices that support well-being, deepen relationships, and foster a sense of connection with the places they live.

We also raise awareness about the importance of greenspaces in urban life. Parks, trails, and natural areas do more than add beauty—they improve mental and physical health, invite healthy outdoor activities, and encourage communities to take pride in living well together and with the land.

In Fort Worth, our work aligns closely with the city’s visionary GREENPrint plan, especially its goals to:

  • Place stronger emphasis on living with nature to extend the benefits of the local ecosystem citywide.

  • Ushering in a new era of programming that fosters engagement, connection and activation across public spaces.

Whether through small group nature walks or hands-on training workshops, our programs help people feel more grounded, more connected, and more empowered to shape a flourishing future for themselves, their neighbors, and the land we all share.

In these ways, The Mind Body Ecology Institute is seeking to take the lead in personal, community, and environmental health.

Our flourishing future begins within … and with nature!

Natural Beauty, Rich Heritage

The lands of Fort Worth and Dallas, for example, are home to a cherished array of ecosystems, from the Trinity River and Blackland prairies to urban green spaces such as Lake Worth, Eagle Mountain, Benbrook Lake, White Rock Lake, and the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge. The Metroplex also has rich cultural traditions and heritages that inform healthy and sustainable ways of living.

Yet, there are also concerns.

What the Research Shows

Our environmental challenges along with mounting mental health concerns, particularly among young adults, reflect a disconnection from from self, others, and nature.

Developing the skills of well-being along with nature-based learning and practice can help.

The Drivers

The drivers of these challenges include:

  1. Overwhelm Rapid societal change and stress.

  2. Distraction: Compromised attention and mental health from excessive social media use, work demands, and information overload.

  3. Disconnection: Isolation from community, the natural environment, and heritage.

The Eco Resilience Initiative responds directly to these growing concerns.

Opportunities for Growth

Through CALM Community Convos, participants explore what feels meaningful—and what may be missing—in their lives, while developing nature-based wellness practices.

Our unique Eco Resilience Workshops offer training in practical skills for well-being and ecological awareness, empowering individuals to integrate these tools into their work places, families, and daily lives.

Cohort Programs

We welcome everyone 21 and up into all our CALM Community Convos and Eco Resilience workshops!

We also offer cohort-specific Eco Resilience workshops for:

  • The “Resilient Teacher, Flourishing Classroom” program for K-12 teachers

  • The “Resilient Parent, Flourishing Family” program for parents

  • Young adults aged 21-30

  • Mental health and heath care professionals

  • Business and finance leaders and employees

  • Non-profit and public sector workers such as civic government officials and employees, police and firefighters, urban planners, veterans

  • Retired individuals who have extra time for engaging with community, teaching, and environmental stewardship. Elderhood provides an excellent opportunity for diving more deeply into personal exploration, learning new ideas, and sharing wisdom with others. The Eco Ambassadors Initiative helps guide all people onto the path of healthy living and excellent elderhood.  

Overview

1. Learning the Skills and Ingredients of Flourishing

Participants will engage in one or more of our immersive in-person programs such as The Ecology of Resilience at High Hope Ranch in Glen Rose, Texas to explore the intersection of personal, community, and environmental health and sustainability within their own towns and cities such as th Our programs focus on the following core areas which are key “ingredients” of flourishing:

Community and Belonging

  • Community building

  • Talking circles

  • Storytelling

Awareness and Creativity

  • Nature-based mindfulness and eco meditation

  • Somatic movement practices

  • Forest bathing

  • Creative arts

Insight and Understanding

  • Exploration of cognitive and behavioral patterns

  • Educational discussion of topics such as self-awareness, ecosystem awareness, environmental awareness, worldviews, values, authenticity, interdependence, kinship, reverence, resilience, and flourishing 

Purpose and Action

  • Reflection on personal skills, talents, passions, and networks with a focus on actionable steps forward in wise and responsible environmental stewardship.

  • Life-design techniques and impactful ways to cultivate an ecologically and socially-engaged path to support individual and planetary health.

Participants in CALM Community Convos or Eco Resilience trainings will also have the opportunity to join one of our in-person immersive programs such as The Ecology of Resilience at High Hope Ranch in Glen Rose, Texas to explore the intersection of personal, community, and environmental health within their own towns and cities such as in Fort Worth, the home city of The Mind Body Ecology Institute.

2. Initiative Objectives

  • Cultivate ecological awareness through somatic practices that align with the natural rhythms and cycles of nature.

  • Foster a sense of belonging and community through shared experiences of evidence-based movement, meditation, and life design reflection practices.

  • Build emotional resilience by exploring grief, fear, and anxiety related to ecological challenges and transforming them into hope and purpose.

  • Empower participants with tools for integrating mindfulness and environmental stewardship into their lives and communities. Such tools include facilitate basic nature-based practices such as orienting, grounding, breath awareness, and eco mindful walking.

  • Take actionable steps for making a positive difference in the lives of other and the natural environment.

3. Initiative Outcomes

  • Participants experience improved mental health and emotional resilience.

  • Participants feel more connected to nature, themselves, and other people.

  • Participants learn and utilize new skills to better support their mental health.

  • Participants develop a vision and action plan for engaging with those in their own workplaces, communities, and personal lives.

  • A growing network of eco mindful community leaders equipped to facilitate nature-based and trauma-sensitive mindfulness practices.

  • Amplifying local projects and initiatives that integrate ecological knowledge, mindfulness, and social justice within the DFW Metroplex.

  • A renewed sense of belonging among Fort Worth and Dallas communities, fostering a deep-rooted commitment to environmental stewardship.

  • Greater collective resilience in the face of climate-related challenges, strengthening the social fabric of DFW communities.

 Resources

Calvert, Rochelle. 2021. Healing with Nature: Mindfulness and Somatic Practices to Heal from Trauma. Novato, CA: New World Library. Our work is trauma-sensitive.

Celidwen, Yuria. 2024. Flourishing Kin: How Indigenous Wisdom for Collective Well-being. Macmillan.

Chungyalpa, Dekila. 2022. “Mother Wisdom: Learning to Embody Interdependence.” Mind and Life Insights.

Davidson, Richard J. 2022. “Well-Being Is a Skill: Through Cultivating Healthy Habits of Mind, We Can Nurture Key Pillars of Well-Being.” Mind and Life Institute, Insights. Online.

Djernis, D., I. Lerstrup, D. Poulsen, U. Stigsdotter, J. Dahlsgaard, and M. O’Toole. 2019. “Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Nature-Based Mindfulness: Effects of Moving Mindfulness Training into an Outdoor Natural Setting.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16.

Goodman, R., A. H. Weinberger, J. H. Kim, M. Wu, and S. Galea. 2020. “Trends in Anxiety among Adults in the United States, 2008–2018: Rapid Increases among Young Adults.” Journal of Psychiatric Research 130: 441–446.

Haidt, Jonathan. 2024. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Penguin.

Hickman, C., E. Marks, P. Pihkala, S. Clayton, R. E. Lewandowski, E. E. Mayall, B. Wray, C. Mellor, and L. van Sustern. 2021. “Climate Anxiety in Children and Young People and Their Beliefs about Governmental Responses to Climate Change: A Global Survey.” The Lancet Planetary Health 5, no. 12: 865–873.

Keltner, Dacher. 2023. Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. Penguin Press.

Kral, T. R. A., P. Kesebir, L. Redford, C. J. Dahl, C. D. Wilson-Mendenhall, M. J. Hirshberg, R. J. Davidson, and R. Tatar. 2024. “Healthy Minds Index: A Brief Measure of the Core Dimensions of Well-Being.” PLoS ONE 19, no. 5.

Krawec, Patty. 2022. Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future.

Life-Centered Design School. n.d. Life-Centered Design School. Online: https://lifecentereddesign.school.

Loy, David. 2019. Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis. Wisdom Publications.

Magee, Rhonda. 2019. The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities through Mindfulness.

Magee, Rhonda. 2022. “The End of Othering: Cultivating Just Equitable Communities.” Mind and Life Insights.

Mishra, Jyoti. 2023. “Mindfulness and the Climate Crisis.” Mind and Life Institute, Insights.

Holly Rogers, The Mindful Twenty-Something: Life Skills to Handle Stress…and Everything Else (New Harbinger)

Otto Sharmer and Katrin Kaufer, Presencing: 7 Practices for Transforming Self, Society, and Business (Berrett-Koehler Publishers).

Stanford Life Design. Life Design Lab. Online: http://lifedesignlab.stanford.edu/.

Thich Nhat Hanh. 2021. Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet. New York, NY: HarperOne.

Treleaven, David. 2018. Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing. W. W. Norton. Our work is trauma-sensitive.

Wamsler, Christine, and Jaime Bristow. 2022. “At the Intersection of Mind and Climate Change: Integrating Inner Dimensions of Climate Change into Policymaking and Practice.” Climactic Change 173.

Wamsler, C., J. Bristow, K. Cooper, G. Steidle, S. Taggart, L. Sovold, J. Bockler, T. H. Oliver, and T. Legrand. 2022. “Theoretical Foundations Report: Research in Evidence for the Potential of Consciousness Approaches and Practices to Unlock Sustainability and Systems Transformation.” Report written for the UNDP Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA), United Nations Development Initiative (UNDP).

Wildcat, Daniel. 2009. Red Alert: Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge.

Wildcat, Daniel. 2023. Indigenuity: Learning the Lessons of Mother Earth.

Wray, Britt. 2022. Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Change. Knopf Canada.