What We Do
What is the Mind Body Ecology Institute?
Our shared environmental challenges compounded by systemic inequity and declining mental health – particularly among young adults – reflect a profound disconnection from ourselves, each other, and the greater natural world.[1]
Challenges bring opportunities for growth.
At the Mind Body Ecology Institute (MBEI), our mission is to help people reconnect with self, community, and nature.
Participants in our programs:
Feel more connected to nature
Feel more compassion for nature, other livings beings, and oneself
Experience a wider sense of community and belonging
Experience improved mental health and emotional resilience
Develop skills to better support mental health and overall well-being
Develop skills for engaging with community and nature
Feel more self-compassion
Our programs inspire reverence[2] for the preciousness of life in all its rich diversity while promoting personal well-being, collective flourishing, and responsible environmental stewardship – a foundation that fosters opportunity, growth, and action.
“There’s a revolution that needs to happen and it starts from inside each one of us.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
Through nature-based education, community-building, and experiential practice, we support individuals in cultivating the inner awareness and skills needed to engage with the world wisely, responsibly, and compassionately. We believe this inner-to-outer transformation is one of the greatest gifts we can offer to our future generations, communities, and the planet.
Our work is grounded in rigorous Western science and humanities along with millennia of global Indigenous and contemplative wisdom. Each of our programs offers an innovative choreography of life design, discussion, storytelling, creative arts, and nature-based mindfulness and somatic practices.
MBEI offers a distinctive blend of approaches inclusive of different modalities from various traditions across several integral dimensions of self-growth and development: [5]
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[4] and impactful ways to cultivate an ecologically and socially-engaged path to support individual and planetary health.
Central to our work is immersive engagement with the environment to reawaken our connection with nature. Nature-based meditation and somatic movement, a core part of the program, have been extensively studied across many traditions for their mental health benefits.[6]
We hope people who attend our programs leave well equipped with the skills of well-being[7] as well as an expanded self-awareness, enhanced social connectivity, and greater resilience and compassion.
We believe the first step to a better world is to help people thrive personally, so they can harness their inherent capacity for growth to contribute meaningfully to their communities and a flourishing world.
[1] C. Hickman, E. Marks, P. Pihkala, S. Clayton, R. E. Lewandowski, E. E. Mayall, B. Wray, C. Mellor, L. van Sustern (2021). “Climate Anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about governmental responses to climate change: a global survey,” Lancet Planet Health 5.12, 865-873. R. Goodman, A. H. Weinberger, J. H. Kim, M. Wu, and S. Galea, “Trends in anxiety among adults in the United States, 2008–2018: Rapid increases among young adults,” Journal of Psychiatric Research 130 (2020), 441-446. C. Wamsler, J. Bristow, At the intersection of mind and climate change: integrating inner dimensions of climate change into policymaking and practice, Climactic Change 173 (2022).
[2] Y. Celidwen, Flourishing Kin: How Indigenous Wisdom for Collective Well-being (Macmillan, 2024). D. Keltner, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life (Penguin Press, 2023).
[3] C. Wamsler, J. Bristow, K. Cooper, G. Steidle, S. Taggart, L. Sovold, J. Bockler, T.H. Oliver, T. Legrand, “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 Program (UNDP).
[4] Stanford Life Design. Online: http://lifedesignlab.stanford.edu/. Life-Centered Design School. Online: https://lifecentereddesign.school
[5] Generally based on work at the Center for Healthy Minds. Source: Kral, T.R. A., P. Kesebir, L. Redford, C. J. Dahl , C. D. Wilson-Mendenhall, M. J. Hirshberg, R. J. Davidson, R. Tatar, Healthy minds Index: A Brief Measure of the Core Dimensions of Well-being,” PLoS ONE 19.5 (2024).
[6] Our work is trauma-sensitive. R. Calvert, Healing with Nature: Mindfulness and Somatic Practices to Heal from Trauma (Novato, CA: New World Library, 2021). D. Treleaven, Trauma-sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing (W. W. Norton, 2018).
[7] R. Davidson. “Well-being is a Skill: Through Cultivating Healthy Habits of Mind, We Can Nurture Key Pillars of Well-being” (2022). Mind and Life Institute, Insights. Online.
OUR MISSION
Creating a regenerative, equitable, and ecologically harmonious world.
OUR VISION
By transforming ourselves, we can be more responsible citizens of nature.
Our Work
We offer a variety of eco retreat programs and workshops designed for transformation, fostering personal insight, well-being, and collective flourishing.
Our multidimensional approach guides participants through three key phases of focus:
Understanding Worldviews
Awareness + Insight
Connection + Action
From this foundation, we choose specific practices, discussions, and activities to best fit the needs and dynamics of each group. This flexible approach allows programs the freedom to operate successfully for as short as a few hours to a few weeks. Our programs and practices center coming into relationship with the Earth as a gateway to deeper understanding and wholeness. Our scholarship fund creates access to retreats and workshops for those with limited financial means.
This is made possible through our multidimensional approach that combines various modalities.
In this way, participants reawaken connection with nature and are able to envision ways of making a meaningful impact in the world.
As a community-led organization, we have helped individuals transition to more sustainable careers, deepen their understanding of interdependence, and engage in a journey of self-transformation that has far-reaching impacts on their immediate communities, the land, and beyond.
Together, we grow.
Our Core Values
Honoring and respecting the intrinsic dignity and worth of all persons
Awareness, insight, compassion, trust, kinship, practice, purpose, action
Building communities of belonging, growing circles of connection, and empowering wise change makers
The Mind Body Ecology Institute is committed to pursuing a regenerative, equitable, and flourishing future for all.