OUR ORIGIN STORY
How Mindful of Nature
came to be
Mindful of Nature is inspired by a deep love of the natural world and the power of being in nature with mindful attention. Mark Coleman began exploring meditation in nature over thirty years ago — a natural synthesis of his lifelong learning of mindfulness practice and a deep appreciation and attuning to nature as a place of wonder, refuge, and renewal.
Mark began leading nature meditation retreats two decades ago and quickly discovered how profound and nourishing they were for participants. Those programs inspired his first book, Awake in the Wild — Mindfulness in Nature as a Path of Self Discovery. Since that time, he has led more than a hundred nature meditation retreats worldwide. In 2012 Mark began offering nature meditation teacher training to grow the reach of mindful nature programs and has trained over 100 nature meditation teachers.
To broaden the outreach and accessibility to mindfulness in nature programs, Mark founded Mindful of Nature. With the support of grants and funding, Mindful of Nature delivers nature meditation programs, classes, and retreats to those in the helping professions including first responders, teachers, and health care practitioners; to young adults; as well as to those working in the environmental field and to business and organizational leaders.
OUR MISSION
Mindful of Nature helps foster people's connection, awareness, and love of the natural world through mindfulness-based nature practices, programs, and retreats — which in turn helps people develop care and stewardship for the earth and all species.
Our Objectives
What we set out to do
Founding Director
Mark Coleman
Mark Coleman is an inner and outer explorer who has extensively studied in the Buddhist tradition since the mid-80s. He is passionate about sharing his nature-based meditation practices and has taught Insight meditation and nature retreats worldwide for the past twenty years.
Mark’s journey with meditation began in his late teens in London. This path took him to India and the US, immersing in long retreats with renowned teachers in the Insight meditation tradition — including Christopher Titmus, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and Sharon Salzberg — and later in the Dzogchen tradition with Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche.
But it was meditating in nature that captured Mark’s heart. When he moved to the US he fell for the vast landscapes of the Rockies, Sierras, and the deserts of the South-West. He sensed nature as a perfect temple for mindfulness and began integrating meditation and nature as a path of practice — realizing that the joy, peace, wisdom, and freedom taught in Buddhism was fully accessible by meditating outdoors.
