Mindfulness-Based Nature Connection
Cultivating Awareness, Well-being, and Wisdom Outdoors
with Mark Coleman, MA
Experience the transformative power of meditation in nature. In this new course, we take our practice outdoors as a way to deepen our awareness of the natural world while cultivating a peaceful, mindful attention that can open our hearts to delight, wisdom, and awe. Along with a wide range of nature meditation practices, the course includes short talks on various mindfulness-in-nature themes as well as prompts for reflection and inquiry.
Free sample video: Mark’s introduction to the course
Reflections from Past Participants
What You'll Practice
- Guided meditations to support experiential understanding
- Begining and sustaining a meditation practice outdoors
- Techniques for embodied presence and sensory awareness in natural settings
- Contemplative ways to explore our interconnection with all life
- How to bring heart qualities like gratitude and lovingkindness into your time in nature
- Mindfulness strategies that can support clinician resilience and therapeutic presence
This Course Will...
- Deepen your connection with nature through mindfulness
- Offer pathways for deepening awareness and meditation with nature as the field of practice
- Help you bring presence, stillness, and reflection into your daily life
- Support heart qualities like gratitude, compassion, and care for the natural world
- Offer nature-based pathways to refuge, renewal, and perspective amidst personal or collective challenges
- Introduce nature-integrated practices that clinicians may incorporate into therapeutic settings to support emotional regulation and patient well-being
What You Receive
8 Hours of Video Teachings
13 Guided Meditations
Readings, Self Inquiry, and Integration Practices
Live Community Question & Response Sessions
Lifetime Access to Course
Course Syllabus
- Introduction & Welcome
- The Buddhist Roots of Nature Practice
- Introduction to Mindfulness & Nature
- Practice: Meditation Postures
- Practice: Arriving in Nature
- Mindfulness Outdoors is an Inclusive Attention
- Practice: Breathing With Nature
- Practice: Standing & Grounding
- FAQ
- Practice: Attuning to the Body & Place
- Body as Vehicle for Nature Connection
- Practice: Mindfulness of the Body
- Introduction to Moving Embodied Practice in Nature
- Receptivity
- Practice: Listening
- FAQ
- Practice: Opening the Field of Awareness
- Connecting to the Environment Through the Senses
- Practice: Sensory Awareness
- Introduction to Meandering
- Practice: Standing with Trees
- FAQ
- Interconnection: The Four Elements
- Practice: The Four Elements
- Practice: Meandering with Awareness of the Elements
- Practice: Lying Down on the Earth
- FAQ
- Heartfulness in Nature
- Meandering with Love
- Practice: Holding This Earth With Care
- Practice: Gratitude
- Practice: Open Awareness & Impermanence
- Practice: Meandering with Awareness
- Living in a Time of Ecological & Climate Crises
- FAQ
- Taking Nature Practice Into Your Life
Meet The Teacher
Mark Coleman, MA
Mark has a master’s in Clinical Psychology and has trained extensively in the Buddhist tradition, both in the Insight meditation and in the Dzogchen tradition. He is a senior teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and has taught insight meditation retreats since 1997. Mark is a life-long nature lover and is passionate about guiding people into the beauty of meditation and nature. He has led wilderness nature retreats worldwide for over twenty years. Through his organization Awake in the Wild Mark leads year long nature meditation teacher trainings in the US and Europe.
Co-founder of the Mindfulness Training Institute Mark also leads year long professional mindfulness teacher trainings in Europe and the US. He is author of Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Path to Self-discovery, Make Peace With Your Mind, From Suffering to Peace and his recent book A Field Guide to Nature Meditation. He lives in Sausalito, Marin and likes nothing more than hiking, biking and kayaking in the outdoors.
Select Your Rate
Please consider giving the most you can.
Basic
The Basic rate covers a portion of the cost of the program and is partially subsidized. This rate is not tax-deductible.
$99
- Scholarships are very limited and reserved for those who are truly experiencing financial hardship. Click here to apply.
Add-ons (Optional)
You can add during checkout
Continuing Education
8 CE Credits
This program offers 8 homestudy CE credits/contact hours for $80, applicable for psychologists, California licensed MFTs, LCSWs, LEPs, LPCCs, nurses, and chiropractors, and may be applicable for other licenses. Please review our CE information page for full provider information.
The teachings are appropriate for health care professionals as well as the general public. This program is designed for licensed healthcare professionals and offers evidence-based applications of mindfulness in natural settings. Participants will learn how mindfulness-based nature practices can be integrated into clinical care to reduce stress, enhance emotional regulation, and improve therapeutic presence. Skills such as sensory awareness, embodied attention, and compassion-focused practices will be applied in ways that support both clinician resilience and patient well-being. These approaches are grounded in peer-reviewed research demonstrating the benefits of nature-based mindfulness interventions for anxiety, depression, stress reduction, and professional burnout.
This continuing education course offers valuable insights and techniques that may be shared with patients and clients.
Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals
At the end of the program, you will be better able to:
- Describe how nature-based mindfulness interventions foster emotional regulation, stress reduction, and overall psychological well-being in clinical populations.
- Apply techniques for cultivating embodied attention in outdoor environments to enhance patient resilience and address symptoms of anxiety and depression.
- Demonstrate the use of sensory awareness practices in natural settings to help patients manage symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress-related conditions.
- Explain how mindfulness practices emphasizing impermanence and change in the natural world can strengthen patient adaptability to health challenges and life transitions.
- Utilize gratitude and compassion-focused mindfulness practices in natural settings to foster positive emotional states in patients, enhancing their capacity for joy, gratitude, and resilience.
- Assess the clinical relevance of interconnection and nature-relatedness practices for improving therapeutic presence and patient engagement in treatment.
- Apply nature-based mindfulness in clinical care to support resilience, self-regulation, and adaptive mental health functioning.
Continuing Education content level: Introductory
*Please note:
- For full provider information and additional CE information, including attendance requirements, cancellation, and grievance policies, please visit our Continuing Education Credit information page.
- For those with a different license than listed above, or with a license from a different board or association than listed on our CE info page, please contact your licensing board or association directly to request pre-approval/acceptance of CE credits offered at Spirit Rock. Spirit Rock does not confirm the applicability of credit for those with licenses other than those listed.
- Continuing Education is sponsored by Mindful CECs.
- Mindful CECs is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Mindful CECs maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
- Co-sponsor Mindful CECs is a provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number CEP17985 for 8 contact hours.
- Potential Conflict of Interest Statement: This instructor may have authored publications relevant to the subjects covered in this course. The instructor might reference these publications during the course, and they may receive financial compensation if these publications are purchased.
- Attendance is demonstrated through a comprehensive assessment at the end of the course, with a passing criterion of at least a 75% score. The assessment may be repeated if necessary.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I access my program on the Online Learning Platform?
Although our Programs are available on any device, we suggest using a computer (if possible) and Chrome or Firefox browser to log in: https://courses.spiritrock.org
To access the course:
• Use a computer and the Chrome or Firefox browser to log in at courses.spiritrock.org.
• Please note: Your login for the Online Learning Platform is separate from your Spirit Rock website login.
• Once logged in, your dashboard will display all your enrolled courses.
• Click on your program, then use the menu on the left to navigate through course sections.
How can I best view the content?
Although the Online Learning Platform works on mobile and tablet devices, for the best experience, use a desktop or laptop. This might be an easier way to find all the areas of the site as you are learning how it works.
What is the course format?
All of our on-demand courses are offered in a flexible self-study format, so you can access the materials whenever is good for you. Readings, video, audio, and all resources are structured for sequential access in our Online Learning Platform.
Can I participate from a different time zone?
Yes of course! We have students from all over the world participate in our courses. These self-paced study and practice courses are available wherever you are in the world, and whenever works best for you.
How long will I have access to the course?
You have lifetime access to the course and all materials.
I have more questions. Can you help me?
Yes! Please email us at courses@spiritrock.org with any questions that you might have.
