What We Do
What is the Mind Body Ecology Institute?
We work at the unique intersection of health & wellness, education, and environmental sustainability.
Our mission is to help people reconnect with nature, community, and the inner landscapes to cultivate resilience and flourishing while promoting wise and responsible environmental stewardship.
Our programs weave Western science and humanities with Indigenous and contemplative wisdom along with nature-based mindfulness and somatic practices to cultivate reverence for the preciousness of life in all its rich diversity
Participants in our programs report developing greater self-awareness, compassion, emotional resilience, and a practical sense for our interdependence with Earth and all living beings.
Our experiences together reinvigorate and empower participants with impactful ways each person can foster the collective flourishing of Earth, community, and self.
“There’s a revolution that needs to happen and it starts from inside each one of us.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
Our shared environmental challenges compounded by declining mental health – particularly among young adults – reflect a profound disconnection from ourselves, each other, and the greater natural world.
We support individuals in cultivating the inner awareness and skills needed to engage with the world wisely, responsibly, and in a caring way.
Challenges bring opportunities for growth.
MBEI offers a distinctive blend of several integral dimensions of self-growth and development which are key ingredients of resilience and flourishing.
Community and Belonging
Community building
Talking circles
Storytelling
Awareness and Creativity
Nature-based mindfulness and eco meditation
Somatic movement practices
Nature walks
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, systems theory, authenticity, interdependence, kinship, reverence, resilience, and flourishing
Meaning and Responsibility
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.
We hope people who attend our programs leave well equipped with the skills of well-being 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.
Sources
[1] Yuria Celidwen, Flourishing Kin: How Indigenous Wisdom for Collective Well-being (Macmillan, 2024) and D. Keltner, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life (Penguin Press, 2023).
[2] 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).
[3] Stanford Life Design. Online: http://lifedesignlab.stanford.edu/. Life-Centered Design School. Online: https://lifecentereddesign.school
[4] 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). Elissa Epel, Jyoti Mishra, Eve Ekman, Coryna Ogunseitan, Elena Fromer, Lucy Kho, Jillian Grialou, and Philippe Goldin. "Effects of a Novel Psychosocial Climate Resilience Course on Climate Distress, Self-Efficacy, and Mental Health in Young Adults." Sustainability 17, no. 7 (2025): 3139.
[5] Our work is based in part 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 also draws from the Work that Reconnects. See Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown, Coming Back to Life. Chris Johnstone and Joanna Macy, Active Hope.
[7] 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). Jyoti Mishra, “Mindfulness and the Climate Crisis,” Mind and Life Institute, Insights (2023).
[8] 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
To help people reconnect with nature, community, and self to cultivate flourishing while promoting wise and responsible environmental stewardship.
OUR VISION
We envison a regenerative, equitable, and ecologically harmonious world for all.
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.