Introduction to Mindful Birding Workshop

Introduction to Mindful Birding:

Put down that field guide, pick up your feel guide

Maximum number of participants: 20

Minimum number of participants required: 10

Mindful Birding is a practice combining mindfulness with the joy of birding. Connect

with the natural world and the birds that inhabit it, letting go of the need to identify (field guide), to focus on what we notice, feel, and wonder (feel guide). Open to ages 10 and up, all workshop attendees are encouraged to come with an open mind, heart, and willingness to share the space with fellow bird-lovers.

Detailed description:

This workshop will be led by Nature & Forest Therapy Guides Michelle Morton and Donna Riner. Mindful Birding is a nature-based wellness practice that combines the practice of mindfulness with the joy of bird observation. This experience is best described as a slow, sensory, and immersive walk. During our time together, we will engage our senses—eyes, ears, hands, nose, body, and heart—to connect with the natural world and the birds that inhabit it.

Michelle and Donna will co-lead the walk with gentle invitations, or prompts, designed to deepen your sensory awareness. These invitations will help you experience birds and their habitats in a mindful, intentional way. Many of these invitations will be grounded in literary pieces, quotes, poems and/or children’s literature, to honor written perspectives & stories that come before our own.

This is not a traditional, guided interpretive walk. The aim is to slow down and observe birds without any pressure to identify them. Instead we will use our sensory awareness to observe birds, their behaviors, and their habitats with the intent to share what we notice, feel, and wonder within the community.

This workshop will take place inside the Crown Hill Waiting Station and outside along the Nature Trail. The walk will include time for slowly walking short distances, wandering, exploring, sitting, and sharing. Unlike a typical birding hike, this experience covers less than 0.5 miles. The trail surface features grass, woodchips, and small roots along a mostly-flat trail in the shade. There are some low logs along the path to rest (as needed), and a few picnic tables at the entrance to the trail.

This workshop is open to participants ages 10 and up. Minors under age 10 must be accompanied by an adult at all times. Children have an innate capacity to drop into the present moment, led by their senses to observe, play, and form a relationship with nature. Guides Donna and Michelle will encourage children in attendance to become co-guides in this workshop, as children help us all remember our own capacity to be curious and wander freely. Craft materials will be available during the workshop, and all in attendance

will be encouraged to engage as much or as little with the prompts provided.

Participants will be contacted before the event regarding what to bring and session details. For more information about your guides, please visit: https://www.delightinnature.com/ and

https://www.instagram.com/witnessnature_indy/