Nurturing eco-resilience through mindfulness

Those of us who dedicate our time to environmental conservation, or any other mission-based field, depend on our passion to fuel and motivate our work. Yet as a crisis-driven cause – born out of biodiversity loss, ecosystem destruction and climate change – conservation can drain one’s energy and lead to eco-anxiety, eco-grief, hopelessness and burnout.

Mindfulness is our solution. Through focusing the mind beyond the narrow scope of habitual thinking – which includes judgement and emotional reaction – we awaken to the present moment. Attentiveness to signals from our body and breath enables us to build self-care and resilience. Nurturing mindfulness in our daily life rejuvenates our energy and passion, renewing hope that we can conserve our planet’s biodiversity and ecosystems. We must care for ourselves in order to care for the earth.
Mindfulness is our solution.

Practicing passion with presence

Mindfulness is a muscle; it takes practice to develop. Regularly practicing yoga nidra - the yoga of changing states of consciousness - helps us initiate mindfulness through meditation. I welcome you to join my classes and workshops as a way to develop practical tools to use in your workplace and home, and to hone your personal meditation practice.

As a Certified iRest(c) Yoga Nidra Teacher, I teach classes and workshops for environmental conservation practitioners to address eco-anxiety and eco-grief, build eco-resilience, nurture our passion and equip us with tools to navigate the challenges of being an environmental steward. These guided practices are rooted in the principles of yoga nidra meditation taught by my father and mentor, Dr. Richard Miller, and the iRest Institute. Please see below or contact me to learn about ongoing classes or to discuss developing a customized meditation or workshop for yourself or your team or organization.

Class offerings

Embracing Eco-Anxiety: Tools for Restoring Connections and Rebuilding Resilience as Conservation Professionals
July 21, 2022, 9-11am PT - Virtual workshop at the Society for Conservation Biology's North American Congress for Conservation Biology
Have you ever felt worried, scared, or stressed about the environment, or questioned whether our conservation actions are enough? This 2-hour virtual workshop will teach you to recognize and address the newly described condition of ‘eco-anxiety,’ defined as fear based on environmental doom. You will leave the workshop with new tools for building mental resilience to strengthen your effectiveness as a conservation professional. The virtual workshop will provide an introduction to the common symptoms and impacts of eco-anxiety on our lives and profession. We will discuss how North American conservation leaders have described eco-anxiety and how it affects their work. We’ll then reflect on and share in small groups our experiences of eco-anxiety and the emotions associated (e.g., stress, compassion fatigue, burnout), while using evidence-based, trauma-sensitive practices for safely validating these experiences. We will practice a non-secular yoga nidra guided meditation to cultivate mindfulness through body and breath sensing. Finally, we will synthesize these exercises to review several simple, practical ways to address eco-anxiety in our daily lives.
Embracing Eco-Anxiety: Tools for Realigning Passion and Purpose
January 20, 2022, 1-2pm ET - Virtual workshop with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Eco-anxiety is a new term used to describe 'fear based on environmental doom.' The American Psychiatric Society officially recognized eco-anxiety in 2017, but many environmental conservationists have been familiar with the feeling for years, having experienced eco-anxiety as a common dimension of the environmental profession. Eco-anxiety can manifest as stress, depression, or feelings of helplessness or fatalism stemming from thoughts about the current or future state of the environment. Although these feelings are normalized in the conservation field as 'environmental doom and gloom,' eco-anxiety can lead to compassion fatigue and professional burnout if not addressed. In this workshop, we will explore how to recognize eco-anxiety, connect with our own and others' experiences of eco-anxiety, and practice guided meditation to welcome emotions. These tools will support us in embracing eco-anxiety and learning from it, realigning our passion and purpose to build our resilience as conservationists dedicated to protecting our planet's magnificent biodiversity.
Weekly Summer Meditation Series
Thursdays in June, 2021, 7-8pm ET
Join Jennie this June for weekly evening classes on Thursdays as we sit in shared community to practice iRest yoga nidra meditation. Each class will consist of a brief talk on a yoga nidra foundational technique, 30-minute yoga nidra practice, and a debrief for questions and discussion. Sessions will explore the foundations of iRest yoga nidra, including:
  • Developing the Inner Oasis
  • Body sensing
  • Breath sensing
  • Welcoming feelings and emotions
  • Cultivating well-being
  • Connecting to Awareness

Mindfulness Tools for Navigating Stressors on a Stressed Planet
April 23, 2021, 2:30-4pm ET - Workshop with Arizona State University's School of Life Sciences
As scholars and practitioners dedicated to advancing our understanding of and efforts to protect our world's fragile ecosystems, we regularly navigate an inner landscape of stress. Yet we are rarely taught skills for addressing these foundational challenges, particularly in the professional workplace. This inquiry-based class will draw on our natural investigative abilities as scholars and from principles of yoga nidra meditation to learn pragmatic practices for responding to personal and professional stressors. We will also discuss how the recently-discovered experience of 'eco-anxiety' may uniquely manifest during our work on environmental issues. Join us for a talk and guided meditation which will help build enduring resilience and equip us to approach our work in the world with compassion and curiosity.
Growing up on iRest: A Dialogue between Richard and Jennie Miller
December 3, 2020, 7-9pm ET
See announcement to purchase recording
The Resilient Rhinoceros: Navigating Stress, Anxiety and Burnout So You Can Save the Planet
November 14, 2020, 10am-12pm ET - Workshop with the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders program
As wildlife conservationists, we are passion-driven professionals responding to environmental crises. Along with our victories, we are forced to navigate stress, burnout and, at times, defeat. Join wildlife conservationist and meditation teacher Dr. Jennie Miller as she shares tools for navigating personal and professional challenges. Drawing from principles of meditation, we will learn practices that help us build and sustain enduring resilience and better equip us to protect our planet’s biodiversity.

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