maintaining conservation passion through mindfulness

Those of us who dedicate our time to environmental conservation, or any other mission-based field, depend largely 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 or 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 our body and breath's signals enables us to build self-care and resilience. Maintaining mindfulness in as many moments as possible during our daily life rejuvenates our energy and passion, renewing optimism and hope that we can conserve our planet’s biodiversity and ecosystems. We must care for ourselves in order to care for the earth.

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 resilience, nurture our passion and equip us with tools to navigate the challenges of our work. 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.

join our community of practice

We're building a community of mindful conservationists full of people like you, who are dedicated to saving the planet while cultivating mindfulness. Our space is still taking form but might include regular virtual meetings to meditate, workshop challenges, share our experiences and meet new friends. If you're interested in joining, contact me to sign up.

Mindfulness is our solution.

guided meditations

Enjoy the free guided yoga nidra meditations below.

Welcome to our environmental meditation community! This brief introduction shares the benefits of meditation for environmental enthusiasts and professionals, overviews the yoga nidra approach, and explains how to set up positioning and props to support your practice.

This guided meditation focuses on connecting to our source of passion and personal inspiration for protecting the earth. Through body and breath sensing, we center in the present moment and welcome opposite of emotions and beliefs. We embrace the radiant feeling of fulfillment and the assurance that our achievements are enough. Through the somatic experience, we recharge our passion and rest in the resilience that we can protect our planet and ourselves.

This yoga nidra practice offers you time to refill your inner reservoir. Building and sustaining our resilience is essential to maintaining the strength and focus to persevere through challenge and change. In our practice, we use body and breath sensing to refill our pool of energy to the brim. Originally delivered to a group of wildlife conservationists, this practice is relevant for environmentalists and nature stewards who are feeling drained and need time to recharge.

Our world is naturally full of change, and yet change can feel overwhelming when it is unexpected or unwanted. Building our resilience to change is essential to maintaining the strength to persevere through whatever comes, and adapting to opportunities in the moment. This guided meditation leads us through body sensing, breath counting, and welcoming opposites of emotion. We explore what is changing and unchanging in the body and center on the aliveness that connects all life on our planet.

This yoga nidra invites us to explore the silence behind the activity of our being by feeling into the felt sense of being alive. We apply body sensing to trace the hum of aliveness through the body, and practice breath sensing by feeling into the space between the inhale and exhale. We rest in the spacious and timeless silence underlying our aliveness to deepen into our true nature.

Class offerings

Embracing Eco-Anxiety: Tools for Realigning Passion and Purpose
January 20, 2022, 1-2pm ET - Workshop with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's International Affairs program
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, 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
Thursday, 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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