The Heart Ache of Conservation Work
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As environmental stewards working at the frontlines of our planet's ecological and social crises, we bear witness to heartbreaking situations. Species extinction, wildfire, oil spills, social injustices. These experiences can cause us to feel painful emotions like eco-anxiety, eco-grief, compassion fatigue and burnout. And, alongside our reactions to microaggressions, historic injustices and political inaction, these feelings can compound into numbing, despair and paralysis. These feelings are a normal part of being human yet our work culture doesn't always support us in navigating them.
You are not alone - my heart also aches often. I am part of a group of individuals and organizations creating spaces and tools for us to build the mental resilience to do our conservation work. My offerings focus on practicing mindfulness to strengthen our ability to regulate our emotions and weather the storm. |
Fieldwork in the Indian Himalayas. Credit: Sahas Barve.
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Mindfulness can strengthen our motivation and improve our innovation as conservationists. Credit: Sahas Barve.
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Practicing Passion with PresenceThe ability to feel and name our feelings takes practice to develop. Regularly practicing yoga nidra - the yoga of changing states of consciousness - helps us build the muscle to track our feelings. Mindfulness doesn't only happen indoors on a meditation pillow - we can cultivate mindfulness to more fully connect with wildlife, nature and our experiences while at work.
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Resilience Resources
As a Certified iRest© 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 classes or to discuss developing a customized meditation or workshop for your self, team or organization.
Class Offerings
Below are examples of the types of workshops and class series that I teach. Offerings are ongoing and can be customized to the needs of your team or organization. Please do not let costs be a barrier to your staff benefiting from these tools; I typically teach on a pro-bono or donation basis.
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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. |
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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. |
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Weekly Summer Meditation Series
Thursdays in June, 2021, 7-8pm ET Join Jen 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:
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Credit: Richard Miller
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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. |
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Growing up on iRest: A Dialogue between Richard and Jen Miller
December 3, 2020, 7-9pm ET See announcement to purchase recording |
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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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