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AMB Life Coaching

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger
– something better, pushing right back.
~Albert Camus

Announcing Individual Mindful Walks

First and foremost, thank you to all of you who have responded to the survey about your level of interest in virtually attending my walking events while we continue to experience restrictions due to the pandemic. Given the diversity of the data I received, I have decided to put all these small group events that had been scheduled throughout the year, one for each season, in Portola Valley and in Carmel Valley, CA, on hold for the foreseeable future. Instead, I will now be offering these walks on an individual basis: there has never been a time when building resilience, patience and capacity to be with “what is” are more crucial to our well-being than now. It’s because I continue to be personally uplifted and supported by the opportunities that I have to spend mindful, contemplative time in Nature that I want to continue offering these opportunities to you.

The Individual Mindful Walk is a guided walk that is just for you, at a time, duration and place of your choice. It’s similar in structure to the Seasonal Contemplative Walk but the walk is just for you, with me, as your guide. The session includes a meditation practice in nature, silent walking, poetry reading and some reflective time alone. I can travel to trails near you, within 75 miles from my home, or I can show you one of my favorite trails. Of course, we will be following the safety protocols in place at the time of our walk. Interested? Contact me to schedule your walk and get a customized quote.

I look forward to being with you on the trails and to telling you that the world is still beautiful.

Other Opportunities For Nature and Resilience Practices

All my coaching offerings are still available and two of them have a walking component:

  • Solvitur Ambulando is a Coaching while Walking Package that can be accommodated with distancing and mask wearing, anywhere in the San Francisco or Monterey Bay areas.

  • The Inner Compass Wisdom Walk can be conducted anywhere in the world as you will be guided to go on a solo Medicine Walk in a place of your choice, on your own time.

Mark Coleman, mindfulness teacher, wilderness guide and author, founder of the Awake In The Wild program from which I graduated last year, has been guiding a daily Sunrise Nature Meditation at 7am PST every weekday since the beginning of the pandemic. While Mark is taking a break for the month of August, and until he resumes in September, I can recommend the following meditation teachers who offer virtual sessions:

Christine Lustik, a certified mindfulness teacher and a graduate of Awake In The Wild program, is the owner of Mindfulness in Organizations, LLC. After spending 14 years in leadership and the online education arena of higher education, Christine transitioned to a role of helping people thrive in their own lives both professionally and personally, specializing in pro-active resilience training with the goal of decreasing stress and chaos, and increasing focus and resiliency. Every week, she offers four 45-minute Zoom mindfulness sessions at different times of day. These sessions are offered on a pay-as-you-can basis. Click here for more info and to register.

Dr. Rochelle Calvert, Ph.D., founder of a NewMindfulLife is a therapist, a certified mindfulness teacher and a graduate of Awake In The Wild. She has a devoted love to share the power and healing potential of mindfulness, somatic awareness and nature. Rochelle currently leads courses and retreats in mindfulness, somatic experiencing and Awake in the Wild- nature-based mindfulness and offers virtual mindfulness in nature sessions. Click here for more info and to register.

Grounded in the science of positive neuroplasticity, the book Resilient- How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness by Dr. Rick Hanson, Ph.D. is another excellent resource of practices and exercises to cultivate the necessary ways of being to help us not just survive but thrive during the pandemic, and beyond.

Lastly, if you are into classes and have the time, Dr. Hanson also has a free 5-day online summit on resilience, hosted in conjunction with the Greater Good Science Center of U.C. Berkeley. Each day, he conducts interviews with five experts in the field and provides resources.

May you find the summer within.

Anne-Marie

Poem: Testimony by Rebecca Baggett

I want to tell you

that the world is still beautiful. 

I tell you that despite 

children raped on city streets, 

shot down in school rooms, 

despite the slow poisons seeping 

from old and hidden sins 

into our air, soil, water, 

despite the thinning film 

that encloses our aching world. 

Despite my own terror and despair. 

I want you to look again and again, 

to recognize the tender grasses,

curled like a baby's fine hairs

around your fingers, as a recurring 

miracle, to see that the river rocks

shine like God, that the crisp 

voices of the orange and gold 

October leaves are laughing at death. 

I want you to look beneath

the grass, to note 

the fragile hieroglyphs 

of ant, snail, beetle. I want 

you to understand that you are

no more and no less necessary 

than the brown recluse, the ruby- 

throated hummingbird, the humpback 

whale, the profligate mimosa. 

I want to say, like Neruda, 

that I am waiting for 

"a great and common tenderness," 

that I still believe 

we are capable of attention, 

that anyone who notices the world 

must want to save it.