The present moment is waiting for you outside.
Small-group outdoor meditation sessions that let the living world do the work.
What is Nature-Based Meditation?
Reduces
Stress
Improves
Focus
Calms Nervous
System
Improves
Mood
Deepens
Presence
Improves
Sleep
Rooted in the ancient practice of Qigong, this nature-based meditation uses the living world around us as both setting and teacher. Rather than relying on willpower to quiet a noisy mind, it uses nature itself as the anchor. Breath, gentle movement, and the sights and sounds of the natural landscape become the practice.
And research shows that doing this outdoors, surrounded by the living world, deepens the experience in ways that indoor practice simply can't replicate.
What's in a session?
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Meet your group and guide outdoors.​
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Settle in with a brief introduction to Qigong — an ancient practice of cultivating life energy through breath, gentle movement, and awareness.
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​Open with a standing Qigong sequence to ground your body and quiet your mind.​​
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Move slowly through the natural landscape, pausing for a series of guided meditations that use the sights, sounds, and sensations of the living world to anchor you in the present.
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Close with a cup of herbal tea and a sharing circle — a quiet moment to reflect on your experience before returning to the world.
Sessions last about 2 hours and cover less than a mile of terrain. We offer both introductory and ongoing sessions.
Join a Session
Out Into Stillness
An Introduction to Nature-Based Meditation
A natural starting point — a guided two-hour Qigong session for those new to nature-based meditation. Rather than willing the mind into stillness, you'll be invited to let the living world do the steadying — using breath, gentle movement, and the sights and sounds of the nature to arrive fully in the present moment.
$75
Stillness Circle
An Ongoing Practice
A natural next step — a recurring outdoor Qigong session for those ready to make stillness part of their lives. Arriving already familiar with the rhythm, this circle settles into quiet with greater ease. Each session is complete in itself — come regularly as an ongoing practice, or drop in whenever the season allows.
$45
Sessions typically take place in Jefferson Memorial Forest, Kentucky's largest municipal urban forest. This remarkable place encompasses over 6,500 acres of forest, making it one of the largest urban forests in the United States.
Three Practices With The Same Root
Eastern Medicine, forest therapy, and nature-based Qigong each emerged from the same ancient understanding — that human beings are not separate from the natural world, and that returning to it is itself a form of healing. Acupuncture helps the body remember its own natural ease. Forest therapy re-establishes a felt connection to the living world around us. Qigong uses breath and movement to bring us back into harmony with the rhythms of nature within and without.
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Hillary and Jonathan Day have spent over a decade as Eastern Medicine physicians and acupuncturists, and nearly two decades studying and practicing Qigong. As certified forest therapy guides, they bring all three traditions into their work — not as separate offerings, but as different doors into the same room.