Kris August

Celebrating the Interconnectedness of Life

Self-Care Through the Cycles of Nature

A 9-month online interactive course for caregivers of all kinds who find nourishment in nature!

Next offering: September 2024 - May 2025

Early Bird Registration opens soon - contact me for more information and to save a space

  

It is challenging in this hectic and unpredictable world to build and maintain healthy habits in our daily lives. Self-care is being recognized as essential for not just surviving, but thriving. And it takes more than a few days or a short course to build a supportive self-care routine.

We cannot take care of others without taking care of ourselves.


Self-Care Through the Cycles of Nature is a 9-month online course, starting September 1, that presents a way to step out of the busy work-focused cycle into a more natural flow that includes all aspects of living. Using techniques of mindfulness, nature meditation, “inner tracking”, nature journaling, and observations, we can move through the seasons and our lives with more ease and awareness.

In a low-stress environment, participants can glean as much or as little as they have time and capacity for in the moment. We start with observations that enhance awareness. You may notice simple things in the world around you that were hidden before. Incorporating frequent reviews and returning to assignments with different perspectives as we move through the seasons, this course brings together a new way of looking at life through the lens of the ebbs and flows of nature.

Click here to take a quick trip around the cycle.

This course was originally created for veterinarians who commonly struggle with compassion fatigue and burnout. Many of the techniques and philosophies shared in this course, including mindfulness and gratitude practices, have been found to reduce signs of compassion fatigue and improve well-being. The course content is relevant to compassionate people and caregivers of all kinds, particularly those who find nourishment in the natural world. Parents, teachers, medical professionals, herbalists, naturalists, wildlife rehabilitators and other animal health workers will all find something useful in this process of connecting with the cycles of nature.

“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.”
Joseph Campbell
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This course was inspired by my childhood spent exploring outdoors and my children, who brought me back outside when I needed healing. Along with leading Girl Scouts, hiking, and gardening, I have spent
several years studying the cycles of nature through Village Building and Nature Connection courses with the 8 Shields Institute and the Wilderness Awareness School, organizations co-founded by Jon Young, author of the books Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature, and What the Robin Knows. It is lovely to find another outlet for my inner naturalist!