My aim is to help people awaken through mindfulness in nature, to fall in love with the Earth, and to protect it.
2026 – 2027 US-Based Awake in the Wild Teacher Training
Led by Mark Coleman and Lori Schwanbeck
Based in the Western US and Mexico
The Awake in the Wild Teacher Training is a ten-month training program to prepare you to skillfully guide mindful nature practices outdoors. Inspired by wisdom teachings from the Buddhist tradition, by Mark’s book, Awake in the Wild, and by the wilderness retreats led by Mark and Lori for more than two decades across the Americas, the Awake in the Wild Teacher Training will prepare you for the unique challenges of facilitating meditation programs in nature, while also drawing on nature as a support for presence, connection, and insight.
Make Peace with Your Mind
How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Help Free You from the Inner Critic
Led by Mark Coleman
February 20 – 22, 2026, Esalen, Big Sur, CA
Have you noticed the painful effects of self-judgment? Do you feel tormented by negative critical self-talk and the harsh words of the inner critic? Are you prone to judging everything you do as not good enough, not quite right, not living up to some impossibly high standard. Do you find yourself harshly judging your meditation, your practice or your other spiritual practices?
If you wish to be more free from the influence of the inner critic, then this workshop offers tried and tested methods for overcoming the challenges of self-judgment.
Other Upcoming Events
Led by Mark Coleman this week, and lead by other AITW teachers other weeks, these online nature-based meditations will be a support for all those who like to be in nature and feel the support of the natural world for our practice and to help calm and relax our body, mind, and heart.
In this daylong, we’ll explore how ADHD challenges interrupt daily functioning, and how mindfulness and self-compassion practices can be used to meet ADHD-related difficulties with greater clarity and kindness.
This 5-month journey uses mindfulness and nature-based practice to meet the challenges of our time—grief, burnout, and the overwhelm of crises. Through contemplative practice, you’ll develop the inner steadiness needed for long-term engagement.
Over the course of this half-day retreat we’ll explore navigating ADHD challenges, how they interrupt our functioning, and how we can meet ourselves with wisdom, forgiveness and self-compassion.
2026 – 2027 Mindfulness Teacher Training
Led by Martin Aylward and Mark Coleman
Starts September 2026, Moulin de Chaves, South-West France
The Mindfulness Training Institute offers professional, yearlong teacher training courses, providing experiential learning, in-depth instruction and practical skills to teach with confidence and clarity. Trainees are educated in the scientific research on mindfulness, contemporary teaching forms and the historical Buddhist context.
Resilience and Nature:
A Self-Guided, Online Nature Meditation Course
It can be hard to maintain a sense of calm, perspective, or balance. We may need extra support and resilience to meet the troubling conditions of life.
Nature has the power to be that profound support, to calm us, to lift our hearts and teach us about resilience in adversity. And when paired with contemplative meditation, nature becomes a support for wisdom, joy and nourishment. It can be transformative and life-saving.
Across six-weeks of daily instruction, this Resilience and Nature course reveals how mindfulness in nature supports you to live with a steady presence and peaceful heart in the midst of turbulent conditions.
A Field Guide to Nature Meditation: Available in Print, Audio & Kindle
“From the simplest feeling of a gentle breeze to the great mysteries of life and death, Mark Coleman guides us into an ever-deepening appreciation and understanding of the world around us. A jewel of a book, and highly recommended.”
—Joseph Goldstein, author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening
