Program Description: Nature provides us with clues as to how to eat, but we need to slow down and pay attention to our own internal senses. Hone your own body’s nutritional wisdom and your connection to nature as we blend mindful exercises with natural history, food tasting, hands-on activities, and short walks to forage. In this experience, we’ll:

lead you through mindfulness exercises to help you to pay attention to your internal senses, thoughts, emotions, and triggers that we normally don’t notice during the seemingly ordinary act of eating.
focus our attention on all our senses as we eat.
explore the difference between being full and being fully satisfied.
pay attention to our body. Our body craves what it needs but also becomes averse to what it doesn’t need.
touch on the value of eating a broad array of foods and the importance of phytochemical richness.
take a naturalist perspective as we learn how wild plants moderate how much animals eat from them and what this tells us about our own nutritional wisdom.
About the Program Guides: Cathy Cebulski Sacco M.Ed. is an experienced mindfulness teacher with over 20 years of personal practice. She is trained and qualified to teach the evidenced eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Course (MBSR) through The Mindfulness Center at Brown University, and the University of Massachusetts Medical Center where Jon Kabat-Zinn created this MBSR stress reduction course. She also teaches the Mindful Self Compassion course, Koru Mindfulness, and is a certified Mindful Schools teacher. She integrates her experience from these evidence-based trainings into the workshops and custom programs she offers. She has had a personal meditation practice for the past 20 years.

A 30-year veteran of Cincinnati Nature Center (CNC), Jason Neumann currently serves as public programs manager, crafting experiences that immerse visitors in nature and leading interpretive trainings. He works towards translating CNC’s “plant native” initiative into visitor engagement opportunities and has a special interest in using foraged food to connect people to Nature. Growing up on a small farm sparked his deep interest in agriculture which was fanned to flame through a BS degree in Crop and Soil Sciences (Michigan State University), and later a graduate certificate in Agroforestry (University of Missouri – Columbia). Drawing from the perspective of a farmer/naturalist, he advocates for working with nature whether in his own yard, working with volunteer groups, crafting conservation programs, or managing the native perennial polyculture plots and native 2-acre pawpaw grove at Long Branch Farm & Trails.

What to Expect: In this mindful eating experience, we’ll serve small bites of a handful of curated foraged foods as well as select store bought items. A veteran mindfulness instructor will facilitate mindful attention, slow looking activities, reflection, and discussion.

Plan to be outside (but we will have access to a cooled indoor space in the event we have extreme summer heat or storms).
Program runs rain or shine.
Trails/areas used during this program are rated as Level ground for a planned distance of no more than .5 mile at a slow pace.
Restrooms are available throughout the program.