The North York Moors National Park is using its annual month-long mindfulness event to showcase how people can connect with themselves, family, other people or with nature.
With social media, homeworking and technology all conspiring to erode people’s opportunities to make genuine connections, the National Park’s Mindful Month programme of events this September highlights how North York Moors businesses and the beautiful landscape can help nourish this aspect of life.
The Mindful on the Moor Art and Wellbeing Festival at Danby Lodge National Park Centre on Saturday 6 September is a focal point for the month, with a line-up of friendly local artists and wellbeing practitioners sharing ways to take up a new mind-absorbing activity. On the day, choose from willow weaving, pottery, printmaking, painting, yoga or joining sensory meanders where sketching and nature journaling are as much part of the experience.
Elsewhere, people can experience the therapeutic power of yoga at beauty spots on the coast such as Sandsend and Whitby; or inland at Rosedale Abbey where there are outdoor night time sessions as well as ones where participants are joined by friendly goats to add to the grounding effect.
For more active ways to connect, the programme includes scenic sociable trail runs, which combine a chilled yoga session at the end; and a repeat of the successful Minds & Miles cycling sportive on 28 September from Sutton Bank where there are a choice of routes for cyclists of all abilities, both on and off-road.
Special retreat evenings and days are also a feature during Mindful Month, including an event in the off-grid wilder surroundings of Coast and Camplight at Stainsacre where yoga, meditation, a vegetarian lunch and nature walks are all part of the day.
Similarly Acre and Shelter will be using one of its luxury yurts to hold a candle-lit Roots to Healing evening where people can embark on a meditative journey including the use of Reiki to destress and a fireside cacao ceremony. Alternatively Gumboots and Wellingtons in Ellerburn will be the location for a Forest Flow and Fireside Glow evening involving a relaxing guided cycle ride in Dalby Forest before returning to sit beside the firepit with a mug of hot chocolate.
Coinciding with Mindful Month, the Staithes Festival of Arts and Heritage (13 and 14 September) also provides the feel-good factor with art and culture being celebrated against the idyllic backdrop of the village’s coastal surroundings.
Phoebe Smith, marketing assistant at the North York Moors National Park explains:
“Sometimes people underestimate how powerful it can be to spend time in a peaceful location absorbed in an activity, whether it’s creative or exercise-oriented, which enables them to reconnect with themselves and nature as well as strike up new connections, whether it’s strangers who become friends or simply enjoying the company of a passing acquaintance.
“Mindful Month is about showing the different ways that these connections can be made in the North York Moors, not just for September but all-year-round.”
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