Relieve stress and feel more present, connected and at ease.

A Walking Workshop with Imogen Ragone

Sunday, September 10, 2023
9:00 – 11:00 AM
Newlin Grist Mill Park, Glen Mills, PA

***CANCELED***

 

Our lives these days remove us more and more from the natural world. We are stuck to our screens, immobile, and spend the majority of our days inside buildings and cars. If you’re lucky you can see something green from your window.

Yet the benefits of being in nature are huge.

Dacher Keltner writes in his book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life:

“Our bodies respond to healthy doses of awe-inspiring nature like we respond to a delicious and nutritious meal, a good sleep, a quenching drink of water, or an uplifting gathering with friends or family; we feel nourished, strengthened, empowered, and alive.”

When we combine being in a beautiful natural environment with mindfulness, good company and movement we are supporting our health and well-being on multiple levels, helping our nervous systems to regulate, and lowering stress.

As Dacher Keltner reports, “…the sights, sounds, scents, and tastes of nature lead to awe-related vagus nerve activation and reduce fight-or-flight cardiovascular response, blood pressure, cortisol, and inflammation.”

A beautiful natural environment, mindfulness, good company and movement will all come together in this special workshop, which also blends two of Imogen’s personal loves – walking in nature and teaching her BodyIntelligence work.

We will meet and walk together at the lovely Newlin Grist Mill Park in Glen Mills, PA. The workshop will include about an hour of relaxed walking time along the easy and flat trails there, punctuated with pauses for instructions, explorations, mindfulness prompts, and check-ins to help you feel more present, connected, and at ease. As you walk there will be time to be social and time to be “with yourself.” The balance is up to you.

This workshop provides an ideal opportunity to “green your brain,” a term coined by Sian Beilock, in her book How the Body Knows its Mind. Beilock writes,

“…nature’s ability to modestly capture our involuntary attention and give the rest of our brain a break creates a big impact on how we function.”

This workshop is designed to help you make the most of being in nature, in a way that will be nourishing and nurturing to your whole self, mind, body, and spirit.

You’ll also learn new ideas and tips you can incorporate into your everyday lives, not only when walking or in nature, but also at any other time to help you feel less stressed and more present and at ease.

Workshop Details:

When: CANCELED

Where: Newlin Grist Mill Park, Glen Mills, PA
(More info at: newlingristmill.org)

Terrain: Easy, mostly flat and unpaved trails.

Amount and Type of Walking: Even though the time allowed for the workshop is two hours, only about an hour of that will be walking, and that will be broken up frequently. There are many benches around the park if you need to rest. However, you will need to be comfortable being on your feet much of the time. It is anticipated that in total we will walk about 1.5-2 miles.

***CANCELED***

Contact: Imogen at imogen@imogenragone.com for more information on future opportunities.

 

Workshop Leaders: 

Imogen Ragone will lead the workshop, assisted by Shay Seaborne.

A long-time client of Imogen’s, Shay and Imogen now collaborate to offer courses and workshops for people dealing with stress or trauma. Shay’s experience as a trauma survivor and her understanding of the neuroscience relating to trauma is paired with practical tools and concepts from Imogen’s BodyIntelligence work.

Since 2020 Shay and Imogen have enjoyed a weekly walk together and have discovered some beautiful places in northern Delaware and nearby in southeastern Pennsylvania. They both appreciate greatly the regulating qualities of walking together in lovely, natural surroundings.

About Imogen:

Imogen Ragone has been a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique since 2006, and a student of the work for well over 20 years. She initially came to Alexander Technique to help her with chronic neck and shoulder pain and tension. It did – and gave her MUCH more than she ever imagined. Imogen has now developed her own unique approach, BodyIntelligence, that offers a path to embodied mindfulness that is gentle and non-coercive. This means it is more accessible and effective when you are feeling stressed or anxious, and makes it especially valuable to traumatized people.

Imogen was born and raised in England, and has now lived in the US for over 30 years. For many years walking has been a daily activity for her. She finds the combination of movement and being outside, especially when including mindful awareness of herself and her environment, to be an important part of her well-being.

 

About Shay:

Former tall ship sailor turned trauma awareness educator, Shay Seaborne, CPTSD, has studied the neurobiology of fear, trauma, and PTSD for nine years. She writes, speaks, and makes art to convey her experiences as well as her understanding of the neurobiology of fear, trauma theory, and principles of trauma recovery. A native of Northern Virginia, Shay settled in Delaware to sail Kalmar Nyckel, the state’s tall ship. She wishes everyone could recognize PTSD is not a mental health problem, but a neurophysiological condition rooted in dysregulation. Our mainstream culture is neuro-negative, and we need to understand we can heal ourselves and each other through awareness, understanding, and safe connection.

 

Questions: Contact Imogen at imogen@imogenragone.com.