About us

Nature in mind is an educational organization designed to help people re-connect with the beauty and vitality of the natural world. Our underlying philosophy, supported by scientific research, is that sustaining a deep connection with nature is fundamental for human health and well-being.

Research has shown that time spent mindfully engaging with nature is very effective for increasing resilience, decreasing stress, boosting creativity and improving memory and cognitive function. Contact with the natural world has also been shown to improve physical health through reducing inflammation, increasing immune function, and supporting the body’s natural healing process.

At Nature in mind we run workshops, courses, tours, and retreats that show people how to mindfully engage with nature in a deep and sustained way, teaching skills, practices, techniques and exercises to help you get the most benefit for your mind and body out of your contact with the natural world.

Through working with us you will learn to use the natural world as a resource to help support you in stress management and improving the overall quality of your life. This can be done by learning ways to connect with nature on a daily basis that provide mental and physical nourishment.

By consciously engaging with nature we naturally develop emotional connections with life that motivate us to care for our local environments and develop a kinship with all living things. Through our interactions with nature we cultivate generosity, care, kindness, and compassion for the world around us which naturally boosts our own happiness too.

Research shows that mindfulness can help to increase focus and attention, improve creativity, develop resilience, increase positive emotion, improve physical health, and decrease stress. Therefore, a mindfulness-based approach to the natural world is a powerful combination that can dramatically improve your health and well-being by mindfully digesting regular doses of vitamin ‘N’.

Evan Dwan

My name is Evan Dwan and I am the co-founder and co-creator of Nature in mind. I am a qualified Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) teacher and a health and well-being coach. For all my professional life, I have been involved in teaching and education, working in primary schools for 10 years and completing a Masters in Education.

From a very young age I have always been fascinated by the natural world and loved to play and connect with nature, sensing intuitively the goodness that was to be found there. Being in the outdoors has always been the greatest source of sustenance, energy, and inspiration for me and I love activities like surfing, hiking and swimming that allow me to engage with the natural world, providing my life with a rich fount of well-being.

Combining mindfulness practice with nature experiences brings together two things I am very passionate about. The sense of peace, calm, joy, and well-being that are found in both has a huge resource in helping me in my own life and this is something I am very motivated to share with others. The combined health hit they contain, I believe, provides the perfect antidote to the stress and busy-ness of modern life.

Barry Lee

My name is Barry and I am the co-creator of ‘Nature in mind’. I trained as a lawyer and have worked in that field for the last ten years. I have always loved the outdoors and deep down I always felt that sitting inside all day, staring at a screen is a very strange and unnatural thing to do. But if everyone is doing the same thing, then that becomes “normal” (no matter how insane it actually is!).

My grandfather was a forestry inspector and one of my earliest memories is digging in the back garden with him, planting vegetables and flowers and learning how to identify different species of trees. Being in nature has always felt like home for me. The day to day stresses and worries of life have always seemed to melt away when I’m outside under the vast sky, feeling the earth under my feet and the breeze on my skin.

Over the years, I have trained as a mindfulness-based stress reduction teacher with the Institute for Mindfulness Based Approaches and I also trained as a yoga instructor over a period of three years with Ashtanga Yoga Dublin. It often struck me…. why do most people practice meditation “inside”? My own most vivid moments of peace and connection have always happened “outside”, under the sky, in the ocean or moving through a forest.

The health benefits of mindfulness practice and time spent connecting with nature are now scientifically well established. They are complimentary and are the foundation for my own personal health and well-being. I am passionate about sharing this message with others and helping them to experience the peace and beauty that is always waiting for us outside in the natural world.