June 5, 2025

Here we are, with troubles coming at us from multiple directions, living in what some call a “polycrisis” Whether it’s climate, politics, economics or pandemics, it’s easy to think of a thousand things, mostly external to ourselves, over which we have little control.

What about things we do have more power over? These include habits of thought and personal practices that shape how we relate to the Earth, to others and even ourselves. 

The leaders and teachers at Fort Worth’s Mind Body Ecology Institute (MBEI) tell us that such changes could promote the flourishing of people and the Earth and even help address some of those external issues.

BEING THE CHANGE

Such flourishing does not come from a technological magic bullet or the guidance of one leader or group, the MBEI says. Instead, it comes from wisdom and practices drawn from all of us, from various cultures and from the Earth itself.

TCU professor Dr. Blake Hestir is president/cofounder of the Mind Body Ecology Institute. Courtesy of MBEI.

Dr. Blake Hestir is president/cofounder of the nonprofit MBEI, from which he draws no fee or salary. He is also professor of philosophy and associate director of CALM Studies at TCU. “CALM” is an acronym for “Compassionate Awareness and Living Mindfully.” 

In 2015, Hestir shifted the emphasis of his teaching, focusing on self-care and community health in the context of our interdependence with the Earth, Indigenous practices and Western science. The new classes have proved very popular, and in 2022 he co-founded the Institute together with Sarah Sampson, CHOKE (her name is “Creating Her Own Kinetic Energy”), and Alex Julie. 

MBEI is located in a lovely historic district of Fort Worth, and has directors, teachers and advisors in California, New Mexico, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, and of course here in Texas. The Institute offers events both online and in places like the mountains of Colorado and Costa Rica, with an increasing focus on Texas. For example, they provided a recent three-day retreat at a ranch near Glen Rose, Texas which will be repeated in October. None of the MBEI offerings take place at the Institute’s location in Fort Worth. 

Not only is there diversity in their directors and teachers, the goals and methods are very multifaceted. 

“The work of the Institute is experiential, it’s community and nature-based, and it’s educational,” according to Hestir. 

The website says, “Our programs weave western science and humanities with global Indigenous and contemplative wisdom along with nature-based mindfulness and somatic practices to cultivate reverence for the preciousness of life in all its rich diversity.” 

CREATING COMMUNITY

Creating a community where participants can share their experiences in and feelings about nature is one of missions of the Mind Body Ecology Institute. Courtesy of MBEI

In our discussion on Hestir’s front porch on a sunny morning surrounded by flowers and bird song, all of that fit together.

MBEI wants to reach a broad spectrum of people ages 21 and over, including parents, public school teachers, elders and people who have traditionally been excluded or marginalized through events hosted throughout the year. Some programs, such as the online Circle of Community in Connection, are free. Others, such as multi-day retreats in Costa Rica or underwater meditative experiences based on the Caribbean island of Bonaire, have varying fees.

“When we come together, either online or in person, we take time to share stories and appreciate the lived experiences that each person brings and appreciate the land that we are occupying,” Hestir explained. “There is deep gratitude practice. and then we move into what the challenges are. A lot of our work involves touching into our feelings of eco-grief, anxiety, despair, anger, fear about what’s happening and what’s going to happen.”

MINDFULNESS PRACTICE

The Institute seeks to bolster our resilience when confronting those emotions. When we let ourselves explore those feelings in a supportive group, acknowledging them and knowing we are not alone is helpful. Additionally, the MBEI uses practices such as mindfulness that teach us to sit with various feelings and thoughts without being overwhelmed by them. 

Hestir described mindfulness as, “Bringing a gentle attention to our sensory, emotional, and cognitive experiences, with a sense of curiosity and trying to avoid being judgmental.” 

Practicing mindfulness, even for a beginner, can bring a number of benefits, but longer practice (such as in a retreat) and frequent practice deepen those benefits. 

Mind Body Ecology Institute participants have reported positive benefits from the program months after participating in retreats. Courtesy of MBEI.

"One of the things that is characteristic of the Western world view is the idea that the self is somehow separate from nature,” Hestir said. “There’s a hard distinction that we make between mind and body, and between self and nature.” 

We see ourselves as set apart from the rest of the Earth and we act in our own individual interest. 

And that gives rise to problematic ways of seeing our relationship with the planet. 

“Even in wonderful conversations about environmental sustainability I hear talk of preserving our natural resources, as if the Earth was there as a resource for us to use and a receptacle for us to dump our waste.” 

For Hestir, this is an offensive idea.

“It’s Mother Earth. Do you take from the Mother and dump your waste on the Mother? So we gotta get over that — and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

RETREAT

That recent retreat in Glen Rose, titled “The Ecology of Resilience,” took place at the High Hope Ranch, a 1,000 acre working ranch that offers guest houses, camping, hiking and other activities. Regarding the retreat, the MBEI website says, “The program weaves movement, discussion, and community building into an exploration of the relationship between our inner/outer landscapes and emotional resilience.”

A table spread at a Mind Body Ecology retreat. Courtesy of MBEI.

Hestir said, “If you were to come to an in-person program, the flow of the day would be some teaching in the morning, and then a land practice, and then a movement exercise, and after lunch another movement exercise, then some more teaching, reflection, journaling.” 

With, he noted, some really delicious organic food throughout the day.

I was curious about movement exercises, what the Institute calls “somatic movement.” Hestir told me that one way of getting ourselves out of our heads and into our bodies is with this free-form movement to music. 

Is it dancing? Maybe calling it that would be off-putting for some. 

“If you told me, 15 years ago, ‘Blake you’re gonna be dancing,’ I would have said ‘no way!’”

One of the directors and cofounders is Sarah Sampson, who runs the Dallas Movement Collective. Hestir said that many of the MBEI in-person programs include movement facilitated by her, using rhythmic music. They find that such movement is important in opening the senses. 

“So that as we walk on the land, with the plants and animals, we are coming at it in a less cognitive, more intuitive place,” he said, adding that it releases a lot of pent up energy, frustration or anger.

LONG TERM EFFECTS

How do these events, and the practices being taught, affect participants? The Institute collects anonymous self-reports from in-person program participants about the impact of the experience. To capture lasting changes and perceptions, they wait more than three months to ask these questions. 

One hundred percent of respondents said that they were “more connected to nature,” had “more compassion for nature and other people,” as well as “a wider sense of community and belonging.” 

Other items such as “improvements in mental health and emotional resilience” were endorsed at greater than 90 percent.

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