WELLNESS & NATURE
As a community we share a responsibility for the health and wellness of our members. In 2020 Whittemore is committed to expanding our health and wellness programming to reach all members of our community. Our goal is to develop and offer programs that support the physical and mental wellbeing of our members. We are proud to offer programs for all age groups as well as autism friendly programs. Programming will focus on three elements of wellness...food, physical activity and emotional wellbeing. The inherent serenity and natural beauty of Whittemore’s woodlands meadows and bodies of water make it an ideal setting to improve your health in nature. We have partnered with Hunterdon Healthcare to offer continued and expanded programming to meet the physical and emotional needs of our community, such as our meditative and mindfulness guided walks. This partnership will also enable us to offer new natural wellness opportunities such as yoga and rock-skipping. Whittemore is committed to helping all of our members achieve improved health and wellbeing. Investing in the health and wellness of our members today ensures a better and stronger community now and for years to come.
- Dr. Ellen Ganek, MD
2020
Mindfulness Guided Walks
Saturday's @ 10am
See Schedule below
Meditative Walks
Wednesday's @ 10am
Walking Meditation is a dynamic form of
mindfulness based on meditation.
Walking Meditation sessions provide each
participant with a form of meditation in action.
See Schedule below
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
- John Muir
NATURE
To be fully in nature, absent of thought, is to become nature. Like a drop of rain that falls into the sea, you dissolve into your surroundings and everything personal, the veil that separates us, lifts to reveal the essential unity of all things. We can know intellectually that we are made of Earth, Sun, Air, Rain. We can know that we ourselves are truly the planet itself living and breathing, but without a direct connection with Nature, that is all abstract. Walking the trails of the Whittemore Preserve and stopping intermittently to look and listening and feel into nature, letting the ‘Moment’ catch up to us is a gift. Taking the time to place your palm against a tree trunk or to reach into the stream and feel the cool water flow through your hands, breathing, experiencing life intimately, this is a Zen moment, a peak experience. I believe many of could use more time in nature, physicians should prescribe it, we drive by it all the time on the way to some far less fulfilling experience.