About
Nature's Pace
What Does Nature’s Pace Do?
Zen teacher, David Loy, said “it’s hard to love something if you don’t have a relationship with it.” Agreed. It’s very hard to have a relationship with nature if we don’t get out there and BE IN it. Nature’s Pace was created in 2018 to help kids and adults revive their relationship with nature, and inspire personal wellness.
For youth programs, that means exploring wooded trails with the freedom to climb trees, scramble over boulders, march through streams, hold frogs, build tree forts, smell wildflowers, swing on vines, slide on frozen ponds, paint the snow… you know: PLAY!
"In the end, we will only protect what we love.
We will love only what we understand.
We will understand only what we are taught.”
~ Baba Dioum, Senegalese poet and naturalist
Meet your guide: Ashley Cummings
Ashley grew up in Andover, MA and moved over to North Andover in 2008. Teaching has always been her passion, and has been an elementary school teacher for the past 19 years starting in Haverhill and now in Boxford. In the summers before having children, she also helped run a summer camp.
As a kid, Ashley had woods in her backyard so she would spend a lot of time exploring and building forts with her best friend. In the years after having kids, she has enjoyed spending time outdoors with them, summers at Steven's Pond, hiking trails like Weir Hill, and combing beaches for sea glass.
She met Nature's Pace Founder, Christine Cohne, in 2022 when her kids joined Nature Pace's after school programs. They loved having an activity to do that explored trails and nature. When Christine decided to pass down the program, Ashley jumped on the opportunity to keep it running, as it meant so much to her kids!
Meet the founder: Christine Cohne
Christine Cohne founded Nature's Pace in 2018 as a grassroots small business in North Andover, MA to help get youth playing outside and engaging with the natural world. As a Forest Therapy Guide and former nature preschool teacher, Christine's knowledge of the impact that time in nature has on a person's physical and mental wellbeing was the impetus for creating Nature's Pace.
Benefits of Spending Time in Nature:
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decreases stress, cortisol, and stress related depression/mood disorders
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regulates blood pressure & heart rate
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increases immunity
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relaxes the prefrontal cortex through involuntary attention (Attention Restoration Theory)
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activates the parasympathetic nervous system to "Rest & Digest" state
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enhances focus & creativity
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cultivates a reciprocal relationship with the more-than-human world
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increases compassion & empathy
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increases prosocial behavior