First Cohert Recap
| First Cohert Successfully held in Markham
On July 31, 2025, the first session of Lens to the Heart: A Mindfulness Journey in Nature—a public mental wellbeing workshop organized by the International Psychology Association of Canada (IPAC) and jointly funded by Celebrate Markham Cultural Events, Canada Service Corps (CSCC), and the Canada China Federation of Entrepreneurs—successfully concluded.
From mindful hiking and analog photography to a facilitated roundtable workshop, the experience was filled with exploration, awareness, sharing, and resonance.
The group gathered at Rouge River Community Centre and journeyed together along the Forest Hill Trail and Forest Therapy Trail.
Beginning in nature, participants stepped away from the pace of work and daily demands. Holding film cameras that offered no immediate feedback, they entered a slower rhythm of waiting and observing—allowing subtle, meaningful moments to unfold and be noticed with intention.
| A Mindful Journey Through Nature
During the first mindful hiking session, we began with grounding stretches—an invitation to reconnect with the body. Stepping away from paved paths, we moved closer to the earth, entering deeper into the trail. As we walked, our bodies slowly awakened from the fatigue of work, our pace softened, and we found ourselves not only moving through nature, but also drawing closer to ourselves.
Pausing by the stream and walking through the forest, we practiced five-senses awareness, gently exploring the boundaries and textures of sensory experience. When attention was placed solely on hearing, sounds that once faded into the background—the flowing water, birdsong, and even the distant hum of airplanes overhead—became vivid and amplified.
| Reflection In the Forest
During moments of sharing in the forest, some participants noticed that even when they attempted to focus on a single sense, other senses continued to arise—unable to be fully “switched off.”
Through vision, life in the water, flickering points of light, wind lifting ripples across the stream, and contrasts of shadow and brightness came into view. Shifting attention to smell, the subtle scent of leaves was almost imperceptible. In touch, many were surprised by the striking difference between how things appeared and how they actually felt—revealing a gap between expectation and direct experience.
| Awareness and Sensations
Reeds, shifting tree shadows, flowing water—being fully present within it all, participants began to merge with the rhythm of nature itself. It was an experience of the senses gradually expanding and opening, as awareness widened moment by moment.
We then distributed disposable film cameras and invited participants to follow gentle prompt cards for a mindful walking and photography practice. There was no conversation—only movement guided by one’s own pace. The camera became an extension of awareness, capturing subtle details often overlooked in daily life, and allowing attention to rest fully in the act of seeing and being.
| Roundtable Discussions
One week later, we gathered again for an in-person psychological roundtable, holding the freshly developed film photographs in our hands and revisiting the traces left during the mindful walk.
Participants shared their reflections:
“It feels like it’s been a long time since I last held physical photographs in my hands.”
“Seeing the developed images made me truly experience the charm of photography.”
“It’s very different from framing shots on a phone and constantly deleting—this kind of delayed gratification feels entirely different.”
Through the slow process of film, emotions that had quietly accompanied the walk began to surface, take shape, and be gently named—much like images slowly emerging in the darkroom.
Each developed photograph evoked a different emotional response. Some brought surprise, others a sense of regret. As we shared the stories behind each image, meaning began to unfold.
One participant spoke of a composition where a fence and plants coexisted within the frame—a quiet reminder that only with boundaries can freedom be fully felt.
Another shared how an unremarkable sign along the roadside unexpectedly mirrored their work experience, creating a moment of reflection and resonance.
Someone photographed cracks carved into a tree trunk by time, likening them to the rings of bodily memory—each person carrying and writing their own recent history.
Plants growing in different soils echoed how we learn to adapt and breathe in changing environments, while a stone path resembled a passage leading into a fairytale world.
We spoke of nature’s quiet impact, of transitions in life, of emotion and order, and of the tension between control and letting go. Even when walking the same trail, each person carried away something entirely different. In that moment, photography was no longer about technical skill, but about self-interpretation and meaning-making.
| Artistic Collage: Integration and Expression
In the second half of the roundtable, we continued expressing through collage and fluid art. Those out-of-focus, blurred, or seemingly “imperfect” photographs were given their own place—they became backgrounds of color, holding up the flutter of butterfly wings, carrying fallen leaves, and tracing invisible emotional pathways between nebulae and soil.
We did not evaluate whether the artwork was “beautiful.” What mattered was whether something was truly felt and honestly expressed. Here, connection did not come from external definitions, but from repeated moments of inner response and recognition.
