Trekking Excursions, Morocco and Italy
Connect with yourself and nature (Malabotta Forest in Italy pictured above)
Gabriella Galati leads her mindfulness hikes either from Marrakech, Morocco, or Italy. The excursions combine nature hiking with meditation in settings that connect the wild with inner peace.
Body cells use oxygen to transfer energy stored in food to a usable form. This process, which is called cellular respiration, allows the cells to harness energy to perform vital functions such as powering muscles (including involuntary muscles such as the heart).
Anxiety causes breathing to become shallow, depleting one's body of full oxygen intake. Learning to breathe properly will increase your level of wellness and decrease anxiety dramatically. The exercises you will learn during this walk are easy and effective, do not require complicated positioning or impossible to spell mantra chanting, although some mantra are powerful instruments to facilitate mindfulness.
This workshop is structured to increase your level of fitness both mental and physical. We will walk to natural and beautiful locations, where the air is pure. A reasonable level of fitness is required.
Mindfulness/meditation yields a surprising number of health benefits, including stress reduction, improved attention, better memory and even increased creativity and feelings of compassion. A growing body of scientific evidence is telling us about mindfulness and how it can change the way our brains function.
Neuroscientists observing MRI scans have learned that meditation/mindfulness strengthens the brain by reinforcing the connections between brain cells.
Imlil hike, Morocco
7am: Leaving from Marrakech and driving through beautiful landscapes.
9am: Arrive at Imlil, where we begin with oxygenating breathing practices, then hike along a tree-lined stone path with streams and water falls.
10am: Water mindfulness practice, the location is along a stream with beautiful boulders and water view.
11am: Walk along the path to reach the above village, including walking mindfulness practices.
Midday: You made it to the top. Here you have time to take photos.
1pm: Descend the mountain.
2pm: Lunch at a nearby restaurant.
3pm: Drive back to Marrakech.
5pm: Arrive back in Marrakech.
Malabotta Forest Hike, Nebrodi Park. Italy
8am: Meet at Malabotta access point from Favoscuro. We will begin with oxygenating breathing practices as we enter Malabotta Forest. It is a spell bounding forest with stone lined paths, some of them going back to Roman-times. The paths intersect a forest rich in moss and spectacularly large trees that will transmit peaceful energy with pure oxygen.
9.30am: We reach the 'Boulder camp', which is an area among the trees with huge boulders. We will lay down to relax and initiate bird sound mindfulness.
10.30am: Start hiking back towards the entry point while practicing mindfulness during the walk.
Midday: Finish with lunch at a local restaurant in Favoscuro with local delicacies.
*Essential oils are also used during both hikes.