mindful communication Archives - Mindful Ecotherapy Center

Dear friends of the Mindful Ecotherapy Center,

Our YouTube content is moving to Substack! We are announcing that, effective November 1, 2025, we will transition our primary online platform from YouTube to Substack. This decision is about integrity, equity, and ensuring our content is shared in a space aligned with our values of inclusion, ecological healing, and relational community.

What prompted this move

While YouTube has been immensely useful for building our community and sharing guided ecotherapy content, there is growing evidence that the platform systematically treats LGBTQ+ voices and related content in ways that conflict with our mission. Below are some of the key issues we find incompatible with our commitment to inclusive healing.

Demonetization and algorithmic suppression of LGBTQ+ content

A significant investigation found that videos with LGBTQ‑related vocabulary in titles such as “gay”, “lesbian”, or “transgender” were disproportionately flagged for advertiser‑unfriendly status even when they contained non‑sexual, educational material. For instance, one study noted that 33% of a small sample of queer‑titled videos were demonetized by YouTube’s automated system. The Independent | The Verge
Such suppression means that LGBTQ+ – friendly creators and educational voices can lose revenue or reach not because of content quality, but because of identity or subject matter.

Restricted discoverability and youth access limitations

YouTube’s “Restricted Mode” has been shown to hide even benign LGBTQ+ videos from younger audiences precisely when access to affirming representation matters most. One analysis noted that educational LGBTQ‐themed videos were being flagged or hidden under age or content restrictions even when they lacked explicit sexual content. Gnovis Journal | mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl
For the work of the Mindful Ecotherapy Center, which often reaches people seeking connection, healing, and authenticity, such limitations create a barrier to access and undermine our inclusive community goals.

Unequal enforcement of harassment and viewpoint bias

Though YouTube’s public hate‑speech policy lists “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression” as protected classes, in practice, creators and commentators have raised concerns that harassment directed at LGBTQ+ people is not consistently or effectively challenged, while automated systems penalize non‑harassing queer content. A class‑action style lawsuit alleged that YouTube “systemically” discriminated against LGBTQ+ creators by suppressing their content while allowing hostile materials to persist. Google Help | classaction.org
For an organization like ours, committed to relational community and mindful ecological healing, this dynamic is simply unacceptable.

Lack of transparency and accountability

Because many decisions around monetization, filtering, and recommendations on YouTube are driven by opaque algorithms, creators often cannot even understand why their videos are restricted or suppressed. Research warns that such algorithmic discrimination is real and structural. PubMed
We believe the platforms that host our work should be transparent and aligned with the ethics of inclusivity, not opaque gatekeepers.

What Substack offers us

Moving to Substack allows us to reclaim more control over distribution, monetization, and community access. Specifically, we will:

Ensure that content related to queer ecology, inclusive healing, and relational practice is treated equitably, without hidden restrictions tied to identity or keywords.
Provide direct access to our community without relying on hidden algorithms that decide who sees what.
Offer a platform where creators and members can engage safely, with fewer intermediary commercial constraints and clearer transparency.
Build a relational, intentional space rather than relying on broad‑reach broadcast models that may de-prioritize marginalized voices.

What this means for you

Starting Nov 1, 2025, all new guided sessions, interviews, reflections, and video content that were formerly posted on YouTube will be hosted on our Substack channel.
Existing YouTube content will remain accessible for the transition period; however, we encourage you to subscribe to our new Substack channel to ensure you don’t miss anything.
You’ll receive email notifications and be able to access posts, videos, and community dialogue in one place on our Substack feed. This means you won’t have to log in to a separate YouTube account to view our video content.

We invite you to join us!

Thank you for being part of this community grounded in mindful ecotherapy, relational healing, and inclusive belonging. This platform shift is a commitment to you, to our creators, and to the Mindful Ecotherapy Center’s values of equity and access.

Please subscribe here:

With gratitude,
The Mindful Ecotherapy Center Team

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below! And don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter!

There are six skills of mindful awareness in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). They are divided up into “what” skills and “how” skills. The “what” skills are what you do to be mindful, and the “how” skills are how you do what you do to be mindful. The worksheet linked below lists and briefly describes each of these skills.

What and How Skills of Mindful Awareness Download

The “What” Skills of Mindful Awareness

Observing

When we are preoccupied with thoughts of the past or the future, we are in thinking mode. Thinking mode takes us away from experiencing the world directly with our senses. In thinking mode, we are living in our heads instead of living in the moment.

The first of the skills of Mindful Awareness teaches us to focus on the world experienced directly by our senses: touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight. Experiencing life in sensing mode introduces us to a richer world. It’s impossible to be bored or apathetic if you treat each experience as if it is happening to you for the first time, through your senses.

The skill of observing involves shifting out of thinking mode and into sensing mode by observing what you are experiencing in the present moment through all of your senses.

Describing

The next of the skills of Mindful Awareness involves observing the smallest details of an object, event, or activity, then describing the experience in a non-judgmental fashion. Describing means approaching each daily activity as if you are experiencing it for the first time. Explore as many dimensions of it as you can. When we gain experience with this technique, we can apply it to other areas of our lives as well.

For example, by looking at your negative thought processes and identifying and labeling them as such, you are better able to recognize them simply as processes, and not as part of who you are as a person. DBT teaches you to describe experiences without judging them or labeling them as “good” or “bad.” Instead, you can label them as merely thoughts or feelings, while remembering that thoughts and feelings are not facts.

Participating

Mindful Awareness allows you to experience every aspect of an activity. We have a tendency, when in thinking mode, to see things and activities as either “all bad” or “all good.” This is not necessarily an accurate depiction of reality. Most activities aren’t inherently good or bad. We’ve taught ourselves to think of them in such terms, but we can also teach ourselves to think differently.

Think about an unpleasant activity that you have to engage in regularly, such as washing the dishes or taking out the trash. Can you think of any pleasant aspects of these activities? There are enjoyable aspects to every experience if we train ourselves to look for them. Even if we find ourselves caught in an activity in which we can find no pleasure at all, at least we have the pleasure of thinking about how good we’ll feel when the activity is over!

Life occurs in the present moment. Mastering the art of participation allows us to get the most out of life in the present.

The “How” Skills of Mindful Awareness

Non-judgmental

The first of the “how” skills of Mindful Awareness teaches us the art of acceptance. Emotional reactions to our circumstances are natural, but that doesn’t mean that we have to respond to these emotions. There’s no such thing as a “wrong” feeling. What may be “wrong,” or less effective, is how we choose to respond to the feeling.

The mindful skill of being non-judgmental teaches us that we can experience emotions without engaging in cycles of behavior that lead us to negative consequences. We can choose which thoughts and emotions we wish to respond to, and which just to sit quietly with, in “being mode.”

Being non-judgmental means seeing the world as it is, without judgments or assumptions. When we can do so, we have achieved Beginner’s Mind or Child’s Mind, which is the art of experiencing everything as if seeing it for the first time, without judgment.

One-mindful

Being “one mindful” simply means focusing on one thing at a time. Being one-mindful allows us to live in the present moment.

Emotional dysregulation often occurs because we tend to focus on all the emotionally overwhelming aspects of a situation while thinking we have to do something to fix it. Wanting to fix it is “Doing Mind.” Being one-mindful allows us to shift to “Being Mind” and just be with the emotion without having to do anything about it.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. If you focus on the thousand-mile journey, you’ll become so emotionally overwhelmed you’ll never take the first step; but if you instead just focus on the step that’s in front of you, and then the next step, and then the next, you will eventually complete the entire journey.

The most effective way to do this is to first ask yourself, “What is the smallest thing I can do in this situation that will make a difference? Do that, and then if you have any energy left over, you can focus on the next step, and so on, until the journey is completed.

When you learn to do this, you will have learned to be one-mindful.

Effective

This is probably the most important of the skills of mindful awareness because it teaches us to focus on solutions, not problems. We can talk about problems all day, but until we start talking about solutions, nothing will ever get solved. The way to solve a problem is to take positive, intentional steps towards finding a solution.

A mindful life is a life lived deliberately and effectively. It is a purposeful life. Being effective means solving problems in a purposeful, intentional manner. The way to be effective is to begin by asking two questions:

What is my intention in this situation?
Are my thoughts, feelings, and behaviors going to help me to achieve this intention?

When we live using the skills of mindful awareness, our thoughts, behaviors, and actions always support our intention. When we learn to do this, we have learned how to be effective.

Mindful Ecotherapy Center on YouTube

Subscribe to the Mindful Ecotherapy Center’s YouTube channel to bring peace, presence, and healing into your daily life. Our videos guide you through mindfulness-based ecotherapy practices, including forest bathing, tree planting rituals, nature meditations, and reflective exercises for grief, stress, and emotional well-being.

Whether you’re seeking to reconnect with the natural world, cultivate inner calm, or find restorative tools for personal growth, our content offers practical guidance, inspiration, and community support. Join us to explore the transformative power of nature and the skills of mindfulness, and start your journey toward balance, resilience, and deeper connection today!