Lessons from the MAP

Have you ever fallen while adventuring in the outdoors? In this bonus episode, Jamie shares what falling off her bike has taught her about life... and how she is helping her daughter learn the same lessons.

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Contributors: Jamie Blackburn and the Inner MAP Project (host, creator, producer). Alex Lee-Ammons and For The Love Media (Producer, Editor, Cover Art and Design). Original music by Sounds Like Sander.

Calling lovers of all things travel: this episode is for you! Jamie sits down with Christine Winebrenner Irick, host of the Soul of Travel podcast and owner of Lotus Sojourns, a community of women who desire transformative travel experiences.

From formal travel education to adventure cruises, Christine's experience in the travel industry is deep and wide. She and Jamie talk about the experience that launched her into a travel career, her desire for diversity from an early age, and the beauty of soaking oneself fully in a cross-cultural experience.

Do you feel an affinity for Christine's ethos of travel? The Lotus Sojourns community might be perfect for you. Lotus Sojourns gives adventurous, mindful women the opportunity to join our global community connected by aligned values and transformational experiences.

To keep up with Christine and Lotus Sojourns -
Follow Lotus Sojourns on Instagram,
follow Lotus Sojourns on Facebook,
visit the Lotus Sojourns website,
and subscribe to the Soul of Travel Podcast.

Contributors: Jamie Blackburn and the Inner MAP Project (host, creator, producer). Christine Winebrenner Irick (Guest). Alex Lee-Ammons and For The Love Media (Producer, Editor, Cover Art and Design). Original music by Sounds Like Sander.

Jill Rice Robinson is the owner of MIndful Nature Guides and Jill Robinson QiGong in Los Angeles, California. In this final conversation of the season, she and Jamie talk about the sensory world and how taste, touch, smell, and other tactile information can enhance the mindfulness experience in nature.

Jill's experience with QiGong (a mind-body practice of flowing meditative movement and breath) informs so much of how she experiences and talks about the outdoors, and soaking in this interview will have you considering your own outdoor adventures in a different, more energy-based way. She and Jamie also talk about the nature available in your backyard, how we gauge and manage energy, and what our nervous system has to do with nature.

We highly recommend listening to this episode while birdwatching in your backyard, at your local park, or spending time outside.

Jill helps people tune in to their own power to build and sustain a foundation of good health and vitality.  Students discover new ways to develop resiliency, strength, mobility, agility, and equanimity while also improving overall physical and mental health.  Jill is certified as an Integral QiGong and Tai Chi Community Practice Leader by the Institute for Integral Tai Chi and QiGong (IIQTC).  She is a certified Baptiste Yoga Instructor, a Kripalu School of Mindful Outdoor Leadership (KSMOL) certified Mindful Outdoor Guide, and a Wilderness First Responder.  

To keep up with Jill and Mindful Nature Guides, email [email protected] or  -
Visit Jill's website,
Follow Mindful Nature Guides on Instagram,
follow Mindful Nature Guides on Facebook,
or visit the Mindful Nature Guides website.

Become a supporter of this podcast on Patreon! 

Schedule a call to map your journey with Jamie here.

Contributors: Jamie Blackburn and the Inner MAP Project (host, creator, producer). Jill Robinson (Guest). Alex Lee-Ammons and For The Love Media (Producer, Editor, Cover Art and Design). Original music by Sounds Like Sander.

Can you imagine a world where our children are taught to revere the natural world? What kind of adults might those children grow up to be? In this interview, Jamie talks to her longtime friend Erin Saunders, the Education Programs Director at Thorne Nature Experience. For seventeen years, Erin and her staff have lead community environmental education programming, serving over 12,000 youth each year. 

She talks about her first experience loving nature, stumbling across a seabird covered in oil. She and Jamie discuss nature-based education, the barriers to being in nature, and adapting to community needs. The global pandemic has changed the face of education, and Erin talks about how Thorne Nature Experience has stayed agile in the face of safety changes.

To keep up with Erin -
Follow her on Facebook,
Visit the Thorne Nature website,
and visit the Thorne Nature Preschool website.

You can get in touch with her at [email protected].

Become a supporter of this podcast on Patreon! 

Schedule a call to map your journey with Jamie here.

Contributors: Jamie Blackburn and the Inner MAP Project (host, creator, producer). Erin Saunders (Guest). Alex Lee-Ammons and For The Love Media (Producer, Editor, Cover Art and Design). Original music by Sounds Like Sander.

Welcome to March! In this bonus episode, Jamie talks about Mud Season - when snowfall melts and moisture abounds in the Colorado high country and front range. She shares her experience of a recent slog on her mountain bike through mud and the lessons we can draw from Mud Season.

Did you know you're not actually supposed to avoid the mud on the trail? Trail etiquette says we are supposed to stay the course, not to stray even when we want to move around the mud. Where in your life are you feeling the thickness or lethargy of muck? Where are you moving through hurriedly because you just don't want to be in the mud anymore?

Mud Season asks us to stay patient, to remember that life sometimes requires a slog, and to stay the course: even when it feels difficult.

Become a supporter of this podcast on Patreon! 

Schedule a call to map your journey with Jamie here.

Contributors: Jamie Blackburn and the Inner MAP Project (host, creator, producer).  Alex Lee-Ammons and For The Love Media (Producer, Editor, Cover Art and Design). Original music by Sounds Like Sander.

What does Aziz Ansari in a hot tub have to do with hiking the Pacific Crest Trail - a 2,600 mile trail along California, Oregon, and Washington? You'll find out about this and more in this interview with Kelsey Miller!

Kelsey is an adventurer at heart. She started her career in tech, and in her 20s decided to hike the PCT with her husband. This is a grueling, months-long "full-time job" where one walks, eats, and sleeps - only to repeat it the next day. Upon re-entering the "real world," she quickly left the tech world and founded Bucket Magazine, an outdoor adventure mag that serves as a travel guide to unique destinations. In this interview, she and Jamie talk about the thru-hiking experience, creating community around outdoor adventure, and the healing salve that nature provides.

Her unabashed willingness to say "yes" to life is contagious and will have you itching to plan your next outdoor adventure!

To keep up with Kelsey -
Follow her on Instagram,
follow Bucket Magazine on Instagram,
and visit her website.
You can get in touch with Bucket Magazine at [email protected].

Become a supporter of this podcast on Patreon! 

Schedule a call to map your journey with Jamie here.

Contributors: Jamie Blackburn and the Inner MAP Project (host, creator, producer). Kelsey Miller (Guest). Alex Lee-Ammons and For The Love Media (Producer, Editor, Cover Art and Design). Original music by Sounds Like Sander.

Ayurveda - translated to the "Science of Life" - isn't about getting it right: it's about balance. Ayurvedic Expert Andrea Claassen talks about her journey through wellness, yoga, and eventually her foray into Ayurveda (yoga's sister science.)

She and Jamie discuss the way our doshas (constitutions) can present in our lives, how imbalances present, and give us a birds' eye view of the scope of the Ayurvedic practice. They also discuss seasonal cleanses - different than your average juice cleanse! - and why it's so beneficial to cleanse at the turning of the seasons.

Deepen your knowledge of Ayurveda and listen to the Peaceful Power Podcast, hosted by Andrea.

Intro to Ayurveda from Banyan Botanicals

To keep up with Andrea -
Follow her on Instagram and visit her website, where you can sign up for the Seasonal Living Collective beginning on March 21.

Educate yourself, and learn about Yoga Sadhna and Appropriation in Ayurveda.

Contributors: Jamie Blackburn and the Inner MAP Project (host, creator, producer). Andrea Claassen (Guest). Alex Lee-Ammons and For The Love Media (Producer, Editor, Cover Art and Design). Original music by Sounds Like Sander.

Do you see yourself represented in the outdoor industry? As a black woman, Parker McMullen Bushman (who you may know as Kween Werk) struggled to see herself in the industry and is here to change that. She and Jamie talk about Parker's journey into the outdoors, growing up in a culture of "colorblindness," and more.

Parker is a dynamic speaker whose passion for justice, accessibility, and equity is evident in everything she does. She engages audiences in new thinking around what it means to be an inclusive leader and diversity change agent by building capacity for transformational change.
You'll leave this episode inspired by the moves she is making in diversity in environmental organizations and green spaces.

There are so many  ways to get involved in equity in the outdoors - one of them being Ecoinclusive, which Parker mentions in this conversation.

Here is the Life Expectancy research Parker mentions, as well as the Digital Green Book GoFundMe through Inclusive Journeys.

To keep up with Parker -
Follow her on Twitter,
Follow her on Instagram,
Follow her on TikTok,
Purchase something from the Kween Werk Clothing Line,
Like Kween Work on Facebook,
Like Eco Inclusive on Facebook,
or email  [email protected].

Contributors: Jamie Blackburn and the Inner MAP Project (host, creator, producer). Parker McMullen Bushman (Guest). Alex Lee-Ammons and For The Love Media (Producer, Editor, Cover Art and Design). Original music by Sounds Like Sander.

"When we get present to where we are in our own lives, miracles happen."

This conversation has roots. Deb Kulcsar, outdoor development and education extraordinaire, hired Jamie as an outdoor educator for the Science Discovery wilderness camp program. This conversation is a weaving of past and present, education and environment, the beauty of being connected to nature, and the pain of losing its preciousness as life changes.

We hear about Deb's early and intuitive hit of knowing that she had to focus on outdoor education, and the consequent prolific career in outdoor education that followed.

She and Jamie talk about meeting wolves face-to-face, the gift of being an outdoor educator, and honoring the indigenous land that we recreate on.

Follow Deb on Instagram.

Follow Deb on Facebook.

Email Deb at [email protected] and learn more about Find Your Ground Coaching here.

Contributors: Jamie Blackburn (host, creator, producer). Deb Kulcsar (Guest). Alex Lee-Ammons and For The Love Media (Producer, Editor, Cover Art and Design). Original music by Sounds Like Sander.

Brittany Charboneau (AKA "The Funny Runner") is not your ordinary, race-winning runner. In this interview, she brings her whole comedy-practicing, art-loving, mindful self. She gives us a view into approaching a serious endeavor with playfulness and humor, meditation as a way to shape your ability to be present, and the beautiful benefits of rest.

Brittany and Jamie talk about Brittany's foray into running, the ways connection supports her athletic life, random facts about U.S. presidents, and Bob Ross (seriously.) You'll leave this hour-long interview with a renewed sense of looking at your own goals with presence, bite-size goals, and liveliness.

It is Brittany's mission to inspire confidence by sharing her journey, chasing her dreams with laughter, and playing in the magic of the unknown.  She runs to the beat of her own drum and helps others find and own their 'weird'. She is a coach, runner, and North Face sponsored athlete. Visit her website here and follow her on Instagram here.

To join the FREE Self Love Challenge from February 8-12, go to www.innermapproject.com/love

Contributors: Jamie Blackburn (host, creator, producer). Brittany Chaboneau (Guest). Alex Lee-Ammons and For The Love Media (Producer, Editor, Cover Art and Design). Original music by Sounds Like Sander.