Blue Mind Partners + Practitioners

Organizations, Groups, and Individuals Putting Blue Mind into Action

"When you are drinking water, drink water, drink only water. That is meditation." - Thich Nhat Hanh, True Love: A Practice for Awakening

"Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

AmpSurf is a non-profit organization established to Promote, Inspire, Educate and Rehabilitate all people with disabilities and their families through adaptive surfing and other outdoor activities.

Blue Gym: University of Exeter Medical School. A growing body of evidence suggests that time spent in or near natural water environments, such as the coast, rivers, lakes and inland waterways, can promote health and wellbeing. We are conducting a series of multi-method studies to investigate the psychological and physical health benefits of exposure to natural water environments, with researchers working on a number of laboratory and field based studies, as well as secondary data analyses. Co-host of Blue Mind 4 Summit, June 2014.

Blue Marbles Project. Sharing gratitude by passing a blue marble through every hand.

Brown Girls Surf envisions a world in which female surfers are connected, collaborative, and engaged in using surfing as a force for personal empowerment and positive social change.

The mission of Bruckner Chase Ocean Positive is to positively impact how we feel, think and act towards our oceans and ourselves.

Casting for Recovery was founded in 1996 in Manchester, Vermont, the unique brainchild of a breast cancer reconstructive surgeon and a professional fly fisher. CFR began as a local grassroots group with a big heart and an original national vision, and quickly received endorsements from medical and psycho-social experts for its innovative healing program model while at the same time provoking intense interest by national media.

Child Mind Institute is dedicated to transforming mental health care for children everywhere.

Fleahab is a sober living environment in Santa Cruz, California that includes surfing sessions and other sports outings with big-wave surfer Darryl 'Flea' Virostko.

Heroes on the Water helps wounded warriors relax, rehabilitate, and reintegrate through kayak fishing and the outdoors.

I Am Water Trust was founded in 2010 by passionate ocean lovers who believe that mankind and nature cannot survive without each other.

J Duclos is a law and policy boutique based on Independence Wharf in Boston, one of the world’s most intellectually vibrant cities, leading a global practice, assisting individuals, private and hybrid organizations, and governmental units with matters of personal to international significance.

The Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation Ocean Therapy is an adaptive surfing program to assist individuals coping with mental and physical illness in accessing the ocean environment.

MariMed Foundation conducts ocean wilderness therapy experiential treatment & education programs.

National Veterans Summer Sports Clinics offer adventure sports and recreational activities including sailing, surfing, and kayaking and cycling to those who were recently injured.

Ocean Matters: You may not remember when it happened, but chances are the sea at one time or another stole your heart. One deep breath at the beach and the weight of our troubles retreats along with her tide. We escape to her shores when we need perspective, lay on her warm sands when we need rest, and float in her bracing blue weightlessness when we need solace or fun. The sea protects us, feeds us, connects us, tells us about the shape of our heart. And we in kind are called to do the same for the sea. So come along with us for an adventure and discover what the sea has to teach us.

Operation Surf: Healing Honoring Heroes.

Outdoor Outreach is transforming lives by connecting and empowering at-risk and underprivileged youth to make positive, lasting changes in their lives through comprehensive outdoor programming.

Park Prescriptions is a movement to create a healthier population by strengthening the connection between the healthcare system and public lands across the country.

Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and disabled veterans through fly fishing and associated activities including education and outings.

Projeto Surfar (Brazil) Promover a inclusão social, a cidadania, diminuir a evasão escolar através do Esporte, Lazer, Educação, Cultura, Arte, Saúde e Oficinas de Geração de Trabalho, Emprego e Renda, levando o Conhecimento de acordo com a exigência do Ambiente e dos interessados as quais queiram participar das Oficinas que oferecemos, formando pessoas capazes de lidar com as diferenças e com a austeridade, tornando-os mais livres de preconceitos e mais tolerantes, trabalhando em todos os campos para a construção de um ser humano melhor.

River 2 Recovery

This is an inclusive project that builds skills, builds lives, and builds boats! It’s a team-focused venture that brings together people living with mental health challenges, with a shared purpose: to build five rowboats and journey down a stretch of the Murray River, from Albury to Yarrawonga/Mulwala, in NSW, Australia.

Rivers of Recovery is dedicated to providing rehabilitation to physically and psychologically injured combat veterans through innovative, outdoor-based therapies and pioneering research.

Row 2 Recovery runs Miliitary Para-Rowing and is raising funds for Help for Heroes with Atlantic Para-Row events.

Sea Legacy uses the power of visual storytelling to create an emotional connection to the sea and inspire change.

Soul River’s space provides not just a haven for anglers but also acts as an incubator embracing our next generation of diverse outdoors people.

Surf Prevention Blog: Surf et Sante.

Surfers Healing was founded by Israel and Danielle Paskowitz.Their son, Isaiah, was diagnosed with autism at age three. Like many autistic children, he often suffered from sensory overload-- simple sensations could overwhelm him. The ocean was the one place where he seemed to find respite.

A former competitive surfer, Israel hit upon an idea--with Isaiah on the front of his surfboard, and Izzy steering from the back, the two spent the day surfing together. Surfing had a profound impact on Isaiah. Israel and Danielle decided they wanted to share this unique therapy with other autistic children. They began to host day camps at the beach where autistic children and their families could be exposed to a completely new experience of surfing.

Team River Runner (TRR), established in August 2004 by kayakers in the Washington, DC area, is a primarily volunteer non-profit organization run by a council of kayakers and overseen by a board of directors. TRR was initially established to help active duty military personnel wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan who were recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. With the success there obvious and the opportunity elsewhere apparent, TRR expanded to other Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) chapter sites in 2007.

Veterans Ocean Adventures creates an opportunity for veterans to experience the healing power of water. VOA provides opportunites for disabled veterans to experience open ocean sailing, kayaking and SCUBA diving through a partnership with Shake-A-Leg Miami and the Miami VA Medical Center. Once participants have completed the Introduction to Water Sports program and express a desire to advance to blue water sailing, Veterans Ocean Adventures provides an introduction to cruising in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas. Select participants may continue on to join a leg of an ongoing world circumnavigation.

WaterWay Babies: Water-based method to improve your child's physical and mental development.

The Wave Project: Changing Lives Through Surfing.

 

“Perhaps swimming was dancing under the water, he thought. To swim under lily pads seeing their green slender stalks wavering as you passed, to swim under upraised logs past schools of sunfish and bluegills, to swim through reed beds past wriggling water snakes and miniature turtles, to swim in small lakes, big lakes, Lake Michigan, to swim in small farm ponds, creeks, rivers, giant rivers where one was swept along easefully by the current, to swim naked alone at night when you were nineteen and so alone you felt like you were choking every waking moment, having left home for reasons more hormonal than rational; reasons having to do with the abstraction of the future and one's questionable place in the world of the future, an absurdity not the less harsh for being so widespread." - Jim Harrison, from the novella, The Man Who Gave Up His Name