Balanced Rock Foundation
Balanced Rock Foundation is an organization offering enriching programs for the mind, body, and spirit in the serenity within and around Yosemite National Park. These journeys foster individual well-being, support the health of our community and environment, and forge a deep connection to the natural world.
Philosophy and Intention
To fulfill this mission, Balanced Rock programs weave together the tools of
- Mindfulness practice
- Creative expression, and
- Deep connection to the natural world.
Although the specific practices, art forms, and activities of each program will vary from course to course, these three core concepts are the foundation of Balanced Rock. In sharing and teaching these skills and concepts, Balanced Rock helps each participant in their own process of growth, expansion, and transformation on physical, emotional, and spiritual levels. As transformation and healing unfolds in participants' interior landscapes, there is also a transformation the world and culture around us.
Yosemite and home
The wilderness of Yosemite National Park is The Primary classroom, art studio, and temple of Balanced Rock. Yosemite holds a long tradition of inspiring artistic expression and spiritual reflection. In practice, Balanced Rock programing includes exploration of the ecology of the Sierra Nevada, deep reflection and meditation in and on the landscape, recognition of the variety of cultures that live and have made their home here. Yosemite is not a backdrop to the Balanced Rock experience—it is core element of the school's practice and play, one of the primary “instructors” on Balanced Rock courses.
Although Balanced Rock is based in the passion and place of Yosemite, one of our core goals for all programs and participants lies in the transference of experience and learning on course back into their home environment and community. Although the days that participants spend in Yosemite are intense, rich, and full, the real Balanced Rock program begins the moment of returning home, setting the skills, tools, and insights developed on course into daily practice back home. This concept of transference and application is a core element of the entire course, not just an aspect of closure and transition.
Contemplative practice and mindfulness
At the core of the Balanced Rock experience is the cultivation of contemplative practice and mindfulness. This takes many different forms depending on the interests and abilities of instructors and participants. The act of being mindful is simply a way of maintaining a higher level of awareness in daily life action and thoughts. Much of the time on a Balanced Rock program is spent in the daily routines of setting and breaking camp, hiking, preparing meals, etc. There is intention to elevate participants' consciousness so that even these simple daily action become part of a mindfulness or spiritual practice. Mindfulness in daily actions is also strengthened through more formal instruction in the contemplative practices of yoga, meditation, tai-chi, etc. Rather than limiting contemplative practice to the yoga mat or meditation cushion, the practice of mindfulness infuses all of daily actions with a higher consciousness and intention. The intention on courses is to practice yoga from first greetings through the final moment of departure.
Creative expression
A core aspect of the Balanced Rock experience is creative expression as a tool for self-discovery. To this end, each course encourages exploring thoughts and experiences through journaling practice—expressive writing, visual art, collage, etc. As one is engaged in creative art and expression, one is also engaged in different pathways in the brain and body. For most people, working with visual art or creative writing unlocks the right brain hemisphere, giving us access to new connections between our rational and intuitive mind. Creative art also allows us to express the power and complexity of our experiences in contemplative practice—experiences and insights that are often beyond the limits of words and verbal communication. Ancient sequoia trees, moving water, the stillness of the forest and towering granite peaks inspires the artist and scribe in everyone.
Community development
Balanced Rock also holds a strong commitment to community development. Living for even a few days in the backcountry (or in any outdoor setting) in a small group creates an intense connection amongst participants. Yoga, in direct translation from the Sanskrit, is “union”. There are many aspects of “union” in this practice and the union of collective energy and personality within the course environment is critical to successful programming. Instructors work to develop the depth of this community experience through group-based activity and reflection. Again, helping participants to bring these concepts back home is a critical goal of Balanced Rock instruction—how can this same intensity of connection and community be cultivated in our daily home life and relationships.
Service
Service (or Seva) is also a core value in the Balanced Rock philosophy. Our commitment to service manifests on many levels, from volunteer clean-up work in the community of El Portal, California to preparing meals in the field with mindfulness, compassion, and intention. Contemplative and creative practices are powerful tools for self-growth, and yet the cultivation of these practices is primarily to have more energy and insight to offer the world around us.
History
The early seed of Balanced Rock is rooted in finding hope and inspiration in the midst of tragedy. One strand of this story begins when Yosemite Institute instructor Matthew Baxter fell to his death in 1996 while soloing Zenyatta Mondatta, a hard route up El Capitan. It was reported in Accidents in North American Mountaineering that Matt’s rope severed behind a sharp granite flake when he took a lead fall. Yosemite Institute (YI) Instructors and Yosemite climbers in general were greatly saddened by Matt’s death, and many colleague’s of Matt’s spoke highly of his wonderful qualities and his adventurous spirit.
In the wake of Matt’s death, an award fund was set up is his name by his family and in conjunction with YI. In early 2000 two of the recipients of this award were Tana Leach and Heather Sullivan, whose ideas were to start a non profit called Wild Women Workshops. The purpose of WWW was to bring women together in the back-country, in a spirit of shared strength. The women of the Yosemite community were in dire need of such strength following the disappearance and [...] of several women in and around Yosemite, culminating in the tragic [...] of Yosemite Institute naturalist Joie Armstrong in 1999. A debilitating feeling of fear crept over the area, and with the inevitable media barrage that followed the discovery of Joie’s body, many people and especially women struggled to cope with the magnitude of the events at hand. Simple pleasures, like an afternoon jog or hike, were suddenly not so simple for women of the Yosemite area. “How can I possibly feel safe?” was a prevailing, if sometimes unspoken, sentiment.
Out of a sense of frustration and healthy rage over the pall that had descended over the community, Yosemite Institute coworkers of Joie Armstrong decided to do something positive.
Many of Joie’s coworkers were climbers, and Yosemite rock climbers know about fear. Lead climbing a vertical crack one thousand feet off the ground is about competency in the face of enormous pressure. Getting to this level requires many cumulative hours of self-doubt, many hours of standing at the base of various routes, battling the voice that says, “no, you will die…”. When the voice that says no is loud, and the voice that says yes is tiny, just committing to that first handhold feels like it takes all the courage in the world. Afterwards, when the climb is over and the pressure is off, there is a desire to scream in triumph because the tiny voice that said yes was right, and you knew it all along. Repeating this process, and gaining inner strength and determination as a result, is a key part of the rock climbing experience for many climbers.
The women who worked with Joie Armstrong were Yosemite rock climbers and passionate wilderness leaders who knew a thing or two about overcoming fear. Sensing that they were in a position to help foster a renewed sense of strength in the lives of women in the Yosemite community, a few of Joie’s coworkers decided to take a risk. After Joie’s death, starting Wild Women Workshops seemed a courageous and therapeutic thing to do. Heather Sullivan and Tana Leach applied for and received the Matthew A Baxter III award, as seed money for this ambitious venture.
Wild Women Workshops ran programs in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Alaska, Nepal, and the Mojave desert before morphing into Balanced Rock Foundation in 2007.