Saturday, Sept. 10 and Sunday, Sept. 11, Midcoast Conservancy is offering a Wellness Weekend in the Woods at Hidden Valley Nature Center in Jefferson. Nia Dance workshop and Forest Bathing will be held on Saturday, and Stand-up Paddleboard Yoga will be offered on Sunday.

Anna Fiedler will lead the Nia Dance class from 10 to 11 a.m. Nia is an energizing barefoot cardio workout that connects body, mind, and soul. Through Nia, participants can safely explore and enhance their potential to live a healthy and meaningful life by engaging their senses and listening to their body. Nia combines dance, martial arts, and mindful movement to leave practitioners energized, mentally clear, and emotionally balanced. Nia is non-impact and adaptable to individual needs and abilities. Each class starts with setting a focus. The group will then warm up, dance their hearts out, and cool down, followed by stepping back out into daily life.

Fiedler is a certified Nia blue belt teacher who has taught Nia since 2007. She enjoys creating space for others to connect together to tap into their power and well-being through movement.

Forest Bathing will run from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday. Forest Therapy is a research-based framework for supporting healing and wellness through immersion in forests and other natural environments. In Japan it is called "shinrin yoku," which translates to "forest bathing." Studies have demonstrated a wide array of health benefits, especially in the cardiovascular and immune systems, and for stabilizing and improving mood and cognition.

In general terms it is described as a practice of making contact with nature and “taking in the atmosphere” of the forest. Leader Susan Bickford will guide people through several invitations to awaken their senses and slow down, slower than they are used to going. Participants will be invited to notice what is in motion along the trail, to sit with a certain tree for a bit. The group will share its observations in council. The class won’t walk very far, maybe a mile in the three hours of the workshop. Forest Bathing is a gentle restorative and meditative way of being in nature. At the end, participants will share a foraged tea.

Bickford, a lifetime Maine resident, received her Forest Therapy Guide certification from the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy and has been guiding walks since 2017. Bickford has been combining forest therapy and art for years crafting collaborative events in nature.

SUP yoga (SUP is short for Stand-up Paddleboard) combines paddle sports and yoga practice. The class, to be held on Sunday from 10 to 11:30 a.m., will paddle out onto Little Dyer Pond and drop anchor before flowing through a 90-minute yoga session on the water. Tucked away in the Northwest corner of Hidden Valley Nature Center, the group will breathe in the quiet calm of the pond as they balance on their boards.

Sarah Anne Plummer has been teaching yoga and Group Exercise classes for the last 30 years. She most recently completed her 200-hour Baptiste certification with Melanie Burns at Wicked Good Yoga in Wiscasset, Maine. Plummer is the owner of Maine Outdoor Yoga, https://www.maineoutdooryoga.com/ and teaches in several studios in the Midcoast as well as on Pemaquid Beach.

Participants can register for each class separately; the cost is $15 per workshop. To learn more and sign up, go to https://www.midcoastconservancy.org/events.