Welcome to the Evergreen Digital Wellness Practice

Ashley kayaking in Trillium Lake at Mt. Hood in Oregon.

If you're reading this, you've just found the very beginning of something I've been building for a while - the Evergreen Digital Wellness Practice. Before I tell you what we do, I wanted to start with the story that started it, and where I want to take it from here.

During my dissertation, a total riot of a time, of course, I was procrastinating by looking at my social media - a regular occurrence. Writing academic papers, although I like it, is not my favorite thing to do, and a 300-page dissertation is a frieken lot! And this was pre-GenAI! I knew my procrastination was a problem, so I moved Instagram to a different spot on my phone to try to discourage myself from going to it. Literally, within hours, in the middle of my work, my thumb went straight to where the app used to be. I hadn't consciously decided to check it. I hadn't even realized I wanted to. My hand just knew the motion. That moment made me pause - this wasn't a habit I was choosing, it was one that had been built into me without even being aware of it. It was autopilot and I didn't know if I even wanted to be on Instagram! That's the moment I said hmmmm, I should look into this, and thus, began my epic research journey into digital wellness. (If you want the fuller version of that story, including what my coaching experience taught me about the same idea, it's on my About page.)

That moment is why Evergreen exists. But the name is really about where I want this to go.

I have always been drawn to nature and being outside since I was very little. Growing up in Florida, I was a frequent beachgoer and was otherwise playing outdoors, running away from alligators and water moccasins in my neighborhood. In Texas during grad school, both in San Antonio and Lubbock, I hiked trails and enjoyed wildflowers all over the state. In fact, my favorite place in San Antonio was the botanic garden there - best one in the country in my opnion! Then fast forward to my first academic job here in the Pacific Northwest. I was utterly awe-struck the first time I visited for my interview. I didn't know anything like this place existed in real life, just in the movie Twilight.

Now that I've lived here a few years, I am still awe-struck at the beautiful, changing seasons and people savoring them, the life in the forests from the biggest eagle to the smallest jumping spider (who I named Harold), the peace and stillness when I hike or take a forest bath, and especially the trees that stay green year-round. I didn't know I was searching for it, but I have found my home. Evergreens don't lose their color when the seasons change. They don't need perfect conditions to stay green - they hold steady through rain, through cold, through the exact kind of long, gray stretches the PNW is famous for. That's the vision behind this practice - it's not a 30-day digital detox or a trend that fades by spring, but something built to last through every season of a real, busy, notification-filled life.

Here's where I want to take it. Right now, that means workshops, keynotes, and research-based resources for teams and organizations ready to build a healthier relationship with technology - not through guilt or pure willpower, but through understanding what's actually running the show. Looking further ahead, I want Evergreen to grow into something rooted even more literally in nature, bringing in forest therapy and eventually hosting retreats, so this work isn't just something people learn about, but something they get to fully step into.

That's the vision: a practice that starts with a single workshop and grows, season by season, into something people can return to again and again.

I'm really glad you're here.

— Ashley