Staying on-brand with her first name isn’t a struggle for Dawn Feuerberg.
“I am a morning person,” said the Morro Bay-based life coach, teacher, and avid surfer, who begins each day with a meditation immediately upon waking up, usually at first light.
She’s kept up this ritual for more than a decade, barely skipping more than a few mornings since 2015.
“The reason why I meditate in the morning—and that’s what I recommend to my students—is because there’s this moment between waking and deep sleep, … this unconscious state we can take advantage of in the early morning,” Feuerberg explained, “[to] reach more of a higher state of awareness.”
Feuerberg regularly leads outdoor meditation events in Morro Bay and Cayucos, and encourages newcomers who attend, as well as those who sign up for her multi-week meditation courses, to make a habit of continuing meditation practices at home.
She recommends spending at least five minutes in the morning meditating after waking up naturally (it doesn’t have to be at sunrise) and using a specific device to track those five minutes without clouding the mind.
“Once we get up and look at the phone for the first time and see a text, our brain starts going. So, I tell my students to get an oven timer, and keep it by their bed,” Feuerberg said. “Even if they have to [stay] in bed or … they can find a spot on the floor, sit down, and set the timer for five minutes, they can just do these basic meditations that I teach.”
When it comes to Feuerberg’s outdoor meditation programs, her stance on keeping phones out of the picture remains consistent.
“My goal is to get people off those apps—the calming apps, the meditation apps—because, really, you want to be able to meditate with just yourself,” she said. “So, that way if you’re out on the beach, [or anywhere] out in nature, without your phone, you should be able to sit and only use the resources you have.”
Cushions, on the other hand, are among the supplies one should consider when planning an outdoor meditation outing of that sort, but Feuerberg’s meditations aren’t limited to those where you’re sitting on the ground.
She often incorporates walking meditations into her events, including her shamanic morning ritual program, held most Fridays at outdoor locations in Morro Bay or Cayucos depending on the week (keep up with the program’s schedule or reserve your spot through my805tix.com).
“It includes some cardio. We actually do a 20-minute brisk walk, but it’s with intention. It’s with awareness that we’re hitting our feet on the ground, and connecting to the earth,” Feuerberg said. “[We’re] barefoot on the ground.”
Through her company, Aurora Sacred Events and Classes, Feuerberg also hosts outdoor yoga workshops, fire ceremonies, and retreats throughout the year. Not all of her yoga events take place at the beach, but when they do, she provides yoga mats (as she does during her other yoga programs). But participants are welcome to bring their own mats, as long as “they don’t mind getting them sandy,” she said with a laugh.
Outside of her private multi-week programs, Feuerberg described many of her ongoing events as “semi-private,” as some are limited to about four people, and others don’t always reach a large group capacity.
For her, it’s a win-win regardless of how many people sign up for those, because she’d be out there on her own doing the same activity otherwise, she explained. Being her own boss, she keeps things flexible that way.
“The attitude is, well, if only two people show up, it doesn’t matter because I was going to do it anyway. And when I have that attitude, it fills to like 20 [participants],” said Feuerberg, who isn’t quick to cancel an event due to a lack of attendance. “The weekly ones ebb and flow. Sometimes it’s two people, and they get the benefit because they’re not getting charged [extra] for a private session.”
This article appears in Get Outside – Winter/Spring 2025.