Life coach Jennifer Schelter, one of the area’s most prominent proponents of yoga, which she has been teaching at Morris Arboretum and other area locations for decades, will be undertaking a new adventure at the Philadelphia Zoo.

Called “Pause in Nature, an exclusive creative wellness experience,” the mindfulness experience scheduled for 2:30 p.m., Oct. 14, will differ from a typical visit to the zoo because, as Henry David Thoreau noted, we are “part and parcel of Nature.”

“Instead of the cagey-arms-length distance between humans and animals as a form of entertainment,” Schelter told the Local last week, “Pause in Nature will be to slow down, have some quiet time, observe animals and note how their lives are interconnected to our own vitality, wonder and joy.”

During Pause in Nature, there will be short, guided meditations, walking, reflective writing prompts, poetry about nature, exclusive private animal encounters and paying close attention to the animals. Schelter, who says she is also an explorer of higher consciousness, insists that participants will feel the benefits of openness, curiosity and wonder.

“I was recommended by Jamey Delaplane, a zoo board member and Germantown Friends School friend,” Schelter explained. “His idea was to bring mindfulness and emotional intelligence to the zoo’s initiative to transform interactions with the animals. This past May I visited the Philadelphia Zoo and met Kristen Waldron and Laura Stevens. They took me on a memorable and magical tour.”

“They shared multiple conservation efforts at the zoo, the celebration of a 100-year-old tortoise giving birth, and the bird sanctuary, and I got to feed Stella, the giraffe,” Schelter continued. “I learned so many good people are working to preserve animals and give them a space to thrive before returning them hopefully to the wild. It transformed my 1970s’ childhood view of sad cages and became about the future of understanding zoos as educational, emotional, intelligent spaces for humans to value interacting with animals for the beauty and preservation of the wild.”

Feeding Stella the giraffe was a pivotal moment for Schelter. “I learned from her peaceful being and loved the way she tugged on the acacia branches, stripping the leaves with her rounding black tongue,” she said. “That connection with animals and taking note in a reflective, articulate way is what will set our two-hour Pause in Nature apart from a regular visit to the zoo. It’s going to be more of an enlightening, soulful encounter.”

Participants will also receive special admission to “Solitude,” the country home of John Penn, William Penn’s grandson, located on the grounds of the zoo. Solitude is the oldest building at the zoo and known for ghosts. A walk in the outdoor bird sanctuary, a one-on-one giraffe feeding and possible encounters with penguins or Tony, the rhinoceros, are also part of the program.

“We will pause in all of these incredible locations to be quiet, meditate briefly, listen to poems on nature or animals and be given writing prompts for reflection,” Schelter said.

After attending Germantown Friends, Schelter — whose mother, Kitsie Schelter, of Wyndmoor, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in her 60s — went to Connecticut College, earning a bachelor’s degree in art history and oil painting. She also played varsity lacrosse and served as captain of the squash team. She earned a master’s degree in acting and classical theater at the University of San Diego and did post-baccalaureate studies in visual art at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

In 2006, Schelter was offered the Lierman Trust for Humanitarian Law’s invitation to join a lawyer, Susan Burke, in Istanbul, Turkey. The pair interviewed Iraqis who allegedly had been tortured by U.S. Army personnel at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.

She has been a professional actress and member of Actors Equity and the Screen Actors Guild, was a yoga instructor on “Natural Reboot,” a reality television program, and wrote and performed “Love Lessons from Abu Ghraib” a dozen times, including a sold-out performance for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in 2007.

Schelter’s memoir, “Some Beauty,” explores identity, beauty, creativity, aging, relationships, myths we tell ourselves, being an artist and learning to belong to one’s self. She has done two readings of sections of the book with Live Radio Arts.

From 2002 to 2012, Schelter ran Yoga Schelter, a brick-and-mortar studio in East Falls. Named “Best of Philly,” it became known for combining yoga, meditation, yoga teacher trainings, creative writing and retreats.

Schelter’s yoga class takes place in a variety of settings. Currently, she teaches Gentle Inspirational Yoga at the Springfield Township Community Center in Wyndmoor on Tuesday evenings. During the summer, she teaches yoga outdoors at Morris Arboretum.

This past summer, she created an interactive poetry project called “The Poet Listens/The Envoi,” for Woodmere. People filled out questionnaires sharing what they longed for, needed to hear more of and loved most. From those responses, Schelter wrote more than 125 individual poems and gave them to the participants as keepsakes.

For more information, visit jenniferschelter.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.