Embracing Nature: How Walking is the Ultimate Yoga for Mind, Body, and Breath November 16 2025
- rockbriarfarm
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
I just returned from the Azores on a hiking trip with 4 women that I did not know well. I am sure you are chuckling thinking, there must be some good stories! While the trip did provide inspiration for several topics, it particularly got me thinking, yet again, about what yoga is. This was not a yoga trip, we did not attend any yoga classes, and I am not aware of anyone else practicing asanas on the trip except for me. I hear some of my high school friends saying, “What? You didn’t make them take a yoga class taught by you? Nope, I did not know them well enough to strong arm them with guilt about the mind body connection or the “after all that hiking we should stretch” lecture. If they are reading this, I hope they are not afraid of including me on another adventure!
As I hiked through some of the most beautiful natural scenery that I have ever seen, I thought about how that activity was yoga. We know that yoga means to yoke, specifically the mind, body and breath. While the asanas (poses) are one part of yoga, much of yoga is focused on healing and restorative breath work and meditation. In fact, an asana practice is truly a moving meditation, particularly when practiced alone or when one experiences that all-encompassing inwardly facing state in class. I have taken some classes that when it is finished, I look around and think where did all these people come from. To me that is yoga bliss.
When we practice yoga asanas, we regulate the pace of our practice with our breath. When we are hiking, we also learn to regulate our pace with our breath and often find a rhythm or flow to our steps. When we hit our stride, the mind may empty of thoughts and we can become totally focused on being present in each moment, in each step. We find silence as our mind goes blank and we find ourselves open to what surrounds us. When I walked this past week, I noticed the smells that wafted across my path. Sometimes they were mossy and damp deep in the woods, other times briny and sharp as we hiked near the sea. The pungent smell of manure and silage was often a sensory back drop to our hikes as we passed by cows grazing in fields on the mountainside. I noticed the steps on the ground were sometimes soft with pine needles, rough rutted and rooty or sandy and dense. As we hiked, in silent moments I became aware of the sound of wind off the sea, bird song in the forest or the sound of farm animals as we crossed pastures. During these hikes I felt immersed in nature, united with and fully present in my surroundings. Not unlike that all-encompassing yoga practice that I mentioned earlier, I found moments that were almost trance like, my mind silent feeling as if I were truly a spectator, a silent witness to the beautiful natural world unfolding around me.
When we explore the eight limbs of yoga, we talk about pratyahara. This fifth limb in its simplest definition is “withdrawal of the senses” or the bridge from the external to more internal meditative limbs of concentration (dharana) and meditation (dhyana). That same inner silence (pratyahara), is the prelude to dharana, the concentration focused on something. Judith Lasatar discusses pratyahara explaining that “training the mind to not engage with sensory input, pratyahara helps quiet the "leaky vessel" of the mind, allowing it to hold the focus and stillness needed for deeper meditation.”
I believe what other yogis have said before that hiking is for some a moving meditation. I have written before about Thich Nat Hahn and his walking meditations. He was ordained as a monk in Vietnam at age 16. He envisioned a kind of Buddhism that would respond directly to the needs of society. He was a teacher and social activist in his home country before finding himself exiled for calling for peace. In 2019 he was the first recipient of the Gandhi Mandela Peace Medal.
The late Thich Nhat Hanh emphasized the practice of mindful walking as a profound way to deepen our connection with our body and the earth. He believed that the practice was an effective way to reconnect with the present moment and discussed the yoking of the body and the earth and to find peace in the act of walking itself. I love that he focused on the purpose of the walk, not the arrival to a destination. He advocated the use of affirmations or mantras in walking and to slow down and be present with each mindful step. Important aspects of his walking methods included embodying reverence for the Earth, being aware of one’s breath, and finding a peaceful, steady rhythm.
My recent trip also reminded of what has motivated me to go on my hiking trip to Cinque Terre and Peter and my biking trip to Thailand: my craving to see as much of the world as I possibly can, my desire to push myself physically and my gratitude for what I can do. I am yet again inspired to experience more of the world, hopefully walking or biking it versus on a tour bus!
This week in our practice let's find yoga in the unexpected: the random walks, the baking of bread, raking leaves. Yoking our mind, body and breath, this too is yoga.
Our Practice - Hiking As Yoga
I am a huge advocate of warming up for activity with slow walking, down dog pedaling, cat and cow and gentle twists and save most of the stretching for after walking or any other strenuous exercise.
After hiking, a short practice including the following poses would be great:
• Standing forward fold
• Down Dog
• Low lunge
• Half Split
• Pyramid
• Easy Pose breathing and letting hips open, spine long.
• Pigeon and or Lizard
• Seated Forward fold
• Seated or supine twist
My best advice is to listen to your body and do what feels good, stretching gently and helping your muscles restore.
Meditating on Nature and Walking
If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive. ~ Eleonara Duse
Elenora Duse (1858-1924), was an Italian actress, rated by many as the greatest of her time. She performed in many countries, notably in the plays of Gabriele d'Annunzio and Henrik Ibsen. Duse achieved a unique power of conviction and verity on the stage through intense absorption in the character, "eliminating the self" as she put it, and letting the qualities emerge from within, not imposed through artifice.
Walking Meditation – poem by Thich Nhat Hanh
Take my hand.
We will walk.
We will only walk.
We will enjoy our walk
without thinking of arriving anywhere.
Walk peacefully.
Walk happily.
Our walk is a peace walk.
Our walk is a happiness walk.
Then we learn
that there is no peace walk;
that peace is the walk;
that there is no happiness walk;
that happiness is the walk.
We walk for ourselves.
We walk for everyone
always hand in hand.
Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom under our feet.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Print on Earth your love and happiness.
Earth will be safe
when we feel in us enough safety.
For more on Thich Nhat Hanh and walking meditation, please visit the following article.
Nurturing with Food
While I do not have any great Azorean recipes to share with you, I will admit to loving their pepper sauce which they serve with the local soft cheese (and yes, I did have some!). My friend Rogean and I go to an Azorean restaurant every December on a shopping trip near Gloucester, MA and I often buy olive oil and other things they sell at the check out. I have bought this sauce before and had not yet opened it. I tried it there and have opened it since I got back - putting it on everything!
While on the trip I got in the habit of making salad every night for the group. Inspired by that, I am copying links to a few of my favorite salads, again! However, nothing is as good as the kitchen sink salad you make with what you have!
Green Bean Salad
See you on the mat!
Namaste,
Julia Anne
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