The Inner Forest: A Personal Reflection on Yoga & Nature

The Inner Forest

A Personal Reflection on Yoga & Nature

By Farah Naz Gokturk

A Concrete Jungle

The memory is strong in my mind: I’m around nine years old. It is a hot day on the school playground during recess, and I’m sweating profusely after running around the concrete yard lined with even more concrete and chain-link fencing. My eyes track its boundaries for shade, and at plain midday, with the sun blazing overhead, there is close to none. My eyes dart to the very small overhang of tree branches that have breached the school’s property lines from the adjacent building next door. I can’t get there fast enough. I can see from their body language that some of the other kids have the same idea. We are all vying for space along a thin strip of shade with an even thinner, nearly absent breeze. I gain a spot with little respite, as the heat emanating from my body makes me feel even hotter, surrounded by other kids. Is this what it feels like in the desert? There is no sand here but it’s an urban concrete one for sure, I think to myself.

My Eyes Always Searched for Nature

It’s the mid-1980s in Queens, NY. Even then, I had a clear understanding of the benefits of the presence of nature in urban spaces. I often went to sleep with the rumbling sound of the Times Square – Flushing Line train in the distance and was greeted by it upon waking. I was always delighted to hear the sounds of the occasional pigeon hanging out on my bedroom window AC unit, and would ask my parents, “Do you think it will build a nest?” Not likely. Occasionally looking out my window, I would find a few sticks and branches, but I think the pigeons soon figured out that a hot cube of aluminum would not be the best place to raise its young.

My body and my mind craved nature. My eyes would naturally wander on my daily commute to school – my gaze traveling the distance high above the city’s skyscrapers to remind myself where I really was and what I really was a part of. When my eyes rested on the big swath of blue in the sky, I was confirmed. Nature. Earth. Planet. Universe. My inner vision would become clearer, my breath would slow, and my mind would momentarily find an inner sense of quiet, and rest, withstanding even the loudest car horn.

Nature Always Finds a Way

And so the exploration continued. Spring rains provided scents of dew mixed with limestone from city sidewalks mixed with rubber from car tires. Walks along city streets would reveal the smallest blade of grass, busting through cracks in the sidewalk. What strength. What perseverance. Even under hundreds of pounds of man-made stone, nature pushed through.

Living in New Orleans, I found myself in awe of the cracked city sidewalks lifted and broken to pieces by the winding roots of a glorious oak tree, declaring its presence to passersby.

For years, I savored these glimpses of nature, which fueled and sustained me, often providing hope and resilience through challenging times.

Then, Something Shifted

But then, unexpectedly, something shifted. After years of resting my attention on these small fragments of earth, it just wasn’t providing the same relief it had previously done for me time and time again.

I confided in a trusted teacher: Did I need to move? Go on vacation? Travel to the ends of the earth, to some remote place?

She smiled softly and replied,

“Where does the experience of observing these things live in your body? How does it feel?”

I closed my eyes, took some deep breaths, and felt into my body, into my senses, and understood immediately, down to my bones, that those places lived within me—not simply outside of me. I gently cried warm and grateful tears.

The Forest Within

That blade of grass? That verdant, striking, beautiful green frond lives inside me too. When I gaze upon what in my mind is nature’s splendor, I am celebrating that splendor that exists within me, too.

The senses, sometimes referred to as doorways, are a profound way to invite awareness not just of what we perceive and experience on the outside but to our own inner Nature and Wisdom within. In this way, we are reminded that we are intimately made up of, and connected to, Nature as a whole—even at times when we may feel separate from it.

Can this be experienced all in the heart of one breath, one might ask?

Yes.

All you need is your attention, curiosity, sweet breath, and a willingness to journey into that inner forest

About the Author

Farah Naz Gokturk is an E-RYT 200HR Yoga Teacher at Ayurprana’s Asheville Yoga Center in the mountains of Western North Carolina. When she is not teaching yoga, you’ll often find her taking classes there, reading cookbooks, or in her home kitchen while raising her seven-year-old son, Finn, alongside her best friend & beloved husband, yoga teacher/musician Seán Johnson.

Check out Farah’s weekly class schedule here