Taking Meditation Out of the Studio and Into the World
A Conversation with Olivia Jimenez
A lifelong student of movement and embodied practices, Olivia has been practicing yoga for over 20 years and has nearly 2,000 hours of training. She is a trauma-informed IAYT certified Yoga Therapist with additional training in Restorative yoga, Prenatal yoga, Children’s Yoga, and Yoga of 12 Step Recovery.
I have always had trouble sitting still. I was a wiggly, outdoorsy kid in a family of indoorsy people in a neighborhood where I didn’t have many kids my own age to play with. I spent a lot of time taking walks and doing cartwheels and willing the trees in the backyard to do something interesting. All that energy got channeled into dance and athletics pretty early on and while I was never a star, I was never particularly competitive either– I was there for the love of the game, for the joy of moving my body.
My back went out for the first time when I was 12. Two years later, I had a series of soccer injuries and an ACL reconstruction surgery on my left knee. Two more years and a slide tackle later, I had an ACL and meniscus repair surgery on the right knee. I started my senior year of high school in a wheelchair. I spent a lot of my teen years re-learning how to move, more specifically how to walk, in a body that felt like it was 80 rather than 18.
My physical therapist told me I should try yoga, so I’d take classes here and there at a gym or the handful of yoga studios I could access and afford. I could follow the movement, even contort my body into some of the more dramatic shapes for a few rounds of breath, but I certainly didn’t think I’d ever be able to sit still and meditate for any meaningful length of time.
Fast forward about 10 years and 500 hours of yoga teacher training. I was still a wiggy kid, but I’d practiced being still for long enough to have fallen in love with restorative yoga, yin yoga, pranayama and meditation. Sometimes being still even felt easy. Many times, especially after a long seated meditation, I would feel pain flare up. I craved the benefits of stillness and meditation, but needed to find a practice that wasn’t harming me (after all, ahimsa, or non-harming, is an essential teaching of yoga).
About that time, two things happened: I started my Yoga Therapy training and began exploring more and more yogic and meditative practices; and I was invited to lead a weekly Yoga Hike for a local Austin studio. I hiked the same trails almost every week for 5 years and discovered I’d been meditating my whole life! The walks I’d taken as a child, the attention I’d paid to my feet and movement in physical therapy, even my creative practices like theater and dance - these things had focused my attention, harnessed my breath and movement, sometimes even put me in a flow state.
Yoga Hike became one of my most cherished rituals, a way to practice everything I learned in the yoga studio out in the world. Being outside helped to regulate my nervous system. Practicing asana on uneven terrain enlivened my feet and core in new ways and kept my joints and muscles nimble and strong. Moving mindfully kept me alert, kept my senses in check (pratyahara, the fifth limb of yoga), and let me notice something new along the trail each week. Walking briskly got my heart pumping and helped me draw attention to my breath, and helped get me into a rhythm that stilled the movement of my mind. By the time I got to the end of the walk, usually (not always) I felt ready to sit for a little while.
After that studio closed, I kept this practice for myself and am so glad to once again be sharing it with others. Even on the days that I can’t keep my body from wiggling or my mind from wandering, I find that somewhere along the trail there is a moment where my mind goes quiet and my body is content, a moment that sure feels like meditation even if I’m not sitting perfectly still.
I’m delighted to now be hosting this monthly offering through Hola Yoga. I hope you’ll join me Second Saturdays at 9:30AM. Our next hike will be on March 8th at BLANK.
Hola Yoga Hike: March 22nd 9:30AM at Long Hunter State Park
Our Yoga Hike is a 90-120 min experience set on hiking trails throughout Greater Nashville ranging from 2.5-3 miles. Available to book as an individual, with a friend, or as a private group, these weekend excursions combine mindfulness practices with the beauty of a natural backdrop.