This interview with wilderness guide, Zen coach and nature connection facilitator, Roy Ashton, was recorded in May 2020—during lockdown—with Roy’s beard at the max and my hair in a bizarre parting. I was a little nervous to start with (as you’ll see—truly, I cringe) and then had a blast.
This was originally intended as a practice interview in the lead-up to our collaboration on primitive yoga trails (walking safaris) in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. But Roy said so many beautiful things that I’ve decided to share our chat belatedly, just as it is.
Highlights of part 1 [00:00 to 13:19]
Roy’s extensive experience exploring and learning in wild areas
His first (really quite simple) experience of “beauty”
Finding a community and philosophy that incorporated a scientific naturalist approach with experiential ecology, in which the experiencer was an important part of what was being explored
What wildness is (“what is wild is self-willed”, in the words of Jay Griffiths) and why wildness draws so many of us
The mistaken assumption that our culture is representative of human nature—and whether it’s helpful to see ourselves as an enemy of the natural world.
Highlights of part 2 [13:20 to 27:30]
A brief nod to my own struggles with more stoic forms of meditation
The “sit spot” (and its origins): “The best way to get to know and be connected with nature is to have a personal, intimate relationship with one place/spot”
Our tendency to disturb nature when we interact with or experience it, and how the sit spot offers the very opposite
How the act of keeping still in one place allows the birds and animals around us to settle back into their most relaxed state and “to be themselves”
The power of being in resonance with the natural world.
Highlights of part 3 [27:31 to 46:52]
What a wilderness (primitive) trail is plus characteristics of a true wilderness area
The value of a digital detox, including the effects on the eyes
Following and trusting our curiosity versus planning and control
Roy’s own transition between wilderness and “normal life”—and how his time in the bush has changed him and his perspective on the modern world (I think his comment that “we force ourselves a lot” will resonate with many of us).
Highlights of part 4 [46:53 to 55:57]
How yoga complements the experience of a wilderness trail (and my sense of “bringing yoga home, in a way that I understand”)
My longing to practise asana outdoors and to embody—and even express—the natural world around me
The importance of inviting play and fun (as well as deep introspection and embodiment)
The potential for yoga to feel more deeply relational in a wild setting, rather than self-focused and/or insular
Roy’s final profound words right in the middle of a technical hitch—heheh—and our sweetly awkward goodbye.
Roy Ashton is a wilderness guide, Zen coach and nature connection facilitator who hosts transformative processes in nature. He has lived and worked on four continents, including time spent living with hunter-gatherers. Roy’s MA in Environmental Leadership led to an immersion in nature awareness, tracking and survival skills training. He is currently based in the Republic of Congo, where he is doing his PhD research on hunter-gatherers.
