Written by Tanya — Yoga Alliance RYS 200 (ID 252157), trained at Devvrat Yoga School, Varkala, India (December 2025). Tanya teaches Hatha and Yin yoga at Your Ritual Yoga in Golders Green, NW11.
The practice does not begin when you step onto the mat.
It begins the moment you choose to leave the house. The decision to move towards something quiet, something nourishing — that is already a form of practice. And the walk to class, if you give it a little attention, can become the first chapter of your ritual rather than just a logistical inconvenience to get through.
Golders Green and NW11 are, quietly, well-suited to this kind of pre-class wandering. The tube connects easily to the high street. Hampstead Garden Suburb stretches out in tree-lined calm just to the east. Golders Hill Park — one of London’s most underrated green spaces — offers a short, genuinely restorative circuit.
Here are three routes worth knowing.
Why the walk in matters more than people think
The pre-class transition state
Most of us arrive at a yoga class directly from something else: a desk, a meeting, a commute, a school run, an argument with someone in traffic. We carry that energy into the room, onto the mat, into the first few poses. It often takes a third of the class just to begin to settle.
A short, intentional walk functions as a decompression chamber. It gives the nervous system a few minutes to begin its shift from reactive to receptive. You arrive already partway present, which means the class itself can go further.
Research on “green exercise” — movement in natural or semi-natural environments — suggests that even brief exposure to trees, open sky, and quieter streets reduces cortisol and lowers the perception of stress. You do not need a park for this. A slightly slower walk down a familiar road, with attention on the breath and the feet rather than a phone, produces a measurable shift.
The walk in is free. It costs only the willingness to use it.
Route 1: Tube → studio via the high street
This is the simplest option — and, done with intention, still effective.
Starting point: Golders Green Underground Station (Northern Line)
Duration: 8–12 minutes on foot depending on pace
Character: Urban, but the pace is entirely yours
From the station, resist the instinct to walk quickly. Turn the pace down by about twenty per cent — a speed that feels almost uncomfortably slow if you are used to commuter pace. This is intentional. The slight awkwardness of walking slowly on a busy pavement is itself a practice in resistance to the ambient urgency around you.
Notice the sensory details of the high street: the colours, the sounds, the smell of bakeries and coffee. Not to consume them but simply to register that they are there. This is a form of pratyahara — sense withdrawal redirected inward — dressed in ordinary clothes.
If you have headphones, take them out for this leg. Arrive at the studio having heard the neighbourhood, not a podcast.
Route 2: Hampstead Garden Suburb amble
Starting point: Temple Fortune / Finchley Road area, or accessed from the east side of Golders Green
Duration: 15–20 minutes at an easy pace
Character: Very quiet, almost rural feeling within Zone 3
Hampstead Garden Suburb is one of those corners of London that surprises people who have not walked it. Wide, tree-lined roads, Arts and Crafts architecture, very little traffic, and — particularly in the early morning or early evening — an atmosphere of genuine quiet that is rare this close to central London.
Walk through the suburb from the Finchley Road end, heading towards the studio via the quieter residential streets. Notice how the absence of shop fronts and fast-moving vehicles changes the quality of your attention. The nervous system downregulates more readily without the visual noise of a commercial high street.
This route works particularly well before a morning class. Arriving with damp air, birdsong, and the light coming through plane trees — the body is already beginning to soften.
Route 3: The Golders Hill Park loop
Starting point: North End Road or Golders Green Road entrance to Golders Hill Park
Duration: 20–25 minutes including time in the park
Character: Green space, gentle elevation, open sky
Golders Hill Park — the western extension of Hampstead Heath — is a small but genuinely lovely park: a walled flower garden, a hill with views across North London, old cedar and oak trees, and a sense of enclosure that the larger heath does not always offer.
A pre-class loop need not be ambitious. Enter from the Golders Green Road side, walk gently up to the hill viewpoint, pause for two minutes looking outward, then descend through the flower garden and exit towards the studio.
The elevation change is small, but even gentle uphill walking wakes the breath and shifts the body’s sense of itself in space. By the time you step off the grass and onto the pavement, you have moved, breathed, seen the sky, and remembered — even briefly — that you exist in a body, not just in a screen.
This route is particularly recommended before Yin classes, where arriving in a quieter state makes the long holds feel less like an endurance challenge and more like a relief.
How to use the walk as breathwork practice
Slow-walk breath count: in for 4, out for 6
This is the simplest breathwork technique to layer onto any of the three routes above.
Walk at a pace slow enough to breathe comfortably through the nose. Inhale for a count of four paces. Exhale for a count of six paces. The extended exhale activates the parasympathetic nervous system — the same mechanism that Yin yoga and sound healing work with. You are, in effect, beginning your class on the pavement.
If six feels like too long an exhale, begin with in for three, out for five. The ratio matters more than the specific numbers.
After three to five minutes of this, most people notice a distinct shift: the shoulders drop slightly, the jaw loosens, the internal monologue quiets. You arrive at the studio door not as a collection of stress responses in trainers, but as a person choosing to be present.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there parking near the studio in Golders Green?
Yes, Golders Green has on-street parking and nearby car parks. Please check current parking restrictions on the surrounding streets, particularly for evening classes when residential permits may apply.
What if I arrive by car — can I still use a walking ritual?
Absolutely. Park a five-minute walk from the studio rather than as close as possible. Use those five minutes as your transition window. Even a very brief intentional walk makes a difference.
Is Golders Hill Park safe to walk in the evening?
Golders Hill Park closes at dusk. The route is best suited to morning and early-afternoon pre-class walks. For evening classes, the high street or Hampstead Garden Suburb routes are more suitable.
Can I use the breath-count walk on a crowded pavement?
Yes. You do not need to walk slowly to use the breath count — you can adapt the pace and adjust the count accordingly. The key is sustained nose breathing and a longer exhale than inhale.
Check our schedule and find a class time that suits your walk. See this week’s schedule and plan your walk →
About the author
Tanya is a Yoga Alliance RYS 200 certified yoga teacher (ID 252157), trained at Devvrat Yoga School in Varkala, India (December 2025). She teaches Hatha and Yin yoga at Your Ritual Yoga in Golders Green, NW11 — a small, intentional studio where every class includes sound healing with Himalayan singing bowls and a post-class herbal tea ritual. www.ritual-yoga.co.uk
