In Peace
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In Peace
Healing Through Nature- Interview with Dr. Rose Aslan
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A city can keep you busy enough to forget what your body feels like. Then you step into real quiet and suddenly you can hear your own breath again. We sit down with Dr. Rose Aslan, a transformational life coach and former professor of Islamic and religious studies, to talk about nature as a healing practice and a spiritual teacher, especially for anyone feeling overstimulated, anxious, disconnected, or simply worn down by modern pace.
We unpack how her move from massive cities to a small town reshaped her nervous system, her daily rhythm, and her ability to come back to herself. From solo retreats in the Egyptian desert where she began praying for the first time, to a redwood grove that feels like a “redwood masjid,” she shows how outdoor solitude can deepen sincerity, reflection, and gratitude. We also explore the Qur’anic lens on creation as ayat, signs to observe, and how trees and living beings glorify God in ways that can pull us back toward fitra.
You’ll also get actionable ideas: forest bathing as a mindful, sensory practice, slowing down enough to notice what you usually miss, and even ending a walk with foraged tea so you can literally taste the forest. We talk about why many people resist touching nature, why it’s often just lack of knowledge, and how environmental stewardship calls for compassion and responsibility rather than guilt.
Subscribe for more conversations like this, share the episode with someone who needs a breath of quiet, and leave a review telling us what place in nature helps you feel like yourself again.
To book Women 1-1 Coaching/Mentoring, email- healwithdiline@gmail.com
Welcome And Guest Introduction
SPEAKER_01Hello Malaykum, peace be upon you, wherever you are on this planet. Welcome back to NPs where we come together to listen, to reflect, to heal, and to grow. And in today's episode, I'm really excited and delighted to welcome a special guest, a Dr. Rose Aslan, who is coming today to teach us a beautiful teachings on nature, on compassion, and all the treasure that she has. So let me tell you a little bit about Dr. Aslan. Dr. Rose is a transformational life coach, a somatic breathwork, a practitioner, a writer, a podcaster, and a former professor of Islamic and religious studies. She founded a coaching practice centered on rahmah, which means compassion. She also co-founded retreat programs focused on trauma informed and healing. Her very last and recent project is a matchmaking project to bring people together in a compassionate way. Welcome,
A Lifelong Love Of Wild Places
SPEAKER_01Rose. It's a really um delight to have you here. Do you want to start with what really brought us together? The idea of hosting you came to me when I was in a walk in nature, and you came to my mind because you always post about trees and nature and this beautiful practice of reconnecting humanity with where we belong, really. So, do you want to start with telling us a little bit about that and how you use nature to reconnect people with themselves and to heal also?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thank you, Delene, and it's an honor to be here with you today. Um, yeah, nature. I could um talk all day about it. I'd rather do it outside the forest with you, but of course, for practical purposes, we got to be indoors with a microphone. Um, but soon after I'll be outside. Um, you know, I've always been a lover of nature my whole life. I grew up in Northern California, which is an incredibly beautiful part of the world. Um, so we have mountains and deserts and beaches and forests and all kinds of different ecosystems in a small area. So it's really a beautiful place. And I was lucky that my family did bring me um to explore nature and camping and hiking as a girl. And so I grew up with a deep, deep love for nature. And I was I've always been an environmentalist and caring about, you know, things like my water usage, because here in California, we usually have a drought and we need to be very careful about our water usage. Um, and you know, recycling and those kinds of values are things I grew up with. Um, and I've been yeah, I've been lucky enough to travel the world and see so much beautiful nature everywhere. And I've always found it important to take solo time to go into nature. For example, even when I lived in Egypt as a college student, I would take my tent and my sleeping bag and go into the oasis in the western desert of Egypt and literally go alone into the desert, just walk into the desert and go camping. And I always need time for my retreat, and it's always had to happen in nature. Um, I have to leave the city. I've always I've grown up in the city. I grew up in San Francisco, and I've always lived in really, really big cities, including Cairo and Istanbul and Los Angeles. And so, because of the chaos of the cities, I've always needed to leave and find peace outside where I can hear my thoughts, I can hear my body and come back to myself. Because as much as I love the cities, um, I find it overwhelming and overstimulating, and the only way to come back to myself is by leaving and taking a break from the city lifestyle and the noise and chaos. Um yeah, so I've always lived in a city. The last city I lived in was Istanbul, which is a city of 18 million people, and I was so in love with life there, and I did live near a big city park, which for living in a big city, I had some nature nearby to me. But when I look back on it now, I'm like, it's kind of nature, but not really, because it was very loud. Like everywhere in Istanbul is a very loud city, there's so many people, there's so much noise. So my the park I used to go to overlook the Bosphorus. It was beautiful, but there's noise from the roads, there's noise from the um the ships, the big ships and the Bosphorus, like there's the horns from the boats, I guess. Um and the I probably, if you measure the decibel level, it's probably quite loud, even though it's a natural spot in a big city. Um and what happened is that I moved
City Noise Versus Small-Town Quiet
SPEAKER_00back to California a year and a half ago, and I've been living in my current town for the past 14 or so months. It's a town of 7,500 people. Um, I've never lived in such a small town, and I feel like my life has changed dramatically as a result of living in a place that's so quiet, so much calmer than anywhere else I've lived. Um, and as a result of spending so much more time in in like much more pure nature versus urban nature is nice, but it's not the same. But spending time in quiet, um, clean nature without other people um has really transformed my life. And so you saw Yeah, it sounds like what your soul needed, right? I didn't realize. So I've always like, I was like, why am I moving to the small town? I moved to the small town because of my family. I didn't choose to live here, but I wanted to be close to family. I wouldn't have chosen it myself. I would have chosen to move to like there's a city called Oakland and Berkeley in the Bay Area, San Francisco, where I grew up. I'm I'm an urban person. I was like, it makes sense to live where the people are, where there's like cultural activities and events, where it'd be easier to make friends. But Allah chose for me to live in the small town. It wasn't my choice. And for the first six months, I was like, why am I in the small town? It's it's it's an hour and a half away to the big city, like it's it feels um a little isolating, it's too quiet. It's almost like scary how quiet it is. But now I understand why I'm here because I needed it, even though I didn't know I needed it. Allah was like, it's time for you to have a quieter life. Um and so beautiful. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So Rose, how do you feel that nature played a role in your own journey of healing, of health, you know, self-discovery, and also inspired in you to share it with the world through your work and through your practice?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. What was the impact of it? When you asked this question, actually reminded
The Desert Where Prayer Began
SPEAKER_00me that when I became Muslim, I was 19 years old living in Cairo, Egypt. And when I decided I went to zero nature, right? It's so difficult. I don't know, 20 million people, chaos. They don't even have like any parks, period. Um, and even if they have like small parks you have to pay to go in them, it's it's the city that's anti-nature city, um, except for the Nile. Um but when I decided to start praying, when I became Muslim, and I became Muslim without telling anyone, I actually, that's when I took a sleeping bag and a tent and I went to the oasis and I um asked a Bedouin um who runs a camp to drop me off in the middle of nowhere. He dropped me off and I spent, I don't know, maybe six. Yeah, I've always done things that uh are a little bit um dangerous and risky, but they somehow were what I needed. And when I got to that space, I was just in the middle of nowhere and I started praying for the first time ever. It felt easier to do it in the desert where there was absolutely no one. And while the desert is a very scary place at times, it's also incredibly beautiful. I have a deep relationship with different ecosystems, the redwood forest, the desert. I love the desert and the quiet of the desert. And you can see the stars very clearly, right? The sky is so big in the desert. Um, so that's where I started praying for the first time in my life. And I didn't stop in the desert, away from anyone in nature. And when you think about in Islam, like actually in all spiritual traditions, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Jesus, and uh may peace be upon him, and all the great teachers in all the religions, they've always had to leave the city where they're from to experience quiet, to have a closer connection to the divine. So for me, it's been the same. And I didn't think about it, it's just something I did because I knew I needed it. So since I lived here, I'd say my connection to nature has strengthened because it's a much more regular activity. Whereas when I used to live in the city, like once
Meeting Trees Like Old Friends
SPEAKER_00a month, I'll go outside of the city or you know, go into nature. Um, but now it's a daily practice. And I'm getting to know the trees and the flowers and the plants on a really personal basis. Um, when I go on a walk in my favorite park that has, you know, several miles of trails, I'm getting to know like tree friends. It's not like when you go into nature each time a different trail and it's just beautiful. But now I'm getting to intimately know certain trees and certain plants and watching them change throughout the year. Um, you know, is like right now they still have their leaves in a month or two or three, they're gonna start losing their leaves. And it's just it'll be beautiful to witness um their the way that they change throughout the year, um, to see, okay, right now um the different um the the herbal plant, the medicinal plants that I love foraging, they're starting to die off, you know, and they're starting to become weeds. Uh a month ago I was foraging herbs everywhere, but now they're mainly disappeared, right? And I'm waiting for the rains because the fungi, the mushrooms are gonna come up once the rains start. And I'm I didn't used to look forward to the colder rainy season, but now that I've been learning about mushrooms and fungi, I'm very excited for mushroom season because I've I've learned about mushrooms and and I'm excited to go foraging for mushrooms and if I can find edible ones and even the non-edible ones, I like to um learn about them. So I take them home. I take a print, a spore print, which I we can talk about, and I try to identify, learn how to identify different mushrooms. But having this relationship of like watching the same plants and animals and trees and getting to know them is is developing a very deep relationship. Near my home, there's a redwood forest that just it's just um my I call it my redwood masjid. And there's a redwood tree, there's a redwood tree that has a little like burned area, like a niche, like a mihrab. And this mihrab faces the qibla. Um, I haven't been there in a while. I need to go back because I often go there on Fridays and pray Jumma there, you know, solo jummah. Um, but that redwood forest feels like a mosque. Um, it feels like a very sacred space. And um to see certain trees and to visit with them and and connect with them. Some people are like, what is she talking about? Connecting to the trees, saying hello to them. Like I I really feel that they are alive because they are, um, and I feel that I can have a relationship with them and feel connected to my ancestry, to the way that our all of our ancestors lived in greater connection, you know. As a modern human who grew up in a city, I felt so disconnected from my fitra for so long. And I feel by connecting with all the plants and trees and animals on a deeper level, more intimate level, this is my fitra. I can connect to more. Um, this is how all of our ancestors lived in very close connection with the earth, in in right relations with the earth as stewards of the earth versus just extracting. So I've learned a lot from people who live here, people who are in very close connection to the earth, who've been learning about indigenous ways. So here we have different indigenous peoples who lived in California. So I'm learning about um how did they live, what foods did they eat from the um from the from the earth? Um, how did they take care of the land? And what traditions do they have? And so all that is helping me learn how to be in right relationship with the earth. Um, and it I feel that it improves my spirituality and really um heightens my spirituality and my connection to Allah ultimately.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 100%. Because um I loved how you said about the redwood tree and how it feels like a sacred place, a masjid. Uh, because we re it's good to remember that all these creatures also they have their own way of praying, right? Exactly. And also as you connect with them, you really also connect and reflect on your own uh changes because uh as you were saying, Rose, about how the the plants, the trees keep changing throughout the seasons, it's the same for ourselves, and that really kind of motivated us to keep changing and keep growing and let go of that fear. Uh what do you think about that? Do you feel that's how they helped you in that journey of growth?
Reading The Book Of Creation
SPEAKER_00Or part of it at least as you're speaking, I I feel called to share a verse from the Quran, if you don't mind. Of course, please. Um I just pulled it up. So there's a lot of verses about nature in the Quran, so many. And we were just speaking about this earlier that Allah is asking us to reflect on the on nature, on what Allah has created. Last night I saw the most beautiful sunset. I was like, subhanAllah, what an artist uh Allah is, because that was such a beautiful, it was like a whole show. The crickets were were very loud, so they're doing the musical background, and then I saw the and the every second the sky was slightly changing with the orange and the reds and the purple, just so beautiful. And the cr and Allah asked us to reflect on that, reflect on what I've created for you as humans, and to really understand like what the world is and who God is by reflecting on these signs. So there's there's two Qurans, and I think most humans, most Muslims have neglected one of the Qurans. There's the Quran that we all know, the the text, and then there's the Quran um um the create of creation, the book of creation. Um, and some Sufi scholars speak about this idea of the book of creation as the second Quran almost, that we need to read the ayat in uh the verses in the Quran, and then the ayat in nature, the signs. And that's everything we see outside is an ayah. Um, and so I believe the Quran instructs us to go read, to go reflect and observe everything in nature in order to be in a greater state of shukr, in a greater state of gratitude, for example. So a couple of verses that I feel called to share, for example. Please don't the seven heavens and the earth and all therein glorify God, and there is not a thing but praises God's glory, but you do not understand their glory, and that's Quran 1744. Um, another one, let's see. Do you not see that to Allah bow down all those in the heavens and all those on earth, as well as the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the trees, and all living beings, as well as many humans, while many are deserving a punishment. So it's only humans who are deserving a punishment because we don't always obey Allah's will. But all other creation are in a state of submission, true Islam. We are not very good at at Islam, but they are. Um, and so it's also a way when we're in nature to spend time with the creation that is doing a better job than us, perhaps that they're in a their state of fitrah is more pure, um, and they are doing what they're supposed to do, which is to submit to Allah. And we, because we have free will, some of us are submitting to Allah or trying, and some of us are not doing a very good job of that, right? Because of our free will. So I think when we spend time in nature, it reminds us of what matters in the world, and we're like, everything I'm looking at, this tree, I can't see it because when I see a tree, I just see a tree, and it's just standing there doing nothing. But according to the Quran, these are bowing down to Allah. Like, what does that mean? How are they bowing down to Allah? How are they praising? How are they doing tasbih? And I sit down and reflect on that. What does it mean that this tree is doing tasbih just by existing, like by thriving? You know, if I look at an oak tree, for example, it right now the acorns are getting ripe, you know, and pretty soon the squirrels are going to start harvesting the acorns and store them away so that they have food for the winter. And what a beautiful gift it is for the acorn tree, um, the oak tree to provide acorns to the squirrels and the indigenous people used to collect the acorns and make flowers. They can make bread um out of acorn flour. Um, the oak trees provide amazing shade. Last yesterday I was sitting in the shade of an oak tree and it was really hot, but I felt really nice because I had really beautiful shade from the oak tree. And so the oak tree is doing so many beautiful things and giving so many gifts to the world just by its existence, and it's not resisting its fitra, it's doing what it's supposed to do. We don't always do that. We have a fitra, but we're often resisting our our our um calling, our mission, our our essence, and we're trying to do anything but our calling. Um, so I think being in nature reminds us like, okay, how can I be like a tree? How can I, you know, truly submit to Allah and spend time praising Allah, do what I'm supposed to be doing instead of wasting my time, wasting
Forest Bathing With All Five Senses
SPEAKER_00my life. So there's a lot of things in nature, you know, that can happen as a result of spending time. Um, I like to lead people on forest bathing experiences, which is a practice. That's a practice that comes from Japan. And because their medicine there is they combine Western medicine with traditional, I guess Japanese, but maybe Chinese medicine. Um, and so because they're more holistic than Western medicine, for example, they now prescribe forest bathing. Like if you go to the doctor and you have a lot of stress and anxiety in Japan, a doctor will prescribe forest bathing to you. So you can actually go on a forest bathing experience in in Japan and it's provided by health insurance, covered by health insurance. Um it's happening here here in California. I saw you can go on a hike, that costs money, but if your doctor writes a prescription, the hike can be free. Um if it's a medically prescribed forest bathing practice. Um, so forest bathing experience means I can lead it from Muslims or non-Muslims, when I lead it from Muslims, before you first reflect on some verses about um nature and about what the plants and the trees and animals, what they're doing, um, and the purpose of reflection, how Allah asks us to do reflection, um, self-observation and observation of of things around us. And then we spend some solo time in nature just being quiet because I'm always surprised that people don't spend a lot of time in quiet outside. Um, even if they go on a hike, they're with people, they're talking. And I think it's important to just be quiet in nature for a little bit. So it's a very mindful experience. Very mindful experience. And then often I like to take them through noticing their different senses and engaging with um outdoors with their different senses, you know, taste and touch and smell and sight and hearing. And it's really phenomenal what you notice when you're invited to notice through one sense. And usually what I'll do is either if there's something available, I'll forage herbs nearby or take something I foraged recently and I'll make tea. So at the end, we're enjoying some freshly brewed tea from usually from something local so that you can taste the forest. I don't know if you know, but you can a lot of trees you can drink their leaves and needles. So like redwood trees, you can drink redwood needles and it's really delicious tea, for example. So we're consuming the forest, which feels really beautiful rather than just you know touching it or seeing it, but also encouraging people to like touch the trees and the ground and just really be slow and experience the slowness and what it feels like to touch them. And I'm always surprised because often this is the first time someone's touched or hugged a tree and they're like, that was transformative. I want to do this again. I need to do this every day. Like they are just like amazed at how it feels to do that. And they're always wondering why they haven't
Why People Resist Nature Connection
SPEAKER_00done it before.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, why do you think that is, Rose? It's interesting because um I love to hug trees and I've done it for so long, but some people make jokes out of that or blah blah. Tree huggers. Yeah, do you think that's the ego of human some human beings, or what is it that they resist that connection?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't think it's the ego, I think it's more a lack of knowledge, no one ever taught them. Because as soon as they have this experience, they are just transformed. So I think it's the fact that many humans are very urban. We grew up in big cities, and nature is something you look at, it's pretty, but you don't need to touch it because it's dirty, and dirt is dangerous and scary, right? We don't like to be dirty. We're a very hygienic society, but we're so hygienic that we've gotten too removed from how our ancestors used to live in much closer connection to the earth, right? So I think it's fair because, like, for example, in Egypt, um, a lot of Egyptians, when I went to the desert, they're like, Well, the desert's scary. That's where the djinn are, and the big desert is dangerous. Um, the Bedouins who I spent time with in Sinai, they would make fun of Egyptians because like they were really scared. They weren't scared of the desert. But the Egyptians who aren't, you know, Arab Bedouins were very scared of the desert, for example. That's where danger is. And I think a lot of people just see danger in nature and it they don't know, they don't have enough knowledge or education. So all you need to do is help people learn to have a relationship. They're gonna go back again and again because they're always gonna feel better after going into nature. So it's not ego, it's lack of knowledge.
Ego And The Exploitation Of Earth
SPEAKER_00Ego is where you see people who are truly disobeying God by extracting natural resources from the earth and the ones destroying the earth. Like this terrible flood we saw in Nepal is due to global warming, and global warming is sped up because we have so many people who really have evil intention to just make more money and don't care about the destruction of the environment. Now that's where ego is is seeing financial opportunity in nature and exploiting it and not doing anything to stop the destruction of the earth. That is the biggest problem we have right now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, I agree 100%. As and as you related a lot of this to Islam and how Islam uh encourages connecting with nature, also Islam sees human beings as responsible for this earth to make it an extra beautiful place to preserve it, to protect it. Um, so definitely it's very far from ego, and it's all about uh caring about the community and this beautiful planet that connects us all and connects this human experience, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I think that if Muslims were truly following the Quran and if it in regards to the environment and nature, we would live like the indigenous people. Like when you think of how like the indigenous people here and many places they around the world, they lived in such close connection. They tended to the earth, they took care of it, they took what they needed, but nothing more. And they made sure that the earth was maintaining its balance and harmony. Um, and Muslims did the same, you know, for until industrialization and everything. And so Muslims, just as anyone else, are guilty of destroying the environment and not caring about the environment. So I think part of like when kids go to madrasa or Sunday school, they need to be learning about caring for the environment. Because I've lived and traveled throughout a lot of Muslim-majority countries, and people don't know anything about nature and the environment, and they tr pollute the water and they they throw trash everywhere, and they just and that's that's ignorance. It's regular people have ignorance and and they don't know, and then it's the corporations and governments that have the big amana, the big responsibility, and trust that they are not fulfilling that trust.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So we as individuals, we can be the change, we can be the change that we want to see. And honestly, no one with you know, nobody of those who are listening to us today never underestimate the power of your own action because that creates a ripple impact on the planet. Um, when you do these small acts and when you share and when you educate people, uh not out of judgment, no, out of compassion and kindness, and um of the intention that you really want to see this earth as the best place to be for generations to come, inshallah. And I'm aware of your time, Rose. I know you have other things to do, but I'm really really grateful for the beautiful things you shared with us today, for the reminders, the wisdom, and the knowledge. Uh it's been really great to connect with you and wonder if you have one final message you'd like to share with
Self-Care Rahmah And Where To Connect
SPEAKER_01the listeners in two minutes. Uh in about anything. Anything, or if you want to share a like a call to action, or where they can also find you and learn more from you, because you have so much more to Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_00Um so I guess the call to action for ourselves is that what I've learned is that a lot of people, especially women, I'm assuming most of your listeners are women, is that we're taking care of everyone else in our lives and we're such good caretakers and caregivers, but we often forget to take care of ourselves. And what I've learned is that when we take really good care of ourselves, we're much better at caregiving for others and serving our community and society. So I highly recommend looking at how you're taking care of yourself and how you can improve that in whatever maybe it means taking walks more, whatever that means. It doesn't have to be big, it doesn't have to be expensive. Just to do that more and offer yourself this this rahma that truly is part of Islam and of um compassion is part of being human. So looking at how you can serve society by serving um yourself first and being good at that. Um as for how people can find me, I have lots of websites now. Um my main website is compassionflow.com. I'll add it in the caption. Yes, I think that you can find links to other things through that website. Um I'm dr.rose.aslan on Instagram. Um, I post there when I feel called, and sometimes I don't. Um yeah, and I'm always happy to hear from people, especially if you want to talk about nature. I can talk about nature all day long. You can tell I have this deep love, and I'm just like, I feel like I'm talking about my beloved, and I just want to tell everyone about how much I love my beloved and how beautiful they are.
SPEAKER_01That's such a beautiful note to end with. Thank you very much, Rose, for all this love and a kindness that you shared with us today. Um, for our listeners, go and follow Rose, learn more about uh the beautiful things that she's doing. Um, and and remember to connect with nature. Take yourself after this uh episode and go out, and and even better, if you listen to it as you're walking in nature, um and keep sharing the beauty, keep reminding people to connect with nature because it will connect them back to who they really are and their divine uh roots really. Um so thank you all and looking forward to connecting with you again with another episode of In Peace. Thank you, Dylan. Thank you so much.
