25-10 - Flipbook - Page 92
Hephzibah
Ministries
Yoga in barns, sound baths in fields: How farms
became healing hubs
Across the UK, farms are transforming from places of production into centres of healing 3 offering
yoga in fields, sound baths in barns, and nature retreats that nurture both people and the land.
"The flow I've created for this evening is all about joy and cultivating as much of it as humanly
possible," says yoga teacher Jess Symondson. The setting does feel ideal for fostering bliss. About
40 of us have gathered in a fairy-lit tipi overlooking a soft peach sunset and a field of heritage
einkorn wheat on a regenerative farm. A DJ plays mellow, expansive music. We're about to do
a dance-like series of poses before sipping rosé around a fire. "That's what we're working toward.
That's our North Star," she says with a laugh.
Sunset Yoga, DJ & Rosé is one of the most popular offerings at Lopemede Farm in Oxfordshire.
And it's part of a growing movement across the UK. As people seek reconnection with community and the land, and farmers face the economic imperative to diversify, many farms are becoming hubs of healing for locals, travellers and the natural world. They're hosting a variety of
wellbeing events, from sound bath meditations to digital detox retreats to women's empowerment workshops.
This trend counteracts the decades-long cliche that farmers are constantly trying to keep people off their land. "We flipped that to 'get on our land'," Eddie Rixon, who runs Lopemede Farm,
said at the 2025 Oxford Real Farming Conference. "We are welcoming people onto the land,
and we are seeing the difference it's making to people's wellbeing."
From breakdown to breakthrough
A fourth-generation farmer, Rixon never dreamed people would be doing cow pose on his cattle pasture. Then in 2017, everything his family had built came crashing down. Some of his cows
failed a routine tuberculosis test, forcing him to sell the entire herd of 250 pedigree breeding cattle. A week later, his butcher shop burned down in an arson attack. The next day, he found a
woman and her dog trampled to death by his cows. Shortly after, his beloved mother died.
Keridwen Cornelius
