“In beauty I walk”: the centuries-old prayer that promises to change the way we look at the world

Long before neuroscience explained neuroplasticity or biologists discovered the mechanisms of epigenetics, people had their own ways of dealing with difficult times: through prayers, rituals and words passed down from generation to generation.

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Gregg Braden, an American author and lecturer known for his books and lectures on spiritual traditions, says that these “words of power” were not mere symbols. In his view, they were tools by which people changed their way of looking at reality and found resources to get through difficult times.

He explains in a video published on his YouTube channel that he has spent more than four decades studying texts and spiritual traditions from very different cultures. From Hindu writings such as the Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita, to Tibetan Buddhist traditions, from funerary texts associated with the pyramids of ancient Egypt to the teachings of the Essenes, a spiritual community that emerged around 500 years before Christ.

According to him, what surprised him in all these traditions is the existence of a common element. Every culture, regardless of era or geographic space, has developed some kind of language for moments of crisis: prayers or expressions designed to help people through loss, fear, or periods of chaos.

“I wanted to collect these words of power and understand how they have been used over time and why they have survived thousands of years”Braden says in the video clip. In his view, the explanation is simple: they continued to be transmitted because people felt they worked.

One of the researchers that Gregg Braden frequently refers to is the American neurologist Andrew Newberg, known for his studies in the field of neurotheology – the discipline that analyzes how religious or spiritual experiences are reflected in brain activity.

According to this research, language is not only a tool through which we express our thoughts, but can also influence biological processes in the body. For example, Gregg Braden cites one of Newberg's ideas that, at first glance, may seem surprising: a single word can influence how certain genes in the body are activated.

The explanation lies in the biological reactions triggered by emotions. Words associated with fear, stress or threat can activate the body's stress response, increasing levels of hormones such as cortisol and affecting the functioning of the nervous system. Conversely, words associated with safety, calm, or beauty may trigger different biological responses related to relaxation and recovery.

“If a single word has this power, then what power do the words we use every day to describe our lives have?”, Gregg Braden wonders in the same clip. It's a rhetorical question, but one that raises an interesting issue: how much language influences how we perceive and experience reality.

Epigenetics: How the environment influences gene activity

The scientific concept that Gregg Braden refers to is epigenetics, a field of biology that studies how the environment can influence the activity of genes. Although the DNA sequence remains the same, research in recent decades has shown that gene expression—that is, the way certain genes are turned on or off—can be influenced by factors in the environment.

By “environment,” researchers don't just mean diet, temperature, or exposure to chemicals. In Gregg Braden's interpretation, emotional states are also part of this context. The way people perceive events in their lives – whether they feel safe or threatened, whether they are dominated by stress or calm – can influence the body's biological reactions.

Braden links these ideas to concepts such as neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to adapt and reorganize itself, or epigenetics.

“Maybe our ancestors didn't know the biological mechanisms behind these processes,” he says “but they understood the result.”

Navajo prayer and the idea of ​​beauty as a force of balance

One of the examples that Gregg Braden frequently cites is the so-called “beauty's prayer” from the tradition of the Navajo people or Diné, as they call themselves. It is associated with the Blessingway ritual, part of the culture of this indigenous people of the southwestern United States, in the region where the states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico meet today.

In the Navajo tradition, the central concept is hózhó, a term denoting harmony, beauty and balance between man, nature and community. Prayer has the role of restoring this balance in times of crisis or suffering.

Gregg Braden also mentions the historical context of difficult times experienced by indigenous communities in the American Southwest, including severe episodes of drought and lack of resources. According to him, what makes this prayer remarkable is the idea behind it: beauty is not just an aesthetic experience, but a state of harmony with the world. In his interpretation, the perception of beauty can produce real changes in a person's inner state.

“When we perceive beauty, our body chemistry changes,” says Gregg Braden. He is of the opinion that the perception of beauty can produce real changes in the body, influencing the state of calmness and balance.

A short version of the prayer has been popularized by Navajo artist Shonto Begay, and Gregg Braden says he often uses it as a reflection exercise. He does not consider it a magic formula, but a practice designed to change the way a person perceives his own experiences.

Navajo Prayer:

“In beauty I walk.

With beauty before me I walk.

With beauty behind me I walk.

With beauty above me I walk.

With beauty around me I walk.

Everything is fulfilled in beauty.”

A generation living between two worlds

Gregg Braden doesn't just talk about these traditions from a theoretical perspective. In his opinion, they become especially relevant today, a moment he describes as a period of historical transition: an old world that is rapidly changing and a new one that has not yet fully taken shape. It is, he says, a time when many of the familiar benchmarks—social, economic, or political—seem to transform simultaneously.

Moreover, he says that, in such a period, the way people respond to what happens to them becomes essential. “You can't always change the world, but you can always choose how you respond to it. That's your unique power.”

The idea is not new. We find it in Stoic philosophy, Buddhism, and many other spiritual traditions that emphasize how man manages his own reactions and perceptions.

What contemporary research suggests is that how we interpret our experiences (including the language we use to describe them) can influence the body's biological responses, from stress hormone levels to nervous system activity.

In this sense, adds Gregg Braden, ancient spiritual traditions and modern research seem to reach, from different perspectives, a similar conclusion: how we relate to life experiences can have real consequences for our physical and emotional state.