How often do you take yourself for a good, long walk?
The reason I ask you this, is that the older I become, the stronger my belief is, that the simple act of walking is a massively valuable asset to your mind and body.
Regular readers will know that I get the ideas for most of my blog posts whilst I am walking and that I record the ideas, using a digital audio recorder. However, the benefits of walking on my mental and physical health and fitness is even more valuable than that.
Walking the walk
When I first discovered personal development, almost 25 years ago, I noticed that many experts extolled the mental and physical benefits of regular, long walks. Some suggested that the act of having your left arm and right leg moving together (and then your right arm and left leg moving together), somehow gets both sides of the brain flowing. I’m not too sure on the science there, but what I am certain of, is the enormous mental benefit of regular walks on my well-being and creativity.
Why am I sharing this with you today?
Walking for strength
Yesterday, I watched a documentary about Nile Rodgers. Those of us who follow Nile’s work closely, know that he is also a regular walker and walks for miles most days. In fact, he uses long walks as training, before taking his band, Chic, on tour. Anyhow, in the documentary, Nile talks about his life, his music and the challenge of being diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer.
At one point, Nile describes how he has used walking as a way to become mentally stronger;
“I walk and I walk and I walk, until I get my strength!”
Walking for ideas
I recently had a problem with pain in my lower back and stopped my daily walk for almost 2 weeks. In that time, I wrote just 4 blog posts (I usually write at least 1 a day, spread across my 3 blogs.) This week, I started my walking again and am back to my usual problem of having way, way too many ideas to publish. Today, I have written 5 good posts and published 2.
Will a program of daily walking encourage the muse to visit you more frequently? I have no idea. But as walking is free of charge and even a 30 minute daily walk can be of so much mental benefit, why not give it a try?