Community Talks! Vol. 1, ep. 25
Why am I a walker? Walking is great. Walking gives me freedom. Walking is cheap. Walking helps me think. Walking helps me not to think.
Because walking is easy enough for my brain to only hold some of the attention, I can use the rest to wander and meander, I can observe what's around me and I can observe what's within me. The simple rhythm of my feet hitting the ground at my own pace creates just enough space for my thoughts to either flow without much deliberation or spark those brilliant ideas. There are multiple studies confirming the link between walking and creative thinking.
When you let your mind and your thoughts go, you're reducing that mental fatigue, thinking clearer and calmer, you're creating that "space to spread your mind in" (Virginia Woolf quote anyone?).
Not to mention, when you walk, you also create new connections between your brain cells and stimulate the growth of new neurons. Getting smarter with every step, can't get easier than that.
Interestingly enough, you can alter your thoughts pace by literally slowing down or walking faster! Do try this at home. Or, you know, outside. Preferably within some green spaces as that can rejuvenate your mental resources (attention is a limited resource, drain it responsibly).
I could probably talk more about walking, but it's lunch time and that means it's walking time. Walk with me?
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Hi @...!
Thanks for sharing this beautiful post with us. I'm definitely a walker too. Taking the time to go out and walk, let your mind wander, and breathe is relaxing and energetic. I will also add sports as another way to let my mind rest and my body be active.
Sometimes to get the best solutions to a problem we must get out of it and see it from distance.
I will join you for a walk 😊
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What a great read @...!
It made me think of when I lived in New York last, I would spend most of my days just walking around the city (to and from work, long jaunts on the weekends), taking in not only my own thoughts--or absence of them--but also the people, scents, and scenes of the city. Even now in Stockholm I like to walk around just for the sake of traveling through a myriad of scenes, like a very long, methodical movie. In a way, at least to me, the interaction of walking through a city is a process of sharing thoughts, or since you are also a fan of Virginia Woolf, it is a "spiritual suppleness, when mind prints upon mind indelibly"--the city has a mind and I have a mind and they intertwine when we amble about.
Thanks again for a great Friday read!
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