Walking Towards Mental Wellbeing
“Why is walking a particularly effective way of improving mental health?” I ask, knowing that Professor of Sociology Sarah Stiles will undoubtedly have a bit of wisdom to share.
Sitting in her tidy Georgetown University office overlooking the Potomac River on a blue-skied spring day, Professor Stiles is enlightening me on the merits of walking for mental wellbeing. Our conversation itself feels like a meditative experience, as the room is filled with the sounds of Professor Stiles’ calm voice and birds chirping outside the open window, and the walls are adorned with posters promoting mindfulness and wellness.
The sound of an airplane flying overhead interrupts the peace.
“What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, three legs in the evening, and no legs at night?” Professor Stiles asks in return, citing Greek mythology’s Riddle of the Sphinx.
I’ve heard this riddle before, but this was not quite the response I anticipated. “A human during childhood, adulthood, old age, and death,” I answer tentatively, unsure of how this relates to my question.
“Exactly. Walking is something common to the human race. We all walk,” Professor Stiles states simply.
As a critical part of the human experience, she believes that walking is a natural and necessary component of human flourishing.
“Mental health is linked to flourishing as individuals and as a community,” asserts Professor Stiles. “If we want to make a positive impact in our communities, we have to be at peak performance.”
Professor Stiles has encountered mental illness among her family, friends, and students. Both of Professor Stiles’ parents were clinically depressed and were never treated. While attending law school at Northeastern University, Professor Stiles’ own mental health problems came to a head. She didn’t know how to cope with the stress brought on by her coursework, or with the resultant mental health problems. Stress was keeping her from flourishing in and out of the classroom.
Professor Stiles recognized that the “toxic stress” was negatively impacting her health, sleep, and performance. She was forced to face her mental illness head-on.
“Life can’t be misery all of the time,” she thought desperately one day when her workload was feeling particularly burdensome.
Her friend Wendy, a Tibetan Buddhist, suggested that she try meditating.
I don’t have time to meditate, was the first thought that entered Professor Stiles’ mind.
Wendy suggested that she give walking meditation a try.
To Professor Stiles, it seemed like the perfect compromise.
I can get somewhere and meditate at the same time, she thought. Later, she learned that this was not really the idea behind walking meditation.
Professor Stiles started listening to John Kabat-Zinn’s “Guided Mindfulness Meditation Series” while walking throughout her typical daily routine. Meditation changed Professor Stiles’ life, lifting the weight of her stress and the baggage she had been carrying for far too long. Walking meditation proved to be Professor Stiles’ entry point into other styles of meditation.
“When we meditate and are mindful, we realize that there is no other moment than this moment,” she says. Meditation permits her to recognize that dwelling in the past and worrying about the future are both a waste of time.
Through meditation, Professor Stiles is completely present in each moment. Free from external influences, she can access her pure core beneath layers of socialization. With this clarity of mind, Professor Stiles can better understand her mission and purpose.
According to Professor Stiles, meditation of any kind enhances your ability to change the world. Walking meditation is particularly impactful because of the self-awareness it permits.
“Notice that you are picking up the foot … and then coming down on the heel …” Professor Stiles says in a soft, slow voice, simulating what it’s like to do walking meditation. “Feel that the pressure comes back on the ball of the foot … as the other leg swings forward …”
While walking meditation can be done anywhere — in this case, in Professor Stiles’ shoebox of an office — Professor Stiles believes that the ideal circumstance for walking meditation is a quiet place in order to limit distractions. A labyrinth, like the one pictured below, provides an ideal setting to relax the mind.
“There is so much going on that we really are oblivious to,” Professor Stiles recognizes, marveling at the power of the body. Not everyone takes the time to relate to the body in this nuanced way.
When I leave Professor Stiles’ office at the conclusion of our conversation, I take the time to think about each of my footsteps. While I often walk around Georgetown’s campus with my head in my phone or my mind going through a mental list of tasks to accomplish, I take this time on my walk back to my house to attempt mindful walking.
The stress that I was feeling about completing the day’s list of tasks begins to dissipate as I direct my attention towards my feet rather than my own thoughts. I feel more conscious of my posture, making an effort to stand up straight under the heavy load of my full backpack. I am increasingly aware of my breathing, and I try to breathe more deeply than my typical shallow inhales and exhales.
I notice so much more about my surroundings during my walk: the sound of people laughing on the front lawn, the breeze on my face, the puffy clouds crawling slowly through the sky, the smell of some unnamed meat wafting through the air from the dining hall. When I am distracted by my phone or my thoughts, so much of this goes unnoticed. But when I am walking consciously, I can feel myself become more present and calm in the short 10-minute walk home.
It is this precise attention to the body’s health and wellbeing, Professor Stiles believes, that permits an individual to change the world.
To learn more about the mental health benefits of walking, check out these articles from Every Body Walk and Walking for Health. Discover other ways that walking can enhance your mental wellbeing in my book, It Starts with a Step.
Want to join me in walking for a better world? Email me at crc107@georgetown.eduor connect with me on LinkedIn. To read more about how you can change the world by walking, check out my latest book It Starts with a Step on Amazon.
