3 Efficient Ways Walking Helps You Reduce Overthinking
Beautiful things can happen when you stop running and start embracing.
Exercising blesses your mental health before boosting your physical health by starting with balancing your hormones. Walking has so many benefits that mentioning only one of them is an insult to others.
Still, I will touch on a topic I’ve been battling for a long time, and I didn’t know a tiny habit would give me so much confidence to face my insecurities that it would become an integral part of my life.
I came to my hometown for a week one month ago. When my visit was extended indefinitely because of unplanned circumstances, I devised ways to keep myself engaged and physically fit while not dying out of boredom and idleness.
I’ve been walking at least 30 minutes daily because I can’t join the gym if my stay is uncertain, and workouts are essential to my lifestyle.
Walking helps me generate writing ideas. It allows me to add necessary and bare minimum physical movement in my day, especially when I lack the energy to do intense workouts.
Little did I know that it would help me address overthinking, and the way it has provided mental clarity is what I am sharing with you.
#1. You are not your thoughts.
The human brain is an idea box. That means if we don’t find an outlet for releasing our thoughts, they will inevitably collide and contradict themselves while congesting the mental traffic.
Whenever I go on an outdoor walk for 30 minutes, it helps me take a break from my thoughts and appreciate the beauty of nature.
In appreciating little things we take for granted, self-criticism slowly dies, and only fruitful thoughts remain, some of which end up in my journal, and some of them make it to my articles.
“You are not your thoughts; you are the observer of your thoughts.”
— Amit Ray
#2. Distancing from the problem.
We’re cerebral creatures. It means our first response in a stressful situation is fear-driven, not solution-driven, because we activate the survival mode, and it often stops us from thinking objectively and promotes defensive thinking, leading to overthinking about the problem instead of reaching the solution phase.
Have you noticed how your heart rate increases when you face a situation you weren’t prepared for, but when you look back at the same problem after a few days or weeks, you realise it wasn’t as bad as you anticipated because of overthinking?
Instead of reacting in the heat of the moment, taking a break from the problem helps us control the defensive response and gain perspective to look at the problem from multiple angles for a wide range of solutions.
“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
#3. Improve emotional intelligence.
The ability to stay alone with your thoughts without going berserk is a sign of high self-awareness because many people are afraid of what they will find if they strip themselves to see their authentic and naked selves emotionally.
When we’re uncomfortable alone, apparently, we project that frustration on other people without being aware of how our interpersonal relationships are a result and extension of how we treat ourselves.
Walking in nature helps me recall all my positive achievements so far.
It also helps me reflect on recent or old interactions where I was aggressive and couldn’t regulate my emotions and lashed out at someone only to regret it later.
Walking improves emotional intelligence because it helps you assess your behaviour with a less biased approach. It enables you to stay objective to avoid irrational and incorrect judgments.
It helps you treat yourself like you would treat a struggling best friend, where you would do anything not to let them feel helpless.
“In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
— John Muir
Closing thoughts.
Overthinking can stem from many behaviours I can’t explain because I’m not a psychologist.
Still, I like helping people from my experiences because when you have been through a lot, it’s in human nature that you don’t want other people to face the same struggles as you, especially when your wisdom can enlighten someone.
Helping each other is the ultimate purpose of humanity because it brings meaning, makes us feel appreciated and gives us a strong sense of belonging and security that we’re not lost alone in a giant sphere floating in space without any direction.
I’m unsure if I’ll be able to silent overthinking forever because it is situation-dependent.
It’s a fear-driven response because of evolution, but when you can sense that your thoughts are entering the dark realm and doing more harm than good, here are three ways a quick stroll in nature will help you understand and manage the tension.
If 30 minutes of walking feels too much, start with only 10 minutes and based on my experience, I can say you won’t stop walking until you’re tired, hungry or have some other responsibilities to attend to.
- Walking helps you disconnect from your thoughts to observe them instead of judging them.
- Walking helps you take a break from the problem to expand your perspective and control the self-critical attitude of beating yourself up for not coming up with an instant solution.
- Walking helps you improve emotional intelligence by analysing how you might have handled things differently if you didn’t let your head rule your heart. It teaches you that changing the past or dwelling on it is useless, but there is wisdom in learning from it.
The result of walking in reducing overthinking won’t happen instantly, but it will happen eventually.
It took me only one week to appreciate the process. I hope it happens for you earlier because the gratifying results depend on your learning speed and how seriously you want to eliminate the toxic effects of overthinking.
All the best!
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Sanjeev is a mentor, writer, and gymrat from Mumbai, India. He talks about fitness, self-improvement, and positive psychology. When he’s not at work or writing, he’s sweating either in a workout, vlogging or testing his horrible cooking skills. Apart from Medium, he’s active on Instagram and Threads.
