How to Enjoy the Process of Walking
Nature stimulates fullness and imagination.
“Walking is man’s best medicine.” — Hippocrates
Even if you visit the same place and eat the same food, the level of inspiration you feel is very different. Even everyday experiences like walking are done in our own unique way. Some walk at dawn, some walk fast, some walk in the rain.
Walking is a very common and easy activity. However, I have been enjoying unexpected joy and benefits by taking a 30-minute walk twice a day. It is exciting to see what kind of inspiration a walk will give in the future. Then, let’s look at how to maximize the joy and effect of walking.
The three steps below are the gradual steps of using a walk. I would like to suggest what stage you are taking and how you can enjoy it.
1. Walking without purpose
If you are unfamiliar with the walking habit, walking without purpose is the first step. Walking can be annoying and time-consuming. But if you fall for the charm of a walk, you’ll walk every day, no matter who tells you. I also started taking a walk with the pledge to practice it for only a week, and walking became an important friend in my life.
Walk in the morning and walk in the evening. Because you know the time your body wants. It is best to walk according to your mind as you go.
Walk for 20 minutes a day.
Once you’ve just made good friends with the walking behavior, it’s time to enjoy the next step.
2. Awakening the body and mind
I originally hated moving in the morning. However, I was curious about the effect of the morning walk. I thought I was deceived for the last week and took a morning walk for 20 minutes each. My body woke up at a rapid pace from a deep sleep, and my concentration in the morning was improved.
My favorite time for a walk is in the morning (8 am) and evening walks (after 8 pm). When is the best time for a walk that you like, only you can discover?
Morning walk brings vitality and clear spirit. Evening walks can be scheduled for the end of the day and the next day. The benefits of the two activities are different.
Happiness buds when you walk. Research supports this. According to a California State University, Long Beach study, participants who walked more experienced better feelings and moods. Happiness comes as much as you feel, and walking helps it.
3. Detecting subtle changes in nature
Scenes that I missed while jogging begin to appear. Every morning, check if the leaves are colored more than the day before. The slightly colder wind signals the end of the year. The clothes become thinner and thicker repeatedly, and eventually they become thicker. How many other things are different. I thought my daily life was monotonous, but it was just filled with things I didn’t realize.
Nature stimulates fullness and imagination.
Just looking into the changes of nature brings the fullness of the heart. I couldn’t see the sprout that broke through the wall and passed by. Just looking up at the sky stimulates the stellar imagination of how small a person is, the fact that nature can never be made by human ability, and what people in prehistoric times would have thought while looking at this sky.
4. Problem-solving
It is finally the last step.
“All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking” Nietzsche said.
The philosopher Nietzsche took a walk every day to come up with ideas. As I walk, I think about unsolved tasks, topics and directions of the writing. Sometimes, I think deeply about problems in relationships or personal life. Sometimes they get buried in problems, other thoughts intervene, and there are times when they think that the problem is not as big as they think. After all, it is my subjective standards that make the problem a problem.
However, it is quite subtle and tricky to think while walking. The intended thoughts are easy to scatter. As you take a slow pace, you slowly slow down your thoughts and come to a solution step by step.
When I want to apply this approach, I set the problem ‘only one thing’. And I walk about 30 minutes to think about the solution. It is easy to move on to other ideas often. But if you notice it, that’s it. From then on, you just have to come back to the problem and think about it.
“The goal of productive meditation is to take a period in which you’re occupied physically but not mentally — walking, jogging, driving, showering — and focus your attention on a single well-defined professional problem.” —Cal Newport, Deep Work
Walking is Steve Jobs’ favorite way of meeting. He walked and chatted with key Apple executives and engineers. He was an entrepreneur who enjoyed taking a slow walk over problems and having good ideas come to mind.
Walking is not only a mental pleasure, but also a lot of benefits in terms of work productivity. I feel the difference between the days I started walking and the days I didn’t. On the days of walking while enjoying nature, work progresses satisfactorily, but on days when walking is not practiced, the progress of work slows down and motivation is insufficient.
Stepping on the ground, looking at, and thinking
It’s extremely simple, but it’s only possible by being alive.
