Have you all noticed that walking is in the news a lot these days!?!
Seems like every is realizing what a wonderful thing it is to be able to walk. Just walk. Through our beautiful world.
Here are two of the most interesting articles we’ve found about walking in the recent news! How wonderful that so many people are recognizing what we have known — the gift of taking a walk.
In her Washington Post piece, Erin Sagen writes, “Who would have thought that, just a few weeks ago, going for a walk would become such a luxury?”
Here are a few other interesting bits from her article:
Walking sets our minds free, says Irish neuroscientist and “In Praise of Walking” author Shane O’Mara, at least in the moments we’re doing it. “Walking can allow you to escape yourself, and this non-ego focus is healthy. We should spend more time not thinking of ourselves,” he told Irish Times last year.
Today in the United States, walking is framed as an acceptable form of exercise, one of the few activities we can do outside of our homes. It has never felt core to who we are as Americans. But at least we’re still allowed to do it, even encouraged by some. Maybe right now, we can get out and take a stroll and appreciate it for the simple escape it gives us. Just keep six feet of distance — and leave your worries at home.
There’s a terrific article in Outside Magazine by an athlete who has discovered the joys of walking.
Gloria Liu writes:
Until very recently, the idea of going for a walk for fun never crossed my mind. I preferred more heart-rate-boosting, woo!-inducing forms of exercise; my idea of a good time included sailing off lippy kickers on my mountain bike or floating through fresh powder on skis. I just didn’t have much use for walking when I didn’t have to. Walking wasn’t going to get me ripped. Walking wasn’t shredding. Walking was good for digestion and something nice I did with my aging parents. Walking too far made my feet swell and my lower back ache. Walking was boring.
But like many of us this spring, I started doing a lot of things that were out of character. I stopped drinking. I started baking bread. I planted flowers and succulents and somehow kept them alive. I played board games. And I started going on long walks.
There’s an idea resonating that, as restrictions ease up, we should consider the lessons we learned from quarantine and take them with us. If walking is something I could only learn to enjoy when I was forced to slow down, and if slowing down is something most of us only learn to do as we get older, then I welcome this early wisdom. I don’t want to keep racing through what remains of my youth. I want to notice the things I never saw when I was rushing. I want to take time to consider which way I’m going.
