Five Side Effects of Walking

Humans are a walking species. It's unavoidable. Unless we have lost the ability to walk form point A. to point B. we're going to have to walk to get there. But walking is about more than just closing the shortest difference. Here's some of my favorite side effects of walking.

1: Thinking

Walking may have contributed the most to my development as a thinker. For me it began in high school and has continued ever since. But what is it about walking that makes it so great for focusing your thoughts? Why not just sit and think?

When the limbs are moving the brain is working. It's coordinating to ensure we don't fall, it's breathing to ensure we don't get tired, and it's observing to ensure we don't run into things. But all of this work doesn't take a lot of physical effort and it doesn't take a lot of mental effort to keep it going. So this affords a walker a lot of time to just zone, so to speak. And when we zone, it's hard not to think.

This is sort of the opposite of meditation where the goal is to clear the brain. Here, the movement gets the brain working and is especially effective if done without music. You just find yourself going from topic to topic and if something sticks, well, you've got plenty of time to sort it out. But maybe you'd prefer not to think. Well in that case, walking is also great for...

2: Meditation

One of the principle techniques of meditation is the focusing on your breath. Walking provides the opportunity to focus on more than just breathing to clear ones minds of thoughts. There is also the movement of the arms, the lifting of feet from the ground, and the course one follows. All of these combined together offer an all encompassing physical movement to put our focus into in order to clear the mind.

It can sound odd to suggest meditation when there are so many distractions around when walking, but keep in mind what I said above. The brain is able to do a lot of the minute calculations which keep us from running into things and falling over without our focusing on them. Walking meditation is not only surprisingly effective, but also a great workout which leads me to my next point.

3: Health

Need to read a book? Why not do it while walking? Need to pick something up from the corner store? Why not take a quick walk there? Need some exercise but don't feel like doing strenuous work? Why not...well you get the idea.

Walking is a truly effective form of exercise because it's low impact and easy to sustain over a long term. Now note that I'm not claiming walking is the way to lose forty pounds in forty days. It's not an end all exercise and it can't replace the benefits of a good diet. But walking does contribute to overall health. After all, we did evolve to do it, so why should it surprise us that it might just be good for us to walk?

It's at this point I should clarify, when I start throwing in suggestions to do more than one thing at once, that all of these walking tips should not be put into play when there is a lot of busy traffic around. Sometimes you need to pay attention. But if you are in a safe location then walking also is a great way to...

4: Enjoy Your Music

If you don't have a song that makes you uncontrollably bob your head then you might just need some new music. But if you do, then would you be surprised to learn that there is also music out there that it is almost impossible to avoid moving your body to?

Walking is movement with rhythm. If you're the type who enjoys a good head bobbing than it can be truly enjoyable to listen to music that you find yourself throwing some dancing into. Getting into a song while walking connects you to the music in a way that just laying and listening can't do. It can make your music more enjoyable and you might just notice some aspects of a song you had never noticed. Which leads to my last point...

5: Discovering New Places

Lastly, walking is a great way to discover places around where you live. And not just because you'll find yourself going to more places the more you walk. When we're driving we can sometimes be more focused on the goal than getting there. We learn a way and then we follow it until the world interferes and forces us to find an alternative. Or we get horribly lost...

But with walking, you can find shortcuts you would never try with driving. And with these shortcuts come new places. Fields you never knew existed, shops you never would have thought of visiting but which you duck in to see because you're on foot. You might even find alternative routes which shorten your normal travels.

So that's my brief discussion on walking, which as you can see is not just for travelling anymore. It is my recommendation that you test them immediately if you doubt the power of walking, and if you're not completely satisfied your money will be returned in full.