The mind can go in a thousand directions
But on this beautiful path, I walk in peace.
With each step, a gentle wind blows.
With each step, a flower blooms.
Thich Nhat Hahn.
Simply walking is one of the easiest, cheapest and most effective ways I know of creating peace within myself or within a group of people. Yet, walking is something many of us have forgotten as an option. With over 50% of car journeys in the UK being less than 5 miles long and many even less than 2 miles, there seems to be plenty of scope for us to learn to walk again, for the sake of economy, improving our environment and maintaining our wellbeing.
There are many benefits to having a daily walk. It helps us to slow down. A journey of 2 miles that would take around 4 minutes in the car will take us about 40 minutes to walk. So, rather than automatically choosing the speediest option, we are consciously deciding to slow ourselves down physically to induce a sense of calm and reduce stress. On our journey we can take some time for contemplation, for observation of the world around us, to learn more about the nature of our surroundings and the local community. We will have more of an opportunity to talk with others, to interact and to be in community.
(c) Natural England/Walking for Health/Paul Glendell
Walking can also improve our physical health, including maintaining bone density, muscle strength, mobility and cardiovascular fitness. Spiritually, we can use walking to foster our connection with nature and with our inner selves. We can even engage in walking as a form of meditation. Some may find this easier than the more widely known sitting meditation. And with cultivating a regular meditation practice comes the benefits of self-awareness, concentration, mindfulness, tranquillity and stress reduction.
What are the opportunities open to you to include some walking in your day?
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4 Responses for "Learning to Walk Again"
Guess I’m quite lucky realy Sally. I can walk out of the back garden gate straight onto our community sports field,cut across that and enter immediately onto a local public footpath. This goes underneath the railway lines with a fabulous old stone tunnel and then the path skirts the golf course before opening up alongside the River Dee.
Ok it’s not the most scenic part of the river but I walk this every day, usually twice round to take my dogs for their excercise.
Along the way I meet so many friends with their dogs too.
I love to see the river at different times…sometimes there is high tide and the river is swollen it looks rather scary.
At other times the tide has gone out and the muddy banks are amass with a wide variety of birds.
There are fox holes in the pathay banks and someone mentioned they have their young cubs now.
If I shine a torch across the sports field at night I can almost guarantee to catch several pairs of eyes staring back at me. And I hear them screeeching like cats in the middle of the night too!
We only live in a terraced (towny)street but the whole world opens up if people only take those steps along the path to the river.
It’s amazing what we can discover, even in the middle of a town or city. Great that you make time for that kind of experience every day, Karen. It sounds like you derive a lot of enjoyment from it.
You’re absolutely right, and I’m just about to go out for a stroll – now the evenings are lighter it lends itself more.
Another reason – there’s an interesting article I came across today about the beneficial effect of exercise (among other things) on the ageing brain: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124118077&sc=nl&cc=es-20100328
Enjoyed reading the article Tess. Thanks for passing that on. Coincidentally, I have recently been doing some research on the ageing brain and the effects on sleep. What you posted seems to tie in with that too. Walking everyday helps us sleep more soundly and more so as we get older, apparently.
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