by Keith C. Heidorn
To me, the act of walking is one of the greatest exercises in gentle living. There are few other activities which are so inexpensive and environmentally friendly as a good walk. Nor as useful in so many ways. Walking is exercise without the gym or expensive equipment, the natural way to weight control.
Walking is transportation without harmful emissions. Walking is the tranquilizer without the drug, psychotherapy without the couch, the inexpensive vacation or relaxing retreat. Walking is moving meditation and a stimulant to mental activity. Walking is accessible to almost all age, social and economic groups. Walking is true magic, a transformer of body, mind and soul.
Walking is a symphony of body movement which has many cathartic effects on the mind and soul. To walk is the freest, most personal form of human activity. When we walk, we are our own person. We go where we please, as we please, at the pace we please, and with whom we please.
We can walk in at least four different styles: walking to move, walking to see, walking to think, and walking to socialize. Walking to move is transportation or exercise. Walking to see is the walk of naturalists, explorers, artists and tourists. Walking to think is the walk of poets and philosophers, mystics and dreamers. Social walking is walking to conduct business, teach, or protest injustice, and it is also the gentle walk of families, friends and lovers. Many walkers are soloists, a temporary revolution unto themselves, who walk to experience, to think, to dream. Some of my best thoughts have come while walking. But I am not alone. Many have used walking as a stimulant to ideas including some of the greatest of human minds: Charles Dickens and Albert Einstein; Aristotle and Thomas Jefferson; Immanuel Kant and Aldous Huxley; Abraham Lincoln and Robert Louis Stevenson; Jane Austen and Henry David Thoreau; Jean Jacques Rousseau and Ralph Waldo Emerson; the English poets Samuel Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Wordsworth.
Others have used the walk primarily to go from one place to another, as transportation to work, school or social activities. Then there are the wanderers and explorers, men and women who see the world on its terms, walking the streets and highways, the trails and the untrampled wilderness. In the past century, many have walked for freedom and human rights, and others have walked to raise awareness of diseases, social injustice and environmental destruction. Some walked with groups; some walked alone.
Although I love all forms of walking, walking as a mental, emotional and spiritual exercise is my favorite type of walk. The action of walking warms my blood, loosens muscle and increases the level of
pleasure-giving endorphins in my brain. When I ran regularly, I would reach this level after about 15 to 20 minutes. Others have called it the runner's high; I called it third wind then. When walking, it takes about 30 to 40 minutes. In the state of third wind, my mind will focus completely. To focus on trying to solve a problem; to focus on enhancing my creative ability; to focus on renewing my spirit, I alone decide whether I am walking to think or to not think about a specific issue.
Yes, I said to not think about an issue. To not think is a form of problem solving meditation wherein the problem is given over to the subconscious. It is an expression of the Zen method of
no-mind where we deliberately empty the conscious mind and allow the subconscious to take control. Walking helps to induce this state by using its rhythm as a focus for the conscious mind. In using the not think technique we first express the problem in a mental image, focusing for a moment to clearly see it. Then we forget it. Put it right out of our conscious mind. At this point, we must relax and not force a solution, which will come, eventually. Walking helps to remove the conscious expression of the problem as well as helping us to relax. I have used this technique frequently over my career to help solve a problem or relieve a mental block to writing or creating. It has helped to focus on the details which had been lost in the forest of sensory or mental overload.
If you still feel you are trying to force a solution, pick up the pace. I have found it hard to dwell on a thought when walking or running at a fast pace. This was emphasized to me when, during a walking race, I lost concentration and attempted to think about technique instead of letting it happen. By worrying, my pace dropped dramatically. Only by forcing it back up was I able to purge the worries and fears from my mind.
Whenever I need to generate new ideas or review current events, I often let the subconscious point me in the most fruitful direction. With the body striding in smooth, subconscious movement, the mind tosses out possible subjects for inner discussion: last week's meetings ?? boring stuff, food for naps; a news item from the morning paper ?? ain't it awful; the turning of the leaves ?? ah, another summer is drawing to a close. Beginning a new life...that thought catches. Observations, facts, phrases, associations ?? all tumble out onto the stage. An idea for an article emerges; a new line for a poem.
Walking also has impacts on our psychological state of mind. Years back when I was studying transpersonal psychology, there was an expression used to break oneself out of a bad mental state: Move your ass. Research had found that movement, whether running, walking, dancing, aerobics, etc., could profoundly change one's emotional state for the better. If not a
long-term cure, movement at least gave temporary relief. There is likely a role in this process for endorphins which are natural mood elevators, but movements such as walking also break the connection between body and mind, thus relieving tension and physical pain.
Finally, walking is an intense spirit booster, especially when undertaken in a special place. I have always found more spiritual renewal when out in nature than when in the confines of a house of worship. Walking puts me into the process, allows me to take an active role in my spiritual renewal and shows me that I am still alive and well. I walk therefore I live.
All walking must be a direct and personal experience. Until you have walked, really walked, the pleasures of walking will remain a mystery. Until you feel the rhythm of your muscles, the touch of the wind on your face, until you have seen the changing scenery or smelled the blossoms of spring, until you have experienced the peace of mind that a good walk can give you, you will not know what you have been missing. Physician, heal thyself! I'm going for a walk!