Tuesday, July 8, 2025
For many, walking is a favorite nonverbal activity. Whether it is a stroll through a garden, a quick sprint in the neighborhood, or a leisurely walk in a foreign country, this form of exercise invites contemplation, exploration, and enjoyment of familiar as well as unusual.
The American Physiology Society recommends moving if you have been sitting for three hours. Sitting for too long reduces oxygen levels to the brain, increasing the risk for dementia. Movement gets your blood circulating, which helps send more oxygen to your whole body, heart, and brain. Any vigorous physical activity makes your body release endorphins, the feel-good chemicals. Endorphins relieve stress, anxiety, and pain the way opioid drugs do. They are the cause of the post-pleasure you experience after exercising.
During daytime, many of us have walked through the wild woods, forested parks, on the sandy beaches, banks of rivers or shores of a lake. Wherever we are we use our senses of sight, hearing, smelling, and touch. When you walk, do you observe what passes by you? Do you hear birds chirp? Touch the ferns, flowers, and grasses that reach your ankles or knees? Think of the life under the ground? There is an underground web, a network of roots that communicates, exchanges nutrients, sends warning signals, and even sabotages unwelcome intruders.
Trees have their own sensory language they share with us at some level. Greater understanding of flora and fauna points us to the wisdom that everything in the world is connected. Do you feel the connection?
Jennifer D. Diamond
Good morning, Madhu! I adore the connected feeling of walking outside in nature. Thank you for sharing!
Madhu B. Wangu
Me too Jenn! But with heatwave going on with temperatures hovering between 88-95 degrees, I avoid walking outdoor.
Stay cool!
Lorraine
I walk outside most every day, but not in forests nor through the neighborhood. My yard – mowing, weeding, planting, watering the gardens – has been my place for ‘walking’ – and connection, prayer, and reflection.