The Rhythm of Walking
Earlier today I was explaining to a very fit young man that one of the reasons for his difficulties is that he rarely walks, and when he does, he has no rhythm and completely fails to move his arms. It has to do with activating both sides of the brain and improving the flow of blood and energy in the body.
He thought that I was completely daft until I showed him the impact on his anxiety and depression, simply by walking properly. He was stunned. Perhaps we shall have another convert!
“The rhythm of walking generates a kind of rhythm of thinking, and the passage through a landscape echoes or stimulates the passage through a series of thoughts. The creates an odd consonance between internal and external passage, one that suggests that the mind is also a landscape of sorts and that walking is one way to traverse it. A new thought often seems like a feature of the landscape that was there all along, as though thinking were traveling rather than making.”
–Rebecca Solnit (American Writer, 1961-)
Walk As Much As You Can If You Can
“Walking inspires and promotes conversation that is grounded in the body, and so it gives the soul a place where it can thrive. I think I could write an interesting memoir of significant walks I have taken with others, in which intimacy was not only experienced but set fondly into the landscape of memory. When I was a child, I used to walk with my Uncle Tom on his farm, across fields and up and down hills. We talked of many thing, some informative and some completely outrageous, and quite a few very tall stories emerged on those bucolic walks. Whatever the content of the talking, those conversations remain important memories for me of my attachment to my family, to a remarkable personality, and to nature.”
–Thomas Moore (American Psychotherapist and Writer, 1940-)
“Soul Mates: Honoring the Mystery of Love and Relationship” (Thomas Moore)
The Art of Walking
“The art of walking is at once suggestive of the dignity of man. Progressive motion alone implies power, but in almost every other instance it seems a power gained at the expense of self-possession.”
–Henry Theodore Tuckerman (American Writer, Critic and Essayist, 1813-1871)
