The way we walk right now might feel inhuman — it goes against our evolutionary wiring to avoid connecting with other people. When we see a neighbor, we wave from afar. We give strangers a wide berth. There are no coffee shops to stop at, no casual errands to run. It can seem like walking just for the sake of walking is not worth the effort.
But it is. It’s one of the most effective ways to connect with a world that feels increasingly distant — precisely because we can’t socialize.
Yes, walking counts as exercise
Walking outside is surprisingly cognitively demanding. Walking regularly strengthens mental health and our brain’s lifelong faculties, as well as our physical health. It strengthens our cardiovascular system but also lowers blood pressure and cortisol levels, reducing stress. Recently, when I’ve been stuck inside trying to help my kids understand fractions and feeling like my brain is about to blow like a steam train, I’m finding that getting us all outside and moving calms everyone’s nerves and restores our attention (and my patience).
It doesn’t have to be boring
I’ve been working on slowing down for years. In 2016, at an interdisciplinary artists’ retreat focused on stillness practices, a composer named Alex Mah gave me a handwritten “walking composition” at the end of our two-week residency. I started walking according to his scored instructions when I got back home to Montana, and it has given structure to my “aimless” walks for almost four years now. “Over the course of 500 steps,” it starts, “treading… strolling… pacing… pausing (once) to breathe (for a while). Meandering, stepping.” The score can be performed anywhere, in the woods, in the noisiest urban area, or even in your home.
It also counts as meditation — if you do it right
In Zen Buddhism, walking meditation is an ancient, achingly slow practice known as kinhin. But you don’t have to be Buddhist to try it: Wildmind Meditation’s website has a detailed guide to a similar practice, and the Calm and Headspace apps both offer guided walking meditations.
Walking, obviously, is not the kind of meditation you do with your eyes closed; for me, that makes it more effective. You stay alert and awake. With each step, you become aware of how you’re moving with and against the world. You focus on the small details around you: purslane growing between the cracks of the sidewalk, the new buds on a tree, a small iron gate across a passageway you’ve never noticed before.
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