In the modern era of intermittent fasting, interval training, intense CrossFit workout routines, and extreme fitness measures around every corner, are we forgetting about walking?

Walking Benefits Your Brain and Mood: Like Immediately!

If you’re not feeling great mentally, try going on a 30-minute walk – and don’t give me any of that I don’t have time business!

Whether you’re feeling sad, tired, foggy, or just blah if your brain isn’t in a good place, you aren’t functioning efficiently. It doesn’t matter what task you’re trying to accomplish. You need your brain to work with you, not against you!

Your Energy Levels Increase

Just a few minutes into your walk, your body begins to feel the increase in blood flow throughout. Your energy levels naturally increase, and you feel more awake. You feel more alive!

Walking is natural, instinctual even. It sends a signal to your brain to ready yourself for action. Even just pacing around the room can wake you up and help prepare you for a challenging work task.

If you’re feeling tired, fight the urge to remain in one spot, and stay the heck away from bed! Instead, go out and walk or just pace the room. Move your body, and you’ll start waking up almost immediately. It’s so obvious, but it’s subtle. Just trust us, and add a walk into your day at a time when you normally feel tired.

It will help. You’ll feel better. You’ll get more done.

Worry and Anxiety Lessen

Feeling anxious about an upcoming meeting? Preparing for a presentation? Maybe you’re just nervous about a doctor’s appointment you’ve been avoiding.

Whatever it is, stop trying to think your way out of the problem. Thinking cannot overcome anxiety and worry. In fact, it’s thinking that got you in this mess!

Stop thinking; stand up and walk. As you move your body, your stress will diminish. The stress will melt away slowly. You won’t feel cured immediately. Heck, you probably won’t feel cured at all!

That’s not the point, though. Walking isn’t a quick fix. It’s not magical medicine. It’s more of an ice pack on a swollen ankle. It eases anxiety and worries gently and leaves you feeling a bit better when you’ve done it.

According to studies by psychologists, just 10 minutes of walking clears away the same level of stress as an intense 45-minute workout. So, never think you aren’t physically fit enough to use exercise to fend off stress.

Throw in a walk every time you start feeling stressed – within reason of course; you can’t walk away from the middle of an important meeting! – and you’ll train your body to react to stress with movement.

Once you get the need for movement hardwired into your brain, you have an effective stress-fighting tool. Your body learns to overcome stress and anxiety with a technique that works.

Your life will never be the same again when you get this down. Trust me.

Your Mood Improves Immediately

Do you like being sad? How about furiously angry? What about being overwhelmed? Or agitated?

If you’re feeling bad in some way, walking offers immediate relief. According to this study by the National Library of Medicine, acute exercise – something like a short walk – releases dopamine and endorphins that work to improve your mood immediately.

That cloud of dopamine and the cascade of endorphins work together to give you a feeling of well-being.

You’ll likely feel more optimistic about your life. Those problems that seemed huge now seem a bit smaller.

Want to know the best part? Those powerful mood improvements you get from a quick walk? They last for hours after.

If you’re willing to trade 30 minutes of your time to take a walk, you’ll improve your mental health immediately and for hours after.

Your stress diminishes, your mood improves, and you have the energy to tackle the tasks of the day. Stop wasting time thinking about your problems, and start walking your way out of them.

Walking = Meditation

(Sort Of)

By now, you’ve likely heard about the power of meditation.

There are literally hordes of gurus on social media, the news, book tables, magazine racks, and just about everywhere else, screaming that you should be meditating EVERY SINGLE DAY.

That’s all well and good, and I’m not telling you to skip the meditation, but meditation isn’t the only way to meditate.

Wait, what?

No, I haven’t lost my mind. I’m not speaking in riddles. There’s a way to meditate without sitting and humming, chanting, or concentrating on your breath. And it’s damned easy.

Sure, that stuff’s fine. In fact, it works really well. You should try it.

But, now you don’t have to. Instead. You can walk. That’s right; good old walking can work like meditation.

At least, that’s what the folks at the Journal of Sports Medicine are saying these days. In their study, they looked at people in urban environments, and those city folks experienced similar reactions in their brains by walking in nature as they would by meditating.

Sure, if you live in the middle of a city, meditation is probably more accessible to you. However, if, like me, you have forests nearby. Consider going for a hike.

A calm walk amongst the trees will soothe your mind. The beauty and silence of nature can serve as meditation. If you don’t like meditation, or you want an extra dose, try walking in nature. It works well, and I’m quite taken with it.

I hike a few times a week, and I feel rested when I get back home. My problems are smaller, my brain’s less tired, and life is better.

Is Walking a Vaccination for Depression?

I know, I know, vaccines are controversial. But they’ve also been useful over the years. And anyway, all you anti-vaxxers who are getting ready to click off, I’m not talking about a vaccine in the literal sense.

Walking won’t shoot a needle containing mystery substances into your arm. What walking can do, is innoculate you against the horrible feelings that spread over your brain like a disease when you have depression.

Depression Vacuums Up Energy Mercilously

If you’ve ever been depressed. You know what it’s like starting your day laying in bed, dreading what comes next. No, you aren’t worried about your presentation. You’re not worried about your project. You barely have the energy to breathe. Sitting up and getting dressed? Nah, that’s not happening. You’re too tired to exist.

Depression is a violent black hole that consumes energy faster than your body can make it.

You’re not actually so tired that you can’t move. It’s an illusion. It’s a trick your brain is playing on you.

When you feel this way, it’s so damned hard to get out of bed and get moving. That’s why it’s best to fight depression before it can consume you.

Walking Shields You From Depression

Taking a daily walk will reduce anxiety, elevate your mood, increase your energy levels, and increase your overall well-being.

Walking daily won’t make you feel like a superhero, and you may not even notice a big change. That’s not what’s important here.

2 months from now, when you would have been bedridden from depression, you’ll still be getting dressed and going to work. You’ll still have the energy to pull your socks on in the morning, and you’ll maintain those important relationships that make life worth living.

Depression can overwhelm anyone. Become a daily walker, and it will have to work harder to overwhelm you. That’s why I call it a vaccine.

Walking Overcomes Mental Fog: Say the Experts at Harvard

Even if you’re not the type to get clinically depressed, you’ve definitely suffered from mental fog. Everyone has.

As a writer, I’m constantly plagued by mental fog. It’s an ailment that controls how much writing I get done in a day. Computer programmers feel the same way, and I’m betting that so many others also fail to do what they want because of the fog.

What is the Fog?

Mental fog is a tired brain. Ideas come more slowly. You’re less creative. Mental tasks seem more difficult.

It’s common around 2 PM-4 PM daily, and it’s often when people reach for caffeine.

Caffeine is a powerful tool, but it’s not the only tool. We also have – you guessed it – walking!

Walking Banishes the Fog and Boosts Creativity

Have you ever heard of Charles Dickens?

Of course, you have. He’s the guy that talked about orphans and such. He created some well-known stories, like Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol.

Bear with me; I’m going somewhere with this. I’m not just a Dickens fanboy.

Charles Dickens supposedly walked between 7 and 15 hours a day. He didn’t do it because he wanted to run in the Boston Marathon. He didn’t even do it for his physical health.

Dickens walked daily for his brain. He used the walks to fuel his creativity. The sights he took in of the sprawling urban areas he walked became images infused into his writing.

According to Charles Dickens, the walks helped him form new ideas. He was most creative when he was moving.

That’s not surprising when you look at the results of this 2014 Standford Study. The researchers found walking boosts creativity by an average of 60 percent. Those benefits are available the entire time that you’re moving.

Walking reduces mental fog when done at least twice weekly, according to Harvard researchers. The key to gaining these benefits is that you must walk for at least one hour. Do that twice weekly, and you’ll problem-solve better, enjoy improved thought clarity, and have fewer brain fog issues.

Nature Walks are Best: But Treadmills Work Too

There are plenty of studies that say getting out in nature is good for you. And that’s what we would recommend if you’re planning a walk as well. Walking outdoors is relaxing and meditative.

However, if it’s cold out, and you don’t like being cold, you can enjoy many of the mental health benefits offered by walking using a treadmill indoors. That same Stanford study referenced above had college students walk indoors and outdoors. They found that the brain-boosting benefits of walking were nearly identical indoors and out.

Sure, the study didn’t look at anxiety reduction, stress levels, or anything like that. But when you can’t walk outside, you can grab at least a few of the same benefits indoors on a treadmill.

If you don’t want to brave the elements, you should still try and get active indoors. Your body will thank you, but more importantly, still, your brain will thank you.