One of the best additions to my workdays has been a brisk walk instead of a lunch break. Every time I’ve done this, I’ve left the office with a cloudy and confused mind and every time I came back with a plan and a clear(ish) mind.

Every time!

I’ve done the same on days when I’ve worked on my thesis, or even just a day off. Recently I just went on a walk without any other plan. I just took my little notebook with me and that’s it. I came back with a plan on how to tie together the chapters in my thesis.

Hoy, Adventurer!

I have a little quest for you, my dear reader. Pick somewhere that’s quiet from car traffic1, preferrably in nature, that you can stroll around in. Take transit (or car I guess) if necessary to get there. Then, for the next half an hour, go without any devices.

Put your phone on silent and in your pocket. Smart watch on at least ‘do not disturb’. No earplugs, headphones, or speakers. For the next half an hour, the only stimulation you can have must come from your surroundings.

Don’t try to distract yourself. You have plenty of thoughts running through your head and they won’t go away on their own. It’s like a (priority) queue. Start walking (or otherwise physically moving yourself, if able) and just go forwards.

Just you and your thoughts.

For a little while.

Do I have to?

I tend to stay in one spot, in the same chair, watching video after video of other people doing stuff. Or if working, I have heavy metal fill my head2. My head is constantly filled with thoughts, a foggy mess of a brain. Sound familiar?

Us humanoid shaped animals haven’t evolved to sit around all day. We’re kinda built for jogging after gazelles for hours until the poor gazelles get really tired while we’ve just gotten a bit hungrier. There are a bunch of reasons science can explain as to how our physical health links to our mental health (and vice versa).

If we want to keep a healthy body (just the one), we have to have a healthy mind as well. And to keep a healthy mind we need a healthy body. Kind of a catch 22? Well, I did say keep not get.

Even when we feel really tired, our bodies may not actually be tired in the least. Only they try to match our mental tiredness and so we just feel like going back to sleep. But in reality our bodies are filled with energy! Just last week when I felt like going back to sleep I instead donned my running gear and ran (jogged) 10 km with ease3. I wasn’t physically tired, but my mind was and my body tried to match that.

Of course we must start from somewhere and that somewhere is where we are now (unless you’ve already started beforehand).

Us humanoid shapes are built in a way that just makes us work better when we move around.

When I was your age!

To me there seems to have been a big cultural shift towards isolation in the past few decades. People are, while geographically and physically closer in space than ever, far more distant than ever. There’s probably half a dozen people in a dozen meter radius around me. I know the names of exactly zero of them.

While its easy to observe that we spend a lot of time physically isolated in our homes or cars, it’s less obvious that we’re also very isolated in public spaces. Almost everyone is listening to either music or podcasts, wherever they might be.

Equipped with a brain made to eat berries in a cave, there sure is a lot of stimulation being blasted at us all the time. And worryingly, it’s being blasted because we ask for it to be. We put the podcasts on, we hit play on playlists!

Where am I going with this?

I’ve not said anything new here. But as I said in the intro, going on walks has always cleared my muddy mind massively. There’s something magical about it.

Now this quest still isn’t magic. It wont fix your problems; it won’t cure your ailments. Doing it should help, though.

Should you accept this quest (and I beg you do), there’s one more important thing I must say.

You mustn’t go with a forced attitude. When you go, go not with “Ugh, whatever, mom!” but go with “Okay, let’s try this out.” It makes a difference. I will not force you to go out. But I ask you to give it a go.

Go and walk away for a little bit.

  1. Need not be silent, just not very busy. A car every five minutes or so is quiet enough. ↩

  2. I have Dream Theater’s A View From A Top Of The World instrumental version playing as I write this. ↩

  3. I’m not saying this to brag. I’m genuinely still astonished that I was so full of energy even though I felt really tired and sleepy beforehand. ↩