Put away the kettlebells, armbands, and Pilates ball for a moment. Now grab a pair of socks, lace up your shoes, and head to the front door, because we’ve got something even better; it’s called walking.
All jokes aside, it turns out ancient Greek physician and “Father of Western Medicine,” Hippocrates may have been right when he said, “Walking is man’s [and woman's] best medicine.” Without special exercise equipment, power shakes, or long classes, this light exercise is excellent for both physical and mental wellbeing. While it may seem unlikely that an everyday activity could be so impactful, taking a stroll around the block or through your neighborhood park can do wonders for both your brain and body.
Boost Your Mood
It’s widely agreed that a trip to the gym can make you feel good, but as it turns out, just putting one foot in front of the other can put a little more than the proverbial pep in your step, too. According to a study conducted at Iowa State University, walking “systematically promotes positive affect regardless of the focus on such movement.” More specifically, it can “override” the effects of other emotions such as boredom and dread.
The best part? This mood “medicine” is fast-acting. In 12 minutes of walking, participants felt an increase in levels of attentiveness, joviality, self-confidence, and vigor versus the participants who spent the same amount of time sitting.
But wait—there’s more! Walking is associated with more than reducing depression and anxiety. According to the Harvard Medical Review (HMR), it slows cognitive decline and may reduce the risk of dementia. "There is good evidence that exercise behaves like medicine to improve brain health and thinking skills,” said assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, Dr. Scott McGinnis, in an interview with HMR.
Fire Up Brain Function
A growing body of research shows that walking increases brain function. While there is still some mystery around what exactly causes the cognitive lift, scientists believe it has to do with an increase in blood flow. Because exercise gets our circulatory system working harder, more blood (and oxygen) flows to the brain, which in turn, help us perform better on the whole.
Echoing the aforementioned finding of HMR, a study from Beckman Institute also found that after one year of walking, functional connectivity between aspects of the frontal, posterior, and temporal cortices increased. Put less cerebrally, moseying on down the road can combat the dysfunction that commonly occurs in the aging brain.
Crank up the Creativity
It’s hard to measure creativity, but using the Guilford’s alternate user (GAU) test of creative divergent thinking and the compound remote associates (CRA) test of convergent thinking, researchers at Stanford found that walking increased 81% of participants’ creativity on the GAU, and increased 23% of participants’ scores for the CRA. It looks like Friedrich Nietzsche was right when he said, “All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.”
Lock in Your Memory
A 2018 study shows that brief, light exercise rapidly enhanced highly detailed memory processing and resulted in elevated activity in the hippocampus and the surrounding regions. Researchers concluded that people could merely take a short walk to receive these benefits as well as increased coupling between the hippocampus and cortical areas. In other words, a quick jaunt can send your working memory into overdrive.
In a study by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, researchers investigated how nine-year-olds and young adults performed a working memory task under a variety of challenging conditions while walking on a treadmill. The study concluded that “the interaction of walking and cognitive performance is influenced by sharing resources between two tasks, and that performance improvements in cognition may be caused by an exercise-induced activation of resources.” To wit, walking can sharpening your wits.
This study also brings up a good point about making a walk your activity of choice: it’s easy to do with kids. Whether it’s before breakfast or after dinner, consider going for a walk as a family.
Regain some Energy
Need to perk up? Cut out the coffee, drop that sugar-filled energy drink, and take a walk instead. A study conducted at the University of Georgia shows that low-intensity exercise, such as walking, can reduce fatigue symptoms by 65 percent.
Igniting Small Goals with Big Benefits
The “shoot-for-the-moon, land-among-the-stars mentality” isn’t optimal for exercise goals. It’s about small steps, literally. New Year's Resolutions often provide the perfect examples of good-intentioned ambitions with dreary success rates. So, although you may not get big muscles from walking around the neighborhood, even light physical activity has some heavy-hitting benefits.
In a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers found that even a low-dose of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity reduces mortality rates by 22% in adults. When lead researcher, David Hupin presented his findings at the EuroPRevent2015, he emphasized that physical activity reduces mortality rates in a "dose-dependent" way, according to Psychology Today contributor Christopher Bergland. Hupin noted that a good rule of thumb is to get 15 minutes of moderate exercise a day. That quarter-hour can be as simple as a walk around the block.
A Dose of Mindfulness
Mindfulness Strategies helps companies, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations increase individual and organizational performance by fostering a more mindful culture. Whether it’s building out a program that integrates walking into your workday or cultivating a more mindful corporate culture, we’re here to help.
By elevating your specific needs, we can help you develop a culture where each individual can excel. If you’re interested in learning more about what we do, click here to contact us today.