Walking: An Exhilaration Pill
Tags: Walking, Gym, Rebecca Solnit, Exhilaration, Exercise

Walk Walk Walk

“Solitary walks express the independence that literally takes the heroine out of the social sphere of the houses and their inhabitants, into a larger, lonelier world where she is free to think: walking articulates both physical and mental freedom.”

― Rebecca Solnit on Jane Austen’s heroines

What is life if not chasing one exhilarating moment after the other? I know that it seems foolish to think of exhilarating moments when you are barely putting your life together. But what if I told you that you don’t need to fly to the moon to feel exhilarated. What if I told you that you can seek exhilaration by just flipping your brain chemistry?

If that sounds even more complicated than rocket science, think again: All it takes is a pair of walking shoes and a nice circuit. All you need to do is just put one foot forward and follow it with the second. One hour of that and you have turned on the endorphin faucet in your mind. Would it be exhilarating? You bet! Losing weight is the bonus.

Someone said the best things in life are wild and free. I do advise you not to compromise upon the quality of your walking shoes. A good pair can protect you from potential injuries and tone up the exhilaration you can derive out of walking.

“Treadmills were introduced before the development of powered machines to harness the power of animals or humans to do work, often a type of mill operated by a person or animal treading the steps of a treadwheel to grind grain. In later times, treadmills were used as punishment devices for people sentenced to hard labor in prisons. The terms treadmill and treadwheel were used interchangeably for the power and punishment mechanisms.”

Sedentary lifestyle is an occupational hazard of our times and walking can be a wonderful antidote. But please do not treadmill away your valuable walking hour if you can manage it. A walk around your block, or a park or around your community is ideal.

I have heard that a few CEOs walk during their daily meetings. I have heard that some people read books on their Kindle while walking on a treadmill. I can’t possibly do either of that. Meetings and books need undivided attention. Similarly, walking needs undivided attention to gain the maximum benefit out of it.

Walking your dog would probably be meditative. Walking with other walking companions can either energize you or wear you out depending on whether you are an extrovert or an introvert. Walking with music is a good idea. Walking with podcasts for company can be addictive. Podcast-fitness is a thing now.

I prefer to walk alone, sans music, sans podcasts, sans companions, sans pets. I prefer to walk and experience the first rays of the sun. I prefer to enjoy my solitude and tune into my thoughts while going on my morning walk. I like the company of my thoughts. Sure, there will be days when I won’t feel like getting out of bed and resume life. That’s when I seek the company of music or podcasts.

“…the gym is a kind of wildlife preserve for bodily exertion. A preserve protects species whose habitat is vanishing elsewhere, and the gym (and home gym) accommodates the survival of bodies after the abandonment of the original sites of bodily exertion.”

― Rebecca Solnit

At this point, you probably guessed that I hate the gym. I call it the grim reaper’s closet. When you clean your home, do the cooking and organize things, that’s strength training, too. The only benefit walking and tidying home does not offer is that of Yoga, but I am in no hurry for it.

If you want lovely lines on walking ringing between your ears, whether you are walking or not, get yourself Rebecca Solnit’s “Wanderlust: A History of Walking”.

Here is one such line:

“Musing takes place in a kind of meadowlands of the imagination, a part of the imagination that has not yet been plowed, developed, or put to any immediately practical use…time spent there is not work time, yet without that time the mind becomes sterile, dull, domesticated. The fight for free space — for wilderness and public space — must be accompanied by a fight for free time to spend wandering in that space.”

― Rebecca Solnit