Move To Think, Think To Move
Nature, Movement and Mind in the Age of Stimulation
Eons Ago
In 300 BC, footsteps and ideas echoed through marble halls of the Lyceum in Athens. Aristotle held an intellectual community of students and teachers who indulged in philosophical and scientific enquiries - canvassing logic, ethics, politics, and biology - all in a walking classroom. These Peripatetics (those who walk about) believed thinking and walking were one motion and illustrated an ideal practice highly pertinent to your and my current world.
Additionally, it helped them socially too: focusing their attention on the Greek horizon was easier than clashing faces in debates, given the reduced eye contact, relaxed setting and shared memory they would create.
Contrasting Horizons
Back in the world of smartboards, minimal hard-copy books and soft chairs, what do you see when surveying our current states, not exclusive to education?
I stereotypically think of our lives as a loud and chaotic office with surgical-level white lighting - indoors, taxed, torpid, boxed. Frenzied alertness that demands decisions. The humdrum of haste - both dull and extremely busy. All these rough edges but stark perimeters - away from walkable towns and deep into city’s hustle-bustle.
There are constant bombardments of information at breakneck speeds you don’t even register - just subconsciously outrage after, and the dizzying number of ads encountered is but one example. Overstimulation doesn’t announce its arrival; it’s been your thieving housemate long before you notice your depleted resources.
In these environments you’d have to
p a u s e
to focus on where you’re headed.
And to answer why there are coined phrases like ‘vitamin sea’, or why we love feeling the golden hour rays on our skin, why waterfront or cliffside properties are more expensive. People picture a beachside resort as the portrayal of a relaxing vacation, keep little office plants to uplift themselves at work, adopt pets when there is a lack of an anchor in their life, target the ducks and swans as subjects in photos of riverine gardens.
There’s a reason hikes, trees, flowers, clouds, sunsets, even a little squirrel or pigeon, fascinate us so. We owe it to our built-in biophilia - the innate human tendency to seek connections with nature and other living things.
And yet, we treat boxed and listless lives as the norm and enriching environments as dotted-in-the-year holiday destinations, whereas all through human history, good living was brought by the opposite.
If that doesn’t muddle with well-being, our sedentary lifestyles do.
“Sitting is the new cancer”, they say. According to the NHS, an adult in the UK sits 9 hours a day, excluding sleep time! Our hip flexors weaken considerably, and it makes sense given their tight anatomical position as we sit for a quarter to a third of our lives.
Certainly, given the nature of our jobs, we do adjust where possible - standing desks, walking breaks, daily stretches, 10k steps, 1 hour of gym? If at all.
However, the most physically sound communities in Africa show maximum benefits owing to a pattern of regular activity scattered throughout the day - instead of, again, keeping the indolent laze our norm and activity the outlier in the day. Sure, when we critically analyse this, the reason also enlists manual work and heightened use of public transport, but the active habits award them titles of ‘the fittest’.
This may seem like yet another person (read: broken record) harping on about the obvious alarms our tendencies are costing us, but also consider holding a massive mirror to your life: checking your screen time - the only stat arguably worse than our seated time.
1+1 = 11 hours when you conveniently sit for ‘a bit’ to scroll. Then your day feels blanched. That’s all the personalised data we need to realise our bodies don’t praise us for destructive habits.
So much doom with little uptrends? Granted, no routine is perfect. No fool can expect to turn back time to lives as socially and naturally competent as our ancestors (despite the current good markers of life expectancy and luxury). But, no pill can solve problems that aren’t entirely chemical to begin with, and no fancy cure, subscribed to by the masses, can overshadow organic prevention to target the root of problems.
This is a sober argument in favour of utilising the signals our body already gives us, as breadcrumbs to days of better wellbeing, and hence, lives.
And as simple and surprising as it sounds, it can all be encompassed by just walking.
“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.”
- Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher
The Science of Walking
Taking even a single step requires the anatomical coordination of multiple muscles and has sheer planning demands from the brain.
Due to its physiological exaction, we may have heard how regular walking enhances our musculoskeletal system with stronger bones, our cardiovascular system with decreased risk of hypertension and heart disease, as well as the immune system with increased white blood cells.
Indeed, these may mean less to us when all our functions are in-check. Health seems to be a lesser problem until it is the only problem. Kenneth Craik said, “in any well-made machine one is ignorant of the working of most of the parts – the better they work the less we are conscious of them...it is only a fault which draws our attention to the existence of a mechanism at all. ” The intricacies required to maintain our body in equilibrium are staggering, the extent of which is only glimpsed when something goes slightly wrong.
Apart from naturally involving physiology, I’ve always been more enthused about the neuropsychological workings behind walking.
Though I’m not a fan on dividing our brains into two parts, for this we will indulge in the dichotomy. There’s the Automatic Control system – the spinal cord, brainstem and cerebellum, which deals with tasks warranting minimal conscious attention. Walking activates this to ensure smooth and controlled motion with reflexive coordination, keeping our mental resources freed - to catch a frisbee, for example, or rant about a pathetic workday.
The second part is our Planning and Executive Control system – housed in the Prefrontal Cortex: decision centre of the brain. This is used when mapping a route, navigating puddles on the pavement and during the frisbee-catching or ranting. It helps us adapt to our surroundings, so we don’t run into a pushchair or so we can change the foot’s angle down a hill. The cognitive involvement is why walking in varied environments proves more stimulating instead of on a treadmill.
Though being alfresco is obviously linked to better mood with the fresh air and open space, pure self-generated movement is a big driver of serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins. It also generates new neurons and connections, cascaded by the release of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). No wonder the many figures in history who frequently walked had enhanced memory and cognitive function, and a reduced risk of dementia.
In fact, Nietzsche used to ask people to never trust a thought that occurs to them indoors. All because a sedentary, indoor environment produces ideas or conclusions with narrow-minded or small-scale thinking.
Overthinking oversees genders, but maybe not time and context.
There is another saying, possibly in jest, to never trust your feelings late at night. When we’ve got fewer distractions and are fatigued with the day’s demands of controlling ourselves in situations, we may have an outpour of overly emotional, negative or impulsive thoughts.
In psychology, it was researched as ‘ego depletion’ - when your finite mental resources of willpower/self-control are exhausted - but is now discredited and believed to be more due to minimal inhibitions stemming from being tired, which is why late-night conversations are also more visceral (in psychologically safe environments).
As a side note, we must be very particular in labelling excuses, as this can create self-fulfilling cycles: the goal isn’t to equip a diagnosis or phenomenon as a justification of “my willpower is depleted so I will overthink and say whatever to whomever”, but rather to be aware of possible reasons for spiralling or outlandish thoughts, as it can be difficult to catch ourselves.
And so, at night and in closed spaces, the brain may be prone to overthinking and rumination.
It makes sense, then, why there is a marked link between walking and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) studies – the endorphins released help alleviate anxiety or depression (earmarked by ruminative thoughts) and slash stress levels, while grounding people in the present.
We internalise the evidence we give ourselves of being an active person who cares about their body and, therefore, see uptrends in self-esteem with all the respect given. This belief, like many others, is registered after handing our brains proof.
It also helps us sleeps better; of course, as one would, if the pedometer on their phone doesn’t display merely 1346 steps for the day.
Solvitur Ambulando – It Is Solved By Walking
History is studded with polymaths and prodigies who were kinetic daydreamers – people in a state of physical movement while being lost in thought. This state wasn’t exclusive to the aforementioned Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Aristotle; accounts categorise Virginia Woolf, Henry David Thoreau, Kant, Einstein, Dickens, and even Beethoven as creatives who fortified their creativity using walks.
Charles Darwin, in particular, had a looping, tree-lined, ‘thinking path’ beside his home in Kent (still commemorated at Down House). He’d pace it daily (for c.40 years) - counting laps with pebbles in his pocket - until ideas on natural selection crystallized from abstract thoughts and little experiments - including the movement of earthworms on said path.
When put to test in your and my world, researchers found similar effects.
Psychologists use multiple measures for creative thinking; a famous test is to think of as many uses as possible for random and common objects in 30 seconds. Studies have found that those who were asked to walk before this exercise generated twice as many alternate uses compared to those who simply sat before.
Generally, the better cognitive performance was regardless of moving indoors or outdoors, and also had residual effects in the subsequent activities. So, it may help us to start something innovative after a walk, not just try to think during a walk. Interestingly, although other task replications have also shown walking to promote free-thinking, a particular task - to solve problems with a single answer - is sometimes performed better by those who sit.
Why does this occur, though? Is it the level of motion, as observed in the participants moved around in a wheelchair outperforming those sitting? Is it the aerobic exercise we get that stimulates our brain with more oxygen and therefore energy? All valid fragments of the answer.
It is the distinct way of making random associations that determines this cognizance. The changing auditory, visual and sensory input - coupled with our movement - promotes associative thinking in the Default Mode Network which integrates signals from diverse brain regions.
DMN is the brain’s pathway tied with self-reflection, introspective thought of the past and future (memory and planning), emotional processing, social cognition and mind-wandering. This activation can’t be triggered with distracted attention, but when in a mind-wandering or rest state - sat staring at a wall, or daydreaming by the window.
You might have seen the effects of DMN lighting up without registering it.
When Archimedes took a bath and serendipitously discovered the principle of displacement for his pressing problem of King Hiero II’s gold crown, he didn’t need to know it was his DMN making associations during a completely unrelated activity. All he knew was he had his ‘Eureka!’ moment.
While we conduct automatic broad-level thinking, our executive control narrows these estimations through convergent thinking – which is how we solve our hardest conundrums and get artistic outputs: by looking at the expansive big picture and considering the small pieces.
Calmness, Not Just Creativity
Zooming out to see the big picture doesn’t solely draw better answers, it also draws us away from being consumed by everyday pandemonium. When you see vast savannahs, really focus on cloud shapes, marvel over a large tree’s aerial roots and notice there’s more to life than miniscule humans and our far more itsy-bitsy problems, you force the DMN to come alive, in as little as 10 minutes.
If we don’t intentionally try to pause life for slowness and rest, when we are forced to be still by a calamity (like a pandemic), the surfacing concerns in our mind we had swiftly swept under the carpet, all nosedive onto us at once.
It would benefit us, then, to remember that just as solutions can’t be found by banging our heads onto the laptop for X hours, a peaceful mind isn’t achieved through relentlessly shifting things into places, timelines and forms we arbitrarily decide as right.
There’s a relevant Japanese concept called ‘Yutori’ - an act of creating room. This mental, physical and emotional space invites reflection, presence and relaxation - the pause button I can reckon most of us need. What’s the point of having a great life without stopping to notice the ride you are on?
With the consistent exposure to overstimulation - pings, ads, phone habits, noise patterns, expectations to multitask – this becomes more necessary. The Attention Restoration Theory elaborates on this by delineating modern urban environments as constant deposits of ‘directed attention’ or deliberations that lead to mental fatigue.
Natural environments, however, have contrasting effects due to softer stimuli: rustling leaves or flowing water. That’s when our brains undergo bottom-up processing - where we perceive based on collecting sensory input and features from the surroundings, instead of perceiving things using prior knowledge or experience.
Calmness and tranquillity are synonymous with nature. The breathing space literally swells your lungs with fuller breaths. When you go hiking or camping without distractions and feel like you’re part of a larger (and gorgeous) world, or feel connected to your company or the nature - your sense of an individual self is enfeebled. Simply put: you’re in awe, mate.
The Liminal Space of Boredom
If we all know the benefits and want to pause life for peace, why do we not? How many times were you aware enough to realise you’re using toxic productivity or momentum to avoid this breathing space - lest the space exceeds out of limits and delves into a disconcerting, nightmarish feeling: boredom?
People may zigzag from partner to partner if they can’t stand being alone, looking over their shoulder for buried feelings to resurrect and stand behind them. Similarly, most people find boredom uncomfortable not because their overcaffeinated body can’t sit still, but rather it will force them to face themselves, wander into existential questions and remind of too much (as an overactive DMN is the culprit of anxiety).
On that account, they may not even be able to articulate their struggle and can lead a mentally lost life, held together by the duct tape of distraction. The skyrocketing screen times may have something to say on that note.
This is exactly where we need to be braver - we can’t run from ourselves and our lives hoping what we refuse to see will vanish. The only person’s company that will be constant, unconditional and perennial is yours. If you can’t make your mind habitable, how do you expect to inhabit the world? Is it a possible escape?
It is upon us to either treat our minds like a leech we can’t shake off, or a haven we use as a lens to view the world in our mirror. And, as Rumi says, “if you get irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?”
The Mental Obesity of Consumption
I’ve heard from numerous (and senior) friends that we should be less serious and bring play back into our lives. Gone are the days of hanging out in the park and inventing games on-spot or merging outdoors with other ways we were creative. I’m certain a lot of current online games challenge our creativity and strategy skills too, but in a fragmented and hyperstimulating world, I’m sceptical our solution would be to besmirch our time with more individualistic, indoor, digital, immobilising stimulation.
Playing ‘like the old times’, being outdoors and simply walking are definitely ways to help think expansively, activate the DMN, or naturally invite space, rest and better wellbeing. However, there’s an evident necessity embedded in us to connect and create - as an act of catharsis.
A need of expressing and sharing. Think of how many times you solved a problem simply by explaining it to a friend, or how some knots of sadness resolved themselves by occupying yourself with a craft, or while enjoying a family dinner.
I recently read about the 4 C’s of self-care: Cavort, Commune, Consume, Create. And, I reckon creation is the most underrated, and yet can involve all other tenets, without letting you slide into rumination.
So, here are some brainstormed ideas to slow down life as well as promote better mood, connections and ways of expression:
(Disclaimer - these are personally tried and tested, and intended as flexible starting-points. Comments are open for more ideas or any pushback.)
Social
Cook/bake with siblings/cousins (listed first for good reason)
Hold a gallery of paintings for your extended family or local community
Invent challenges to play with friends/family (make your version of Taskmasters)
Have one of those presentation parties about a niche topic
Discuss a shared book with your parents
Teach a skill at your local community centre
Do science experiments or social experiments with your siblings
Enact a comic play of one of your circle’s shared moments
Vibe code apps for making your friends’ lives easier
Handwrite a letter for your partner/future partner
Take time to send postcards on your travels
Self-expression
Tons of journaling (not time-based like daily/weekly, but when you want an outlet)
Curate a favourites album on your phone with a constellation of people, moments and quotes (basic but a precious pastime to visualise what matters, consolidate experiences, not post anywhere)
Decorate a wall with the year’s intentional vision board, collated from Pinterest
Write here, on Substack
Film a 5-minute cinematic interview/introduction of yourself
Build playlists or try a musical instrument
Take classes for public-speaking
Time capsule yourself a letter or email to a future date, like an ‘open-when’
Make/edit a short film on a topic you find yourself thinking of often
Do a comedy stand-up (laugh about the lack of laughs later)
Slowing Time
Nothing can show how slow seconds go like a good workout can (important)
Cook a lot, without multitasking, and learn to cook well
Make or assemble furniture
DIY gifts/home decor for yourself (origami, recycling, handicrafts, pottery)
Deep clean your room (yes, about time)
Dance alone
Make a terrarium
Hear me out…..solo dates (solo travelling, if the term’s more digestible): visiting a nearby town for a day trip, hiking for a sunrise, mountain biking, etc
Adopt plants and get your hands dirty with gardening
Use apps to design interiors virtually
Crochet a blanket, scarf or tote bag, or whatever seems fun
Sketch whatever you see, wherever you are
On that note: paint/draw/design/sketch/colour/woodwork/crochet badly
While it’s best to pick one and run with it, the overarching idea is to pause, be curious, dare to chase it, and then share ourselves, the journey and the outputs with our definition of ‘the world’. Documenting the self-expression also helps to witness, harmonise and remember your life clearly - which, over time, you grasp a pattern and your story in.
The only thing unwelcomed is the ‘purgatory of productivity’ or expecting endeavours you enjoy to also be fortes, or profitable, or ‘useful’. If we strip away the pressure of chasing perfectionism, who knows how much simpler our days, and hence lives, would become.
Also, this illustration sums up how I think about ideas, solutions and having breathing space (not just happiness). It was so potent that somehow my brain stored it since seeing it 8-ish years ago and saving it on my Pinterest.
How To Invite Wellbeing
Here’s what not to do: I’ve made plentiful mistakes of hatching lofty plans involving sun-lit walks every morning despite being a night owl, picking up several hobbies at once given my analysis paralysis, trying to create thinking space but slipping into maladaptive daydreaming that hinders with my time management, starting habits with no accountability systems, getting distracted mid-way in the gym with my phone then shortening the sets, ruminating over fixations when I could easily use my knowledge of taking breaks to… I don’t know, actually take a break.
Here’s what we should remember as takeaways, as we try to walk more, pause more, go outdoors more and create more:
Social walking is a depiction of ‘many birds with one stone’. You improve relationships, have quality time, firm difficult conversations; it’s easier to build the physically and mentally beneficial habit of regular walking with accountability then carrying it independently.
Better than 1-hour high-intensity sessions are active times sprinkled throughout the day. So take the stairs, yes. But also take calls during walks, instead of melting on your chair or doing peculiar yoga poses on the floor.
It’s time to be staunch believers of “work hard, play harder”. Kierkegaard also famously said “life is not a problem to solve but a reality to be experienced”. Dare to live a little.
When you pick up your phone, firstly, verbalise why you’re going on your phone. It’s drilled so unconsciously into us to reach for it when ‘free’ or uncomfortable. This also helps to stay focused on what you intended to check.
Create cushioning for your future self, for you will fall. Support systems run the world - at least mine and yours. So be kind to yourself and those who are to you.
Just stare at the dang wall. Be brave by being bored.
Make your mind a cosy home. You might as well, given it’s a lifetime tenancy.
The greatest problem in self-development is giving verdicts. Internalising “I am not this person” or labelling types or identities, especially when you’re young. Adopt a habit to give evidence to your brain then you’ll adopt the type.
Create. Cavort. Consume. Commune.
Stuck in a pickle? Walk. Writer’s block? Walk. Overthinking? Walk. You get it.
When you see mountains you feel how small you are - not as true for buildings. The biophilia within us has evolved to show how insignificant some worries are. Give it a chance to diminish problems.
Don’t get embarrassed making changes. Finding what works for you isn’t cringe; it’s revolutionary. What’s cringe is letting your potential and neurons rot away because others are doing that too.
I hope this is our sign to be more still, intentional and creative, to give our ideas legs and pave the footpath with neural pathways.
Perhaps you discover it to be a better life - whether you’re looking to have a eureka moment, simply seize more control of your time, mind and body, or to abruptly wash away your boomeranging thoughts with swans afront some trees.
Loved the language and the flow
Take home walk, walk and walk with ur near and dear ones in nature