Top 10 Reasons Why Walking Can Change Your Life – Episode 445
Walking. So simple and so easy. Humans and their ancestors have been doing it for a million years. We are meant to walk. Our bodies are designed for upright, bipedal locomotion. Walking is a complex behavior that exercises our brains as well as our skeletal system. It is a harmonious integration of various body systems including the inner ear, eyes, touch receptors, muscles, tendons, and joints. The good news is that walking is really good for you and many physicians consider it the best form of exercise. In this episode, Ted, a dedicated walker, shares the top 10 reasons why starting a habit of daily walking can change you life. Are you trying to get some exercise but don’t want to go to a gym or walk on a boring treadmill? Check out this episode of the Ted in Your Head podcast.
It’s been a rainy winter and spring here in Southern California. There’s a song from the 70s called “It Never Rains in California” but let me tell you, when it does, it pours.
Anyway, after the rain we had last weekend, we had a day of sunny weather with temps in the mid-eighties. I couldn’t wait to get out and walk for the first time in a long time in a t shirt and shorts and let me tell you it felt good. All the wildflowers were blooming, the snowcapped San Gabriel Mountains loomed beautifully in the distance and the sun reflected of off of Puddingstone Lake in a thousand sparkling twinkles. It was glorious and I just soaked it all up with gratitude and a feeling of being incredibly blessed.
I’m a walker. I’ve walked more miles in my life than you can imagine. If you have been listening to my podcast or following me on social media, you know how much I love to walk. I have walked to some of the most wonderful, magical, and breathtaking places I’ve ever seen, where a car could not go.
I first started to walk after having some autoimmune eye problems and back problems as a young man. I asked my chiropractor what I could do to help my back other than stretching. He said walk every day.
I asked my eye doctor what I could do to prevent these recurring eye problems. She said walk every day. But I didn’t start walking consistently for exercise until I read a book by Dr. Andrew Weil called “Spontaneous Healing”. Dr. Weil suggests that the cross-pattern movement of your limbs when you walk generates electrical activity in the brain that has a harmonizing influence on the central nervous system. I was sold at that point, and I’ve been walking ever since every day if I can.
In my work as a hypnotherapist helping people to change, I deal with many issues such as smoking cessation, weight loss, anxiety, stress, and health issues, just to name a few. There’s lots of different tools, including hypnosis, of course, that I use to help them deal with these challenges. But one of the first things that I will recommend to my clients is to walk every day.
Think about how far we have come from the days before the automobile when everyone walked. The car has only been in large scale production for a little over 100 years. We humans and our ancestors have been walking for over a million years.
We are meant to walk. Our bodies are designed for upright, bipedal locomotion. Walking is a complex behavior that exercises our brains as well as our skeletal system. It is a harmonious integration of various body systems including the inner ear, eyes, touch receptors, muscles, tendons, and joints.
Walking requires no skill or special equipment except a good pair of shoes. You can do it anywhere, indoors, or out. It doesn’t cost anything, and the chance of injury is slight. It’s simple, yet many health professionals consider it the best form of exercise.
According to Dr. Andrew Weil, for an ideal aerobic workout, your walks should last 45 minutes, and you should be able to cover three miles in that time. But you don’t have to walk for very long to get some benefit. Studies show that a brisk, 30-minute walk five days a week can help you live a longer, healthier life.
Walking has positive benefits for both mind and body. Walking outside connects you with sky and ground, sun and earth, wind, and water. It’s from these things that we are made of, after all. Walking is visually stimulating. Walking can break up the monotony of the same house, same office, same freeway. Walking can give you relief from SSDD (same stuff, different day.)
Have you ever walked on a moonlit night when the full moon lit everything up so bright that it looked like day? When was the last time you walked barefoot in the grass? Have you ever not been able to walk for any length of time? Walking gets pretty valuable right about then.
Here are the top 10 reasons why walking can change your life.
1. Walking can improve your mood. A California State University, Long Beach, study showed that the more steps people took during the day, the better their moods were. Walking can decrease feelings of anger and hostility especially if you walk near greenery, like in a park and in the sun. Research shows that just 10 minutes a day of walking can lighten your mood and lift your spirits. So, walking can make you
happier. I don’t know about you, but I think that there’s a lot of grouchy people out there that can sure use those 10 minutes.
2. Walking burns calories and helps you maintain a healthy weight. Taking brisk walks daily can help you drop as much as a pound a week. Not only that, but some studies have suggested that walking can help you control sugar cravings. And of course, walking is good for heart health. Walking 30 minutes a day 5 days a week can decrease your risk for heart disease by almost 20%.
3. Walking can lower your risk for chronic diseases. A 2022 study published in Nature Medicine shows that walking can reduce your risk for a variety of chronic diseases. One study showed that walking 8,200 steps effectively reduced the risk of chronic conditions, including: obesity, sleep apnea, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), major depressive disorder (MDD), type 2 diabetes, and hypertension.
4. Walking can help you sleep better. People that walk are less likely to have insomnia than people who don’t walk. Any physical activity will boost melatonin, the sleep hormone.
5. Walking is good for your brain. Walking increases blood flow to the brain, improving brain function. Some studies have shown that walking can increase your decision-making abilities. Walking can slow down mental decline and lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
6. Walking keeps your bones strong and reduces joint pain. Walking increases blood flow to the joints, strengthens muscles and ligaments and can reduce the risk of osteoporosis. We’re talking about 30 minutes, 3 time a week. Not a lot. There are studies that also suggest that walking is a safe and convenient activity for those with arthritis.
7. Walking strengthens your immune system. That’s why I started walking, I was diagnosed with some autoimmune issues when I was young. There are numerous studies that show the people that walk daily get sick less and get fewer respiratory infections. If they do get sick, it’s not as severe. People that walk spend less time in hospitals.
8. Walking improves your digestive health by encouraging movement in the GI system resulting in better bowel movements. That might not be a big deal to you now but talk to me when you get into your 60s about how important a good poop can be. 9. Walking can enhance your creativity. A 2014 study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Memory, and Cognition, suggests that going for a walk can spark creativity. I’ve had great ideas for podcasts while walking as well as coming up with creative ideas to overcome challenges in my life. Furthermore, if we look back into the history of our most famous creative thinkers, you can find numerous accounts of those that had their most important creative ideas while taking a stroll.
10. Walking can help you live longer. According to the Arthritis Foundation website, research finds that people who exercise regularly in their fifties and sixties are 35% less likely to die over the next eight years than people who don’t walk. According to the CDC, The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity such as walking. According to the Prevention.com website: “People who completed the recommended 150 minutes of weekly exercise in at least 10-minute spurts had a 31% lower risk of death. Other research shows the faster you walk, the more your risk drops.”
Are you convinced? What else do you need to know to put on your walking shoes and get out there? Start small, such as 2 or 3 days a week walking for 10 or 15 minutes. Work your way up to 5 or 7 days a week for 30 minutes. Make sure you have a good pair of shoes, and if you’re going to walk at night for God’s sake make sure you are visible and have a flashlight. Find a nice place to walk, if possible, where there is natural beauty and where you feel safe.
Many of the things that can change our lives are those things that we commit to doing consistently. If you want better health, a more comfortable body and a calmer, clearer mind, then do the simple thing that humans and their ancestors have been doing for a million years: walk.
If you need some motivation and support to get out there and start walking or exercising in general, I can help you. I invite you to request a complimentary consultation by going to https://tedmoreno.com/contact.
Here’s a quote by Gary Snyder: “Walking is the rhythm of life.”
“An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”
That’s by Henry David Thoreau.
Have a blessed day
