The Benefit of a Daily Walk

The Benefit of a Daily Walk

As a writer, I spend gobs of hours at my computer answering emails, researching, and typing away at everything and anything! Yes, I am definitely one of those people that keeps 20+ tabs open at all times. While I absolutely love putting my thoughts into words, every once in a while, writer’s block hits me like a Mac Truck! Even if you’re not a writer, everyone has had some experience with it… you end up staring at your computer screen thinking to yourself “What the f-bomb am I going to write?!” When it happens, it freaks me out and I feel a bit of paralysis come over me.

The Silver Lining that is tremendously helpful when my mind goes completely blank in the middle of writing is an 8 to 10 minute walk outside. While I am not promising that you will come back from your walk and write an entire novel in one day, what I know for sure is that giving your mind the freedom to forget the office mindset and be stimulated by other things around you will help you generate new creative ideas.

When you are walking, try to notice the beautiful trees overhead or the small and quaint flowers that are scattered along the walkway. While breathing fresh air and allowing your mind to wander about other things, you are internally freeing yourself from the restricted patterns of thinking that you were just experiencing.

If you don’t believe me… you should try it for yourself! Or take a look at Marily Oppezzo’s study as a Ph.D. student at Stanford University. Her study asked subjects to think of as many new uses for a button as they could. She then asked them to take a walk outside. Post-walk, the subjects increased their innovative output of creative ideas by 60 percent!! Yes, it really does make a difference!!

If you are in a lull behind your desk, or experiencing the dreaded writers block, go ahead and take a walk! It will increase your mind’s creative process and allow you the freedom to come up with new ideas.