Walking To The Beat Of A Better Life

Not so long ago, this is the way we travelled, and much of the world still does. In the United States, we tend to build environments that include our homes, workplaces, and social centers in driveable areas. I have to admit I don’t know anyone who actually walks to the grocery store.

Walkable neighborhoods have much lower rates of traffic fatalities — for both pedestrians and motorists — compared with driving -oriented areas.

Interesting that low-income families are more reliant on walking for essential journeys than the middle class, and yet low-cost housing is often located in the most car-dependent places.

Sadly, the creation of a truly walkable community where most people walk for short journeys involves a cultural change.

One quarter of all trips in the U.S. are 1 mile or less, and yet most of these trips are taken by car. Increasing walking reduces traffic congestion and the cost of road maintenance.

It’s amazing that our bodies are engineered to move this way and it’s becoming all too clear that a sedentary lifestyle is a disease in and of itself. Moving matters, and walking can be the absolute best low-impact way to living a more active, healthy, and connected life.

Most of us are familiar with the myriad of benefits of walking. First, the physical benefits — improving balance, strengthening bones, reducing risk of heart disease and stroke, preventing type II diabetes, and much more. How about the mental health benefits of walking? Did you know that walking boosts brain power, drives creativity, helps control addiction, improves self-confidence, and reduces stress?

And what of the emotional benefits? Walking helps make space, clear the air, and moderate our worst moods — allowing us to breathe again. Walking provides many spiritual benefits as well. We engage with the unknown, experience chance encounters with birds, take steps of silence in prayer or thought, steal an hour for a walk through a garden, and invest in the presence of things we cannot comprehend.

Fewer than 50% of Americans meet the minimum guidelines for moderate physical activity — walking is the easiest and most affordable way to correct this problem.

For many, training and preparing one’s body and mind for long walks can be difficult in daily life. But escaping to distant parks, greenways, and trails has become common for this kind of walking practice.

Walking as a practice begins with choosing to walk for reasons other than transportation. When we individually or collectively choose to walk, we are doing more for ourselves, for each other, and for our communities than we could ever imagine.

With growing capacities in technology, data tracking and goal achievement management, instant gratification and social camaraderie through a smartphone app creates new opportunities to support walking as a practice.

With expanding access to the Internet and cell phones being replaced by smartphones, the “exercise app” market has been soaring. Fitbit sold nearly 11 million devices last year, generating $745.5 million in revenue, and the MapMyWalk app recorded over 30 million total users in November of 2014. Contests and online tools only get more enticing, energizing, and appealing for users who are drawn to such tools.

These apps are friendly and generally easy to use. They track just about everything and they connect you to family and friends to chat, swap stats, and to even compete for badges and prizes. GPS tracking features have created an immediate satisfaction algorithm to boost more walking practice. Many of today’s apps and tech tools are finding their way directly into worksite wellness programs, which are increasingly being linked to the employer’s health care insurance costs and benefits.

When we go on long walks, we lose consciousness of the act of walking, we allow the journey within to take its course. Quick thoughts become longer stories, and stored stress is slowly transformed into a calm and cleansing balm of acceptance, possibility, and hope. Walking can help make the human experience creative, light, connected, and whole.

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