FAVOURITE WORKOUT
The Human Brain’s
If a legendary philosopher, president, and one of the bestselling authors of all time credited the same secret for their success, would you try to follow it, too? What if the secret was something you already knew how to do? In fact, you probably do it every day. Here’s what philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: “It is only ideas gained from walking that have any worth.” Thomas Jefferson: “Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.” And Charles Dickens made his point with uncharacteristic brevity: “If I could not walk far and fast, I think I should just explode and perish.”
Are you still sitting there reading this? Get walking! It’s not just these three great minds who made a case for walking as a prime creativity booster.
Researchers have traced numerous connections between walking and generating ideas. A Stanford University study found that participants were 81 per cent more creative when walking as opposed to sitting. According to the study, walking outside – versus on a treadmill – produces the most novel and highest-quality analogies in participants who walked and then sat down to do creative work.
Another example: as part of his daily writing routine, novelist Kurt Vonnegut would take a morning break from his office to walk and then swim before eventually returning to work. I would argue that this habit wasn’t just a habit but an intentional, necessary element of his creative process.
The movement aspect of walking is obviously key. You’ve probably
heard the phrase, ‘Exercise your creativity’, which refers to the brain as muscle. Our creative mindset is triggered by physical movement, which is exactly why walking – with your dog, a friend, or alone – feeds creative thinking.
NEW POSSIBILITIES
But the scenery is almost as important as the sweat. Many of us spend up to 80 to 90 per cent of our time indoors. Being inside, you’re more prone to stagnation, the opposite of energy. Without energy, you can’t wonder or create.
Disrupting your routine with a walk can be a catalyst for garnering fresh insights into problems or projects. Just by going outside, you are stepping out of your habitual surroundings and your comfort zone, which is necessary if you want to open your mind to new possibilities. You can walk through a tree-filled neighbourhood. You can walk through a park and observe people sauntering or birds singing. Even when you walk down a busy street, you can’t help but get distracted by the delicious smells wafting from a bakery or the child pointing to a building you had never noticed before.
Our brains work harder to process in different environments, so walking outside fosters our ability to glean new ideas, to take in new sights, sounds, smells and flavours.
NATURE IMMERSION
Shinrin-yoku, or ‘forest bathing’, is a common form of relaxation and medicine in Japan. It was developed in 1982, and recent studies demonstrate that being in the forest and walking among the trees lowers your stress levels.
But you don’t have to live near a forest to receive the psychological benefits. Research has shown that immersion in nature, and the corresponding disconnection from multimedia and technology, increased performance on a creative problem-solving task by a full 50 per cent in a group of hikers.
So instead of setting a fitness goal, why not set a creativity goal that starts with walking? Engage more closely with your surroundings for the next four weeks. Turn off your phone and give yourself the chance to be present in the world, to hear conversations and natural sounds, to notice the way people move, the way the sun reflects in a puddle. Walk not just for exercise. Walk for wonder.