10,000 steps and beyond
On walking for health and ideation
This is the 7th blog of my series, 100-weeks, 100-blogs. This week’s piece is on making a place for walking in my routine.
Apart from reading and a consistent writing routine, one habit I find common among many writers, or those who think deep, is walking.
One fine evening, I too decided to have a walking routine. Only one thing stopped me from walking. Actually, more than one. A few dozen potholes on the road, air thick with dust, bikers on their phones, and a small pile of garbage on a corner. Also, it started to rain. Hence, I dropped the idea before even trying it. I thought it was just another rich people’s fancies.
I mean, how could I make time for 10,000 steps daily? And doing that while thinking? Walking has many good points. It helps your heart, it helps your brain, and other things. The problem is the time it takes. How can one find time for walking to get its good points?
I wrote about procrastination in my last blog. I believe that hoping for perfection, in anything, whether it's a new habit or something you do every day, either stops you from starting that habit or task, or it keeps you sad. But over time, it seems to me that perfection, like humor, is also subjective.
I have spent more time thinking about things I want to do, instead of doing them. While thinking about a task, the first picture that comes from it is of the result that I will get. And the result in my brain is always perfect. Either perfectly good or perfectly bad. Nothing in between.
During the last two weeks, I was stuck on too many things. I tried to do many things all at once and ended up doing nothing. The problem was still the same: not starting as I did not get a "perfect plan" for what I was doing. I have found that whenever I am confused, most times, I find myself sitting in one spot for a long time during that period. Maybe this is one reason I do not enjoy driving. I cannot think much when I stay still. I wish I could have used this reason for my poor test results. Still, only one answer to this problem came to me: walking.
On finding the answer to my walking problem, I came up with two answers. One solves the 10,000-step problem for me, and another solves the thinking one.
For the 10,000-step problem, a study done in Japan suggests a 30-minute plan. One set has 3 minutes of quick walking followed by 3 minutes of slow walking. Doing this for 6 sets and 4 times a week has been found equal to 10,000 steps. This study was for older people, but it sounds like a good place to start without needing to look at an app for counting your daily steps. The benefits are indeed better than 10,000 step walking.
For the second problem, I realised that thinking and walking go together. The rule is that the place should be quiet. Going round and round in my drawing room when everyone is asleep, or walking on the terrace at night, has been helpful. It does not sound great like walking in a park or nature, but it works for me.
I think if we pick only two things that set us apart from other animals, those would be our ability to walk erect and to think beyond mere survival. And people these days do less of both.
If someone starts to focus on their health and their ability to think, not all, but many of their troubles can lessen. And walking is a good starting point for both. In a world that profits from keeping us still and distracted, taking those first few steps, however imperfect, might just be the most radical act of self-care we can commit to. The path to clarity isn't always scenic, but it's always available. We just have to start walking.
Writing lesson of the week :
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