Go for Walks Without Turning Every Moment into Productivity

One day, I went for a walk with a friend in her local park.

She is an amazing woman. She is an amazing mother. But one of the things I admire the most about her is how determined she is. When she decides, she is going to do something, she commits to it. She is very disciplined with her exercise, very mindful about her health, and she knows exactly what she wants to achieve every time she goes for a walk.

I'm not like that.

I also enjoy exercise. I genuinely love exercising. I have one of those smartwatches. I press "Outdoor Walk" and I go. The difference is that, after I press the button, I almost forget the watch is there.

My friend doesn't.

She knows exactly what pace she wants to walk, what heart rate she wants to reach, how many steps she wants to complete, and how long she wants to walk for. She has everything planned.

Meanwhile, I'm just trying to keep up.

I remember saying to her,

"Can we slow down a little? I can't walk that fast."

She smiled and said,

"Okay... but not too much. My heart rate."

We both laughed because that sentence described both of us perfectly.

We continued walking and talking about life.

She started showing me parts of the park that I had never seen before. They were building something new nearby, and she pointed out different plants and trees because she realised I enjoy those kinds of things.

Then, without even thinking about it, I looked down.

A tiny little baby toad was crossing the path between our feet.

I stopped immediately.

"Look!"

She looked down and smiled.

"I've never noticed those before."

That surprised me.

I looked at her and said,

"But this is your park. You walk here all the time."

She laughed.

"I know... I've never looked."

That stayed with me but not because she was wrong or because I was right. In all honesty, neither one of us was doing anything wrong. We had simply experienced the same walk in completely different ways. As always, she was focused on her exercise and me being the person that I am (somewhat distracted by nature) was focused on everything around me. Both of us enjoyed ourselves. We did enjoy and benefited from the walk but we definitely noticed things in different ways. This is what I mean when I say:

Go for walks without turning every moment into productivity.

I'm not saying you shouldn't exercise, I would be crazy to say such thing. Be mindful as my friend is. Be focused on your exercise goals as she is… What I'm saying is that, every once in a while, allow yourself to go for a walk without trying to achieve anything.

Walk because you're walking. Simply because you're alive and your body can still move.

Feel you’re breathing. Feel your lungs filling with air.

Notice how your arms move without you even thinking about it.

Look at where your feet are stepping.

What type of ground are you walking on?

Is it soil? Is it gravel? Is it old tree roots?

Are there little flowers growing through the cracks? Have you noticed them before?

Look at the trees. Do they look different today? Has a new branch grown? Are the leaves changing colour?

Look up. Look around. Listen.

Just notice.

A few months later, I went back to that same park by myself.

I happened to be in her town for work, and once I had finished what I needed to do, I decided to stay for a while.

I went for another walk; I chose a spot on a bench and simply sat there.

I honestly don't know how long I stayed. It felt like two hours. Which is possible, I get overly distracted by nature around me. Time just disappeared. While I was sitting there, I started watching the birds. I noticed birds I had never seen before. Bare in mind I am not a bird expert or even try to be. I know the Magpies, the pigeons, Swans, Ducks, and please forgive me if any of them are not birds.

Back to my moment in that park:

It was the beginning of spring, and they were protecting their nests.

They were talking to one another from different trees.

There seemed to be a distance of a few metres between them, yet they worked together.

One would call. Another would answer. They were alert. They were protecting their young. It was beautiful to watch. I had been to that park before several times and I had never noticed those birds. Not because they weren't there but because I hadn't slowed down enough to see them.

That is what I have learned over the years.

Every time you slow down, you notice something different. Hence every single time you allow yourself to slow down, something catches your attention that didn't catch it before. The world hasn't suddenly changed. Your attention has. And this is the reason why I'm also a big believer in walking without noise. Allow your own thoughts to have a chance to appear. Those walks have helped me more than I can explain. Whenever something is sitting heavily in my chest and I don't want to unload it onto someone else, I go for a walk.

I don't force myself to find an answer.

I don't tell myself that I must solve the problem before I get home.

I simply walk.

Movement has a way of creating clarity.

When your body starts relaxing, your mind often follows. Sometimes that's enough. If I know I need complete space to think, I don't walk somewhere that I know I'll meet lots of people. I choose somewhere quieter. Not because I don't enjoy saying hello. I do and I engage in long conversations with locals. About what? The threes, the weather, the dogs, kids, amazing random but useful information. But if I know I need to process something, I also know that stopping every few minutes to have conversations interrupts that process. So, I choose somewhere different. Somewhere I can simply keep walking.

My friend and I still laugh about that little toad. That's another thing I love about friendships.

You don't have to become the other person. You simply borrow little pieces of wisdom from one another.

I admire her discipline.

I admire the way she takes care of herself.

She's a role model for me when it comes to exercise.

She knows that.

Perhaps now she'll notice them more than just her exercise goal. That's all I'm inviting you to do. Go for a walk.

Walk for your health.

Walk for your body.

Walk for your heart.

But every once in a while... leave productivity at home.

Walk because you're alive.

Walk because there is a whole world beneath your feet and above your head that keeps quietly changing, whether you notice it or not.

And you might discover that the thing you needed most that day wasn't a faster pace.

It was simply paying attention.