Sitting at a desk all day, it’s easy to start feeling like a brainless polyp, whereas walking and talking, as we are this morning, while admiring the Great Sugar Loaf mountain rising beyond the city and a Huguenot cemetery formed in 1693, our minds are fizzing.
Amy FlemingOur sensory systems work at their best when they’re moving about the world, says O’Mara. He cites a 2018 study that tracked participants’ activity levels and personality traits over 20 years, and found that those who moved the least showed malign personality changes, scoring lower in the positive traits: openness, extraversion and agreeableness. There is substantial data showing that walkers have lower rates of depression, too. And we know, says O’Mara,from the scientific literature, that getting people to engage in physical activity before they engage in a creative act is very powerful. My notion – and we need to test this – is that the activation that occurs across the whole of the brain during problem-solving becomes much greater almost as an accident of walking demanding lots of neural resources.
Interesting idea, one that I can support through my subjective experience. I enjoy walking, and do it pretty regularly, skipping one or two bus stops in favor of walking, especially in fair weather (it’s also the only form of exercise I managed to fit into my daily routine). And every time I feel a little energized, a little better than before. It’s also my favorite way to experience new cities and places, because it allows me to explore and discover at my own pace, and change direction every time I see something of interest.
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