Solvitur Ambulando: It Is Solved By Walking

This Latin phrase means “it is solved by walking,” and the origin of this saying has been debated for centuries. This week, we’ll explore how life-threatening injuries can change someone’s path in a dramatic way.

“Solvitur ambulando” is a Latin phrase that means “It is solved by walking.” The phrase has been used in literature for centuries. In this case, the quote refers to the story of Lazarus who was resurrected after being dead for four days.

“I believe that going for a stroll represents the finest of mankind. All concerns may be appropriately postponed for this during cheerful hours. ‘Few guys know how to take a stroll,’ stated Dr. Johnson, and it is safe to assume that he was not one of them. It’s a fine craft; there are several levels of skill, and professors and apprentices are distinguished. Endurance, simple clothing, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, huge curiosity, decent conversation, good quiet, and nothing too much are the requirements. Good observers have the manners of trees and animals, and they only use words when quiet is preferable. A conceited talker, on the other hand, desecrates the river and the forest, and isn’t even close to being as nice company as a dog.” –From Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem “Country Life,” published in 1857.

“Your ultimate kingdom is just around the corner, and your scepter is your leg.” It’s a lovely thing to have a powerful, masculine leg that hasn’t been tainted by laziness or sensuality.” Foot Notes, Or, Walking as a Fine Art, by Alfred Barron, 1875

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It’s a Latin expression that roughly translates to “It’s solved by walking.” “It is solved by going about,” to put it another way.

Walking? “How many issues have been addressed by walking?” you may wonder.

True, there isn’t anything that is more basic and uninteresting than walking. It’s one of our earliest developmental milestones as newborns, and after you’ve taken your first toddling steps, neither you nor others around you will pay attention to your walking again. Images of elderly people dressed in windsuits touring the mall in the early morning hours may spring to mind if you think of walking later in life. Walking is so unappealing that the term “pedestrian” – a person who travels on foot — is also a synonym for “dull” and “ordinary.”

That wasn’t always the case, however. There was a time when poets and philosophers published books and articles like “The Reveries of the Solitary Walker,” “In Praise of Walking,” and “Walking as a Fine Art” in which they composed poetry and paeans to the lowly stroll. Enlistment in the “noble army of walkers” was promoted, and bipedal mobility was referred to as “the masculine skill of walking.”

Was there anything these long-dead bipedaling boosters knew that contemporary guys don’t? While walking’s simplicity may seem to be a disadvantage, its simple nature may be just what we need to reconnect with life’s essentials. After all, walking upright is part of what makes us human, and who wouldn’t benefit from reconnecting with their humanity more often?

Walking is the most democratic exercise on the planet, since it is accessible to practically everyone, young or old, affluent or poor. It may be taken part in regardless of where you are. Walking to work, strolling about the neighborhood, striding along city blocks, rambling through a parking lot, or sauntering over hill and dale are all options. To get started, just put one foot in front of the other. Despite this accessibility, we probably walk less these days than at any other time in history — we spend the majority of our days riding, driving, and sitting.

Taking the time to walk more wherever and wherever we can, and putting our legs to good use, is, nonetheless, a worthy task. Below are 11 “issues” that may be “fixed” by taking a walk, which is a 100% free solution. We’ve also sprinkled the essay with some of the greatest and most succinct phrases from the surprisingly extensive canon of walking literature. Consider this work to be a mix of an article and a quotation collection. You may read it all at once or come back to it when you need a boost of drive to push yourself out the door.

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Do you need a low-cost mode of transportation?

“Most city dwellers had the option of walking to and from work on a daily basis if they were not enticed by the wheel of a street vehicle or motor. I observed able-bodied individuals travelling on homemade barges or buses moving at a slower-than-walking speed during the subway strike in New York not long ago, because, I presume, these cliff-dwellers had been enslaved by wheels, much like the ancient fabled Ixion who was tethered to one.” –John Finley, 1917, “Traveling Afoot”

“When I see the inconveniences that able-bodied American men will tolerate and encourage rather than walk a mile or half-mile, the abuses they will tolerate and encourage, cramming the street car on a slight drop in temperature or the appearance of an inch or two of snow, packing up to overflowing, dangling to the straps, treading on each other’s toes, breathing each other’s breaths, crushing the women and children, hanging by tooth and nail to a square Indeed, a race that ignores or despises this primitive gift, that fears the touch of the soil, that has no footpaths, no community of ownership in the land that they imply, that warns off the walker as a trespasser, that knows no way but the highway, the carriage-way, that forgets the stile, the foot-bridge, that even disregards the rights of the pedestrian in the public road, providing no escape for him but in the ditch or up the bank, is –From “The Exhilarations of the Road,” by John Burroughs, published in 1895.

Getting from point A to point B is, of course, the most fundamental and elementary purpose of walking. Foot-power does not need any money or energy source other than a peanut butter sandwich. Nonetheless, as Burroughs noted over a century ago, people would do almost anything to escape having to foot it once motorized transportation was available. For others, it’s a question of convenience, which is sometimes genuine and sometimes merely apparent; many do not consider walking even for the shortest of errands, preferring to drive even though getting into one’s vehicle and finding a parking place might take nearly as long. Others consider walking to be a safety threat; I’m often shocked at the number of parents in SUVs who queue up in my neighborhood in the afternoon to drive their children directly from the bus to their home, a quarter-mile away. Many people, on the other hand, wish they could walk more to get about, but their city/town was not designed with pedestrian transit in mind. Moving to an area where walking is a viable option needs a mentality shift for someone who grew up in such a pedestrian-hostile environment. For the first time in my life, I was able to walk into town to do errands, and although the 15-minute “trip” felt long at first, I learned to like it and it became second nature; eventually, if I wanted to go anywhere, my first thought was whether I could walk there.

Do you want to be ready for anything?

“I’ve read that the Scots originally had a ritual of undertaking an annual pilgrimage or journey around their boroughs or towns, known as ‘beating the bounds,’ so that they might know what they had to protect. It’s a tradition that may be beneficially resurrected. We should therefore have a greater understanding of the cities in which we live. For such operations, we should be stronger, healthier, and more able and ready to protect our borders.” –John Finley, 1917, “Traveling Afoot”

“It’s excellent for a guy to maintain himself in such shape that he can run 10 kilometers on the spur of the moment.” The fact that most individuals admit to having a shortcoming in this area is not a nice thing to think about.” –Footnotes, Or, Walking as a Fine Art, by Alfred Barron, 1875

Even though people in industrialized nations seldom need to walk to reach where they’re going, maintaining one’s walking endurance seems to be a useful “survival” ability. You’d be able to drag your shopping cart of goods across the nation if walking was once again the only mode of transportation accessible, say during the apocalypse, ala the father in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Being able to walk great distances is also necessary for military duty, where the good old-fashioned march is a common mode of transportation.

Walking to work, Theodore Roosevelt The date was September 20, 1901.

Theodore Roosevelt went out on one of his frequent “tough cross-country walks” in DC’s Rock Creek Park with several young Army officers at the conclusion of his presidency. He was dismayed to learn of the “state of absolute physical worthlessness into which several of the older ones [officers] had allowed themselves to drift, and the extremely disastrous impact this would undoubtedly have if the army were ever called into action,” as they put it. When TR investigated the situation, he discovered that “otherwise excellent guys proved as unable to walk as sedentary traders.” “Each officer should establish his capacity to walk fifty kilometers or bicycle one hundred miles in three days,” he said. Teddy received a lot of criticism from older officers who had desk jobs, despite the fact that this was a test “that many a healthy middleaged lady would be able to meet.” TR addressed the issue by proving how simple it was to complete the riding requirement in the snow and precipitation.

The walking test, according to a navy commander who wrote to Roosevelt, was very successful in preparing soldiers for the hardships of service:

“The first test of 50 kilometers in three days was quite beneficial. It reduced the amount spent on street car fare by thousands of dollars and the amount spent over the bar by a far larger figure. It weeded out the physically unfit; it taught officers to walk; it pushed them to learn how to care for their own and their men’s feet; and it enhanced their overall health and gave them a taste for physical activity…

This test may have been a little too rigorous for elderly hearts (of those who had never exercised), but it was great as a matter of teaching and training in managing feet—because sound hearts aren’t much good if the feet won’t stand in an emergency (such as we may soon have in Mexico).”

The officer bemoaned the fact that the Navy had subsequently lowered the benchmark to ten miles once a month, a test he believed would not provide the same advantages as a walk lasting at least two days. What is the explanation behind this? Walking on the first day is simple; it is on the second day, when one’s muscles and feet are fatigued, that the true battle begins. According to the officer, the second day’s prospects are as follows:

“I made them sit up and pay notice—I had them practice walking, avoid street vehicles, purchase suitable shoes, and show some interest in sox and foot care in general…

The argument is that, although cops used to be required to practice walking and pay attention to correct footgear, they no longer had to, and as a result, they don’t. Many police officers just go as far as is required to get a street vehicle that will transport them from their homes to their workplaces. Some people with motors don’t do much. They do not engage in any physical activity. Instead, they drink cocktails and become muscular and ‘ponchy,’ and something has to be done to change this.”

Are you spiritually parched?

“In the course of my life, I have only met a few people who understood the art of walking, that is, taking walks,—who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering, which word is beautifully derived ‘from idle people who roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, and asked charity under the pretense of going a la Sainte Terre,’ to the Holy Land, until the children exclaimed, ‘There goes a SainteTerrer Those who never travel to the Holy Land on their walks, as they claim, are idlers and vagabonds; but those who do go there are saunterers in the good sense, as I mean…. For every stroll is a crusade, preached by some Peter the Hermit in us, to reclaim this Holy Land from the clutches of the Infidels.” —”Walking,” by Henry D. Thoreau, 1862

“A geographical pilgrimage is a symbolic representation of an interior journey.” The inner pilgrimage is the interpolation of the outside pilgrimage’s meanings and indications. It is possible to have one without the other. It’s preferable to have both.” Mystics and Zen Masters, by Thomas Merton, 1961

Pilgrimages, the purest of which are undertaken on foot, are a religious ritual practiced by practically all religions across the globe. It’s hardly strange that Christians of many shades may include walking in their spiritual quest. A pilgrimage transforms our common metaphor of life as a journey through the wilderness, in which a lone sojourner must battle with bravery and hope, into a concrete, corporeal experience; it transforms the abstract into a tangible route, with actual aims, challenges, and sorrow.

A pilgrimage may help the traveler disconnect from the stresses of daily life and function as a catalyst for change and purification. The physical strain of the trip might counteract fleshly temptations while also demonstrating a pilgrim’s commitment to his faith; a pilgrim may desire to give this sacrifice to God as a penance for his sins or as a healing offering for another. Of course, once the pilgrim arrives at the holy spot to which he has traveled, he may get further insights or benefits.

“I personally like to walk to accomplish the existentially important things in life. If you reside in England and your girlfriend lives in Sicily, and it is obvious that you want to marry her, you should walk to Sicily and propose to her. Traveling by vehicle or aircraft is not the best option under these circumstances.” –From Werner Herzog’s 1978 film Of Walking in Ice

Even a devout atheist could think that the effort used while walking can be transformed into a spiritual energy. Werner Herzog, a director who does not believe in God but does believe in walking, is an example of this. Herzog learned that cinema historian and critic Lotte H. Eisner was dangerously sick in 1974, when he was 32 years old. “I’m not going to fly, I’m not going to take a plane, I’m not going to drive a vehicle, I’m not going to do anything else,” Herzog said, explaining that “I was entirely absolutely confident that while I was walking from Germany to Paris to see her, she wouldn’t have a chance to die.”

Herzog used his compass to plot the most direct route to his target, then started out in the dead of winter to walk roughly 515 miles from Munich to Lotte’s house in France. He traveled as a hobo for three weeks, avoiding hotels in favor of abandoned houses and barns, and spent the time getting to know himself again as well as studying the people and places he visited. He arrived in France after hundreds of kilometers of grueling travel to discover that his faith in walking had not been in vain – Lotte was still alive and well.

Do you want to learn all there is to know about a place?

“Your pedestrian is constantly upbeat, aware, and energized, his heart in his hand and his hand out to everybody.” He doesn’t look down on anybody; he’s on the same level as everyone else. His pores are completely open, his circulation is strong, and his digestion is excellent. His heart isn’t frigid, and neither are his faculties. He is the sole true traveller…He is not alone, but a part of everything, with farmland and businesses on each side of him. He is a conduit for vital, universal currents. He can sense the pulses of the wind and read the wordless language of things, so he knows the earth is alive. His sympathies are piqued, and his senses are constantly relaying information to his thoughts. He is affected by wind, frost, ruin, heat, and cold. He is not just a viewer of nature’s panorama, but also a participant in it. He tastes, feels, and absorbs the land he goes through, while the tourist in his elegant carriage only sees it. This adds a new dimension to the “Views Afoot” category of novels, as well as the tales of hunters, naturalists, exploring expeditions, and so on. A big region is not required for the walker. When you get into a train, you want a continent; when you get into a carriage, you want a township; but a walker like Thoreau may discover all of this and more along the banks of Walden Pond…

I believe that if I could walk across a nation, I would not only see many sights and have experiences that I would otherwise miss, but I would also get into relationships with that country, and the men and women who live there, in a manner that would provide the greatest pleasure…

Man takes root at his feet, and unless he has established connection with the earth by the loving and magnetic touch of his soles to it, he is nothing more than a potted plant in his home or vehicle. Then arise those invisible filaments and rootlets via which character comes to smack of the soil, and through which a man becomes related to the piece of earth he lives.” “The Exhilarations of the Road,” by John Burroughs, 1895

There’s no better way to get to know an area than to walk it, whether it’s your own backyard or an exotic one. You may discover rich nuances that would normally go unnoticed at such a sluggish speed. When you travel abroad, you give yourself opportunities to meet and converse with the locals. In your neighborhood, you begin to notice the small details of others’ homes; in the woods, you discover new plants and creatures; in the city, you discover small stores, restaurants, and alleyways you’d otherwise miss; and when you travel abroad, you give yourself opportunities to meet and converse with the locals. When I visit a new area, I can’t wait to get out of my hotel and go for a stroll to take in the sights, sounds, and scents.

Meriwether Lewis utilized this style of exploration extensively throughout the Lewis and Clark expedition. He would stroll down the river on foot, taking extensive notes and painting as many types of flora and wildlife as he could, while his companions were typically aboard boats. His achievements to research and adventure are enormous, thanks in great part to his ability to walk.

Learning about a new country is an adventure, but as Burroughs points out, you don’t need to cover a large area to keep yourself busy on your travels for a long time. “If you restrict yourself to walks of twelve miles in every direction from your house, you have a field of view totaling four hundred and fifty-two square miles,” writes Alfred Barron in Footnotes, Or, Walking as a Fine Art, published in 1875. There’s a lot to see and do just outside your front door!

Have you run out of ideas?

“I mostly walk to see natural things, but I also walk to see myself.” When I’m on a trip that takes me somewhere new, I often uncover a lot of my own thoughts. He is, undoubtedly, a bad reporter who fails to record his thoughts as well as his sight. The value of a stroll is contingent on your ability to wait for the perfect occasion – on receiving an inspired suggestion before to embarking…

When these members [legs] are moving, they nearly deserve to be dubbed the reflecting organs since they stimulate thinking and mind so much. Let a man take to his legs and soon his brain will begin to become bright and glitter, as an iron-shod horse stumbling over a gravel path sends up sparks at night.” –Alfred Barron, Foot Notes, Or, Walking as a Fine Art, 1875

“It’s only while I’m walking that I can meditate.” When I come to a complete halt, I stop thinking; my mind simply functions with my legs.” –Confessions, 1782, Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Great brains in literature, philosophy, and science have gained crucial insight and inspiration while out walking throughout history. Perhaps this is because contemporary research has demonstrated that walking – at least when out in nature (which is the type of walking many of these intellectuals preferred) – improves memory and attention. Perhaps it’s because walking just gets the blood flowing, an impact of invigoration that’s difficult to define.

The majority of William Wordsworth’s poetry were written while wandering over meadows, moors, and mountains. He walked in all kinds of weather and all throughout Europe, accumulating 180,000 kilometers in his lifetime, according to a buddy. He was still able to tour 20 kilometers every day in his 60s.

According to legend, Aristotle performed his thinking and speaking while walking, and students at his Athens school of philosophy were known as Peripatetic philosophers – those who were “prone to wandering about.”

Nikola Tesla came up with the concept for his AC induction motor while taking a long stroll across Budapest. “The thought came like a flash of lightning and in an instant the truth was exposed,” he said as he walked through a park and glanced at the sunset.

Bailey Millard, who published this 1905 essay for The Critic, brilliantly titled “The Relation of Legs to Literature,” is a superb example of outstanding thinkers whose thoughts were driven on by their legs:

“A lot of leaning over the folio does not produce for greater poetry or prose.” It is as much rooted in the physiological state that occurs from leg swinging, which quickens heartbeat and stimulates the brain by feeding it with blood infused with the life-giving element of the open air.

By taking a lover’s stroll with the muse rather of sitting at a computer, one might more easily charm words into new relationships with idea. And, putting aside the issue of inspiration, one discovers that travelling abroad frequently provides the elusive, amorphous thoughts lurking darkly in the intellectual background with the clarity that is vainly sought inside the compass of thought-impeding walls. Almost all of the poets whose lives are available to us were excellent walkers—men and women who walked everywhere, adding to the scholar’s study impulse a truer poetical stimulant found along the wooded paths and out beneath the blue tenuity of the sky. In fact, I’ve long felt that our contemporary poets’ flaccid flexors and extensors of the locomotor medium are primarily responsible for today’s invertebrate poetry.

…Shelley, we’re told, rambled all over the place. Goethe found his lengthy excursions about Weimar to be a rich source of inspiration. Browning’s famous “Parcellus” was written mostly during his walks in the Dulwick woods. He would give his feet the freedom of the highway and the byway at any moment of his wonderful singing, wherever he happened to be. In the open air, he created and rehearsed many of his finest lines. His verse’s tonic effect is owed in large part to his propensity of venturing out to “ponder the ideas that flowers communicate in white.”

…Dickens believed that walking as much as he wrote was vital, and the abundance of animal spirits that his writing displays throughout makes one believe that his strategy for sustaining the physical energy that begets mental alertness was great.

The bicycle, as an artificial aid to mobility, is not conducive to profound meditation. When Zola needed to stop thinking, he discovered that riding a-wheel was the most effective method. Even if he is bright and nice as a road companion, the guy with the “Here-I-come!” expression on his face, as worn by so many wheelmen, is unlikely to be accomplishing much in the way of creative thinking.

From Plato and Aristotle of the famed walking school down through Montaigne, Johnson, Carlyle, Ruskin, and our own brightest wits, Emerson and Thoreau, I find that most of the philosophic brood were men of good legs. Montaigne’s vast Circular study, which was “16 paces” (or around 40 feet?) in circumference, would not have a fire. By walking, he warmed both his mind and his body. ‘If I seat my thoughts, they will slumber,’ he proclaims. ‘If my legs don’t shake it up, my intellect won’t move.’

…It is true that the closer you go to the trolley era, the less depth in philosophy becomes obvious; this leads one to believe that the Peripatetic School is the real school in any period…

Thoreau, on the other hand, made a wonderful contribution to global literature through walking as well as writing. On the Atlantic side of the continent, John Burroughs’ work was similar to that of John Muir, the certified ambassador for nature on the Pacific shore. If an author’s works may be considered to be manufactured, then they were certainly pedufactured; and I present this uncouth term to our lexicographers without embarrassment. For the book that is walked first and written afterwards, I plead guilty to a strong predisposition. Other work may be more brilliant and, in some ways, more cunning, but the quality found in a book that is walked is never found in a book that makes no show of legs but does make a show of head. “The buoyant child remaining in the man,” as Coleridge, himself a robust foot traveler, sings, is shown in the book that is walked, whether in prose or song.”

Are you looking for a low-cost way to exercise?

“I have two physicians, one for my left leg and the other for my right. When my body and mind are out of sync (and those twin parts of me live so close together that one constantly picks up sadness from the other), I know that all I have to do is call in my physicians and I’ll be OK.” –”Walking,” by George Macaulay Trevelyan, 1913

Everyone understands the value of regular exercise. Many of the health advantages of exercise aren’t dependent on sweating at the gym or utilizing the newest and best equipment; all you have to do is hit the sidewalk. Walking is a low-impact activity that has been shown to lower bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol, lower blood pressure, strengthen muscles and bones, improve glucose control and insulin response, prevent and manage diabetes, and reduce your risk of becoming obese and developing heart disease.

Americans are often in awe of their European counterparts, who seem to enjoy fine food and drink while scoffing at slaving hard at the gym and yet look slim. They walk three times as much as humans do, which is part of their “secret.”

Naturally, as previously said, many American cities are not very walkable and lack sidewalks. If you reside in one of these areas, you may still take additional short walk breaks at work and walk at lunch, as well as in the mornings and evenings at home (getting a dog can help get you out the door). I normally have to forego my regular workout when I travel, so I walk loops around the airport during layovers for a little workout. It also serves as a means of passing the time.

Are you feeling stressed, sad, or anxious?

“The best thing to do is go for a stroll… “Movement is the greatest antidote to depression.” Anatomy of Restlessness, Bruce Chatwin, 1996

“I believe that I cannot maintain my health and spirits unless I spend at least four hours a day—and often more—sauntering through the woods and over the hills and meadows, completely free of any earthly obligations.” You may confidently remark, “A penny for your thoughts” or “A thousand pounds for your ideas.” When I’m reminded that mechanics and shopkeepers spend not just the morning but also the afternoon in their businesses, sitting with crossed legs, as if their legs were designed to sit on rather than stand or walk on, I believe they deserve some credit for not all committing themselves long ago.

When I travel a mile into the woods physically but not in spirit, I am frightened. I’d rather forget about my morning responsibilities and social engagements during my afternoon stroll. But there are times when I can’t get away from the village. My mind will wander to some job, and I will lose track of where my body is—I will lose my senses. I’d want to come back to my senses during my walks. If I’m thinking about something out of the woods, what business do I have in the woods?” –From “Walking,” by Henry David Thoreau, published in 1862.

Going for a stroll is an excellent approach to alleviate tension, despair, and anxiety. Walking, like any other kind of exercise, produces endorphins, which offer your brain pleasure and lower stress hormones; but, unlike other forms of exercise, you may do it anywhere, at any time. A brisk 20- to 30-minute walk may have the same relaxing impact as a moderate sedative, and walking for half an hour everyday has been demonstrated to treat serious depression swiftly.

Walking has also been demonstrated to rejuvenate the senses and calm the mind. It’s a kind of “active meditation” that may help you recover from “brain fatigue.” According to studies, wandering in nature or even a little green area inside a metropolis makes it much simpler to achieve this meditative state. A psychological phenomena known as “involuntary attention” is at action here. Natural settings stimulate the brain in an uncomplicated manner that yet gives room for introspection, as opposed to the frantic urban which exhausts our concentration. The knot of anxieties that have been tying up in our day-to-day lives may more readily be undone and released in this tranquil condition.

Concentrating on the motions of your body or counting your steps while walking may also help you calm your “monkey mind,” which breeds worry with its incessant impulse to fly from one thing to another.

Finally, walking’s revitalizing impact may be attributed to the chance for much-needed isolation it gives. Our two feet provide us the ability to leave the crowds and cacophony of the world behind at any time and reclaim our lonely solitude.

Do you feel like you’re going to lose it?

“An Eskimo tradition allows an angry individual to let go of the emotion by walking it out of his or her system in a straight line across the landscape; the place at which the anger is overcome is marked with a stick, giving testimony to the severity or duration of the wrath.” Overlay, 1983, Lucy Lippard

You may have heard that counting to ten or taking a break and going someplace for a cooling down period will help you manage your anger. The problem with such methods is that counting doesn’t work if you’re still in the middle of (and staring at, and being stared at by) whatever set you off in the first place, and when you leave to go somewhere else, your anger often builds instead of dissipates; you start stewing in your room, or you talk to a friend who only elates you with how right you are, or you go get drunk, which often leads not only to more anger but also to a whole

In my opinion, the best approach to deal with a scenario when you’re ready to lose your cool is to politely request a time out and then walk out the door. Walking, as previously said, may help you relax and de-stress. Furthermore, being alone with your thoughts might help you get perspective on what’s going on and how you really want to handle it.

Is your child unable to stop crying?

Nothing is more frustrating than having a baby who is screaming and you are unable to comfort them. Taking the infant for a stroll was one “home cure” that I found to be really useful. When you have one of those carriers that fits directly into the stroller, it’s a breeze. Rolling about in the open air served as a quick and natural pacifier for the infant. Furthermore, new parents find it difficult to exercise, thus this baby-mollification strategy kills two birds with one stone.

Is your age catching up to you?

“A stroll in the woods should have been provided when Nero advertised for a new pleasure.” It is a source of comfort for mortals. No endeavor, in my opinion, provides a greater sense of immortality. It’s one of the keys of delaying the onset of old age.” –”Country Life,” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1858

Emerson was much more correct than he realized. Those who walk two miles or more every day had half the risk of acquiring dementia and Alzheimer’s disease than men who walk a quarter mile or less every day, according to recent research. Another research discovered that adults over 60 who walk 6-9 miles per week maintain more gray matter and have less “brain shrinkage” and cognitive impairment than those who walk less. What’s even more intriguing is that walking not only affects your mental capabilities, but your mental faculties also impact your walking. Researchers have discovered that when your cognitive skills deteriorate, your walking gait gets slower and shakier, therefore observing someone’s stride may help diagnose people who have or are developing dementia. “Thinking abilities like remembering, organizing activities, or processing information deteriorate virtually in conjunction with the ability to move fluently,” according to the New York Times. In other words, the more difficult it is for someone to move, the more difficult it is for them to think.”

After all, those elderly women in windsuits at the mall could be onto something.

Need to talk to a friend or lover about a problem?

“The roads and paths you’ve walked along in summer and winter weather, the fields and hills you’ve gazed upon in lightness and gladness of heart, where fresh thoughts have entered your mind, or some noble prospect has opened before you, and especially the quiet ways where you’ve walked in sweet converse with your friend, pausing under the trees, drinking at the spring—they’re no longer the same; a new charm has been added; those thoughts spring there perenially.” –From “The Exhilarations of the Road,” by John Burroughs, published in 1895.

If you and a friend or significant other are dealing with a problem, issue, or concern, going for a walk together may be the best approach to sort it out. When you’re sitting face to face with someone, the atmosphere might be tense; you can be preoccupied with avoiding making the “wrong” facial expression rather than the subject at hand, and if you do, it can irritate the other person. People, on the other hand, feel more at ease and open when they’re sitting or standing next to one other. They may turn away to collect their thoughts, scowl, and bite their lower lip without feeling self-conscious.

When you go side by side on a stroll, you get this advantage as well as all of the others described above (stress reduction, meditation, and inspiration) that may help you solve an issue with someone. Walking also gives the physical experience of progress, which may be translated into a mental sense of progress. Putting one foot in front of the other is what the Chinese characters for walking represent, and it’s the ideal method to cope with every difficulty or obstacle that comes our way.

“I travel to the broad road barefoot and light-hearted, The world before me, healthy and free, the vast brown route ahead of me heading anywhere I chose.

Henceforth, I will not beg for good fortune; I am good fortune; henceforth, I will not whimper, postpone, or require anything; henceforth, I will not whimper, postpone, or need anything; henceforth, I will not whimper, postpone, or require anything; henceforth, I will not whimper, postpone Indoor complaints, libraries, and obnoxious remarks are no longer an issue. I ride the vast road, strong and pleased.” “A Song of the Open Road,” Walt Whitman

Make sure to listen to Erling Kagge’s podcast about the magic of walking:

“St. Augustine walking quote” is a saying that has been attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo, who said “Solvitur ambulando,” which means “It is solved by walking.” This phrase has been used in many different contexts and translated into different languages. Reference: st augustine walking quote.