I don’t know when I first began to love taking walks. It almost feels like it’s always been that way. The feeling of freedom, fresh air and fun is quite intoxicating. What I know for sure is that summer leads to consistent walks and I am discovering the healing properties of walking.
Let’s go back a few years, when my sons were younger and routine was something I dreamed of but didn’t always get to enjoy. If your kids are anything like mine, there were many opportunities for re-direction. As my sons got older I called it a change of perspective. Either way, the basis for the re-direction or perspective change was to allow them a chance to figure out how to make their day better.
In the years I taught my sons how to do this, I began to take my own advice. Even to this day, getting outside, walking, or some sort of exercise is how I help my sons when facing a big challenge. And I guess I am doing something right because they both have taken me up on this advice.
So let me ask you this, are you a walker or do you engage in an activity that provides a sense of rightness to your day? What happens if you miss a day? Have you noticed the healing properties of walking or some other form of exercise routine in your day?
We hear messages of taking care of our bodies and I imagine many of you see your social media feeds flooded with ads for eating right, taking care of ourselves, and programs to help us get in shape. But I wonder if you know how important taking care of ourselves is to God.
Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians to honor our bodies. He says:Â
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; Â you were bought at a price.Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Cor. 6:19-20 NIV
And in Romans, Paul shares how we can focus on God in our everyday lives.
So hereâs what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary lifeâyour sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around lifeâand place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Donât become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. Youâll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Romans 12:1-2 MSG
You can gain your own perspective change by engaging in an activity that provides healing. Walking is my activity and it’s not just about the physical activity anymore. Instead it’s a mind, body, and soul endeavor.
[Tweet “Walking provides a perspective change when I make it a mind, body, soul endeavor. #TellHisStory”]
The healing properties of walking look like:
Opportunities to change the landscape of my day. I can breathe deeper and free my mind to allow the positive to enter.
A time of worship as I invite God into the time of walking.
A chance to push myself to walk farther and in the process gain strength and stamina.
A soul-filling as I pray and listen. It’s in the listening that God teaches me who I am and reminds me I belong to Him.
Increased energy to do the work God created me for. Ephesians 2:10 reminds me, For we are Godâs masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Together let’s focus on those things God planned for us long ago. Let’s discover how we can shift our minds back to God when we face challenges and open our hearts to what He is teaching us. May you find your perspective-changer today!
Blessings!
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Walking is my activity of choice, too, Mary! Sadly, I haven’t done as much of it as I would like this summer. I love all the wonderful points you made in this post! Blessings on your Saturday!
Blessings to you too! I know you love walking but if I lived where you are I’m not sure if I would do as much walking because it gets so hot. However, my brother walks even when it’s hot. Thank you for being here! Enjoy your weekend!
I used to walk a lot at the gym – I have balance issues, and it helped to have a wall on one side of me in case I needed it. But I stopped going when recovering from surgery last year and haven’t restarted. I need to – I feel much better when I do. I’m struggling with where to fit the time in.
I am praying for you now that you find balance in order to exercise. I know it always makes me feel better. Thank you for being here and joining in the conversation.
You know I love getting out in nature and taking walks so I’m right with you! Another thing that has helped me is getting into a routine of exercise of just 10 – 15 min. a day of pilates. But it has been two weeks since I’ve done anything except maybe spend a few minutes outside. Now that I’m feeling better I hope to start back up maybe even this evening. Blessings to you, Mary! Thanks for such an encouraging post to show us how much walking can help us in so many ways. xo
I know you do and I enjoy seeing your pictures. It is such a perfect way to change our mindset. I love that you are doing Pilates too. I pray you continue to feel better and find you have the energy to give yourself the gift of Pilates or walking. Sure would be fun to go walking together!
“A time of worship as I invite God into the time of walking.”
This is primarily my reason for walking although I enjoy many other benefits of walking. Walking is a favorite activity of mine with neighbors, dogs, and friends with whom I want to pray and catch up.
I’ve been purposely staying quiet the first 30 minutes of my day. To stay away from technology and focus on God without distraction I’ve been going for a walk immediately.
It’s been great. Thank you for highlighting the many beautiful benefits of walking!
I can see you ministering to your neighbors as you walk. I know you must be such a blessing to them. We forget that our quiet time does not have to be in our house in our favorite chair. It could just as well look like a walk around the neighborhood. I pray you find many blessings as you walk and worship.
Ahhh, Mary. Yes to walking. Over the past couple of weeks I have committed to walking every day. Whether for 20 minutes or a longer walk, I’ve gotten out every day. Yesterday was a really busy day, especially in the morning, and I didn’t have time to walk. But, after some things that happened over the past week, and the day I had yesterday, my soul craved some time outside, with a breeze blowing across my face. Some time to be soulful still even as my body moved. It truly did revamp my perspective.
I’ve become a daily walker. Not just a wannabe. And I am already thinking about how to keep this habit alive after school starts in a few weeks.
It’s become a time to breathe. To pray. To people-watch.
That deep breath, the slow inhale and exhale, provides space to just be. I find that when I am walking and I hear you saying you do too. I love that you have made this a daily habit. I am working on doing that too. Just not sure how to handle the days when it is pouring rain like today.
You always share such beautiful photos from your walks. They show such peace and stillness. We will have to check in with each other to see how our walking is going.
I totally agree! I love walking. I always find it gives me space to think and helps me connect with God. I am forever having to explain to people who are kindly offering me a lift that I am choosing to walk!
You said it well, “walking gives me the space to think and connect with God.” Me too! I like quiet time with God at home, but I love the time spent with God when walking. It is soul-filling and refreshing.
I love a good walk, and always feel better, body and soul, when I take time to just walk outside with no particular goal other than to enjoy the beauty and connect with God along the way.
Walks with no particular goal are the best. The time to wander, wonder, and spend time with God fills my soul. It sounds like it does the same for you too. I pray you find some of these perspective–changers this week.
I have become a city walker and I love it.
I love the videos of your city walks. What I also enjoy seeing is when you find your beautiful patches of nature. I live in the suburbs, but am amazed how nature is around me everywhere. I choose going on walks to discover it. Me and God together!!
I was more of a stationary bike person, but I love walking and going to antique shows and fairs.
Actually riding a stationary bike is one of my alternate forms of exercise. Walking will always be my favorite. I pray you find ways to change your perspective and get your focus back on God whenever you need it.
I LOVE taking walks–more than one a day, if possible :). There’s something about the arm swining and glancing from side to side while thinking about the day that actually acts as a kind of therapy.
You are a walker for sure. I’m not sure if you have much time for arm swinging with all of your picture taking along the way. Walking is a wonderful form of therapy and your adventures are always fun to follow.
Yes and amen. I don’t get out an walk as much as I would like, but I often use it to clear my head, and worship God and view His creation. I always love the pictures you share from your walks and the things God shows you when you do. I will be back to linkup later. Thanks Mary.
Walking brings such freedom, doesn’t it? I know if I lived where you do, I would find so many amazing places to explore God’s beauty. Walking is my God time and is very sacred to me. I sure love having you here, sweet Debbie!
You make me smile, Mary! For I just returned from a very early morning walk. It wasn’t too cold, too humid, too anything. I had no excuses.
As I contemplate turning 63 in the weeks ahead, I see the need to keep my body moving, keep caring for it, treating it well. It is, after all, the temple of the Spirit … and the only frame I’ll ever know.
I only wish we lived closer so we could stride together into the next season …
I’m wishing we could walk together into the next season. What a treat that would be. My dad used to tell me over and over the importance of taking care of my body. He knew what this meant and lived it for 95 years. I am trying to do this for myself, but more importantly to honor God. I’m praying for both of us that we continue to walk and hear from the One who loves us dearly.
I walk and have added in some jogging almost every day. This habit, this unraveling of my thoughts I call it, began when I became a single parent almost 18 years ago. Something about getting up and keeping going kept me going. Now, because of my work, I do it as self-help. Over time it has become my me and God Time, music or ministry in my ears…clouds and birds above my head, heaven all around me…I am convinced walking is healing!
Oh, it does release serotonin and endorphins…physical and mental healing!
Linking up later. Thanks for keeping Tell His Story going.
Good morning Mary. Yes to walking to all of those reasons you mentioned. I will add writing inspiration. There are times I need to stop walking and write. I bring my phone for photos and the memo space. I remember inviting myself to walk with you on Instagram. Some day when God ordains perhaps we can do just thatđ
I know you love to walk. I have seen your photos along the way. And yes, I can’t go anywhere without my phone. I’m constantly taking pictures and walking seems to provide some of my best writing time. I pray our paths cross in the future.
Good for you for adding in some jogging. Not sure my body could handle the jogging, but I know exactly what you meant about your God and me time. I know that is one big reason why I love my walking time. What a perfect way to let our thoughts unravel! My mind naturally frees up more space when I am walking and this allows room for good thoughts to enter. Thank you for sharing a part of your story in your comment. Can’t wait to have you link up later.
Mary, thank you for this wonderful post about walking…thought you would enjoy this research…
Several years ago, I was fascinated by research showing that distractions to oneâs focus, or relaxing activities like a walk, a warm shower, even a simple board game, will get the alpha waves pumping. It seems that when our minds are at ease â when the alpha waves are saturating our brain â we are more likely to direct our attention inward toward the stream of connections we retain in the right hemisphere.
New research from by Dr. Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz, a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education, reported in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition reveals that people who rely on walks to overcome writer’s block or solve a tricky problem seem to have it right. Their research shows that walkingâwhether indoors or outdoorsâimproves creative thinking. In a series of experiments, researchers compared levels of creativity in people while they walked with while they sat and found creative output went up by an average of 60% while walking.
In one test, researchers named an object, then asked a subgroup of 48 students to think of alternative ways to use it. So, “button” might lead a student to say “as a doorknob on a dollhouse.” In another test, 48 students were asked to complete word associations involving three-word groups–for example, “cottage-Swiss-cake,” for which the correct answer was “cheese.” In three of the experiments, the participants undertook tests of their divergent thinking creativity. Divergent thinking is where you generate ideas by thinking of lots of possible solutions. Walkers scored an average of 60% higher on divergent thinking creativity than when they were sitting, the researchers say. Many people claim that they come up with their best ideas while walking. Steve Jobs, late co-founder of Apple, used to hold meetings while walking, and Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, has also been seen doing the same.
Dr. Oppezzo says she thought “walking outside would blow everything out of the water, but walking on a treadmill in a small, boring room still had strong results, which surprised me. This study is another justification for integrating bouts of physical activity into the day, whether it’s recess at school or turning a meeting at work into a walking one. We’d be healthier, and maybe more innovative for it.”
Thank you for sharing this research. Some of my best writing ideas come when I’m walking. It’s not always ideal but I always have my phone with me so I can record my ideas so I don’t forget them.
All I know is how much better it makes me feel and how it is such a beautiful time of worship. Love having you part of this community, Beth.