How Walking Is Beneficial For A Healthy Mind?

Over the years as we have adopted sedentary lifestyle, our physical activities have substantially declined and our increased dependence on vehicles for commuting even to nearby places have made us less habitual to walking. Decades before, people used to remain fit and healthy because they used to walk for long distances and performed strenuous activities, owing to which they were not required to exercise. When it comes to walking, we prefer to walk on treadmills.

But in reality, you may not be aware that walking on treadmills can be beneficial for your physical health but for your mental health, it is important that you walk in the open spaces. Walking outside enables complete body movement and the open sky, ambience and your speed will make you feel revitalised. Your brain becomes hyperactive when you start observing every small detail around you and even your hearing and smelling senses improve. Walking in open is certainly interesting than walking on treadmills as in the latter case, you just feel robotic after some time.

How to let your mind enjoy walking?

Medical researchers have said that the best time to walk is in early morning hours and during the sunset hours as the climate is perfect for making a person feel good. Moreover, abstain from smoking while walking if you are serious about walking for improving your health. Don’t even get busy on smartphones and tablets while walking if you intend to get the real fun of walking. Think of walking as a fun activity for your mind and thereby, give some break to your mind from the regular hodgepodge. Consider walking as a meditation for your mind and isolate yourself from the world you belong in and eliminate all tensions and worries for a while to enjoy the nature.

How walking can keep stress, anxiety, low mood and depression at bay?

If you are a person who regularly walks for around 20 minutes a day, then you are doing your bit to protect your mental health from getting affected from stress, anxiety, low mood and depression. All these four are a result of emotional outbursts within our mind and is often related to over thinking and excessive strain on brain. You can however, tackle them by ensuring the release of the so called feel good chemicals called endorphins. Most people know that after exercising, our body releases endorphins that give us a boost of motivation and content.

But the process of releasing of endorphins is quite complex. Did you know that our brain recognizes exercise or physical activities as stress? In fact, not only it does treat exercise as stress, it also releases chemicals to protect the body from its severe impacts. One of this stress fighting chemicals is BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor), a kind of protein that protects and repairs memory neurons in the brain to make your mind feel lighter after walking. At the same time, endorphins too get released in the brain. These endorphins help in minimising the discomfort caused by exercising or walking along with the pain to render that rush of good feelings.

Recommended: Why Medical Researchers Recommend Walking Daily?

Therefore, for mental clarity and boosting mood, a 20 minute walking activity is recommended by health experts across the globe to live healthier and have longer life span. Walking is one the easiest things you can do at any time of the day. Instead of getting milk or newspaper at your doorstep, walk towards a shop located at a distance of at least 10 to 15 minutes everyday. This way you won’t have to push yourself each day to go for walking.

In fact, here are more amazing things that you can enjoy while walking to make it more interesting:

1. You can test your observation skills and get to know more about things happening around you. This could be quite an exercise for your eyes too.
2. You can plan your day or goals for the next few months and think of ways to attain them. But remember, try to think on one thing at a time. Don’t entangle your mind in a loop of thoughts.
3. You can try walking meditating techniques and can effectively implement them. This works as good as other meditation techniques.
4. You can self talk to motivate yourself to attain your aims and follow your passions. This is probably your only ‘me’ time which you can utilise to fill your mind with positivity.
5. Your concentration and attentiveness will definitely improve if you practice counting your steps.
6. You can even listen to soothing music or audio books to feed your mind with affirmative inputs.

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