Are you going through a period where you feel stuck? Is your Big Vision not moving forward? This can be frustrating and anxiety producing, especially if your income is on the line.
The natural tendency is to try come up with a solution while sitting in front of the computer. But how many out-of-the-box ideas have you thought of by doing that? Plus, there’s a connection between being sedentary and being anxious.
What if what you need is to move your body, to walk into our Big Vision?
Walking can help you generate more ideas.
“In a series of four experiments, Oppezzo and Schwartz asked a hundred and seventy-six college students to complete different tests of creative thinking while either sitting, walking on a treadmill, or sauntering through Stanford’s campus. . . . Another experiment required volunteers to contemplate a metaphor, such as ‘a budding cocoon,’ and generate a unique but equivalent metaphor, such as ‘an egg hatching.’ Ninety-five per cent of students who went for a walk were able to do so, compared to only fifty per cent of those who never stood up.”
Why Walking Helps Us Think by Ferris Jabr in The New Yorker, September 3, 2014.
Walking can improve your mood and self-confidence.
“In a recent study, researchers conducted three experiments on hundreds of college students to find out if they’d experience a positive mood boost while walking, without knowing that walking could be the reason. . . . They found that just 12 minutes of walking resulted in an increase in joviality, vigor, attentiveness and self-confidence versus the same time spent sitting.”
Six Reasons Why Walking Is The Daily Brain Medicine We Really Need by David DiSalvo in Forbes, September 3, 2014.
Walking in nature can reduce stress.
“The study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, suggests that taking 20 minutes to stroll in nature can reduce your stress hormone levels. The study coined this remedy as a ‘nature pill.'”
Study Shows Taking a 20-minute Walk in Nature Is All You Need to Cut Stress by Andrea Romano in Travel + Leisure, April 7, 2019
And walking with friends can increase stress-resilience.
“Social support from friends, family and community members has been shown to improve stress resilience and lowers levels of the stress hormone cortisol.”
National Walking Day: 5 Ways Walking Helps To Relieve Stress on HuffPost, April 3, 2013.
The next time you feel stuck, or anxious about your Big Vision, take a walk. It may help you generate ideas for new ways to move through challenges and alleviate some of your stress.
I believe in the power of Walking Into Your Big Vision so much that I’m now offering coaching and walking sessions. So far the feedback has been unanimously positive! If you live in the Bay Area, and want to Walk Into Your Big Vision, email me. We’ll set up a free 30-minute call.
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Photo by Lili Popper on Unsplash
Britt..your mixture of solid research and practical advice moves me to get out more and walk more.
It’s hard living in Honduras, where it’s not safe to walk around easily, but we take trips out of the country where there is freedom to explore and I can breathe a little deeper, and take my thoughts for a nice, long stroll.
Hi Tracy ~ That must be difficult, but I’m glad you have time in the country when you can walk more freely. Thanks for reading!