Keep walking is one of the most popular quotes of last decades. Johnny Walker gained millions of dollars based on this moto. But how many of us do we actually follow it? The pace of our lives nowadays is extremely fast and “furious”. We run, run and run. No Time for loitering. From the moment we wake up until we sleep, we run. To be on time at work, to be on time for our appointments and especially if you are parent, to be there for your kid’s activities. We rush. “Run Forest, Run” is actually the title of our stories.
Even when we walk, we are passive walkers, we don’t observe anything around us. We focus mainly on the “destination, no on the trip.” Even worse, we are totally distracted due to our smartphones or tablets. We are so addicted. We lose so many moments. Unfortunately, we behave like robots, no like human beings. We betrayed our “own” freedom.
Walking is so relieving, so refreshing and we have underestimated its power and its contributions to our life. Without a doubt, it’s healthy for our cardio system and apparently it keeps the body active. 30 minutes of walking every day at least is a valuable deposit to your health balance.
This article is not devoted to the healthy aspect of walking, but to another interesting topic. The effect of walking on our senses and mainly on our perception and creativity. Walking provides the best conditions in order to extend your sharp thinking and to arouse your senses. Since, you choose the place you want to walk –no limitations at all- and nobody directs your pace, the mind perceives the freedom and activates all of its functions. The walking arouses the creativity through those dimensions NO RUSH, Re-SEE, Re-BREATH and Re-THINK.
NO RUSH
First and foremost, you do not rush. You “chillax”. You follow your own step. You live the moment. You devote your time to yourself. Every new step, a new moment. You let the experience shows up. You realize that you are not on a meeting or on charge for anything. Creativity rises up when you are totally relaxed. The most crucial requirement is the enjoyment. When you enjoy your strolling, all of your senses operate harmonically. You adopt your own rhythm. Sometimes you walk fast, some others slowly. It depends on you. You direct it. Nobody else. The freedom and especially the perceived rhythm accommodate and amplify your senses and your critical thinking.
Re-SEE
While you walk, you are able to watch so many aspects of your life which you neglect. First and foremost, your environment around you. Essentially, you re-discover your life. How many times have you actually realized that you pass by some places every day and you haven’t even noticed? Most of the people are so focused on their own problems derived from their routine and they look so narrowly and down. This is a common problem nowadays. They are so depressed, so tired, so unpleasant that they don’t have the confidence to move their glance up. The real life is not at the ground. Look up and around you. Focus on other people’s faces, interpret the signs you receive. The active observation offers to you the stimuli which can evolve your perception of the real life and reinforce your source of ideas. Furthermore, you can observe very beautiful moments beside you. You can taste a small scoop of others people’s life. You can notice the sky, especially at night. Sky is the best source of creativity. Sky offered one of the first motivation for humanity to be evolved. Ancient human civilizations were staring at the stars and the sky in order to interpret their existence and to explore the world. Sky was and still, is the muse for many artists and scientists. Thus, utilize the active observation. As a businessman, fast observation combined with fast perception result in your ability to face the potential challenges in your workplace not only faster, but also meaningfully. Another crucial pro is that you can watch through the eyes of your potential customer. You watch the “real world”.
Re-BREATH
When you walk you can breathe more freely. You deposit the suitable amount of oxygen to your mind and to your head. You “recycle” the air inside your head and your body. The oxygen constitutes the most productive fuel in order to conduct the proper functions. It’s the integral ingredient for the proper thinking process. Besides, you face opportunities to explore and extend your odour. The smells stemmed from any kind of source- food, flowers, perfumes even the dirtiness- send very powerful signals to your mind and reinforce your perception abilities.
Re-THINK
Throughout your walk, you have definitely time to think clearly. Sometimes the circumstances are led in such a way in your life that you are just seeking for a small time gap to rethink everything. First and foremost, to assess yourself as regard to your actions, and your behavior. What did you do wrong, what right? How could you improve your mistakes in your daily life? The self- assessment process leads you to revise the aspects of your life in a creative and cultivating way and to upgrade your personality. Besides the self-evaluation, you can spark any abstract thought without stress. How often did you stay stacked in the office struggling to find a smart idea? Since you are not under pressure, your mind comes up with any possible thoughts related and not related to the moment. You increase the rate of your ideas. You “grease your mother memory”. You facilitate the process of transforming these thoughts into novel ideas. The path from the thought to the idea is strongly shortened.
Within our workplace, we push ourselves to find innovative ideas under stressful situations, to make fast thinking decisions with effective impact on the stakeholders. Additionally, in our personal lives, we have undermined our lives so much. From the time we wake up till the time we sleep. Our way of living, even the way of thinking is so incomprehensible and complicated. The weapon against these daily challenges is to simplify our thoughts and the way of living. In an era, which we have everything, we deprive from simple things. Like going for a walk, hanging out with friends at the parks, discussing (no texting or chatting) with other people face to face. The simplicity can be the best guide for our creativity, because definitely
[blockquote align=”center”]Creativity is the ability to find the simplest idea under the most complicated and adverse circumstances.[/blockquote]
