In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration

by Shane O'Mara

But walking is special to me as a form of transport. Walking allows me to walk it off, whatever it is. Walking clears my mind, allowing me to think things through. Natural movement brings with it experiences and demands on the body and brain that do not arise from other types of movement. Cars, bicycles, trains and buses all divorce you in different ways from the environment, you are mechanically propelled, sometimes insulated behind glass, travelling too fast, worried about crashing, trying to find that new song on the radio. There is a peculiar passivity to it: you are sitting, yet you are moving at speed. This can never be true of walking: one foot must go in front of the other until you get there, under your own steam. You make your own way, and experience the world close at hand, at your own speed, in your own way. But, how do we know that walking has all these multifarious benefits for our minds, bodies and quality of life? What’s the evidence? The evidence is extensive and, as we will see in the course of this book, shows that walking enhances every aspect of our being, from our physical health, to our mental health, to our social lives and beyond.