5 ms·
? Go for a walk. Walking is what our ancestors did, to go into "finding" modus. Find a route to water, find prey, find adversaries to find you and find out. Or
by InDubioProRubio 2y ago
? Go for a walk. Walking is what our ancestors did, to go into "finding" modus. Find a route to water, find prey, find adversaries to find you and find out. Or at least find the way home.
All senses get stimulated, a moving mind in a moving body. The great outdoors, fresh air, i shite being Scottish.
If you have a problem you need to solve, but don't know how, just walk up to a overview point and look down on the problem every day.
- LeifCarrotson 2y agoI like to go for a run or a bike ride. On a walk, you can still carry and even use a phone, listen to a podcast or music, or have a conversation. When you're doing a workout, you might wear a watch, but otherwise it's a time when you can't really get distracted or interrupted by anything, you just move, observe, and think.
- SoftTalker 2y agoI can't really use a phone outside on a sunny day. Even at max brightness the screen is unreadable.
- my_brain_saying 2y agoThis is excellent advice. Spending 5 hours on a weekend cycling is extremely relaxing, not only because you are intensely using your body, but because you are completely and utterly distracted. When I cycle, the first twenty kilometers are usually fairly painful: I am tired, I feel my knees, back, and muscles hurt, and am generally uncomfortable. After those twenty kilometers I enter a meditative, gelatinous phase, were I no longer really feel my body. I just ride. This is when I _think_; the same style of thinking I experience when lying, comfortably, in bed. After maybe 60–90 kilometers (depending on my current fitness level), I enter the pain stage. This is when I start feeling my body again. Believe it or not, this is definitely the most therapeutic stage. This is when I cannot think. My mind stays blank, and I do — in a manner of speaking — nothing. This lack of thought, meaning lack of stress, of worry, of hectic, etc., is what motivates me to go on 150 or 200 kilometer bike rides. You feel physically refreshed and exhausted. You feel that you were able to think in peace and purely, as well as having been void of all negative, stressful thoughts. To anyone who has never tried an endurance sport like cycling: I highly recommend it. I started when I was 14, and it was one of the greatest decisions I ever made. It spared me hours of depression, fear, and stress. It also encouraged me to think and meditate in peace. I would not be the person I am today, if it were not for my dear high-school friend who showed me the world of cycling (as well as the world of communism; I owe much to this friend). Thank you.
- a_t48 2y agoThis sounds like the cycling version of runners high. I’ve never felt it.
- gffrd 2y agoI really identify with the phases and experience you describe above. The act of being engaged as your body moves through them is powerful. Writer Haruki Murakami, a distance runner, was asked by an interviewer what we thinks about when he runs. Murakami responded that he basically doesn't think of anything. He runs not to think, but to _not_ think. That He runs specifically to create a void. (from his book "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running") I would also encourage anyone who hasn't experienced this before: find an activity that demands this from you. You will learn a lot about yourself.
- t_mahmood 2y agoI love both cycling and walking. But cycling is what gave me the best of all. Riding for 7-8 hours even once a week just gave me a boost that would let me cope with everything that I had to face in daily life, and now after I've diagnosed with ADHD, I realize it was also helped me a lot to keep myself somewhat sorted. It's kinda therapy for me. It's relaxing, and clams the racing mind so much. Now I don't get a chance to ride anymore, but I miss it so much. And I feel ADHD affects me more now
- ChiefNotAClue 2y agoOn a walk, you can truly take in the details of your surroundings—the kind of details that you would otherwise whizz past on a bike. Two different kinds of paces.
- hnuser123456 2y agoI think the intention is to not even try to identify solutions, or even identify problems. If you're opening this page on your computer or phone, presumably, you have nothing 100% critical pressing right now. Now take it to the extreme, and see if you can quiet your brain for a minute or so. Walking is not as "pure nothing" as sitting and letting your brain wander anywhere as long as it's not reminding you of obligation stress. You might even start to daydream a pleasant setting.
- frakt0x90 2y agoI agree but I need to find an alternative. I live in texas unfortunately and walking is miserable for 4 months out of the year. I should just move but can't currently.
- theultdev 2y agoThe weather is perfect right now, take advantage! Also it's perfect most of our "winter", unlike many places where it snows / gets too cold. No place other than California will have perfect weather all year, but then you live in California... During the summer my wife and I run inside, or very early in the morning outside.
- seadan83 2y agoInteresting you mention walking as what our ancestors did. Until about 100 years ago, food and energy scarcity was the norm. Our ancestors would have been lean and would not have typically expended energy for just pure leisure. In other words, everyone was busy trying to not starve. There was plenty of physical activity in the day, lots of chores and things to do. I say this to demonstrate how un-adapted we are now for what is relatively recently a radically different lifestyle.
- lainga 2y agoPetrarch climbed a mountain for fun in 1336. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascent_of_Mont_Ventoux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascent_of_Mont_Ventoux
- seadan83 2y agoMy summary statement saying "everyone" should be taken into context rather than strawmanned. Fwiw, and also across most of europe in a similar time period: "The Great Famine of 1315–1317 (occasionally dated 1315–1322) was the first of a series of large-scale crises that struck parts of Europe early in the 14th century. Most of Europe (extending east to Poland and south to the Alps) was affected." [1] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_of_1315 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_of_1315
- tweetle_beetle 2y agoWasn't he effectively some version of upper middle class though? With enough money for servants and safely patronised, his time was protected from basic human needs.
- noncoml 2y agoThe peripatetic school of Aristotle. ~335BC Take walks to stimulate the mind https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripatetic_school https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripatetic_school
- groby_b 2y agoThoreau, Humboldt, Goethe, Descartes. da Vinci, St. Francis of Assisi, Hildegard of Bingen, Li Bai, Seneca, Socrates Yes, it wasn't as affordable in earlier times, but thinking and walking have been closely associated for millenia.
- olalonde 2y agoShowers also tend to be effective.
- 331c8c71 2y agoI find that cold showers are magic for clearing my mind.
- 331c8c71 2y agoMaybe walking will work for me when I am older but it is not intense enough now. Cycling seems to be perfect as the scenery changes much faster and there is more opportunity to challenge myself (;
- thoutsnark 2y agoTry walking while carrying a heavy load.
- andai 2y agoThat's just regular walking. Life is hard!
- readyplayernull 2y agoI walk quickly in ellipses when I'm power-thinking.
- 331c8c71 2y agoAh the infamous farmer's walk!
- stuaxo 2y agoI don't know, it let's your mind wander - especially if you can walk near water or better, the sea.
- dfreire 2y agoAnd… you’re doing something.
- TN1ck 2y agoI guess you don’t have any hills/mountains in your area, going up there can be quite intense.