1. Taking a walk is good for my body.
“Physical activity is the closest thing we have to a wonder drug,” says Dr. Thomas Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The benefits are especially important for those of us who work in offices hunched over keyboards under the glow of fluorescent lights.
Getting up, going outside, and taking a brisk walk is good for our bodies. Our skin soaks in the sunshine, our lungs breathe fresh air, and blood courses through our veins. And if the mind and body really is as connected as we believe, then this physical benefit also has mental and emotional benefits.
2. Taking a walk is good for my mind.
Walking forces me to stop from the task at hand. I choose to get up, take a break, get away from screens and check lists, and do something completely different. In this way, taking a walk is wonderfully unproductive. I intentionally interrupt my busyness, giving myself the space to breathe and process.
Since I am least busy during my walks, I always come back to the task at hand refreshed and better equipped to address it. My mind is clear. My attention span is more focused. And I am ready to approach my work again.
3. Taking a walk is good for my soul.
“[The gospel] is good and it is beautiful,” said Dr. Gavin Ortlund in a recent episode of Christ and Culture. “It touches the deepest longings of the human heart.”
A walk allows me to attend to one of God’s greatest sources of beauty — the natural world. As I step outside and onto the sidewalk or grassy field, I no longer hear the artificial sounds of air conditioning, computer hums, or the slight buzz of the fluorescent light.
Instead, I hear birds singing to each other. I feel the sunlight beating down on my skin and the breeze tossing my hair out of its combed position. The branches of a giant oak tree lurch and dance with the flowing of the wind, while a mockingbird chirps at me for walking past. I step over a line of ants traversing the path in front of me, and I look up to see the vast blue sky, with massive fluffy white clouds proceeding in their slow march above me. (The location where you walk may look different, but it is no less beautiful.)
When I see all of this — I mean really see it and pay attention to it — I can’t help but praise God.
There’s something about attending to the bigness and beauty of nature that renders my problems and schedule so small and less significant by comparison. My busy soul needs this reminder.
And it should come as no surprise, then, that my walks often double as times for prayer. For whatever reason, I have a hard time praying inside. Stepping outside removes the normal distractions in my home or office and provide me the space to pray.
Sometimes I pray clearly organized prayers on my walk, while other times my prayers are a mess. Sometimes I pray the words of Scripture, while other times I simply stew on a particular situation and allow the Spirit to intercede “with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).
But this is the best part of taking a walk. I give myself the space to commune with the Lord, take my problems to him, praise him for his creation, recite words of Scripture, or otherwise simply immerse myself in his presence.
Taking a walk — and praying! — is good for my soul.
Conclusion
To be clear, taking a walk is no magic wand. My tasks are still waiting. Emails still fill my inbox. People still text me with urgent problems. And, yes, that friend still wants to chat about the weekend.
But this spiritual discipline of taking a walk is a simple way to reintroduce joy and push back against the tyranny of the urgent. Hopefully, by integrating this practice into your life, you too can experience a little less “joyless urgency” and a little more joyful peace.
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