Several short observations about walking
A walk is the best gift of life you can walk towards every day.
Raw and Real thoughts about Walking
The day you start walking consistently is going to be the best day of your life yet.
Get lost in the woods. Walk on the beach (if you are around one). Walk around at least one park in every city/area you visit.
Walk from the parking lot to the upstairs mall. Walk on the sidewalk next to the escalator at the airport. Walk to get your groceries. Walk from one building to another in societies instead of taking a golf cart. Walk even when there is no reason to walk.
Walking is not a substitute to exercise. It is an activity, super useful nonetheless.
Walking consistently makes you have better digestion.
You walk and you let go of that one person one day you had least expected to.
You walk and you let go of work stress that has been eating you up.
You walk right after a meeting so that your mind can bring back your focus for better productivity.
Best ideas enter your mind while walking.
When you are walking you are one with nature. You are moving, you are going with the flow. Not running, not staying still, but going with the flow.
Walking may not take away all your problems but it gives solutions to them when you simply go on a random walk.
Walking for 10 minutes after dinner helps regulate fasting sugar. (H/t Rujuta Diwekar).
A middle of the walk is where you truly write great books, build spectacular businesses, execute flawlessly at your job, make decisions you have never been able to make off late, and also just calm yourself down in general.
Those who want validation, post gym pictures. Those who crave for inner stability go for a walk despite gymming daily.
The life you get after walk
The winter walks in the sun.
The summer walks post dinner.
The monsoon walks any time of the day.
The crescent moon. The gorgeous sunset. The spectacular sunrise. The petrichor. The yellow carpeted ground during autumn.
For running and gymming you might get buddies or perhaps go solo, and you find good friends. For walking, you often go solo and you become your best friend.
Walking together is great to have meetings.
Walking with friends is the best way to chill around.
Walking tells your body that you are the boss, not the other way around.
Walking heals you, and we are speaking not of body.
God wanted to give you insights it has been wanting to give you every day. The wise ones go for a walk to receive them.
Walking is best when you don’t carry your phone. Or at best, allow it to track your steps but don’t use it even to click pictures.
For the last 4-5 years I have been investing in a nice pair of crocs (OG, not first copy), something I can get into easily before I have to go for a walk. I also make sure to look polished even while working from home. So there is absolutley no friction of changing into shoes or changing your clothes before going for a walk.
Your mind makes stability and calm as your default state, once you start walking daily.
You make random strangers as friends whom you wouldn’t ever speak to. But you know who is who. Also walking makes you understand these people’s nature even though you have never spoken with them.
“Never trust an idea that does not come to you on your walk.”
You see clouds while walking, as the rest of the world is handling the internet’s clouds.
In my hometown where it is still not the best to go to a park for a walk after sunset, I go to the terrace.
Before lunch, a tiny walk inside instead of a long scroll on the internet.
For the initial 10 minutes of the walk you want to go back. But from the 11th minute, you never want the walk to stop.
You learn to talk to yourself, and get yourself out of your bad habits while walking.
For sustained energy during a long walk, best to eat a banana 10-15 minutes prior to taking off.
Trees teach you the art of detachment (fallen leaves), the art of holding together (leaves and roots), the art of giving (shade), the art of self-love (taking water from underground), allowing a home (for monkeys, squirrels, etc.) and so on, just by quietly walking around them.
In your walks in the park, you see homes celebrating marriages and homes mourning a loved one’s death. And you still keep walking.
Early in your college days you walk to metro or public transport out of lack of resources. Later in your career you make sure to walk despite a car, out of love of rumination during walks.
You get your life changing epiphanies during a walk.
The best walk is the one that you take for yourself without posting it on social.
A walk is life’s healing force. Physically, mentally, emotionally, even financially.
Walk is like coming home. The world makes your head spin and a walk restores its centre.
A walk is your therapist.
Walk is like investing money. When you explore and experience it yourself, you are unstoppable.
Start small (I started with 5K steps because for me 3K was normal. You do you. But walk. So you get to your internal real talk.)
Start walking yesterday.
2 raw one-liners:
Girl to girl: If you order a piece of clothing online, and it fits you well and you wear it often, please order 2-3 more copies of it. Because later when you need it and you go back to order it, the brand would have certainly discontinued it.
Girl to boy: Belated happy men’s day, to each one of you. It is not easy to be a man.
Last month I was on a trip with my elder and younger bro (cousins) and bhabhi, and my elder brother was looking after so many things. He did not allow me to cross the road at Delhi station while we were waiting for our cab, did it himself. Forwarded all tickets to me again, right before the trip started. I was giving my phone number somewhere, when he popped out of nowhere and started narrating his.
I am in a habit of living and doing all this by myself and have no complains about it, but to all men who assume responsibility of girls around you even when they don’t ask, in a world of boys you’re a -- gentleman :)
3 (for) Real beautiful lessons I have learnt from my spiritual class:
Keep doing good deeds and it would negate the effect of your past invisible bad deeds.
To bend yourself to adjust with others is only the quality of the strong. The weak cannot bend.
The future is a product of the present. Fix your present for a precious and powerful future.
That is it, my friends.
There is a song “Ekla cholo re” sung by Mr. Bachchan, which was a favourite of mine during that era. The ad-lib of the song is “Walk alone…” I’d rather add that when you start walking every day, you’d never be alone despite being alone.
I’ll see you next week.
Nishtha Gehija
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