I’ve always known that walking is good for my wellbeing. But when I’m frustrated and cooped up at home, it can be hard to remember that good things can happen when I pull on my shoes and set foot outside my door. When I eventually head out, I’m reminded how good it feels to breathe, move my body and change my perspective.
Walking with intention is at the heart of pilgrimage. But those pilgrimages don’t need to be religiously motivated, time-consuming, long distance or overseas. Any walk with a clear intention becomes a mini-pilgrimage and can change you in powerful ways.
What is walking with intention?
Walking with intention involves a mindful and deliberate approach. You focus on being present and aware of your surroundings, your body, and your thoughts.
Being fully present in the moment takes some practice, and I’m not sure it’s a state that any of us can perfectly achieve. But intentional walking shifts your focus from the destination of your journey to the steps you are taking.
The practice of mindful walking is often slow and dispenses altogether with the idea of a walk that takes you somewhere, instead focusing on balance, breathing, and the careful placement of each foot in turn. To me, walking with intention strikes a balance of pace between inching forward, breath by breath, and charging off to a distant destination.
Walking without a goal in mind
I remember years ago camping on the Cornish coast next to the South West Coastal Path. During the evening, streams of walkers poured into the campsite, carrying walking poles and adorned in brightly coloured tech fabrics.
“Twenty miles today! You?”
“Just 14 for me.”
Overhearing these conversations, I realised that every discussion centred on distance. People rarely mentioned what they had seen, heard, or felt during their journey (aside from aching limbs and sore feet). All of these long-distance walkers had a clear goal, an endpoint they wanted to reach. But the journey towards it sounded like an obstacle to overcome rather than an experience to be enjoyed.
Intentions and goals are different. Rather than focusing on the end and reaching it at all costs, intentions set our direction from where we start. Intentions encourage us to course correct and discover new paths. In this way, intentions become self-renewing in a way that goals can not be. When you’ve achieved a goal, you need another one. When you’re following your intentions, there’s always more to discover.
Walking for wellbeing
There is no doubt that walking is good for people’s wellbeing, and many people embark on a walking programme to lose weight, get fitter, build stamina and improve their mental outlook. But it’s easy to forget that there are real barriers to walking; physical limitations, unsafe environments, time constraints, and weather conditions can all impact our walking ability.
It doesn’t help that so we’re encouraged to focus on counting steps. My watch buzzes every hour to remind me to move, especially if I’ve been writing at my desk for some time. But those 10,000-step goals are bad science, based on faulty assumptions about physical fitness and the odd fact that the Japanese kanji for the number looks a bit like a person walking.
And the truth is that wellbeing is more than physical health. Our mental state, ability to regulate our emotions, sense of self-efficacy and cognitive flexibility all contribute to our wellbeing as do our social connections and our resilience against the injustices we face in societies that are not designed for people like us.
If walking for wellbeing is limited to physical movement, it excludes too many of us.
Steps towards walking with intention
Here are three simple ways that you can begin walking with intention.
Notice three good things in nature. Nature can feel distant, particularly for those of us in urban environments. However, research suggests that noticing three good things in nature each day can significantly improve well-being. Walking around your yard or block, pay attention to weeds pushing through cracks in pavements, birds flying overhead, and the patterns of the clouds in the sky. Set an intention to notice life in the world around you.
Take your problems for a walk. If you ruminate on issues, you might notice that you become very still when this happens. Simply going to another room can change your perspective (there’s something magical about stepping through a doorway). Take a moment to scribble down your problem, articulating it as clearly as you can. Then, go for a walk. Let the problem fall away as you focus on the rhythm of your steps. If answers come, great, but don’t force them. At least you had a change of scenery.
Search for answers. One lovely practice from the field of nature connection is to look for teachers in the world around you. Imagine you are struggling with making connections. What do you notice about how trees connect with each other? Flocks of birds? Flowing rivers and streams? If you’re willing to pay attention, the world has much to teach you. Setting out on a walk looking for answers can be illuminating.
Pilgrimagic and walking with intention
As someone who thinks best on their feet, I created Pilgrimagic to be a place to discover practical tips on walking, inspiration for pilgrimages, poetry to ponder as you wander, labyrinths, book reviews, and insights into wellbeing, nature connection, and personal development.
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