Walkaholic: The Importance Of Walking To A Writer

Ernest Hemingway, the famous American writer was  an avid walker. In his memoir A Moveable Feast, he noted,

“I would walk along the quais when I had finished work or when I was trying to think something out. It was easier to think if I was walking and doing something or seeing people doing something that they understood.”

Many writers find writing to be a lonely pursuit. With their backs bent over their computers or mobile phones, they are always in a shape reminiscent of the Darwinian man. There are blog posts to write, poems to finish, a story you got stucked on, comments to reply to, emails to send. With all the sitting to think and write that amounts to  long hours, the act of writing in itself may be the easiest way to gain weight.

Walking has been said to prevent different diseases like diabetes, and proven to allow for increased energy, strong bones, good cardiovascular system and reduced body fat. However, with the help of science and the writings of famous writers, it's now established that walking could help  boost the creativity of a writer.

 It was Stanford professor Daniel Schwartz’s habit to walk around campus with his mentees as they discussed projects. And, as one of those mentees, Dr. Marily Oppezzo, put it, “One day we got kind of meta.” In 2014 the pair published a groundbreaking set of studies that look, possibly for the first time, at the connection between walking and creativity.

Oppezzo talked with Dave TeerSteeg from the The Roadhouse arts and culture radio show about her article “Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking,” published in The Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.
She noted that in one of the studies, participants were given the words button, tire, and newspaper and allotted four minutes to be creative with them. Then, one-third of the group walked on a treadmill for four minutes while brainstorming, another group walked for four minutes then sat and brainstormed, and the third group sat still for four minutes before trying the task again. The people who walked or walked and sat doubled their capacity to creatively brainstorm. Oppezzo suspects walking helps dampen down the filter that normally tells our brains “that’s not worth thinking about.”

The studies revealed that walking helped the subjects brainstorm better. This meant that they came up with better ideas and solutions than those who ordinarily sat. The surprising aspect of the research showed that people who walked and probably did nothing more or just stared at the blank sky, came back creative than those who sat and focused on the work at hand.

There is a change in our bodies chemistry that comes with walking. When we take a walk, our body pumps and circulates more blood and oxygen to our muscles and organs. The most important of these organs being the brain. This is proven by researches that confirmed that people performed better in memory and attention tests after they had taken a walk. According to Science Daily, researchers found that walking for forty minutes three times a week enhanced the connectivity of important brain circuits, reduced declines in brain function associated with aging, and increased performance on cognitive tasks. This further staves off the withering of brain tissue and increases the volume of hippocampus ( the region of the brain responsible for memory).

Our thoughts are connected to the way our body moves. It's clear that when we listen to music, it motivates our body to move faster. When drivers listen to loud music, they always step on the accelerate pedal and change the gear. However, walking at our own pace creates a serene equal connection between our thoughts and body and moods. It's like a poem with a meter and rhythm. Walking is an art in itself. If we want to speed up the pace of our thoughts, all we need to do is speed up our pace for walking. The loops of our body directs the rhythm of our minds.

Because our eyes and body wanders while we walk, it is easier for our minds to produce beautiful and good ideas from its theatre. In the Stanford University research, in one test for example, volunteers had to come up with atypical uses for everyday objects, such as a button or a tire. On average, the students thought of between four and six more novel uses for the objects while they were walking than when they were seated. This shows the ability of our brain to be more focused and productive while walking than while we sit.

It must be added that where we walk to is also as important as walking. According to "Why Writing Helps Us Think", an article by Ferris Jabr in The New Yorker, he noted that walking through places filled with nature helps us think and generate ideas better than man-made environments. He also documented a study led by Marc Berman of the University of South Carolina. He wrote,

"Students who ambled through an arboretum improved their performance on a memory test more than students who walked along city streets. A small but growing collection of studies suggests that spending time in green spaces—gardens, parks, forests—can rejuvenate the mental resources that man-made environments deplete. Psychologists have learned that attention is a limited resource that continually drains throughout the day. A crowded intersection—rife with pedestrians, cars, and billboards—bats our attention around. In contrast, walking past a pond in a park allows our mind to drift casually from one sensory experience to another, from wrinkling water to rustling reeds."

On the flip side, Ferris Jabr further added that a walk through the city could also exhume our creative energy. He noted that Virginia Woolf relished the energy of London streets describing it as “being on the highest crest of the biggest wave, right in the centre & swim of things.”

For famous writers, walking has always been a path to their works. For example, Virginia Woolf To the Lighthouse was created while walking through Tavistock Square, and Mrs. Dalloway is all about walking, which literally connects the characters. James Joyce found Dubliners as his own forte. He infact wrote a book with the title Dublin. William Wordsworth’s walking was writing, in a way. As he saw it, the act of walking was “indivisible” from the act of writing poetry. Both were rhythmic, both employed meter. He needed to walk in order to write.

In fact, Thomas DeQuincey who had once exclaimed that "methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow", documented William Wordsworth walks saying:

"I calculate, upon good data, that with these identical legs Wordsworth must have traversed a distance of 175,000 to 180,000 English miles—a mode of exertion which, to him, stood in the stead of alcohol and other stimulants whatsoever to animal spirits; to which, indeed, he was indebted for a life of unclouded happiness, and we for much of what is most excellent in his writings."

Some writers find escape in walking. Henry Miller agreed, saying, “most writing is done away from the typewriter, away from the desk. I’d say it occurs in the quiet, silent moments, while you’re walking or shaving or playing a game or whatever.” Walt Whitman also assented to this when he said:
" Brooklyn of ample hills was mine, I too walked the streets of Manhattan island, and bathed in the waters around it.”

Other writers even go as far as eulogizing walking in their writings. Søren Kierkegaard, the philosopher, wrote in an 1847 letter to his niece,
“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.”

J.k. Rowling added, “Nothing like a nighttime stroll to give you ideas”.

Perhaps walking should be seen above the creative aspects. It should be seen as a way of keeping healthy and fit to think properly. Walking has been proven to be an advantageous exercise that wards off many diseases. In fact, walking is as close to a magic pill that we have. Just 30 minutes of walking each day is enough to dramatically reduce your risk of heart disease, colon cancer, breast cancer and dementia.

For a writer, the importance of walking cannot be overemphasized. It's clear that many times what we write is a product of what we have seen or heard or felt. What better way to experience your environment than to walk it? Than to live it? Than to feel it? Because at the end of a stroll, when you sit at your desk to write, you find that writing and walking are similar feats with one complementing the other. And like Henry David Thoreau noted,
 "how vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live".

By: Anifowoshe Ibrahim ibrahimanif1@gmail.com