Walking Improves Your Thinking

Walking increases creativity, both while you’re doing it (as in the scientific study below) or in the long-term, because your brain’s creativity improves from walking over time. All the research in the article linked below makes us think of the ‘set your intention’ aspect of how we distinguish a pilgrimage from a walk, and suggests it actually works! Maybe these intentional walks of great thinkers are a type of pilgrimage?

“A group of Stanford students were asked to list as many creative uses for common objects as they could. A Frisbee, for example, can be used as a dog toy, but it can also be used as a hat, a plate, a bird bath, or a small shovel. The more novel uses a student listed, the higher the creativity score. Half the students sat for an hour before they were given their test. The others walked on a treadmill.

The results were staggering. Creativity scores improved by 60 percent after a walk.”

This wider phenomenon also includes the common practice of pacing up and down in order to think better, as mentioned by our patron, the scientist Rupert Sheldrake.

Read article on The Literary Hub: "On the link between great thinking and obsessive walking."