Why Walking Helps Us Think: Ferris Jabr

This morning I read something interesting about the relationship between walking, writing and thinking. It is important to know this because many times we want to write something but unfortunately our ideas do not flow.

"When we go for a walk, the heart pumps faster, circulating more blood and oxygen not just to the muscles but to all the organs—including the brain. Many experiments have shown that after or during exercise, even very mild exertion, people perform better on tests of memory and attention. Walking on a regular basis also promotes new connections between brain cells, staves off the usual withering of brain tissue that comes with age, increases the volume of the hippocampus (a brain region crucial for memory), and elevates levels of molecules that both stimulate the growth of new neurons and transmit messages between them".

An important conclusion is that exercise plays a vital role in revitalizing our brain. Stillness is the worst ally for brain development and to stimulate our intelligence.

Source of image:http://www.tetraciousfrustration.co.uk/things-youll-understand-if-you-have-high-mental-agility/

"In a series of four experiments, Oppezzo and Schwartz asked a hundred and seventy-six college students to complete different tests of creative thinking while either sitting, walking on a treadmill, or sauntering through Stanford’s campus. 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. Another experiment required volunteers to contemplate a metaphor, such as “a budding cocoon,” and generate a unique but equivalent metaphor, such as “an egg hatching.” Ninety-five per cent of students who went for a walk were able to do so, compared to only fifty per cent of those who never stood up".

It is important to know that depending on the place we choose to walk, we can achieve better results for a harmonious and productive relationship between walking, thinking and writing.

"When we choose a path through a city or forest, our brain must survey the surrounding environment, construct a mental map of the world, settle on a way forward, and translate that plan into a series of footsteps. Likewise, writing forces the brain to review its own landscape, plot a course through that mental terrain, and transcribe the resulting trail of thoughts by guiding the hands. Walking organizes the world around us; writing organizes our thoughts. Ultimately, maps like the one that Nabokov drew are recursive: they are maps of maps".

Today I am convinced of the need to exercise our body to strengthen our brain activity.

No one can doubt the virtues of walking to stimulate our creativity and our ability to generate new ideas. So to enjoy a good walk contemplating the beauty of nature so that we can make interesting post that strengthen the Steemit community.

Source: Why Walking Helps Us Think: Ferris Jabr. The New Yorker

Source of imagen:http://abbyquillen.com/the-art-of-walking-a-passion-for-the-pedestrian/

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