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Every Step You Take…
My iPhone tracks the number of steps I take each day (as does yours, I’m not trying to act all special here) and, much to my surprise, has been doing this for many years. I didn’t pay much attention to it until about 6 months ago, and when I finally did dive into the Health app, I was surprised to find just how much I walk and how much more walking I do each day compared to a couple of years ago.
I love a good walk. My dog does too. While we prefer a redwood forest or a beach walk, I’ve found even walks around our neighborhood, which we’ve done hundreds of times, to be wonderful too in their own unique way. On of my favorites is a route that takes us through the parking lot of the nearby dilapidated mall parking lot, through a surprising number of beautiful trees, park strips, abundant birds, and friendly people; despite its rather bland sounding outer surface.
Have I always liked to walk? It’s funny that I don’t have a definite answer to this. I suppose I’ve never paid that much attention to it, with the exception of taking long walks with my wife, which have always felt intentional and full of laughs and good conversation. Beyond that, walking was for the utility component and, if I’m being honest, often felt like a hindrance to the getting-to-where-I’m-going.
Pace is interesting. At a company I once worked at, I remember a particular ‘important’ individual who always made a big deal out of how fast he walked, zooming from meeting to meeting at a record pace. I recall almost having to half jog to keep up with him. I emulated this fast-important-person-walk until I realized how uncomfortable it was, and how much I missed out on. I settled on a medium pace that suited me better and was far less annoying to those around me. Nowadays, I vary my pace depending on the mood, although ‘the stroll’ is my default. I certainly attribute no self importance to it and my only tag-along is Lily these days.
So what changed that got me so much more intentional about walking? I became the primary walker of our dog when I left the work world. From there, I found the myriad benefits.
I find walking to be as well suited to deep thought and dispersed thinking as it is to simply tuning out or meditation. I often focus on something in the distance and turn my attention to the birds chirping, people talking, cars revving up and down, and other ambient sounds. This tends to peacefully turn away most other thoughts that arise and I can easily cover several miles in simple awareness. Conversely, I also use this time to think through project details, design a gizmo in my head, debate financial decisions, or even outline essays or poems. Most of the time I pay enough attention to not get hit by cars, but there’s been a close call or two.
I find walks through the forest to be the most peaceful and awe inspiring. There’s just something about a redwood grove alongside a creek; the deep greens and immense heights; the silence alongside the occasional squirrel squeak. Walking on or by the beach is my favorite place to think deeply about life. Walking around my neighborhood is usually where I think through projects, details, decisions, and the like. No hard and fast rule here, I just notice that each place seems to provide a certain environment suited to certain types of thought; although exceptions abound depending on my own mental climate.
There’s a different texture to walking the dog versus walking alone versus walking with my wife or a friend. Each offers its own rewards. I certainly walk the most with my dog Lily as she gets a daily walk. This is mostly positive, but there are times where this creates other distractions or annoyances. Some days I’m perfectly fine with her sniffing and peeing on all the things; other days I have to fight the urge to yank her leash to keep her moving. Most of the time, we seem to kind of just flow together, occasionally checking in on one another with a short glance.
Back to the iPhone. I found the step tracking to be motivating for a while. I saw the difference on days when I was especially active, took long walks with the dog, or snuck a family walk in after dinner. It wasn’t uncommon to ‘get’ 20,000 steps in a day. I even debated purchasing a fitness tracking band so that I didn’t always need my phone on walks, so that my time in the gym would count towards my steps, and so I could start tracking heartrate and oxygen saturation and all these other things I’ve never given a care about. Oh! And I could track my sleep and reps and… what the hell?
I noticed that I started to feel kind of bad when I only posted 9,000 steps or if my average over a week went down. It started to feel more like I was walking for the steps and not for the simple joy of walking. “Top 5 ways to maximize productivity of your walk” was not what I wanted to subscribe to.
So, this week I deleted the health app. I’m back to walking just to walk. Well, and to walk the dog or go to the grocery store. I still do it for utility too of course.
And I’m leaving my phone behind sometimes too, so leave a message at the beep.