Daily Diary, Day 841: My Favorite Things #13 Walks
In some fashion, I’ve already revealed a number of the reasons that taking my daily walk is one of my favorite things. Those walks are what get me out to experience weather first hand, and well as see the crows, and the walks how I discover and delight in various holiday decorations, especially during the fall and winter.
But as I walked today and thought about what I wanted to write about for my 13th favorite thing, I decided these walks deserved their own post.
First of all, they have been a life-saver in terms of my mental and physical well-being since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. For over a decade before covid, doing water aerobics three times a week at our local rec center had been my go-to form of exercise. First with Covid they were cancelled, and now they are no longer in the morning (which was the optimum time for me) and pretty crowded, so I did need to find a different from of exercise. Now, nearly three years, later, I have decided that walking needs to remain my major form of exercise because it provides me more consistent opportunities to exercise (water aerobics classes were often cancelled,) it is more efficient in terms of time spent, and it gives me so many extra benefits.
So, what are those benefits (besides weather, crows and holiday decorations?)
First of all, I discovered how much I enjoyed listening to audiobooks. I have struggled for years over the fact that I was doing much less recreational reading than I was used to doing. As you all know from these posts, my days are busy, and the evenings I spend watching tv and films with my husband. In fact, it seemed the only time I just sat and read a whole book came when I got sick. But with the isolation that has come with Covid, I haven’t had a single cold!
But, once I started walking every day, and I found the discounts of older mysteries showing up on Chirp, I discovered that I quite like listening to books as I walk. In the past two years I have listened to over forty audiobooks, which has not only made my walking more enjoyable, but also been a simple pleasure I might not have without these walks.
The second, not unrelated benefit of these walks was my introduction to podcasts. I still get most of my non-fiction related reading through print magazines, and online editions of newspapers and substack newsletter, but when I ran across the Shedunnit podcast about the Golden Age of Detective fiction I discovered that this was very much like listening to fiction, and I suspect I will search out other podcasts to try.
Finally, these walks have given me a new appreciation of the benefits of staying in the present, which comes from paying attention to what I see around me. I saw this as described as mindfulness walking. I have never been good at meditation, but a third of the time in my walks, I turn off the book or podcast I am listening to, put on some music, and become totally aware of what I am seeing around me. I have found this works best if I pick a theme (like looking for those crows, or interesting Halloween decorations), and before the holidays rolled in, I was concentrating on finding flowers and plants of certain colors.
I think that next week I am going to start looking for unusual tree shapes, because there are some really unique ones I’ve seen here and there. Most of my life has been spent looking in the internal world of imagination that goes with reading and writing. These walks have brought me a new appreciation for nature and the beauty in the visual world outside my mind.
Today, I started out thinking I would look for the color red because that seemed to be the dominant color I was seeing all around me, not surprising since there are red nosed raindeers, red Santa suits, red poinsettias, and red bows on wreaths very where. But the most vibrant red of all came from the color of leaves on this one tree. So that is the series of pictures I am going to leave you with today. Happy Winter Solstice for those of you in the northern hemisphere.
I loved this post about walking. I too began with water aerobics. I like walking in my neighborhoods, although my asthma slows me down on upgrades but we also have several trails off the byways - Oso Creek and Aliso Creek trails. These are so enjoyable. Today I walked my 10,000 steps on the Aliso trail making it almost to the ocean before having to turn back. Another time! I walked with friends today, but usually listen to audiobooks if I'm alone. "Thornyhold" by Mary Stewart is playing now. Thanks for sharing!
Walking our neighborhood is a favorite form of exercise for us. The end of our road leads to a wooded trail(old logging road) that connects to the road above ours which leads to another neighborhood. Nice views along with the cardio workout! Living on a hillside has some advantages! 😊