It's funny where research takes you.
"All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking," so says Nietzsche.
Artists and writers alike attach great worth to this and celebrate their inspiration derived from taking a stroll. For me it is a way of giving my time wasting some validity. Yet it does work because I know I have my best ideas at that moment when I wake up, when my head is clear and my thoughts have free rein. The same happens when out for a walk.
I'm not the only one that thinks this - Henry Thoreau said: "Me-thinks the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow."
Taking a step outside of your normal habits gives room and space for the mind to think things through. We are designed to thrive outside - not at a desk; high ceilings, or the sky, prompt unrestricted thoughts; the rhythm beaten out by the sound of our feet hitting the ground brings on a trance-like state which allows for dreams and thoughts to work; our brain functions better when walking - it's the whole multi-tasking thing as long as the two activities are different enough.
The main benefit I can see is that you are getting away from the problem - to step out of the house, or away from the desk, gives you chance to see around the problem; to find the inspiration.
"Going out," John Muir wrote, "was really going in."
Anyone fancy a walk then?
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