Whether physical, mental, or spiritual, new evidence that walking helps to keep us healthy AND happy
Check out the thoughtful essay in last week's New York Times by Andrew McCarthy entitled "Whatever the Problem, It’s Probably Solved by Walking". After musing over the many benefits he has experienced, McCarthy summarizes the benefits cited by writers ranging from Hippocrates to J.K. Rowling.
This is just one of several thought-provoking pieces on walking published over the past several weeks. Another article published on March 17 summarized the many varied benefits of walking - from exercise to increased life expectancy to preventing arthritis to improving memory to breaking the cycles of worry.
Given these accounts and this evidence, we should not be surprised if a walk in the woods offers even great benefits! We witness this many days on walks with Margot when she experiences a "nature moment", stopping of her own accord to gaze at, listen to, or just smell something in her surroundings. Like on one of the first days of spring in Anson B Nixon Park, when she stopped to lose herself in a babbling brook, before continuing her one mile walk.
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