Week 11: Walk For A Release

I first realized the concept of walking for an emotional release a couple of years after living in the Kansas City area. I had been out walking several miles one day after work. It was a beautiful evening, the sun was shining, walkers were friendly. Everything seemed picture perfect. Then, when I walked into the door of my home, I started crying. I wondered to myself, "Why on earth am I crying? What is this about? I just had a great day."

I did, in fact, have a great day. I liked my job at the time, I felt like I was making a difference in the world, I had things to do, places to go, people to see. I also under the surface was upset about so many things. The tears that day weren't about my day, or even about that week, or especially about that walk...they were an emotional release I felt after having exercised. Exercise often can be an emotional release because the energy we usually use to keep it all together, we have used up in our exercise routine. Then, we are amazingly able to let go of pent up frustrations, hurts, feelings, stress...and let it all out.

I also use exercise, walking especially, as a time to go over things in my mind. For some reason, I find that skipping to my favorite tunes and having the wind blow in my hair and the sun on my face, gives me a sense of clarity I can't get anywhere else. I take that back, some days I get it walking in my basement if no one is home and there is no noise (which rarely happens). When I am out walking, I can think about all of the things in life that I didn't have time to deal with at the moment, or that I wanted to reevaluate. When I get home, I see things so much more clearly. It's amazing.

Photo by Tobi from Pexels

For me, and for many people, exercise provides a great way to sort out my thoughts and even to make plans for my life. I've written more than one article, post, presentation, paper, and even chapters in a book in my head while I was walking. I'm glad I can do that, because writing, too, is a release to me. It's a way that I can get my thoughts out, especially when I feel that no one is listening otherwise. I once had someone ask, how do you write in your truest voice. I write in the voice as if no one is reading. I write in the voice I think to myself as I am walking all alone on the trail, and it is just the wind and the trees and the trail and grass and distant traffic. That is how I write in my truest voice. That is how I gain clarity and release when I am walking and writing.

To me, walking is a great problem solver. When I get home, I suddenly see things as they were...the friend who was incredibly kind and gracious and why a meeting went better than I had planned, how my day was actually super amazing, how I really do feel 27 still (even though I'm not 27), and how I really have had so many tremendous awesome experiences in my life that no one can take from me. It's a great feeling.

The best, release, though that I get from walking is the sense of accomplishment I have when I get home. Last summer, when I reached my 10 miles a day goal, I would give myself a fist pump in the air. It wasn't for anyone but me. I was so proud of what I had accomplished. I knew that I did something that even if someone told me that I didn't do it or that I couldn't do it or that I wouldn't do it, that I actually did it. And, like so many other goals, that fact that I did it is what really matters to me.