Stanford researchers link walking with creativity.
Charles Dickens walked three hours a day–usually in the evening–and still found time to write 2000-4000 words. Quality words. A coincidence? Or is there a correlation between walking and creativity?
Researchers at Stanford University think there is. After walking for eight minutes, their test subjects, improved by about 60% on tests of creativity. Whether they walked indoors on a treadmill or outside on Stanford’s sunny, green campus, the results were the same.
I guess that’s good news on a stormy day. Whenever I can, though, I prefer to walk outside.
An October walk.
Mid-afternoon, and I need a break. I tie the laces of my tennis shoes, open the door … and away I go. (Walking is so much easier than driving to the gym.) This year autumn is a little late. A few tree have turned; other trees seem to think it’s still summer.
I cross a small bridge, look down at the creek, and head toward town. My usual walks are neither city walks like Charles Dickens’ nor country walks like those taken by Henry David Thoreau and William Wordsworth. Wordsworth is believed to have walked an average of six-and-a-half miles a day during his lifetime. My walk today will take me in a meandering loop of only about two-and-a-half miles.
Even when I take a familiar route, there’s always something new to see.
Was this an empty lot or an old house when I passed it last time?
Every one likes to watch construction. This excavation is for a veterinary clinic.
Signs of the season show up in front of Girardi’s Osteria Italiana.
I cut across between the Frances Anderson Cultural Center and the library. Everett DuPen’s cast bronze sculpture, “Vision,” reaches for the sky. This walk is so much more inspiring than walking on a treadmill and staring at a blank wall.
Ivy creeps across the wall, and I wonder: will the red-tipped larger leaves turn the same gorgeous shade of pinky-red as the small ones? Note to self: Walk this way again in a week or two.
Starbucks behind me, the fountain in front. Darn! I should have brought money for coffee. But no, I’m taking a walk.
More temptations: my favorite art gallery and bookshop. I keep walking.
Pretty little things along the way.
Chinese lanterns.
The sum of the whole is this: walk and be happy; walk and be healthy.—Charles Dickens
The garden club plants flowers like this all over the downtown area.
Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.—Henry David Thoreau
So why does walking make us more creative?
It’s pleasurable and it’s good, moderate exercise. But why does it help us think more creatively?
Ferris Jabr explains it this way in a New Yorker article:
Because we don’t have to devote much conscious effort to the act of walking, our attention is free to wander—to overlay the world before us with a parade of images from the mind’s theatre. This is precisely the kind of mental state that studies have linked to innovative ideas and strokes of insight.
The only trouble is, when I finish walking, it will be time to fix dinner. Oh, well. I’ll write something later.
Or maybe I’ll take another walk.
Nothing like a nighttime stroll to give you ideas. – J.K. Rowling.
–Quotes from Rowling, Dickens, and Thoreau found in “What Famous Writers Know About Walking.”
Next week’s Halloween post: “A Foreign Ghost in a Wartime Cemetery.”
Taking a walk in a city is usually not giving me any inspriration but when I am out in the nature, or visiting some historical buildings I always get tons of ideas of what to write about, how to include it in my stories or even how to improve simple things like a boring CV!
Of course I can also be creative at home but I have usually the feeling that my mind works best after having a walk in the nature. Perhaps fresh air really activates at least my brain 🙂
The trouble with a city walk for me is that there are too many things to attend to–traffic lights, cars, other pedestrians. I’ve never lived in a big city, though. Maybe if I got used to walking there, I could relax and let my mind wander. One of my favorite walks is along the beach.
I love this article! I’m sharing it on FB!!! 😀
Thank you, Hari. I also shared your post about the tortoise in Chinese culture on Facebook.
I should be creative as hell! 🙂 Love the Chinese lanterns, Nicki.
Yes, you should. And you are.
A good walk is always the right thing to do – and how often can you know that for certain in your life. Mindy
I walk around my neighborhood and this summer discovered three Little Libraries located in front of houses in the neighborhoods I walk. There are lots of books in decorative wooden receptacles free to use and also replace from your on collection of books. A wonderful idea and way to share your books once they are read. A marvelous way to share a book with others!
it’s a worldwide library system!
http://littlefreelibrary.org/
Brenda Ueland also recommends walking in her book, If You Want To Write. A good long walk with no agenda but to be carefree and happy.
Love those Chinese Lanterns! Thanks for taking us on a walk around your neighborhood.
I like those Chinese lanterns too. I’d never seen that kind until this year.
Right. I forgot about that.
I don’t walk much these days. I exercise in other ways. I used to walk every day but somehow I got away from it. Maybe I can blame it on the hot summer weather (which we really didn’t have).
When we lived in the Philippines, it was too hot to walk until after dark. I swam laps instead. I wonder if that had the same effect.
I don’t know about creativity but it’s better for your joints.
our bones also need weight…
astronauts lose bone mass while spending time – weightless . . .
Thank you for the lovely walk, Nicki! The foliage is beautiful. I just had an hour run…perhaps I should write instead of doing laundry. 🙂
Have a wonderful day!
They didn’t say how long the creativity boost lasts. I haven’t read any research on showers and creativity, but I always get ideas in the shower.
Ha ha…me too! By the way, I loved the Chinese Lantern photo.
A nice walk can cure just about any mood issue. I love taking walks with bloggers who show me around their neighborhoods. These are places I likely would never have seen had you not let me into your world. Lovely photos.
Sharing our lives, thoughts, and neighborhoods with each other are some of the enjoyable benefits of blogging. Thanks for stopping by, S.K.