I’D DONE it all. Yoga. Pilates. Tennis. Meditation. Swimming. Running.
I’d done so much that, ironically enough, it was rather exhausting. The searching. The quest to find the perfect way to unwind. The obsession with finding my new slice of something that would unlock the mind and wash my worries away.
Me time. That’s what most women call it. But that’s just the thing. So many me-time activities involve so many other people. Instructors, teammates, friends.
Until now.
I found freedom. For my wallet, my mind and my soul.
Walking. To be specific, walking in nature. Bushwalking.
Stay with me. Because it’s not what you think. This could change your life — just like it changed mine.
I thought bushwalking was daggy because for a long time it has been. Before Reese Witherspoon donned her backpack in the movie Wild, most of us thought bushwalkers were students with clip boards or middle-aged couples wearing too much shiny waterproofed gear and a token walking stick.
Bushwalking was daggy before Reese made it cool. Source: Supplied
But the bush has got its groove back. And rightly so.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has proven that being in nature — not just outside — does wonders for your brain. The study sampled 38 people who lived in urban areas who had “no history of mental disorder”, split them into two groups and asked them to take a 90-minute stroll. One group walked through town. Another in nature. Afterwards, both groups were tested in addition to having a brain scan.
The group who walked in nature had an overwhelmingly positive result compared to those who walked among people, cars and ordinary life in the city.
That’s me. It’s probably you, too. A city walker.
For so long, we spend our days surrounded by noise we don’t even hear — buses, voices, horns, coffee machines, phones, music and traffic. Finally, here’s proof — in case you actually needed any — that sometimes you need to switch off. More than that, you need to leave.
One of the researchers, Stanford’s Gregory Bratman said, “we just passed the halfway point recently where 50 per cent of humanity lives in urban areas. Along with this trend comes a decrease in nature and nature experience”. By 2050, 70 per cent of people will be living in urban areas.
Before you rush out to Kathmandu, hold your trail-shoes, sister. I’m not preaching from a small, niche group of women who like to walk once a week with “all the gear and no idea”.
Let me paint you a picture: my fitness is good — if not a little average after spending too much time eating the crusts off my children’s jam sandwiches. My gear is a mishmash of Target long sleeve tops, joggers and an old but reliable windbreaker.
It’s not the kind of fitness fashion you might see on Instagram, but Alissa Warren says bushwalking is the best thing you can do. Source: Supplied
But I’ll tell you what is in top notch. My brain. It’s as clear as it’s ever been. The crunch underfoot of pebbles, mud, rocks and twigs occupies so much of my mind that there’s barely enough space to think about much else. Bushwalking is so much about micro short-term planning. One foot in front of the other.
I fell in love with my new hobby in New Zealand. A rainy, gloomy afternoon meant my husband and I almost cancelled our plans to go for a walk, and instead sit inside and eat cheese and drink wine. (A very attractive option). But it’d been days of long, grey clouds and we needed some fresh air. A sporadic burst of energetic enthusiasm saw us donning rain jackets, a daypack and within the hour we were walking along the Routeburn Track.
It was pouring. It was freezing. It was wonderful. The air was so quiet, so cold and so clean.
Each step was ever-so-slightly challenging and, of course, unknown. It reminded me a little of motherhood. A world of excitement, possible danger but true beauty lay before us. None of it seen with our eyes or felt with our hearts until we rounded each corner. Little thought went beyond navigating each step.
Such a simple action. To navigate, right?
But to navigate through a city life, we need to break away from it and navigate in the most pure way — literally through the bush — if we want our mind to function the best way it possibly can.
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