How Walking can Transform you and your Business

For many of us walking has become more important to us during and post the lock down period. When gyms and sport centres closed many found walking to be one of the few forms of exercise available. Lots more people put on their walking boots or trainers and just headed outside for a daily walk in their own local areas. Some for the first time this was an opportunity to really get to know their local environment. 

The great thing about ‘Walking’ is that it is freely accessible for all and you do not have to be too sporty to do it. 

We have all often been told that a daily walk is good for our health and time out in nature boosts our energy and protects our immune system. 

A Walk at any pace is good for the mind, good for the body and, believe it or not, good for business too. 

Getting people moving 

Today, looking after your health and wellbeing is recognised as being more important than ever with many organisations supporting their teams with new initiatives designed to get them moving. 

Many I know of personally are involved with virtual team challenges that get their team members walking, exercising, and connecting with each other. One organisation www.conqueror.events offer opportunities to sign up for virtual challenges along famous routes like Camino de Santiago or Hadrian’s Wall. These challenges encourage regular exercise giving that all important focus whist creating some healthy competition and engagement within the team at the same time.

It encourages the team to go walking in their own environment. Demonstrating how accessible and easy it is to just open the front door and go for a walk. 

A regular good walk has been proven to help combat the potential negative impact of excessive screen time, the unfortunate downside of home working and lock down, with more of our lives than ever, being conducted online than face to face. 

Walking both inspires and sharpens the mind 

Over time many breakthroughs have been made walking. Famous writers, such as Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau were regular walkers for inspiration and ideas. 

Recent studies suggest that we are most creative walking at 3 miles an hour, a relative stroll that provides enough forward movement and blood pumping to the brain to stimulate our creative brain. The impact that walking has on creativity has been tested by Stanford University. 

Walking not only increases the blood flow to our brains but the movement itself helps us to make important connections. 

Think about it, if you have been feeling mentally blocked and you just get up from your desk and go for a walk, does it shift anything? 

Business breakthroughs happen when walking 

Walking it through with coaching guidance I have found to be one of the most powerful ways to assist business owners with their growth plans. Being out in nature firstly creates a completely fresh environment to enable that different perspective to step forward naturally. 

Many of the clients I work with using this very simple walking and talking technique have gained personal and business transformation without seeming to exert the same effort they expected to have to make. 

Walking transforms when good quality thinking relates to steps forward. 

Walking meetings work 

I would highly recommend a walking meeting. It is something I practice a lot. A great alternative to endless zoom meetings. Getting together to walk side by side talking something through, is more likely walk towards a solution than simply sitting on it. 

The mere act of walking along side by side creates a natural rapport, the bond of a shared experience. It much easier to open-up and to access your authentic self. Try this with members of your team and you may find that they tell you more about what is really going on in 30 - minute walk and talk than a whole year sitting at their desk. 

The quickest route to our authentic selves

A humble, natural activity, simply putting one foot in front of the other, could walking transforms us back to our more primitive selves? 

As big fan of long - distance Camino hiking I would say that is certainly my truth. Almost as soon as my feel hit the trail, I feel transformed back to the true authentic me. It is as if I shed a skin or two and become more raw and real. Walking long distance brings that out of me. 

Walking is available to us all 

Whether it is just a 20 - minute stroll round the block at the end of a busy day, a country yomp at the weekend,  a walking performance review in a local city park or attending a Natural Netwalking event www.naturalnetwalking.co.uk it will be good for you. You can-not fail to feel the power and the energy that walking gives you.

Walking always gives back

I usually record my walks on my Strava app, I take some pictures to remind myself of the experience.  I have walked literally thousands of kilometres. It is something I never tire of doing.  Every time I go, I gain something special. A new idea, more peace of mind, a different perspective, or simply some silent soothing me time alongside nature in the early morning, before everything starts. 

I am very grateful for what walking has done for me over the years. I would say it has been transformational personally, professionally, and spiritually and for that I want to thank Walking!

I hope that this blog inspires you to walk more!

Stride forward in business

If you want to take some strides forward personally and professionally the answer could be to simply put on your walking boots and start taking those steps. 

If you want to inspire your team to walk more, Jackie can inspire your team with her talk Walk and Grow Rich 

Walk and Talk with Jackie 

If you are a business owner frustrated by blocks on your path, Jackie’s walk and talk business coaching could help you to clear the path and move forward. Book a taster session with Jackie click here