I’ve personally noticed a few people who walk long distances every day even as they are well over 75 years old. These same people seem to overcome physical ailments that would bring their contemporaries down. Just this month, I met someone who walks 7 miles a day and is in remission for a rare type of leukemia and his doctors don’t know why.
While physical healing seems to be one aspect of walking’s curative powers, mental, or “body, mind, and soul” healing occurs as well and is impossible to quantify, just as the levels are impossible to separate from one another. People who walk beat depression and other maladies. Although getting a dog is often an excuse to begin a walking program, a dog is not necessary and in some cases may be a hindrance to walking. They can also be delightful companions.
Most would agree that Nature is also healing. So with a walk, you have many things working together for healing. The body’s chemistry is upgraded by movement and exercise. Nature inspires and uplifts the mind. The soul feels and takes in energies that aren’t quantifiable. Beauty inspires awe and wonder. Science now talks about these qualities and benefits, too.
To follow, are a few of my favorite walking quotes:
I haven’t got any special religion this morning. My God is the God of Walkers. If you walk hard enough, you probably don’t need any other god. — Bruce Chatwin
Walking is man’s best medicine. — Hippocrates
Sluggish and sedentary peoples, such as the Ancient Egyptians– with their concept of an afterlife journey through the Field of Reeds– project on to the next world the journeys they failed to make in this one. — Bruce Chatwin
It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living. — David Attenborough
All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking. — Friedrich Nietzsche
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. — John Muir
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. — Henry David Thoreau
Of all exercises, walking is the best. — Thomas Jefferson
One Seeker's Story 