Walking

"All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking" So say Nietzsche.

Artists and writers alike attach great worth to this and celebrate their inspiration derived from taking a stroll. It is a way of giving your time wasting some validity. Yet it does work because I know that I have my best thoughts at that moment when I wake up when my head is clear and my thoughts have free rein.

Henry Thoreau said: "Me-thinks the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow."

Taking a step outside of your normal habits gives room and space for the mind to think things through. We are designed to thrive outside - not at a desk; high ceilings or the sky (even better) prompt unrestrained thoughts; the rhythm beaten out by the sound of our feet hitting the ground brings on a trance-like state which allows for dreams and thoughts to work; our brain functions better when walking - it's the whole multi-tasking thing as long as the two activities are different enough.

The main benefit I can see is that you are getting away from the problem - to step out of the house, or away from the desk, gives you chance to see around the problem; to find the inspiration.

"Going out," John Muir wrote, "was really going in."

Right I'm off out for a walk then :-)