The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

August 13Study Out of Doors

You must walk like a camel, which is said to be the only beast which ruminates when walking. When a traveler asked Wordsworth's servant to show him her master's study, she answered, “Here is his library, but his study is out of doors.” Living much out of doors, in the sun and wind, will no doubt produce a certain roughness of character,—will cause a thicker cuticle to grow over some of the finer qualities of our nature, as on the face and hands, or as severe manual labor robs the hands of some of their delicacy of touch. So staying in the house, on the other hand, may produce a softness and smoothness, not to say thinness of skin, accompanied by an increased sensibility to certain impressions.

Henry David Thoreau—Walking (1861)

Homo sapiens are the only species on Earth that get up on two legs and walk for long distances. Thoreau and other transcendentalists turned walking, or sauntering as Thoreau referred to it, into a spiritual practice.

They didn't invent this practice to be sure, but they molded it into a bit of an art that would have them referred to as “peripatetic philosophers,” a nod to these nomadic tendencies.

Walking is medicine. Not just to fight the ravages of the modern sitting life, but for thinking, innovating, discussing, studying, rehearsing, reviewing, writing, examining, relaxing, and reconnecting with yourself and others. The physical act is partly to credit for the restorative powers of walking—but join it with the outdoors ...