Mental Health Walks: Taking Steps to Help Yourself
With warm weather slowly creeping up on us, and spring just around the corner, outdoor activities will soon be in full swing! Over the course of the past two years, it’s been strikingly obvious that the lack of social interaction, physical activity, and total disruption of our normal daily lives has negatively affected our mental health. But, we’ve explored and found different strategies to help combat this decline in our mental health, one of these things being mental health walks! Mental health walks have recently been rising in popularity in the media, and in people’s daily lives. So what exactly are mental health walks? Are they actually beneficial? Let’s talk about it.
Walking is a form of exercise that most of us do every single day at varying degrees. Mental health walks are a form of exercise that are shown to improve levels of anxiety, happiness, and energy (Parks Canada). They can be done anywhere, in nearly any setting, such as around your neighborhood, as a trip to run errands or grab a bite, or as an aimless wander in the city. Since walking is a relatively low impact, low intensity form of steady state cardio, the physical benefits are also tremendous. It provides perks such as aiding in reducing blood pressure, improving cardiovascular activity, and increasing stamina. You are also less likely to suffer bone fractures, as your bones will be stronger, and less likely to suffer injuries from pulling or straining muscles, as you’ll gain a better range of motion and increased flexibility.
Taking your mental health walk somewhere more rich in nature as compared to a city setting is encouraged as well! It’s been scientifically proven that spending time in nature is good for your mental health. A 2015 study published in the U.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that a ninety-minute walk in a natural setting has measurable mental health benefits. In the study, participants were asked to indicate their levels of happiness, anxiety, and energy before the walk, then after the walk. Participants tended to respond to these walks by being happier, having more energy, and feeling less anxious. Additionally, nature walks were shown to reduce “rumination” (thinking repeatedly about negative aspects of yourself) and brain scans showed less activity in a part of the brain associated with mental illness. Walking in an urban setting, by comparison, showed no such effects.
The idea of walking for your mental health has also become popular in mainstream media. For example, on social media apps such as TikTok, content creators have been posting videos such as “A day in my life” in which they show going on a mental health walk as part of their daily routines, or “Steps I take to improve my mental health” in which they also post about their daily walks.
So, I encourage you to take a mental health walk today! Even if you might not feel like it, the benefits they’ve proven to provide will likely make you feel a lot better after it’s done. Maybe hit a friend up, ask a parent to go with you, or listen to your favorite music / podcast during the walk. Taking these simple steps in bettering our own mental health will definitely be beneficial in the long run, and is an easy way to get your daily dose of physical activity.
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