This is the first in a series of articles on how to relieve stress.
I don’t mean relieving stress in a general lifestyle sense. But rather in an “I’m going to run screaming from this house if things don’t change” sense.
My goal isn’t to offer you a few ideas that may or may not be helpful. It isn’t to give you tips like eat more walnuts or stay off social media. It isn’t to encourage you to read more or write in a journal.
Although these are all good things, and can have wonderful accumulative benefits, they’re unlikely to have much effect right now. At a time when so much new and uncertain is being thrown at us from every angle and every day, you need something more immediate.
You need something more powerful.
Daily stress is something that feeds on itself and gets worse as time goes on. You may experience brief periods of respite here and there, but because it’s so close to the surface, it overtakes you again and again and at the least provocation.
What you need is distance and a complete resetting of your internal frequency.
A word of warning: The methods I’m going to write about in this series may seem extreme. But I promise they work and I’ll make them as gentle and doable as possible. Also, please consult with your physician before making any changes to your health routine.
The first method of immediate stress relief: Walking. Now, of course, walking itself isn’t extreme. It’s low impact, easy on the body, and one of the safest exercises you can do.
The way I recommend doing it, however, may seem extreme at first glance. But before we get there, I thought we should review its remarkable physical benefits.
Walking:
Burns fat
Increases muscle strength
Shapes and tones the body
Improves endurance
Lowers blood pressure
Reduces risk of heart disease and stroke
Strengthens bones
Lowers bad cholesterol and raises good cholesterol
Improves balance
Lessens joint and muscular pain
Helps lower blood sugar levels
Reduces breast cancer risk
Strengthens the heart
Improves cognitive function
Boosts energy
Extends lifespan
Walking just 20 minutes a day has also been shown to substantially improve your immune system, which can give you greater confidence in your ability to fight off, ahem, viruses should they strike.
This is all wonderful, to be sure. But the purpose of this post is to promote its substantial mental benefits. Any form of exercise, including walking, can boost your mood, reduce anxiety, and lower your risk of depression.
So why walking in particular?
Because it gets you outside, preferably in nature—or at least among the trees, flowers, green spaces, and fauna of your neighborhood.
You see, walking outdoors and experiencing the sights, smells, and sunlight of God’s green earth is proven to enhance your psychological well-being. It has a way of resetting your perspective to a healthier point of view.
Now, to enhance all these benefits, both mental and physical, and to experience immediate and often profound relief from stress, I recommend walking for at least an hour.
This doesn’t mean you have to power walk. In fact, it’s best if you don’t even consider the experience “exercise.” Just go with whatever you’re feeling in the moment. Do not push yourself on purpose.
Do not try to “get in a good workout.” The physical benefits will take care of themselves.
Instead, focus on enjoying the walk. Inevitably, as soon as you leave your house, your mind will be wound up and trying to work out the areas of your life that are causing your stress.
This is okay. However, you want to gently bring your mind to the present moment.
You want to lift up your eyes and take note of the world around you. Notice the architecture of the neighborhood as well as the vegetation and animals you encounter. Feel the sun and wind on your face.
If your mind wanders to the past or future, no problem. It’s normal. Just bring it back to the present once again. One trick to help you stay in the moment is to explore. Don’t walk the same familiar path every day.
Wander physically but not mentally.
The reason I recommend at least an hour is because it ensures the experience will indeed release the pressure valve, ensure that distance you need, and give you a brand new outlook on life. It will also tire you physically, which is one of the keys to relaxing the mind.
An hour will also ensure another great benefit: Better sleep.
If you haven’t walked this far in a long time, you’ll definitely feel it in your body for the rest of the day. But because it’s low impact exercise, the feeling will be a good one.
Slightly sleepy, a light buzz or what’s known as “runner’s high,” and a relaxation you haven’t felt in a long while.
Often, you’ll discover that you were in such a tight ball that you had completely misread or overblown your difficulties. Some of which will simply disappear and others won’t be that big of a deal after all.
You may find that you need to walk more than an hour—which again, because it’s easy on the body, is perfectly fine. Although walking just one time on one day will ease your mind and body, it won’t last indefinitely.
You may need to walk every day or five days a week or maybe just three. It will have a cumulative effect, but you’ll still need regular mental and physical resets.
And if it rains or the weather is bad?
All the better. The more the experience feels novel, the more discovery and disruption it is to your everyday life, the easier it will be to stay in the moment and the more fun you’ll have.
Søren Kierkegaard once said, “I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.”
I believe this to be true. I also believe that the best way to handle stress is to attack it rather than accept it or try to think your way out of it. You must do something about it.
So lace up your shoes, lock the door behind you, and start walking.
If you haven’t done so already, please join us. It’s free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.
Thank you! Getting ready to walk right now!!!! 😊
I walk everyday with my dog around the lake I live on in southern Vermont. It is a different walk everyday due to whether we leave the house to the right or to the left and the weather and new season, or the time of day. I have started to go twice around the lake to add our time. I love our walks and thank my pup every day for being in my life.
I did just what you suggested yesterday after another week of online teaching. It’s becoming a Friday happy hour with a friend to meet at a nearby park to walk and talk. We walked for an hour and a half, and mind my was completely cleared when I got home! I take walks in my neighborhood during the week with my dog, and everything you mentioned about the scenery, the senses, and taking a different path is absolutely uplifting! Not surprisingly, I sleep better and longer on those nights. Thank you for sharing a new, yet old, way to tackle any type of stress safely and for free!
“Do not try to ‘get in a good workout.’ The physical benefits will take care of themselves.”
𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗿! 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗿! I find much peace in “𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘂𝗽,” too. All that’s needed is my presence – that’s 𝗶𝘁. Good mood, bad, indifferent? – Doesn’t matter; just 𝗯𝗲 there.
“You want to lift up your eyes and take note of the world around you.” 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲 your use of the word “want” here: both instructive 𝗮𝗻𝗱 true to what’ll happen … we 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 “want to lift up [our] eyes” – it’s a natural, 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 impulse. We need sources other than our artificial, indoor lights. No wonder sunlight feels so good.
Thanks for this, Michael!
Wow! You hit the nail on the head, Michael. I, and no doubt, many others, needed to hear this RIGHT NOW. Being so sedentary during this time of stay-at-home orders will have consequences that many are not thinking about. You brought those to light for me today! Thank you, thank you, thank you for writing a series of articles on relieving the stress we are all feeling, and providing suggestions for coping.
Chris
Yes, Yes, Yes! Thank you, Michael, for reminding me of this!
Sometimes when I walk, I feel such relief that I cry for the first few minutes I start out On my walks. Hasn’t this been so hard, ya’ll? Teachers, we are amazing, creative, and altruistic. Take care of yourselves. Thank you Michael! You rock!
This is one of the most helpful and doable and immediate stress relievers I’ve read of in this entire pandemic. I never once considered walking for at least an hour, and I never would have thought it would be novel to walk in the rain. And yet I plan to start this immediately. I would have tried to make it a workout or I would have spent 20 minutes in the same direction and called it quits, or would have sat inside and waited out the rain. But I need stress to lift! And this is a great start. Thank you!
Awesome, it’s part of my life, I second this. Thanks again Michael for the reminder and insights.
You are so right! Even better, walking with your teenagers. We have had the best conversations in years. Now, if it works just stop raining….
I’ve been walking one hour since this whole. Covid thong and it’s true. The built up stress decreased and. I gained better perspective
Totally have been walking DAILY these last 6 weeks and can totally say that what you write here is true. Helps mood, sleep, mental refreshment, my physical health and so MUCH more.
Thank you for writing about this wonderful, natural stress reliever.
Great article! I clicked on it thinking, “Walking outside everyday is the only thing that has helped me with all my pandemic stress!” and how about that – your article confirmed it! Finally I feel like I may doing some things right after all!
This is the best most accessible advice I’ve seen to date. Sometimes I have felt like if I see one more list of “100 Resources for Teaching Online” I would scream. Instead, I take a walk. At first, my husband and I were just walking in the afternoon, but for the last week, one or the other of us, or both take a break and walk around the block every 1.5 – 2 hours. It takes 5 minutes, but makes everything SO much better. We walk in the afternoon, still, but taking those breaks has made such a difference in our mental health. As a teacher, I normally get 8,000-10,000 steps in a days work. All of a sudden, the shift to sitting in one place staring at a screen was really debilitating. Compensating with walking, especially at this beautiful time of year has really helped with keeping the perspective. Thanks, for being real, and giving real helpful advice.
Thank you for this!
So often the advice for relieving stress seems unachievable and overly time consuming. A walk I can do 🙂
Thank you Michael, the simplicity of the message and the end result makes this the walk of life,
Thanks, Michael. I am a visual arts teacher and it has been stressful reinventing the wheel virtually.
Lately I do walking laps, hooked up to my phone/music, around the parking garage of the large apartment building where I live, as my skin cannot take sun. Under normal circumstances, my outlet is 7 hours worth of adult classical ballet and overnight in a major Asian city routinely on weekends. The studio has remained open and Covid-19 free, but currently I am not allowed to go anywhere because of an organizational mandate. Walking is absolutely no comparison to my usual stress-beater. But it does help a little.
No wonder I liked you so much, I appreciated the fact that you mentioned God.
I used to walk when I was single, now that I’m married with a child, I felt like I had no time.
Now, it’s hard for me to go out by myself, my husband and daughter don’t really want to walk routinely. I wish I had a dog, but hubby doesn’t want. Oh well, I just got to get brave and motivated to walk by myself. We have a nice neighborhood to do that.
Thank you for the motivation and I inspiration. Btw, I tell other teachers about your site! Especially the ones that need classroom management skills!
Michael. I like the simplicity of your suggestion; it’s unconvoluted and so universally do-able and effective!
To Jody’s comment I say you don’t need anyone to walk with you. You can have a long soliloquy with G-d and tell Him what’s on your mind, or speak to yourself internally, or buy some cassettes on topics of interest to you and listen to them as you walk (an educational experience in and of itself) or play the always effective children’s game of looking out for and counting whatever you’d like to count in your neighborhood e.g. how many people were out walking their dogs between 1:00 and 2:00 P.M., how many men were out walking vs. how many women, if I could, how many homeowners would I award an honorable citation for how clean and cared for their property looks. Hey, if you happen to know the homeowner, even slightly, you could jot down their address and send them a “Friendly Neighbor” note telling them how much you, as a walker, appreciate the effort they put in to keeping their property so beautifully neat and clean etc. etc. Sure, doing things with a friend is always an incentive for activity, but if you’re using lack of company as an excuse not to engage in activity just recognize it for the excuse it is.
I usually walk my dog in the weekends, but since this whole Corona virus thing started I have been taking him in a long walk daily. It really does clear your mind. I look at the landscaping in yards to get ideas, I watch the birds and look for nests in the trees, I watch the squirrels chase each other. I see people in the neighborhood I’ve never seen before. I take in all the nature and beauty around me, breathe and let go of all the stress. When u return home I am in a better frame of mind to handle any situation!
I’m doing an hour’s walk each day. Looking forward to the next article in the series.
I love the idea of walking. I do run every other day, but walking with the intention of being in the present to relieve stress is brilliant! I will be doing just that today, hopefully on the beach!
I just went through a life changing experience, thanks to stress. Reading through a number of your articles have been soothing. Staying in the present is excellent advice…….one I need to follow. I look forward to receiving your newsletters, Michael!