Health Infused Mobility

Health Infused Mobility

Through the smell of wet autumn leaves, the soft touch of green moss covering a rock, or snuggling into the roots of a 100-year-old white pine, I am reliving a childhood I never had. Yet I felt perfectly at home walking through these unknown environments. My body was recharging from nature, regardless of whether I was familiar with this forested world. 

These were the same feelings I experienced in East Los Angeles, where I grow up. Climbing trees, smelling flowers, eating fruit off the trees, chasing butterflies or playing with running water in the curb - these early sensory, experiences made time endless and memorable. The richness of my experience shouldn't be a surprise, as for thousands of years humans have walked in nature; with every step we took, our bodies have adapted to it .

From the numerous Place It! mobility workshops, where I asked participants to build their favorite childhood memory, participants' responses are so often infused with similar sensory experiences. In other words, we love these kinds of nature- and sensory-infused experiences and always have. As such, walking should be a rich, active, sensory experience that opens up the body and mind rather than shuts it down. However, today’s noise, traffic, concrete, and harsh environments put a strain on the body and do shut it down. 

From my experiences and my endless observations of participants in the Place It! workshops, I know firmly that we not only have to make walking safe but also a rich sensory experience incorporating own unique sense of time and their thirst for discovery.