A philosophy of walking

The book "A Philosophy of Walking" was recently recommended to me by David Craddock, a LinkedIn Manc friend and I've enjoyed reading it.

Walking is an act carried out over centuries and has inspired many great philosophers and writers. Charles Dickens regularly used to walk 25 miles from Kent to London, Suffolk to Norwich. Rousseau, Kant, Rimbaud, Nietschze, Jack Kerouac all walked daily to inspire and assuage restless thoughts.

I wouldn't deem to put myself in that exalted company but I share their daily walking habits.

Yesterday, I broke all exercise records in a single day by an inordinate amount of walking, weight training, a cycle ride, jog and swim at the newly-joined Bannatyne's on Whitworth Street.

Slept for 9 hours solid too so hugely beneficial.

Now I can't do that every day. I have to rest. I have to work on websites and copywriting tasks - but walking, if you're down, bored, restless, is the perfect antidote.

Walking in cities, countryside, along flat canal towpaths, up hills and mountains, is utterly life-affirming.

This is all tied in with Amor Fati, love of one's fate. It's natural, stoic philosophy accepts, for us to rail against events that have happened, that have impacted us negatively, but in the universe, we are a tiny speck of life with limited time on earth.

We either sit in pyjamas, refuse to get out of bed, drink or medicate to excess, cry and rail, or we accept that things happen. We accept that many chapters of life are hard, lonely, painful. Or we set the alarm clock, get up, get dressed, eat and drink healthily and walk.

Walking has long been associated with pilgrimage.

A pilgrimage is a devotional practice consisting of a prolonged journey, often undertaken on foot or on horseback, toward a specific destination of significance. It is an inherently transient experience, removing the participant from his or her home environment and identity. The means or motivations in undertaking a pilgrimage might vary, but the act, however performed, blends the physical and the spiritual into a unified experience.

I'm on my own personal pilgrimage of change. I am on a journey of change.

I walk, therefore I am better.

Real growth is happening - and walking is integral to that.