Walking and Calm

Walking and hiking have been one of my long enduring interests and sources of pleasure. A pleasure that was recently revitalised with a 4-day hike across the spectacular 3 Capes Walk in the lovely Tasman Peninsula.

Hiking through cool temperate rainforests of Tasmanian myrtle, sassafras, tree ferns and she oaks, across vast windswept swaths of coastal heath, dramatic dolerite cliff tops and of course the impressive capes was a reminder of the physical and psychological benefits of walking.

It also remined me of the idea that some of the vocabulary that leaders use draws much from walking. For example, we use terms like “one step at a time” and “milestones”. We encourage people to “keep moving forward”, “to come on a journey” and to go “onwards and upwards”.

Walking can also bring a sense of calm, even if the walk is physically strenuous. It strikes me that in a world that is becoming even more turbulent, unpredictable and unconventional, that being calm in the midst of this gives us the space and time to respond from the inside out, rather than to react to external stimuli over which we have no real control.

The writer and art educator John Berger describes being calm in the midst of chaos as a form of defiance, but it is also a way of being strategic and trying to give ourselves and those that we lead a better chance of navigating and walking our way through together.

“Walking allows our bodies and minds to be in the world without being made busy by them” Rebecca Solnit