Walking helps clear your mind.

Like all forms of exercise, walking encourages your brain to release endorphins — a neurochemical that boosts your mental health, decreases your sensitivity to stress and pain, and can even make you feel euphoric.

Ready to get walking again?

Doing so can be crucial for your health, not to mention helping you to take off the weight you put on during stay-at-home restrictions.

As we get older, fat that used to primarily land on our hips and thighs can start to shift to our bellies. That spare tire is stubborn, but regular cardio sessions may reduce it. You don’t lose a ton of weight exercising, but what you do lose tends to be centrally located.

Moderate walking, it turns out, may be even better for our eyes. A Swedish study, published in the journal Ophthalmology, examined the possible link between specific types of physical activity, including walking, and the risk of age-related cataracts in more than 52,000 participants.

Walking or bicycling more than 60 minutes a day, versus hardly ever, was associated with a decreased risk of cloudy lenses, particularly in the long term.

Another eye-opener: According to research from UCLA, brisk walking may also lower your risk of glaucoma, with the most active people having a 73 percent lower risk than the least active.

The benefits may be threefold. First, exercise is believed to decrease your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure — all of which can contribute to cataracts.

Cardio may also lower intraocular pressure (the pressure in your eyes), which can cause distortions in the retina, lens and cornea and wreak havoc with your vision. Further, being active increases the blood flow to the optic nerve in the retina.

If you’re among the 50 percent of people over age 65 with chronic sleep problems, walking could be your ticket to more quality shut-eye — which is important for everything from preventing heart disease to staying sharp as you age.

If you can walk first thing in the morning, so much the better, as exposure to early light appears to help you reset your natural circadian rhythm. Postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 75 who walked briskly for 30 minutes in the morning were 70 percent less likely to have trouble falling asleep.

Mindful walking clears your mind and helps you reconnect with your body. To try it, breathe in a relaxed, natural manner and walk at an unhurried pace. Take in what’s going on around you and what you’re experiencing through your senses.

Listen to the birds chirping, leaves rustling or children playing. Feel the cool breeze across your face. Concentrate on what’s going on with your body — your breathing, the sensation in the soles of your feet as they touch the ground.

Let it all go, and you can come back refreshed and be able to see things with new eyes,

If all the recent news about walking’s powerful link to longevity doesn’t grab you, newer studies showing how it can preserve your mobility and independence might.

The thing is, walking isn’t just good for those who can do it easily. Beyond mobility benefits, studies show links between walking and faster recoveries from heart surgeries and from chemotherapy for breast cancer.

One of many studies to back up the connection between forcing yourself to walk and being able to keep walking. Doctors found that just one hour of brisk walking a week — or less than 10 minutes a day — was enough to reduce the risk of disability in adults who already had osteoarthritis.

Disclaimer:?The information on this POST is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional advice. The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this article is for general information purposes / educational purposes only, and to ensure discussion or debate.

Thank you?...Just keep walking, keep moving. Inside, outside, wherever. If you can’t walk, at least do simple stretching exercises every day. Your body and mind will tell you what you can do and how much with a positive attitude and some humor and music too.

Walking and exercise have benefits beyond the merely physical. Many people walk as much for mental and spiritual well-being as for fitness.

Can walking boost your mood?

Can it help you deal with life stress?

Can it help you work through relationship problems?

Can it lead to a deeper spiritual and religious life?

For many, the answer is yes.

Walking can help relieve stress. Walking gives you time to think, as well as time to get away from stressors. Getting out of the stressful environment, breathing the air, and feeling your body move is natural stress-relief.

Take a Break: Put physical and mental distance between you and the stress-causing environment. Get up and take a 15-minute walking break.

Loosen Up: Many people carry stress by tensing their muscles. By getting into your correct walking posture and form, you un-knot those muscles and put them to work. For further relaxation of your shoulder and neck, try doing some shoulder rolls forward and back while you're walking, and then let your arms swing freely.

Do you want to add a word or two?....

Get Out of Your Head: Take a break from your internal worries. Observe the environment around you; enjoy the trees, flowers, birds, gardens, sky, or window shop strolling past storefronts or in the mall.

Reconnect With Your Physical Body: Think about from head to toe how your body is working to carry you along. You may want to practice breathing techniques. For example, you can match your steps to your breath (inhale for 4 steps, exhale for 4 steps, or whatever pattern works best for you).

You can also work on your walking form or simply feel the sun, breeze, mist or rain on your skin.

Burn Calories From Stress-Eating: Many of us turn to comfort food or high-calorie convenience food when under stress .

Walking is a good way to burn calories without having to change into workout gear. Get up and get moving.?

Time to Think: All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking. Take a walk and the blood flow to your brain is increased. It gives you time to consider different aspects of your problems away from the distractions of your office or home. Creative ideas and solutions may flow more easily.

Talk and Laugh: Choose a fun walking companion who can distract you from the things causing your stress. Let them entertain you and bring out your happy side. Play on the playgrounds you might pass by. Be silly. Have fun.

Your comments ….

Walking is one of the best things you can do to elevate your mood.?Taking?slow, quick, soft, hard, stiff, and flexible steps has helped to ease my worries and soothe my heart.

Walking has helped relieve the weight of my pain, my emotions, and my thoughts. It has put a rest to my anxiety and released me from sleepless nights. Because walking can make you healthier, both cognitively and emotionally.

Why?

There are many reasons, but the most significant one?is that?it pushes you to reserve a piece of your soul for yourself.

We often forget to do this,?which creates huge problems on many levels.

When you’re overwhelmed with and stressed, take a walk!?

It’s not just an ingredient?in the recipe for happiness, but it is an important sweetener of life.

Something so obviously simple can help you solve your problems and reorganize your mental drawers.

Simple way to be more conscious is to practice meditation while you walk.?

?It’s nothing more than walking and knowing that you’re walking. However, it’s important to clarify that this doesn’t mean you have to look at your feet.

When you attempt to do this, you’ll realize that nothing is as easy as it seems.

It’s rare to just take a walk just because.?We usually walk because we want to get from one place to another, which means that the body is just a vehicle for the mind.

When your foot comes into contact with the ground, when your weight is supported on it, when the other foot rises and moves forward, and when it comes back down to come into contact with the ground once again.

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