Walking
I believe that walking is one of the great things you can do as a creative. It helps relax you, it helps you think clearly and with creative zeal. This isn't just an activity for photographers. It is for all creative people, well, everyone really.
Do you know walking reduces anxiety and stress? Not only are there physical benefits of your 10,000 steps per day, but there are psychological ones as well. These should all be obvious to you I hope. When I worked with youth at risk, it was a known counselling technique to walk your clients while you talk to them. They talk more freely and honestly when doing. Actually, any physical activity that engages the movement parts of your body is beneficial. Art therapists use this with sand trays. The physical activity, walking, engages the cognitive, thinking part of your brain, and allows your creative and intuitive parts to work unhindered. It is amazingly effective. It settles me, it makes me feel alive with creative ideas, it clarifies, it clears... It is a pure joy.
I am prescribing two long walks per week as an exercise in receptivity to your creativity. Walk for at least twenty minutes... Wander freely, and try to go somewhere natural and quiet. I do enjoy walking the city at night, though hardly a safe thing to be prescribing.
So when you walk, no music, no phone, no friend, no dog.... just you alone... Give yourself time to think, to explore your mental ideas. Listen to your thoughts. See where they take you.
Otway Ranges, just near the lighthouse, Graeme will remember this one. Photograph and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2018
